These are the key events so far from Saturday, March 5.
Russia continues broad offensive in Ukraine
- Russian troops are continuing a broad offensive in Ukraine, Russia’s RIA news agency quoted the Russian defence ministry as saying.
Partial ceasefire declared; evacuation effort halted
- Russia will allow a humanitarian corridor from 10am Moscow time, the defence ministry has said. The corridor will be opened for residents of southeastern Ukraine’s Mariupol and Volnovakha as part of a partial ceasefire to allow civilians to leave. However, later on Saturday, Ukrainian officials said the evacuation effort in Mariupol had been stopped because the city remained under fire. Russia, meanwhile, accused Ukrainian “nationalists” of preventing civilians from leaving.
The city of Mariupol has no water, heating
- The eastern Black Sea port is without water and heating, and food is scarce, its mayor said, appealing for military help. “We are simply being destroyed.”
The city of Chernihiv comes under bombardment
- A large explosion has lit up the night sky in Chernihiv, as Russia continues to press on with its assault on the strategic Ukrainian city that lies 143km (88 miles) from the capital, Kyiv.
Nearing Kyiv
- Russian forces inch closer to the capital Kyiv from the north but encounter stiff resistance along the way, including in Kyiv’s western suburbs.
Kremlin terms West’s actions ‘like bandits’
- The Kremlin says the West is behaving like bandits but that Russia is far too big to be isolated as the world is much larger than just the US and Europe.
Refugees flee fighting
- The number of Ukrainian refugees fleeing the Russian invasion could potentially rise to 1.5 million by the end of the weekend from a current 1.3 million, the head of the UN refugee agency has said.
Bread prices to be forced up by war
- Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, one of the world’s biggest wheat growers, will drive up the price of bread, eroding food security for millions of people, the World Food Programme has said.
Russian gas flows to Europe continue unchanged
- Russian state gas company Gazprom is shipping natural gas to Europe via Ukraine in the same volume of 109.5 million cubic metres per day as on Friday, the state-owned RIA news agency cited Ukraine’s pipeline operator company as saying.
Sanctions
- Singapore is sanctioning four Russian banks and banning exports of electronics, computers and military items.
US weighs cutting Russian oil imports
- Joe Biden’s administration is considering cutting US imports of Russian oil and ways to minimise the effect on global supplies and consumers.
Bans on media
- Russia has blocked Facebook and some other websites and passed a law that allows Moscow to imprison journalists for spreading information that goes against the government’s position, prompting the BBC, Bloomberg, CNN, CBC and other foreign media to suspend reporting in the country.
PayPal shuts down its services in Russia
- Payments company PayPal has shut down its services in Russia, citing “the current circumstances,” joining many financial and tech companies in suspending operations there after the invasion of Ukraine.
Zara joins exodus from Russia
- Spanish fashion retailer Inditex has halted trading in Russia, closing its 502 shops and stopping online sales, the company said in a statement.
You can read key moments from Day 9 here.
