These are the key events so far on Thursday, March 10. Get the latest updates here.
Foreign ministers meet
- The top diplomats of Russia and Ukraine met in Antalya, Turkey for face-to-face talks, the first high-level contact since Russia’s invasion on February 24. No progress was made.
Anger at Mariupol hospital attack
- Ukraine accuses Russia of a “war crime” over a devastating attack on a children’s hospital in besieged Mariupol, with Washington branding the bombing “barbaric”. At least 17 people are injured, with footage showing the wounded streaming from the destroyed building past burning cars and a giant crater. Russia’s foreign ministry does not deny the attack but accuses Ukrainian “nationalist battalions” of using the hospital to set up firing positions after moving out staff and patients.
‘Hospital was military base’
- Russia’s top diplomat Sergey Lavrov claims the hospital was a base for Ukrainian Azov Battalion and “other radicals” and slams the West for supplying them with “deadly weapons”.
Abramovich assets frozen
- Britain freezes the assets of Roman Abramovich, including Chelsea Football Club, along with those of six other Russian oligarchs, including Oleg Deripaska, Rosneft chief Igor Sechin and the head of Gazprom Alexei Miller.
Mayor says more than 1,200 dead in Mariupol siege
- Some 1,207 civilians have been killed in the 10-day Russian siege of the port city, its mayor says. The figure could not be independently verified. The Red Cross calls the situation in Mariupol “apocalyptic” after more than a week without water, power or heat. Safe routes out have repeatedly come under attack.
Russians approach Kyiv
- Fears are mounting Ukraine’s capital Kyiv will also soon be encircled, with Russian tanks in places just a few kilometres from the city limits.
35,000 evacuated
- Some 35,000 civilians have been evacuated from other Ukrainian cities during a 12-hour ceasefire, with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hoping three more corridors will open on Thursday for Mariupol, Volnovakha and Izyum.
2.2 million flee Ukraine
- The United Nations says at least 2.2 million people have fled Ukraine, with more than half now in Poland. It has called the exodus Europe’s fastest growing refugee crisis since World War II.
Women and child killed
- Two women and a 13-year-old boy have been killed overnight in the bombing of Velyka Pysarivka village near the badly hit northern city of Sumy close to the Russian border.
Additional US aid to Ukraine
- US lawmakers have passed a $14bn aid package for Ukraine, while Canada pledged more military equipment. The International Monetary Fund, meanwhile, approves $1.4bn in emergency financing for Ukraine.
Patriot missiles, no jets
- The United States has deployed two new Patriot surface-to-air missile batteries in Poland to protect its front-line NATO ally. However, the Pentagon has definitively rejected a Polish offer to give its Russian-made MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine amid fears of a wider conflict.
Nuclear plants ‘not reporting’
- The International Atomic Energy Agency says it is not receiving updates from either Chernobyl or Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plants, both of which are now in Russian hands. But the UN’s nuclear watchdog says there is “no critical impact on safety” at Chernobyl, the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster in 1986, from a loss of power there.
Oil falls, stocks surge
- The price of oil tumbles, while US and European and Asian stocks surge after days of market turmoil over the invasion.
