Russia Ukraine Conflict News Updates: Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelinskyy on Wednesday accused Russia of carrying out genocide after officials informed that Russian aircraft bombed a children’s hospital, despite a ceasefire deal for people to flee the besieged city of Mariupol, as per media reports.

Meanwhile, the Biden administration on Wednesday claimed that Russia might seek to use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine as the White House rejected Russian claims of illegal chemical weapons development in the country it has invaded, reported AP. Without providing any evidence, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova had earlier claimed that Ukraine was running chemical and biological weapons labs with the support of US. White House press secretary Jen Psaki called Russia’s claim “preposterous” and said it could be part of an attempt by Russia to lay the groundwork for itself using such weapons of mass destruction against Ukraine, as per AP.

“This is all an obvious ploy by Russia to try to justify its further premeditated, unprovoked, and unjustified attack on Ukraine,” Psaki tweeted Wednesday, further adding, “Now that Russia has made these false claims, and China has seemingly endorsed this propaganda, we should all be on the lookout for Russia to possibly use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine, or to create a false flag operation using them.” 

On the other hand, the Ukrainian government and Ukraine’s state-run nuclear company Energoatom warned that radioactive substances could be released from Ukraine’s infamous Chernobyl nuclear power plant because it cannot cool spent nuclear fuel after the power connection was knocked out by Russian attackers.

Japan's Hitachi decided on Thursday to suspend operations in Russia following a request from the Ukrainian government to do so, the Nikkei newspaper said.

Hitachi produces and sells construction machinery in Russia, but had received a letter from the vice president of Ukraine asking for operations to be suspended following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, it added. 

Top Pentagon officials have shown an understanding of India abstaining at the UN on resolutions against the Russian aggression against Ukraine but had a hard time pacifying many US lawmakers during a Congressional hearing on the Indo-Pacific on New Delhi's repeated abstention at the world body in New York.

India, a non-permanent member of the powerful United Nations Security Council for a two-year term ending December this year, has repeatedly abstained on resolutions against Russia's invasion of Ukraine. 

Russian Daniil Medvedev and Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka called for peace amid the ongoing conflict in Ukraine that caused tennis officials to strip any mention of their home countries from the Indian Wells tennis tournament. Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24 in the biggest assault on a European state since 1945. Russia calls the action a “special military operation”. “My message is always the same – I want peace in all of the world,” world number one Medvedev told reporters on the eve of the first round of ATP action in the Southern California desert. “I think every tennis player is going to say the same.” Indeed, support for the Ukrainian people has been pouring out from the tennis community.