Ukrainian commander in Mariupol pleads for help: "We are probably facing our last days, if not hours"
CBSN
Ukraine said a preliminary agreement was reached to establish a humanitarian corridor and evacuate thousands of people from the besieged coastal city of Mariupol on Wednesday, as Russia hurled its military might against Ukrainian cities and towns in an attempt to slice the country in two and gain control of the eastern industrial heartland of coal mines and factories.
The fighting unfolded along a boomerang-shaped front of hundreds of miles in what is known as the eastern Donbas region. If successful, Russian President Vladimir Putin would be able to claim a victory following his failed attempt to storm the capital, Kyiv, and heavier-than-expected Russian casualties.
Southern Gaza Strip — In a rare moment of access to the war-ravaged Palestinian territory, CBS News visited a critical aid distribution center on Wednesday just inside the Gaza Strip, near the Karem Shalom border crossing from Israel. The humanitarian crisis in Gaza after more than a year of the Israel-Hamas war remains dire.
Moscow — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday made a rare admission of failings by his powerful security agencies over the Ukraine-orchestrated killing of a senior general in Moscow. Lt. General Igor Kirillov, the head of the Russian military's chemical and biological weapons unit, was killed by a bomb planted in a scooter in Moscow on Tuesday, the boldest assassination claimed by Kyiv since the start of the conflict.
A judge in France on Thursday found the former husband of Gisèle Pelicot, who admitted to drugging and raping her repeatedly over the course of almost a decade and inviting dozens of other men to assault her as well, guilty of aggravated rape. He was given the maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
Moscow — Former Royal Ballet star Sergei Polunin, famous for his tattoos of Russian President Vladimir Putin, on Wednesday announced that he plans to leave Russia. The Ukrainian-Russian dancer was one of the most prominent stars who backed Russia's unilateral 2014 annexation of Crimea and its military assault on Ukraine. He was rewarded with prestigious state posts.