Live Updates: Russia-Ukraine War

By The Associated Press

The upper house of the Russian Parliament has ratified the treaties with four Ukrainian regions to absorb them into Russia. The Federation Council voted quickly Tuesday to endorse the treaties making the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions part of Russia. The vote Tuesda came a day after the lower house endorsed the pacts following the Kremlin-orchestrated “referendums” in the four regions that Ukraine and the West have rejected as a sham. Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to quickly sign the ratification treaties to complete the process of absorbing the regions even as intense fighting is raging in those areas. Ukraine’s presidential office says that at least five civilians have been killed and another 10 have been wounded in the latest Russian shelling.