Ukraine said they struck and seriously damaged the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, Moskvan on Thursday. Russia's defence ministry said the flagship vessel which usually houses 500 sailors on board was forced to evacuate after a fire overnight and also reported it was badly damaged, not directly acknowledging an attack.

Ukraine’s allies, sought to rally for new support for the embattle country. Lithuania’s President Gitanas Nauseda, during a visit with leaders from Poland, Lativa and Estonia declared that “the fight for Europe’s future is happening here.” The EU countries fear they could next be in Moscow’s sights.

Ireland's foreign and defence minister Simon Coveney will become the latest official to visit Kyiv today, as nations continue to show support for Ukraine.

U.S. President Joe Biden, who called Russia’s actions in Ukraine “a genocide” this week, approved $800 million in new military assistance to Kyiv. He said weapons from the West have sustained Ukraine’s fight so far and “we cannot rest now.”

Russia said Wednesday that it had imposed sanctions on 398 members of the US Congress in retaliation against Washington blacklisting hundreds of Russian lawmakers last month.

Moscow’s “mirror sanctions” include “the leadership and committee chairmen of the lower house of the U.S. Congress,” the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.

The US Treasury Department on March 24 announced sanctions against 328 members of the 450-seat Russian State Duma — the lower level of the two-tiered Russian Parliament.

A press release from the Ukraine's prosecutor general's office, 197 children have died since the war in Ukraine started and 351 children were injured.

According to the report, the highest child death rates were in the regions of Donetsk, Kyiv and Kharkiv.

Ukraine's defence ministry in a tweet claimed around 300 people were kept hostage for four weeks in the basement of a school near Chernihiv, in northern Ukraine.

300 people were taken as hostages for 4 weeks in the basement of a school in Yahidne near Chernihiv by 🇷🇺 invaders.
People kept track of the days on a wall and wrote down the names of the 18 killed and of those who died.
From March 4 to "31 -🇺🇦 is here."
📸by AP/Evgeniy Maloletka pic.twitter.com/2lpjwOUXzB

— Defence of Ukraine (@DefenceU) April 13, 2022

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said nine humanitarian corridors had been agreed on for Thursday to evacuate civilians, including by private car, from Mariupol.
-Reuters/AP/BBC