'Don't be evil': Russia fines Google, says it promotes fake news about Ukraine war: Live updates

A Moscow judge fined Google 3 million rubles, or about $32,000, on Thursday for failing to delete what the Kremlin views as fake news videos about the war in Ukraine.

The tech giant had been ordered to delete YouTube videos that "instructed viewers on ways of illegally entering guarded facilities" and contained false information about the war, Russian state media outlet Tass reported.

Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment from USA TODAY. Google shut down its Russian business in May 2022, a few months after President Vladimir Putin's forces invaded Ukraine, saying Moscow's seizure of Google's bank account in Russia made it "untenable" to pay employees and vendors. YouTube, owned by Google, has continued to operate there.

The same court had imposed similar-sized fines on Google in recent months, citing administrative violations and content that included "propaganda promoting non-traditional sexual relations."

Developments:

∎ Ukraine won't receive the much-desired F-16 warplanes in time for them to impact the counteroffensive this year, Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat said. "It's already obvious we won't be able to defend Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets during this autumn and winter," Ihnat said on Ukrainian television late Wednesday.

∎ Russia will consider a high-speed train line linking the country to the occupied Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, Putin said.

∎ The parliament of Sweden, which is in line to become the 32nd member of NATO, approved Thursday a package of military aid for Ukraine worth nearly $300 million.

∎ Russia has taken 450 more children from Ukraine, according to Ukraine's National Resistance Center. The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Putin and aide Maria Lvova-Belova, accusing them of taking thousands of children out of Ukraine.

∎ Germany announced a new military aid package for Ukraine that includes two IRIS-T truck-mounted missile launchers and thousands of rounds of ammunition.

India may expand its Russian portfolio by buying wheat

The government of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, grappling with the country's highest food inflation in 3 1/2 years and facing elections in 2024, is negotiating to purchase discounted wheat from Russia, Reuters reported.

Overall inflation in India spiked from 4.87% in June to 7.44% in July, and food inflation rose even faster, from 4.49% to a staggering 11.51%, the highest figure since January 2020.

Global grain prices have increased markedly since Russia withdrew in mid-July from a yearlong agreement that allowed Ukraine to ship its foodstuffs through the Black Sea. Moscow has further impaired Ukraine's ability to export agricultural products by bombing its shipping and warehouse facilities.

"Russia has indicated its willingness to offer a discount on prevailing market prices,'' an official who spoke on condition of anonymity told Reuters. "There are no restrictions on the export of food commodities from Russia."

India, the world’s most populous country, is also a major buyer of discounted Russian oil, blunting the impact of Western sanctions meant to limit funding for Putin’s war machine.

Ukrainian children tell of living through war in Amsterdam exhibition

The horrors of war through a child's eyes, once memorably related by Anne Frank's diary during Nazi Germany's reign of terror, are now captured in a modern-day version in the same city where she and her family hid from Adolf Hitler's forces.

The Amsterdam City Hall began hosting Thursday an exhibition called “War Diaries” that features writings, photos and video by Ukrainian children sharing their stories of living through the brutal Russian invasion.

One of them is Mykola Kostenko, now 15, who spent 21 days under siege in Mariupol as Russian troops relentlessly pounded the southern port city for more than two months. His pictures from that time are in blue ballpoint pen on pieces of paper torn out of notebooks, which is all he had. One of them shows the tiny basement where he and his family sheltered from the Russian shells before finally escaping the city.

Khrystyna Khranovska, who developed the exhibition, said at the opening: “It strikes into the very heart of every adult to be aware of the suffering and grief that the Russian war has brought our children.”

Zelenskyy fires all recruitment office chiefs

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed an order dismissing the heads of all military enlistment offices. The measure comes less than a week after Zelenskyy promised a major shakeup, citing corruption among recruitment officers. Recruiters have been accused of taking bribes and aiding draft-age men trying to leave the country to avoid military service. Zelenskyy said recruiters found innocent of corruption will be allowed to stay in the military but will be placed in fighting units. He said he wants his recruiters to be battle-tested.

“This system should be run by people who know exactly what war is and why cynicism and bribery during the war is treason,” he said in a statement.

Ukraine prime minister lobbies for grain deal

Ukraine Prime Minister Denys Shymhal urged the world to pressure Russia into returning to the Black Sea Grain Initiative and Europe to allow unfettered exportation of Ukrainian grain. Shymhal said on social media posts that Russia is destroying the infrastructure of Ukraine's Black Sea ports, provoking a global food crisis. Adding to Ukraine's struggles, close ally Poland has been blocking the export of Ukrainian grain to the EU to protect Polish farmers − "an unfriendly and populist move," Shymal wrote.

"We urge our partners to ensure unimpeded export of all Ukrainian agriculture products to the EU,'' he added. "This is an act of solidarity not only with Ukraine but with the world, which relies on our grain.''

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ukraine Russia live war updates: Moscow fines Google over war videos