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Summary
Russia’s war on Ukraine has now entered its third week. Here is a recap of where the crisis currently stands:
- US president Joe Biden labelled Vladimir Putin “a murderous dictator,” and “a pure thug” during an address for St Patrick’s day.
- Biden will speak with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at 9am Eastern time (1300 GMT) on Friday to discuss Russia’s war against Ukraine “and other issues of mutual concern” the White House said.
- Meanwhile, a Chinese foreign ministry official met with Russia’s ambassador to China on Thursday to exchange views on bilateral relations, the Chinese foreign ministry said.
- The World Health Organization said it has so far verified 43 attacks on health care, with 12 people killed and 34 injured, including health workers in Ukraine. The agency said the war is having “devastating consequences for the health of Ukraine’s people; consequences that will reverberate for years or decades to come” during remarks made at the United Nations security council meeting on Thursday.
- Russia is being forced to divert “large numbers” of troops to defend its supply lines rather than continuing its attacks in Ukraine, British defence intelligence analysts believe. The UK Ministry of Defence’s latest intelligence report says logistical problems continue to beset Russia’s troops.
- The Ukrainian military claims Russia is taking up measures to “make up for the loss of personnel at the expense of foreigners” while preparing for a possible attack on Kyiv.
- A Russian editor who protested against Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine during a state TV news broadcast says she is quitting her job but not accepting France’s asylum offer, calling herself “a patriot”.
- More than 320,000 Ukrainian citizens have returned to help their country fight since Russia began its invasion, according to the state border guard service of Ukraine.
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Canada will offer Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion a temporary Canadian residence permit for up to three years.
- The Australian government has imposed sanctions on two Russian oligarchs who have assets in the country as well as placing sanctions on Russia’s finance ministry and 11 additional banks and government organisations.
- Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his latest address: “The occupants thought they were going to Ukraine which they had seen before, in 2014-2015, which they corrupted and were not afraid of, but we are different now.”
- About 130 people have been rescued so far from the basement of a theatre hit by a Russian airstrike in the besieged southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol, officials said. Hundreds of people were hiding beneath the theatre, which was designated as a shelter for displaced civilians, when it was struck on Wednesday.
- Meanwhile, about 30,000 civilians have fled Mariupol city so far, local authorities said. Mariupol’s city hall said that “80% of residential housing was destroyed” and about 350,000 residents were hiding in shelters and basements in Mariupol.
- More than 20 people were killed and 25 injured when a Russian airstrike destroyed a school and community centre in Merefa, close to the north-east Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, on Thursday local officials said.
- The mayor of the besieged Ukrainian city of Melitopol, who was allegedly abducted by Russian forces, was freed in exchange for nine captured Russian conscripts, according to the head of Ukraine’s presidential office.
- Russia says it will raise allegations that the United States has biological warfare laboratories in Ukraine during Friday’s UN security council meeting, claims that Washington says are disinformation and part of a potential “false-flag operation” by Moscow.
- Lawyers are drafting a peace deal between Kyiv and Moscow but a breakthrough depends on the Kremlin accepting a ceasefire, Ukraine’s defence minister said.
Here is a sweet snap amid the chaos of war shared by the armed forces of Ukraine.
In it, a Ukrainian serviceman plays the violin to his fellow soldiers as the Ukrainian flag hangs in the background.
Ранку Україно!!!🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/fdWjOYHEF0
— 🇺🇦Armed Forces (@ArmedForcesUkr) March 18, 2022
Updated
US president Joe Biden labelled Vladimir Putin “a murderous dictator,” and “a pure thug” during an address for St Patrick’s day.
Biden said Putin was paying the price for his aggression, while detailing his planned call with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. The call comes at western countries look to put pressure on China not to support Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.
View the footage of his remarks in the video below.
More photos of civilians fleeing Ukraine via train provide a powerful snapshot of the refugee crisis.
The Ukrainian military has released its daily operational report as of 10pm local time, claiming Russia is taking up measures to “make up for the loss of personnel at the expense of foreigners” while preparing for a possible attack on Kyiv.
“According to available information, the Russian occupiers have already picked up 1,000 volunteers from the so-called army of Bashar al-Assad and Hezbollah,” the ministry of defence said, adding that the main requirement for foreign fighters is the experience of fighting in the city.
Officials said they believe the main efforts Russian forces are focused on are maintaining the previously occupied borders and carrying out measures to prepare for a possible attack on Kyiv.
However, the losses inflicted on Russian personnel, low morale and psychological condition of privates and sergeants, as well as the lack of experienced commanders of tactical units make it impossible to resume offensive operations in the near future, the report adds.
Russian forces continue to partially blockade the city of Chernihiv and carry out artillery shelling of the city while attempting to replenish stocks of ammunition and fuel in order to resume offensive operations on the cities of Sumy and Kharkiv.
Troops are also encircling of Mariupol, the Ukrainian military adds.
US President Joe Biden will speak with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at 9am Eastern time (1300 GMT) on Friday, the White House said.
“This is part of ongoing efforts to maintain open lines of communication between the United States and the (People’s Republic of China),” according to the statement.
“The two leaders will discuss managing the competition between the two countries as well as Russia’s war against Ukraine and other issues of mutual concern.”
Updated
Canada will offer Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion a temporary Canadian residence permit for up to three years.
Canada, which has a large Ukrainian diaspora, especially in the centre and west of the country, said in a statement that “Ukrainians and their immediate family members of any nationality may stay in Canada as temporary residents for up to three years.”
Applicants are required to apply online and provide their biometric data in the form of fingerprints and a photo, according to Agence France-Presse.
Ukrainian refugees can simultaneously apply for a work and study permit.
Ukrainians and their families already settled on Canadian soil will also benefit from the new measures and can “extend their visitor status or work permit for 3 years, apply for a new work or study permit, or extend their existing permit.”
Updated
An NGO in New York had hundreds of bulletproof vests stolen after they were donated by officers and destined for Ukraine as it battles a Russian invasion, police and the organisation has said.
Security-camera footage from a next-door business showed three vans pulling up outside the building, one after another, with men in hoods carrying out boxes believed to be containing the vests and loading them into the vehicles, then driving away, WNBC-TV of New York City reported.
The vests were intended to be sent to medical workers and humanitarian aid volunteers in Ukraine, the station reported.
“It is despicable that someone would break into a building to steal supplies and materials intended to aid those affected by this humanitarian crisis,” Vicki DiStefano, a spokeswoman for the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office, which made a large donation of vests last week, told the outlet.
A Russian editor who protested against Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine during a state TV news broadcast says she is quitting her job but not accepting France’s asylum offer, calling herself “a patriot”.
Marina Ovsyannikova, an editor at Channel One television, barged onto the set of its flagship Vremya evening news on Monday, shouting: “Stop the war. No to war.” he held a sign saying: “Don’t believe the propaganda. They’re lying to you here.” It was signed in English: “Russians against the war.”
She was detained and a Moscow court rapidly fined her 30,000 rubles (£220). But despite being freed she could face further prosecution, risking years in prison under draconian new laws.
She told France 24 television from Moscow on Thursday that she had “handed in all the documents” for her resignation from Channel One. “It’s a legal procedure,” she said.
12 killed in 43 attacks on health care, WHO says
The World Health Organization has said the war in Ukraine is having “devastating consequences for the health of Ukraine’s people; consequences that will reverberate for years or decades to come” during remarks made at the United Nations security council meeting on Thursday.
The WHO said they have so far verified 43 attacks on health care, with 12 people killed and 34 injured, including health workers.
World Health Organization director-general Tedros Ghebreyesus said:
WHO has verified 43 attacks on health care, with 12 people killed and 34 injured, including health workers. In any conflict, attacks on health care are a violation of international humanitarian law.”
The disruption to services and supplies in Ukraine is posing an extreme risk to people with cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, HIV and TB, which are among the leading causes of mortality in Ukraine, Ghebreyesus added.
"WHO has verified 43 attacks on health care, with 12 people killed and 34 injured, including #healthworkers. In any conflict, attacks on health care are a violation of international humanitarian law"-@DrTedros #NotATarget
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) March 17, 2022
Services for mental health and psychosocial support are also urgently needed to help those in Ukraine cope with the effects of the war.
“There are more than 35,000 mental health patients in Ukrainian psychiatric hospitals and long-term care facilities, which are facing severe shortages of medicines, food, heating, blankets and more,” the director-general said.
The agency said have sent about 100 metric tonnes of medical supplies to Ukraine, including oxygen, insulin, surgical supplies, anaesthetics, and blood transfusion kits – enough for 4,500 trauma patients and 450,000 primary health care patients, for one month.
“We have now established supply lines from our warehouse in Lviv to many cities of Ukraine, but challenges with access remain. We need unfettered access,” WHO said, adding that critical supplies ready for UN joint convoys are ready to enter difficult areas, but so far have not been successful.
A UN convoy to Sumy that included a WHO truck carrying critical medical supplies was unable to enter on Thursday and loads ready for Mariupol remain in staging areas and cannot proceed.
Here is where Russian forces currently stand as its troops continue in their invasion of Ukraine.
On the first day of the invasion Russian forces arrived at the towns just north-west of Kyiv but since then they have become bogged down, failing to progress from Irpin and Bucha just outside the capital. Progress has also been stymied on the east side of the city, and western officials are beginning to question if Russia wants to fight its way through.
Russian forces have also made significant gains in the south of the country, are already enforcing a naval blockade from the Black Sea, and, according to two analysts at the Royal United Services Institute think tank, are beginning to threaten Ukraine’s principal regular army formation, the Joint Forces Operation (JFO), which faces the Donbas region in the east.
Three current and former members of the Tennessee national guard, who were falsely identified in a Russian media report as mercenaries killed in Ukraine, are in fact alive and well, the Tennessee national guard said on Thursday.
Joe Biden ordered the withdrawal of US troops from Ukraine prior to Russia’s invasion of the country as part of a broader effort to avoid a direct confrontation with the nuclear-armed adversary.
But the report published in Russia’s Pravda newspaper identified the Americans by name and gave military ranks for each of them, citing information from pro-Russian militia in Ukraine’s Donetsk.
This afternoon the Russian media outlet “Pravda” falsely reported that three members of the Tennessee National Guard, which it labeled as “mercenaries” were killed while fighting in Ukraine. The reporting by “Pravda” is patently false. Statement: https://t.co/8aX1hVYZuI pic.twitter.com/b80lHu04AI
— NGB-PA Press Desk (@NGBPA1636) March 17, 2022
The report even offered an intricate explanation for how the three were identified, using items from a backpack “near the remains of one of the militants” – including a Tennessee state flag.
“The Tennessee guard is aware of the fake news coming out of Russia,” said Tracy O’Grady, a spokesperson for the larger US National Guard.
The Tennessee guard said in a statement: “They are accounted for, safe – and not, as the article headline erroneously states, US mercenaries killed in Donetsk People’s Republic.”
A Chinese foreign ministry official met with Russia’s ambassador to China on Thursday 17 March to exchange views on bilateral relations, the Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement on Friday, Reuters is reporting.
Cheng Guoping, commissioner for foreign affairs and aecurity affairs at China’s foreign ministry, met with Andrey Denisov of Russia and exchanged views on bilateral counter-terrorism and security cooperation, according to the statement.
Updated
More than 320,000 Ukrainian citizens have returned to help their country fight since Russia began its invasion, according to the state border guard service of Ukraine. The agency made the announcement in a tweet on Thursday:
More than 320,000 Ukrainian citizens, the vast majority of whom are men, have returned home since the beginning of Russia’s open armed aggression against Ukraine.
Our guys do not give up, so we need to help, we need to fight for our country. Ukraine must be free, like all people.”
A major fire broke out at a large street market in Kharkiv after Russian missiles hit new targets in the Ukrainian city earlier on Thursday.
No casualties were reported. The market has been closed since the beginning of Russian’s invasion. The shelling comes as Russia continues to hit the eastern Ukrainian city with heavy bombardment and artillery fire.
Video of the blaze can be viewed below.
The Australian government has imposed sanctions on two Russian oligarchs who have assets in the country, after facing questions about why they were omitted from an earlier round of economic measures triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Oleg Deripaska, who has a stake in an alumina refinery in Gladstone, Queensland, run by Rio Tinto, and Viktor Vekselberg, who has an interest in a gas project in the Beetaloo basin in the Northern Territory, were not among 41 oligarchs and family members hit with sanctions by Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on Monday.
The head of Ukraine’s embassy in Canberra, Volodymyr Shalkivskiy, said on Wednesday: “We hope that those Russian oligarchs will be included in the next round of sanctions.”
Australia also placed sanctions on Russia’s finance ministry and 11 additional banks and government organisations, covering the majority of the country’s banking assets along with all entities that handle Russia’s sovereign debt.
“With our recent inclusion of the Central Bank of Russia, Australia has now targeted all Russian government entities responsible for issuing and managing Russia’s sovereign debt,” minister for foreign affairs Marise Payne said in a statement.
'We are different now' - Zelenskiy addresses Russia
Wrapping up his national address, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy cautioned Russian troops by drawing a comparison to hostilities back in 2014.
The occupants thought they were going to Ukraine which they had seen before, in 2014-2015, which they corrupted and were not afraid of. But we are different now.
And it allows us to defend ourselves against a full-scale attack for 22 days. [It is] everything we have done over several years for our defence, for our tactics that can’t be revealed while the war is ongoing.”
Zelenskiy declined to reveal Ukraine’s negotiations tactics, adding he believes “it is better to work in silence rather than on television, radio or Facebook.”
Zelenskiy also made a direct appeal to Germany.
Today I addressed the parliament of Germany, one of the most influential countries in the world, in Europe, one of the natural leaders on the European continent.
I spoke not only as the president but as a Ukrainian, as a citizen, as a European, as someone who has felt for many years that the German state is as if behind a wall from us, an invisible but a strong wall.
We saw how, for decades, Germany fought for its economy, for new Russian gas pipelines and old European dreams. Dreams of some cooperation that Russia doesn’t take seriously for a long time.”
The Ukrainian president said he believed the views of Germans are changing.
We see that Germany is looking for a new way. We see how sincerely the majority of Germans support the review of the old policy. We see that Chancellor Olaf Scholz has a big chance and a big mission to grant Germany renewed leadership. Grant Europe peace. Long-lasting and, most importantly, an honest one.”
Zelenskiy said he felt Ukraine is now “understood better” after speaking with French President Emmanuel Macron, US President Joe Biden and the German parliament.
I feel that we are being understood better. In Europe, in the world, in different countries. And it gives us more and more support. The one we have been asking for.”
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has delivered another emphatic late-night national address, speaking to Russians directly and confirming that Ukraine continues to hold all the key areas under Russian attack.
Referring to claims Russia has recruited foreign fighters to aid in its invasion of Ukraine, Zelenskiy said:
We’ve got information that the Russian military is recruiting mercenaries from other countries and trying to deceive as many young people as possible into military service.”
He added:
More Russian conscripts have been taken prisoner of war. Among them, there are those who refuse to return to Russia. There are many who are not even talked about in Russia, who are not being taken back. Families of some soldiers have received death notices, although they are in captivity and alive.”
Issuing a warning to those who may join Russian troops, Zelenskiy said: “It will be the worst decision of your life. Long life is better than the money that they offer for a short one.”
Addressing Russian directly, Zelenskiy added:
Every mother who knows that her son was sent to war against Ukraine has to check where her son is. Particularly, those who can’t get in touch with their children, who were told their children died but didn’t receive their bodies. There are phone numbers on the internet that you can call and find out what is happening with your children. We didn’t plan to take thousands of captives. We don’t need 13,000 or more dead Russian soldiers. We didn’t want this war. We only want peace. And we want you to love your children more than you are afraid of your government.”
(Translation provided by Bermet Talant)
The exodus of refugees fleeing Ukraine continues, with most seeking refuge in neighbouring Poland. According to UN estimates, more than 3 million people have fled Ukraine since Russia invaded on 24 February.
While tens of thousands of people continue to flee the country each day, a small but growing number are heading in the other direction. At first they were foreign volunteers, Ukrainian expatriate men heading to fight and people delivering aid. But increasingly, women are also heading back.
Updated
Russia has said it will not ask the UN security council to vote on Friday on its draft resolution on humanitarian relief for Ukraine, the Associated Press reports.
It will instead use the scheduled council session to again raise allegations that the United States has biological warfare laboratories in Ukraine, claims that Washington says are disinformation and part of a potential “false-flag operation” by Moscow.
Russia’s UN ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, made the announcement at a security council meeting on Thursday afternoon that was called by six western countries, including the United States.
He said Russia is not withdrawing the resolution but decided not to seek a vote at this time because of what he called “unprecedented pressure” from western nations, especially the United States and Albania, on UN member states to oppose the measure.
Russia beset by logistical problems, British intelligence says
Russia is being forced to divert “large numbers” of troops to defend its supply lines rather than continuing its attacks in Ukraine, British defence intelligence analysts believe.
The UK ministry of defence recently released its latest intelligence report, saying that logistical problems continue to beset Russia’s faltering invasion of Ukraine.
UK defence attache AVM Mick Smeath said:
Logistical problems continue to beset Russia’s faltering invasion of Ukraine.
Reluctance to manoeuvre cross-country, lack of control of the air and limited bridging capabilities are preventing Russia from effectively resupplying their forward troops with even basic essentials such as food and fuel.
Incessant Ukrainian counterattacks are forcing Russia to divert large number of troops to defend their own supply lines. This is severely limiting Russia’s offensive potential.”
Updated
Hello it’s Samantha Lock with you back on the blog.
Some intriguing news is being reported by the BBC’s world affairs editor, John Simpson.
According to Simpson, Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss negotiations with Ukraine.
Putin’s demands include an acceptance by Ukraine that it should be neutral in future, and that it shouldn’t become a member of the western military alliance, Nato.
Other demands Putin is making include a “denazification clause” and undertakings to protect the Russian language, according to Erdogan’s chief adviser Ibrahim Kalin.
However, Putin is also demanding parts of eastern Ukraine and acceptance from Zelenskiy that Crimea be a permanent part of Russia.
According to Putin, this can only be sorted out face-to-face with his Ukrainian opponent.
It is 1:30am in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand now:
- About 130 people have been rescued so far from the basement of a theatre hit by a Russian airstrike in the besieged southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol, officials said. Hundreds of people were hiding beneath the theatre, which was designated as a shelter for displaced civilians, when it was struck on Wednesday. Serhiy Taruta, a former governor of the Donetsk region, said rescue efforts had been hindered by the complete breakdown of social services and fear of future Russian attacks in the city.
-
About 30,000 civilians have fled Mariupol city so far, local authorities said. Mariupol’s city hall said “80% of residential housing was destroyed” and about 350,000 residents were hiding in shelters and basements in Mariupol. In addition to the bombing of its theatre, the city hall said a swimming pool sheltering civilians, “mostly women, children and the elderly”, had also been shelled.
- More than 20 people were killed and 25 injured when a Russian airstrike destroyed a school and community centre in Merefa, close to the north-east Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, local officials said. The attack took place at 3.30am local time (1.30am GMT) on Thursday morning, the Kharkiv prosecutor’s office said. Ten people were in critical condition, it said.
- The US state department confirmed that a US citizen died in Ukraine today, after local reports that an American was killed during Russian shelling in the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv. Earlier today, Chernihiv regional police said authorities were “documenting the aftermath of enemy shelling of civilians in central Chernihiv” that left more than 50 people dead.
- The US has anecdotal signs of flagging Russian troop morale in some units in Ukraine, a senior US defence official said, without citing evidence. The US has also observed that the Russian military is are moving some forces “from the rear to join their advancing elements” and “some of those capabilities are artillery, long-range artillery”, suggesting they “continue to want to conduct a siege of Kyiv”.
- The mayor of the besieged Ukrainian city of Melitopol, who was allegedly abducted by Russian forces, was freed in exchange for nine captured Russian conscripts, according to the head of Ukraine’s presidential office. Ukraine had accused Russia of kidnapping Ivan Fedorov last Friday, with surveillance footage appearing to show him being marched across a square in the city centre, apparently surrounded by Russian soldiers.
- Lawyers are drafting a peace deal between Kyiv and Moscow but a breakthrough depends on the Kremlin accepting a ceasefire, Ukraine’s defence minister has said. Oleksii Reznikov, who has been leading the Ukrainian delegation in the negotiations, said technical work was progressing but that Russia had to stop its shelling for any compromise to be possible.
- The Turkish foreign minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, said “we have stronger hopes for a ceasefire” after meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba, in Lviv. The meeting follows Çavuşoğlu’s visit to Moscow yesterday, where he declared: “We have not lost our belief in diplomacy.”
- But western officials have warned there remains a “very big gap” between Ukraine and Russia in peace talks between the two countries. Reuters quotes an unnamed official as saying that both sides are taking peace talks seriously but that there was little sign of an imminent breakthrough.
- Volodymyr Zelenskiy invoked the fall of the Berlin Wall in an attempt to persuade German MPs to do everything possible to halt Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Speaking to the German parliament via video, the Ukrainian president upbraided Germany for having persisted in the past in its insistence that the gas pipelines Nord Stream 1 and 2 and other business projects with Russia were “purely economic” and not political.
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The US president, Joe Biden, will speak with the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, on Friday to discuss Russia’s war against Ukraine “and other issues of mutual concern”, the White House said. Earlier, a Chinese official criticised the Nato secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg, for his comments that China had an obligation as a member of the UN security council to help bring an end to the war in Ukraine.
- A Russian court has extended the arrest of the US basketball star Brittney Griner for at least two more months, according to the Russian state news agency Tass. Griner, a two-time Olympic champion, has been detained by Russian customs authorities, who claim they discovered vape cartridges containing hashish oil in her luggage at an airport near Moscow.
- Uzbekistan’s foreign minister has called for a diplomatic resolution of the conflict in Ukraine and said it would not recognise Moscow-backed separatists in the self-proclaimed republics in Luhansk and Donetsk, Reuters reports. Abdulaziz Kamilov’s remarks signalled the strongest anti-war statement to come from Russia’s former Soviet allies so far.
– Léonie Chao-Fong
Vladimir Putin can be expected to threaten the use of nuclear weapons as the war drags on, according to the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency.
Bloomberg reports:
“Protracted occupation of parts of Ukrainian territory threatens to sap Russian military manpower and reduce their modernized weapons arsenal, while consequent economic sanctions will probably throw Russia into prolonged economic depression and diplomatic isolation,” Lieutenant General Scott Berrier, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, said in its new 67-page summary of worldwide threats.
The combination of Ukraine’s defiance and economic sanctions will threaten Russia’s “ability to produce modern precision-guided munitions,” Berrier said in testimony submitted to the House Armed Services Committee for a hearing on Thursday.
Updated
Here’s the latest UK Defence Intelligence update:
“Logistical problems continue to beset Russia’s faltering invasion of Ukraine,” the update says.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 17 March 2022
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) March 17, 2022
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/a5algmAMCg
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/mZIb3wyBG4
From Reuters:
The UN Security Council will no longer vote on Friday on a Russian-drafted call for aid access and civilian protection in Ukraine as Russia’s UN envoy accused Western countries of a campaign of “unprecedented pressure” against the measure.
Diplomats said the Russian move would have failed with most of the 15-member council likely to abstain from a vote on the draft resolution because it did not address accountability or acknowledge Russia’s invasion of its neighbor nor did it push for an end to the fighting or a withdrawal of Russian troops.
“Many colleagues from many delegations tell us about unprecedented pressure by Western partners, that their arms are being twisted, including blackmail and threats,” Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said on Thursday.
Speaking at a council meeting on Ukraine’s humanitarian situation, requested by Western council members, Nebenzia said: “We do understand how difficult it is for those countries to withstand this kind of onslaught.”
US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield told Reuters after the meeting: “The only people who do arm-twisting around here are the Russians and they have to if they want to get anybody to support them.”
Nebenzia said that Russia had instead requested the council meet on Friday - when the vote had been scheduled - to discuss “US bio-laboratories in Ukraine using the new documents we obtained in the course of the special military operation.”
Updated
Reuters reports:
Republican senators on Thursday introduced a bill to ban US imports of Russian uranium to punish Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine.
The bill comes as the Biden administration has been weighing sanctions on Russian nuclear power company Rosatom, a major supplier of fuel and technology to power plants around the world.
The administration’s ban on US imports of Russian energy, such as oil and liquefied natural gas, does not yet include uranium.
“While banning imports of Russian oil, gas and coal is an important step, it cannot be the last,” said Senator John Barrasso, who introduced the bill.
Barrasso represents Wyoming, a state that could benefit from a revitalisation in US uranium mining.
“Banning Russian uranium imports will further defund Russia’s war machine, help revive American uranium production, and increase our national security,” he added.
The US has over 90 nuclear reactors, more than any other country, and is heavily reliant on imported uranium. Russian uranium made up 16% of US purchases in 2020, according to the Energy Information Administration, with Canada and Kazakhstan each providing 22%.
Russia also supplies a fuel called highly enriched, low assay uranium (HALEU) which is enriched up to 20% and could be used in advanced nuclear plants expected to be developed later this decade or in the 2030s.
The US would likely need to move fast on building bigger domestic capacity to supply HALEU if a ban is enacted.
Kathryn Huff, who was nominated by President Joe Biden to be an assistant secretary for nuclear energy and is now a senior official in the US Energy Department, told Barrasso in her nomination hearing on Thursday: “I think it is critically important that we wean ourselves off of unstable, untrustworthy sources of our critical fuels, including uranium.”
The Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry’s main trade group, supports development of a US uranium industry. An NEI spokesperson said the group was reviewing the bill and assessing “the potential impacts of fuel disruption on the US nuclear fleet”.
Many environmental groups and tribes have opposed expanding the industry on lands in the US west.
Updated
‘I didn’t have to think about it’: the veterans bringing Ukrainian kids with cancer to Canada
When Jay got a phone call last week, the details were vague.
“I was asked if I could come to Poland. All I was told was it involved helping evacuate Ukrainian children,” said the Canadian military veteran, who declined to give his full name because he hopes to carry out more rescue missions. “I didn’t have to think about it. Forty-eight hours later, I’m in Krakow.”
In Poland, Jay joined other Canadian veterans as part of a high-stakes mission to safely evacuate cancer patients to Canada.
On Wednesday, a chartered plane carrying two children and their families touched down in Toronto, successfully capping a multi-day rescue effort, at times marred by bureaucracy and bad luck.
Toronto’s Sick Kids, the world-leading paediatric hospital, will treat the children for their cancers and says it’s prepared to take as many as 15 children and has contacted other hospitals across the country.
But the journey of those two children and their families highlights the complexity of such missions.
“We’ve really been upside down and backwards in the last 10 days. It’s been an emotional rollercoaster because at times, we thought this whole thing wasn’t going to happen,” said Brian Macdonald, a military veteran and executive director of the aid group Aman Lara.
The efforts began in earnest last week after Macdonald saw jarring images of hospitals being bombed by Russian forces.
Read more:
Updated
As further news developments continue on Ukraine, with desperate scenes on the ground and heated talk at the United Nations Security Council in New York, we welcome our readers to stay tuned.
The Guardian’s global, round-the-clock live blog covering the crisis in Ukraine now passes from the US east coast to the US west coast, where my colleague Maanvi Singh will keep you updated on the news emerging over the next few hours.
Talk continues of atrocities in Ukraine, war crimes investigations against Russia and Vladimir Putin, as US leaders step up their rhetoric on that subject, and the prospect of more top-level NATO meetings in Europe in the coming days.
Updated
United Nations undersecretary-general Rosemary DiCarlo has told the security council in New York of the UN human rights office’s latest estimated statistics on those killed and wounded in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion, the Associated Press reports.
The total of Ukraine civilian victims dead and wounded in Ukraine was given as: 1,900 civilian casualties from the start of the war on 24 February to 15 March, comprising 726 people killed, including 52 children, and 1,174 injured, with the actual number likely much higher.
“Most of these casualties were caused by the use in populated areas of explosive weapons with a wide impact area,” DiCarlo said.
The UN development agency, UNDP, projects that if the war continues, 90% of Ukraine’s population could be facing poverty and extreme economic vulnerability, “setting the country and the region back decades, and leaving deep social and economic scars,” she said.
Meanwhile, more than three million people have fled Ukraine following the invasion. More than half have gone to Poland. Most of the rest are in the surrounding countries of eastern Europe, according to the UN high commissioner for refugees, Filippo Grandi.
Updated
The United Nations political chief is calling for an investigation of massive civilian casualties in Ukraine and the destruction of hundreds of residential buildings, schools, hospitals and other civilian infrastructure, and for those responsible to be held accountable, the Associated Press reports.
UN undersecretary-general Rosemary DiCarlo told the United Nations security council meeting in New York on Thursday that “international humanitarian law is crystal clear” in prohibiting direct attacks on civilians in military operations, and ensuring their protection.
Yet, she said, many of the daily attacks that are battering Ukrainian cities “are reportedly indiscriminate, resulting in civilian casualties and damage to civilian infrastructure”.
The US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, tweeted that “Ukraine will never be a victory for Putin” no matter what.
Ukraine will never be a victory for Putin. No matter what advances he makes, no matter whom he kills or what cities he destroys.
— Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield (@USAmbUN) March 17, 2022
The United States stands with Ukraine and the Ukrainian people – and we will do everything in our power to end this tragic, unnecessary war.
Thomas-Greenfield also said that Russia would be “held accountable for its atrocities” such as the bombardment of the theatre in Mariupol, where hundreds were taking shelter from the war and where the word “children” had been written outside prominently, in Russian.
Yesterday, Russian forces dropped a powerful bomb that hit a Mariupol theater where hundreds of civilians were hiding.
— Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield (@USAmbUN) March 17, 2022
The Russian word for “children” was written outside the theater.
Yet, Putin's forces bombed it anyway.
Russia will be held accountable for its atrocities.
Thomas-Greenfield was picked by US president Joe Biden as his ambassador to the UN after he beat Donald Trump in the 2020 US presidential election.
Updated
US to warn China against military support for Russian war in Ukraine
US president Joe Biden is due to speak with Chinese president Xi Jinping on Friday for the first time since Russia invaded Ukraine more than three weeks ago.
The White House signalled that Biden will warn Xi Jinping against bolstering his ally Vladimir Putin in his war mission.
The two leaders will talk as Washington warned China was considering military support for Russia’s war, a step that would dramatically widen the gulf between Beijing and Western governments, Reuters writes.
The news agency further reports:
The call, first announced by the White House on Thursday, comes at a pivotal moment in US-China relations - and in Ukraine, where heavily outnumbered local forces have prevented Moscow from capturing any of the country’s biggest cities so far.
The Biden administration has issued public and private warnings that Beijing would face dire consequences if it provides material support to Russian president Vladimir Putin’s war.
“President Biden will be speaking to President Xi tomorrow and will make clear that China will bear responsibility for any actions it takes to support Russia’s aggression, and we will not hesitate to impose costs,” US secretary of state Antony Blinken told a news briefing in Washington.
Blinken said China had a responsibility to use its influence with Putin and to defend international rules, but that it appeared Beijing was “moving in the opposite direction”.
“We’re concerned that they’re considering directly assisting Russia with military equipment to use in Ukraine,” he said, officially confirming for the first time reports earlier in the week that US officials believed China had signalled its willingness to provide Moscow with such support.
Blinken did not elaborate on what the costs might be to China, and Washington has not yet offered evidence of the claim that China has signalled a willingness to help Russia.
Moscow has denied asking China for military assistance, and China’s foreign ministry has called the idea “disinformation”.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki characterised the call as “an opportunity for President Biden to assess where President Xi stands”.
“The fact that China has not denounced what Russia is doing, absence of denunciation by China of what Russia is doing in and of itself speaks volumes,” Psaki said.
China’s official Xinhua news agency said the call would happen in the evening Beijing time.
Updated
The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, has said Joe Biden’s administration has seen “no evidence” that Russia is de-escalating its aggression in Ukraine.
The US House of Representatives has voted overwhelmingly in favour of suspending normal trading relations with Russia, taking the rare move to strip it of so-called “most favoured nation” status.
This is a move to back up with legislation what Biden announced last week he wanted to happen and the appropriate steps were being taken to do this.
Meanwhile, Psaki addressed Biden’s scheduled call with Chinese president Xi Jinping on Friday, their first since Russia invaded Ukraine just over three weeks ago, and said the fact Russia is asking for military help from China “is a clear sign that this war is not going how President Putin planned for it to go”.
Updated
United States leaders have stepped up their rhetoric against Russia, with the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, saying he agreed with what Joe Biden said yesterday accusing Vladimir Putin of war crimes.
“Intentionally targeting civilians is a war crime. I find it difficult to conclude that the Russians are doing otherwise,” Blinken said, speaking at the State Department in Washington DC.
He cited Russian aerial bombardments of, among numerous civilian targets, a hospital, people waiting in a bread line, and the latest atrocity where rescuers are continuing to try to help people get out of the ruins of a theatre in Mariupol, where hundreds had been sheltering.
Blinken said such aggressions “join a long line of attacks on civilian locations in Ukraine”, echoing past merciless killings perpetrated by Russian forces in Grozny, Chechnya, and Aleppo, Syria, where “the goal is breaking the will of the people”.
Yesterday, Biden said he thought the Russian president was a war criminal.
“Personally, I agree with him,” Blinken said.
The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, said earlier on a trip to Slovakia to meet fellow Nato member ministers that Russia’s actions were being investigated within the frame of suspected war crimes.
At a St Patrick’s Day event in Washington today, Biden called Putin a “murderous dictator” and a “pure thug”.
Pres. Biden calls Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin a “murderous dictator, a pure thug who is waging an immoral war against the people of Ukraine”
— Poli Alert (@polialertcom) March 17, 2022
pic.twitter.com/JE9bm0f82d
Updated
Catch up
It is 9pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand now:
- About 130 people have been rescued so far from the basement of a theatre hit by a Russian airstrike in the besieged southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol, officials said. Hundreds of people were hiding beneath the theatre, which was designated as a shelter for displaced civilians, when it was struck on Wednesday. Serhiy Taruta, a former governor of the Donetsk region, said rescue efforts had been hindered by the complete breakdown of social services and fear of future Russian attacks in the city.
-
About 30,000 civilians have fled Mariupol city so far, local authorities said. Mariupol’s city hall said “80% of residential housing was destroyed” and about 350,000 residents were hiding in shelters and basements in Mariupol. In addition to the bombing of its theatre, the city hall said a swimming pool sheltering civilians, “mostly women, children and the elderly”, had also been shelled.
- More than 20 people were killed and 25 injured when a Russian airstrike destroyed a school and community centre in Merefa, close to the north-east Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, local officials said. The attack took place at 3.30am local time (1.30am GMT) on Thursday morning, the Kharkiv prosecutor’s office said. Ten people were in critical condition, it said.
- The US state department confirmed that a US citizen died in Ukraine today, after local reports that an American was killed during Russian shelling in the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv. Earlier today, Chernihiv regional police said authorities were “documenting the aftermath of enemy shelling of civilians in central Chernihiv” that left more than 50 people dead.
- The US has anecdotal signs of flagging Russian troop morale in some units in Ukraine, a senior US defence official said, without citing evidence. The US has also observed that the Russian military is are moving some forces “from the rear to join their advancing elements” and “some of those capabilities are artillery, long-range artillery”, suggesting they “continue to want to conduct a siege of Kyiv”.
- The mayor of the besieged Ukrainian city of Melitopol, who was allegedly abducted by Russian forces, was freed in exchange for nine captured Russian conscripts, according to the head of Ukraine’s presidential office. Ukraine had accused Russia of kidnapping Ivan Fedorov last Friday, with surveillance footage appearing to show him being marched across a square in the city centre, apparently surrounded by Russian soldiers.
- Lawyers are drafting a peace deal between Kyiv and Moscow but a breakthrough depends on the Kremlin accepting a ceasefire, Ukraine’s defence minister has said. Oleksii Reznikov, who has been leading the Ukrainian delegation in the negotiations, said technical work was progressing but that Russia had to stop its shelling for any compromise to be possible.
- The Turkish foreign minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, said “we have stronger hopes for a ceasefire” after meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba, in Lviv. The meeting follows Çavuşoğlu’s visit to Moscow yesterday, where he declared: “We have not lost our belief in diplomacy.”
- But western officials have warned there remains a “very big gap” between Ukraine and Russia in peace talks between the two countries. Reuters quotes an unnamed official as saying that both sides are taking peace talks seriously but that there was little sign of an imminent breakthrough.
- Volodymyr Zelenskiy invoked the fall of the Berlin Wall in an attempt to persuade German MPs to do everything possible to halt Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Speaking to the German parliament via video, the Ukrainian president upbraided Germany for having persisted in the past in its insistence that the gas pipelines Nord Stream 1 and 2 and other business projects with Russia were “purely economic” and not political.
-
The US president, Joe Biden, will speak with the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, on Friday to discuss Russia’s war against Ukraine “and other issues of mutual concern”, the White House said. Earlier, a Chinese official criticised the Nato secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg, for his comments that China had an obligation as a member of the UN security council to help bring an end to the war in Ukraine.
- A Russian court has extended the arrest of the US basketball star Brittney Griner for at least two more months, according to the Russian state news agency Tass. Griner, a two-time Olympic champion, has been detained by Russian customs authorities, who claim they discovered vape cartridges containing hashish oil in her luggage at an airport near Moscow.
- Uzbekistan’s foreign minister has called for a diplomatic resolution of the conflict in Ukraine and said it would not recognise Moscow-backed separatists in the self-proclaimed republics in Luhansk and Donetsk, Reuters reports. Abdulaziz Kamilov’s remarks signalled the strongest anti-war statement to come from Russia’s former Soviet allies so far.
That’s it from me, Léonie Chao-Fong, as I hand the blog over to my US colleague, Joanna Walters. Goodbye for now.
Updated
US sees signs of 'flagging' Russian troop morale – US defence official
A senior US defence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the US has registered anecdotal signs of flagging Russian troop morale in some units in Ukraine.
The official told reporters:
We certainly have picked up anecdotal indications that morale is not high in some units.
The official also used the word “flagging” to describe Russian troop morale in some units, without citing evidence.
Some of that is, we believe, a function of poor leadership, lack of information that the troops are getting about their mission and objectives, and I think disillusionment from being resisted [by Ukrainians] as fiercely as they have been.
Reuters could not independently confirm the account.
U.S. defense officials have previously said that Russia did not tell some troops sent into Ukraine they were going to war, and had seen large Russian surrenders in certain instances.
— Jack Detsch (@JackDetsch) March 17, 2022
The US has also observed that the Russian military is moving some forces “from the rear to join their advancing elements” and “some of those capabilities are artillery, long-range artillery”, a senior US defence official said.
The official told reporters that based on these observations, it appeared that Russian forces “continue to want to conduct a siege of Kyiv”.
Updated
Updated
Russia has been accused by the UK, the US, France, Albania, Ireland and Norway of war crimes in Ukraine, as Paris claimed that Vladimir Putin was only pretending to be interested in negotiating a peace deal, Daniel Boffey and Dan Sabbagh report.
The six countries challenged Russia before a UN security council meeting as the British foreign secretary, Liz Truss, said there was now “very, very strong evidence” of war crimes being committed by Russian forces.
“Vladimir Putin is behind them,” Truss said.
It is ultimately a matter for the international criminal court to decide who is or isn’t a war criminal and for us to bring the evidence.
Rescue workers continued this evening to search through the rubble for survivors of a Russian airstrike on a theatre in the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol where hundreds of people had been sheltering.
Officials said more than 20 people were killed and 25 injured in an airstrike on a school and community centre in Merefa, close to the north-eastern city of Kharkiv, in the early hours of Thursday morning.
Oleksii Reznikov, Ukraine’s defence minister, described the pilot who bombed the theatre in Mariupol as a monster. The word “children” had been painted in large Russian script on the ground outside the red-roofed theatre building to warn off fighter jets.
Updated
The US state department has confirmed that a US citizen died in Ukraine today, after local reports that an American was killed during Russian shelling in the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv.
A US state department spokesperson did not comment further on the circumstances of the citizen’s death.
Earlier today, Chernihiv regional police said authorities were “documenting the aftermath of enemy shelling of civilians in central Chernihiv”.
It said in a Facebook post:
Today, the invaders once again launched a heavy artillery attack on unarmed civilians.
There are dead and wounded people. Among the dead – there is a US citizen.
More than 50 people died in the attack in Chernihiv, according to the Ukrainian general prosecutor’s office.
Earlier today, the governor of Chernihiv, Viacheslav Chaus, said the city had experienced “colossal losses and destruction” amid relentless bombardment from Russian artillery and airstrikes.
Chaus told Ukrainian broadcasters that 53 people had been killed in the city by Russian forces on Wednesday alone, Reuters reported.
Updated
The Belgian royal family will officially host three Ukrainian refugee families at their royal properties, the Belgian royal palace has confirmed.
Three Ukrainian families will be hosted by the Royal Trust, an entity managing the Belgian royal family’s assets, at two properties, in Brussels and Wallonia.
An additional property in Tervuren, on the outskirts of Brussels, will also be made available to the municipality for the collective accommodation of Ukrainian refugees.
Updated
130 people rescued from Mariupol theatre – former governor
Rescue efforts to find survivors of the Russian bombing of a theatre in the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol have been hindered by the complete breakdown of social services in the city, according to the former Donetsk region head, Serhiy Taruta.
Speaking in an interview on Ukrainian television, Taruta said he believed 1,300 people were in the building when it was bombed and 130 have so far been rescued.
Taruta said:
People are doing everything themselves. My friends went to help, but due to constant shelling it was not safe. People are clearing away the rubble themselves.
There is no rescue operation, because all the services that are supposed to rescue people, to treat them, to bury them, these services no longer exist.
Authorities in Mariupol said it was still not possible to estimate the number of possible casualties from the attack.
In an online statement, the city council said:
Yesterday and today, despite continuous shelling, rubble is being cleared as much as is possible and people are being rescued.
Information about victims is still being clarified.
Photos of what's left of the destroyed Drama Theatre in Mariupol that the city's administration says was bombed by Russia. The theatre was being used as a shelter for displaced people in the city.
— Jake Godin (@JakeGodin) March 17, 2022
Shared on Telegram here: https://t.co/qQBxCCeNK8 pic.twitter.com/QaRHxTeJHd
Earlier today, Italy’s culture minister, Dario Franceschini, said the Italian government was ready to rebuild the theatre in Mariupol.
“The cabinet ... has approved my proposal to offer Ukraine the resources and means to rebuild it as soon as possible. Theatres of all countries belong to the whole [of] humanity,” Franceschini wrote on Twitter.
Updated
A two-year-old child has died and four people were wounded in Russian shelling of the Ukrainian village of Novi Petrivtsi, to the north of Kyiv, regional police said.
In a statement on Facebook, the police said Russian forces fired heavy artillery at residential houses in the Vyshhorod district.
An apartment building was destroyed and neighbouring residential buildings were damaged in the attack, it said.
⚡️Two-year-old killed, 4 people injured in Russian artillery attack in Novi Petrivtsi village, Kyiv Oblast.
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) March 17, 2022
The March 17 strike destroyed a multistoried building and damaged multiple houses, Kyiv Oblast Police reported.
Photo: Kyiv Oblast Police/Facebook pic.twitter.com/VpA6kRIkDc
Note: the Guardian has not been able to verify the report.
Updated
30,000 people have fled Mariupol but more than 350,000 remain – city hall
About 30,000 civilians have fled the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol, local authorities said.
Mariupol’s city hall said on Telegram that “around 30,000 people have left on their transport”, adding that “80% of residential housing was destroyed”, AFP reports.
Officials were still “clarifying information on victims” of the Russian shelling of a theatre on Wednesday, it said.
Ukraine has accused Russia of bombing a theatre in Mariupol where hundreds of people were taking refuge, despite a sign saying “DETI” – or children, in Russian – written on the ground on either side of the building.
The city hall said a swimming pool sheltering civilians, “mostly women, children and the elderly”, had also been shelled.
About 350,000 residents were hiding in shelters and basements in Mariupol, officials said, describing the situation as “critical”.
Updated
Russia is struggling to make military progress in and around Kyiv, western officials said on Thursday afternoon, and “there is a question as to whether Moscow now intends to try to assault Kyiv or not”, Dan Sabbagh reports.
An estimated 7,000 Russian troops have died in the fighting so far and 10% of the invading army’s equipment has also been destroyed, prompting questions as to whether the army on the ground has the will to continue fighting.
I would be quite cautious in terms of my understanding of Russian intent on Kyiv,
an official said, noting that Russian forces had been trying to encircle the Ukrainian capital for many days but had failed to make any real progress in either the north-west or the east.
“I think there is a question as to whether Moscow now intends to try to assault Kyiv or not, and I don’t know the answer to that,” the official added.
To do so, in my judgment, with or without bombardment, would be very costly.
It may even be possible for Ukraine to fight Russia to a standstill, the official added, and the growing possibility of a military stalemate could help bring a successful conclusion to the ongoing peace negotiations on both sides.
Britain and other western countries believe those discussions are becoming increasingly serious, but it remains unclear if Russia is “in a compromising mood” at the moment, after Vladimir Putin claimed on Wednesday night that it was possible “the pro-Nazi regime in Kyiv” could have “got its hands on weapons of mass destruction”.
Updated
Summary
It is 7pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand now:
- Survivors have begun to emerge from the basement of a theatre hit by a Russian airstrike in the besieged southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol, officials said. Hundreds of people were hiding beneath the theatre, which was designated as a shelter for displaced civilians, when it was struck on Wednesday. Authorities said it was not known if there were injuries or deaths among those inside.
- More than 20 people were killed and 25 injured when a Russian airstrike destroyed a school and community centre in Merefa, close to the north-east Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, local officials said. The attack took place at 3.30am local time (1.30am GMT) on Thursday morning, the Kharkiv prosecutor’s office said. Ten people are in critical condition, it said.
-
Losses are mounting in the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, with 53 people killed by Russian forces on Wednesday alone, the regional governor, Viacheslav Chaus, said on Thursday. “We are suffering heavy losses – 53 citizens were killed yesterday,” he said.
- The mayor of the besieged Ukrainian city of Melitopol, who was allegedly abducted by Russian forces, was freed in exchange for nine captured Russian conscripts, according to the head of Ukraine’s presidential office. Ukraine had accused Russia of kidnapping Ivan Fedorov last Friday, with surveillance footage appearing to show him being marched across a square in the city centre, apparently surrounded by Russian soldiers.
- Lawyers are drafting a peace deal between Kyiv and Moscow but a breakthrough depends on the Kremlin accepting a ceasefire, Ukraine’s defence minister has said. Oleksii Reznikov, who has been leading the Ukrainian delegation in the negotiations, said technical work was progressing but that Russia had to stop its shelling for any compromise to be possible.
- The Turkish foreign minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, said “we have stronger hopes for a ceasefire” after meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba, in Lviv. The meeting follows Çavuşoğlu’s visit to Moscow yesterday, where he declared: “We have not lost our belief in diplomacy.”
- But western officials have warned there remains a “very big gap” between Ukraine and Russia in peace talks between the two nations. Reuters quotes an unnamed official as saying that both sides are taking peace talks seriously but that there was little sign of an imminent breakthrough.
- Volodymyr Zelenskiy invoked the fall of the Berlin Wall in an attempt to persuade German MPs to do everything possible to halt Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Speaking to the German parliament via video, the Ukrainian president upbraided Germany for having persisted in the past in its insistence that the gas pipelines Nord Stream 1 and 2 and other business projects with Russia were “purely economic” and not political.
-
The US president, Joe Biden, will speak with the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, on Friday to discuss Russia’s war against Ukraine “and other issues of mutual concern”, the White House said. Earlier, a Chinese official criticised the Nato secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg, for his comments that China had an obligation as a member of the UN security council to help bring an end to the war in Ukraine.
- A Russian court has extended the arrest of the US basketball star Brittney Griner for at least two more months, according to the Russian state news agency Tass. Griner, a two-time Olympic champion, has been detained by Russian customs authorities, who claim they discovered vape cartridges containing hashish oil in her luggage at an airport near Moscow.
- Uzbekistan’s foreign minister has called for a diplomatic resolution of the conflict in Ukraine and said it would not recognise Moscow-backed separatists in the self-proclaimed republics in Luhansk and Donetsk, Reuters reports. His remarks signalled the strongest anti-war statement to come from Russia’s former Soviet allies so far.
- The UK’s defence minister, Ben Wallace, said an impostor claiming to be the Ukrainian prime minister contacted him today and asked several “misleading questions”. Wallace said he terminated the call after becoming suspicious, adding that “no amount of Russian disinformation” can distract from its human rights abuses.
-
The European Space Agency (ESA) has suspended a joint mission with Russia to land a rover on Mars, because of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
The venture had been planned to launch in September using a Russian launcher and lander in order to drill into the surface of Mars in search of signs of life.
Hello, I’m Léonie Chao-Fong and I’ll continue to bring you all the latest developments from Ukraine. Feel free to get in touch on Twitter or via email.
Updated
Updated
The mayor of the besieged Ukrainian city of Melitopol, who was allegedly abducted by Russian forces, was freed in exchange for nine captured Russian conscripts, according to the head of Ukraine’s presidential office.
Dariya Zarivna, a press aide to President Zelenskiy, was quoted by Ukraine’s Interfax news agency on Wednesday as saying:
Ivan Fedorov was released from Russian captivity ...
For him, Russia received nine captured soldiers who were born in 2002 and 2003. These are actually children.
Ukraine had accused Russia of kidnapping Fedorov last Friday. Surveillance footage appeared to show the Melitopol mayor being marched across a square in the city centre, apparently surrounded by Russian soldiers.
Zelenskiy confirmed that Fedorov had been freed in an address on Wednesday night:
We have finally managed to release the mayor of Melitopol from captivity. Our Ukrainian Melitopol, which did not submit and will not submit to the occupiers. Ivan Fedorov is free.
I talked to him today. The Russian military abducted him on 11 March, trying to persuade him to collaborate. But our man withstood. He did not give up. Just as we all endure. You all. Just as we all do not give up. Because we are Ukrainians. And we always protect our own.
Перше відео звільненого з полону російських окупантів міськголови Мелітополя Івана Федорова 🇺🇦
— Громадське радіо (@HromadskeRadio) March 17, 2022
«Дякую кожному мелітопольцю, який безстрашно відстоює свою позицію!»
First video of the mayor of Melitopol Ivan Fedorov, who was recently released from russian captivity pic.twitter.com/ZbC0LFYQ1u
Updated
The UK’s defence minister, Ben Wallace, said an impostor claiming to be the Ukrainian prime minister contacted him today and asked several “misleading questions”.
Wallace said he terminated the call after becoming suspicious, adding that “no amount of Russian disinformation” can distract from its human rights abuses.
Today an attempt was made by an imposter claiming to be Ukrainian PM to speak with me. He posed several misleading questions and after becoming suspicious I terminated the call 1/2
— Rt. Hon Ben Wallace MP (@BWallaceMP) March 17, 2022
Updated
The Turkish foreign minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, said “we have stronger hopes for a ceasefire” after meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba, in Lviv, Ruth Michaelson reports.
The meeting follows Çavuşoğlu’s visit to Moscow yesterday, where he declared: “We have not lost our belief in diplomacy.”
Çavuşoğlu said that he and Kuleba discussed a proposal to secure a humanitarian corridor for the besieged city of Mariupol, where Russian airstrikes hit residential buildings, a maternity ward and a theatre where an estimated 1,000 people were sheltering.
We proposed humanitarian corridors and a ceasefire for at least 24 hours for Mariupol, which came when Mr Kuleba visited Antalya and I have fully supported that proposal,
Çavuşoğlu said, in reference to a meeting between Lavrov and Kuleba that took place last week in Turkey.
Çavuşoğlu added:
We are in contact with both parties. The Russian side says that they want to evacuate people but Ukraine prevents it; Ukraine says they are ready for it but Russia prevents that.
Unfortunately, so far we have not succeeded in that the conflict is still going on and tens of thousands of people, civilians, have not been able to leave the city.
Lavrov, standing alongside Çavuşoğlu at a more tepid news conference in Moscow yesterday declared:
We will propose corridors that ensure the safety and security of our soldiers. The Ukrainian side has their own proposals. People are free to make their own choices.
Çavuşoğlu’s visit to Ukraine and Russia is part of Turkey’s efforts to position itself as a mediator, asserting itself on the international stage.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is also threatening to become a domestic issue for the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, as Russia and Ukraine provide the vast majority of Turkey’s wheat supply. Russia also provides about a third of Turkey’s natural gas supply, also a foundational issue for the Turkish government as energy costs rise dramatically amid rapid inflation and an economic crisis that has seen the lira lose half its value in just one year.
Turkey has repeatedly positioned itself as a bridge between Russia and Ukraine due to alliances with both countries, capped with its membership of Nato and important geographical position at the entrance to the Black Sea.
Erdoğan spoke with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, yesterday by phone, and Vladimir Putin earlier today where he reiterated an offer to host both leaders for peace talks and stressed the need for humanitarian corridors. “War does not benefit anyone,” he told Putin.
Kuleba told journalists in Lviv that a 15-point negotiation plan between Russia and Ukraine published by the Financial Times yesterday “was the Russian position”. The plan would see Russian forces withdraw if Ukraine gives up any ambition to join Nato, and declines to host any foreign military bases in exchange for protection from its allies, including Turkey. “Security guarantees are the key issue. Regarding this we are conducting negotiations now,” said Kuleba.
Çavuşoğlu also attempted to tamp down on any enthusiasm about the role of Turkey’s Bayraktar TB2 drones, which have quickly acquired folk hero status in Ukraine, due to their usefulness in blowing up Russian military equipment. “These are products procured from a company in Turkey,” he said, repeating statements by the Turkish authorities that the drones are part of a private military sale and not government assistance.
Kuleba was unrepentant, joking about “our new Ukrainian national anthem, Bayraktar”, in reference to an ode to the drones composed by the Ukrainian land forces. “Bayraktar UAVs are very popular in Ukraine,” Çavuşoğlu responded dryly.
Updated
21 people killed in Russian airstrike on school and community centre – local officials
More than 20 people were killed and 25 injured when a Russian airstrike destroyed a school and community centre in Merefa, close to the north-east Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, local officials said.
The attack took place at 3.30am local time (1.30am GMT) on Thursday morning, the Kharkiv prosecutor’s office said on Telegram.
It said 21 people were killed and 10 were in critical condition.
Local authorities said the city of Merefa, home to 21,500 residents, came under fire overnight as missiles struck a school, a community centre and a scientific institution.
The region has seen heavy bombardment in a bid by stalled Russian forces to advance.
Унаслідок обстрілу росіянами Мерефи під Харковом загинула 21 людина, ще 25 поранені (10 — у тяжкому стані). Зруйнована школа, будинок культури та житлові будинки.
— Громадське радіо (@HromadskeRadio) March 17, 2022
As a result of russian shelling of Merefa near Kharkiv, 21 people killed and 25 wounded (10 in critical condition) pic.twitter.com/fD4VNF1iHO
Updated
Citizens trapped in #Mariupol are running out of water. They melt snow & use a juice carton box as a pot.#Ukraine #war #Russian #invasion #Putin pic.twitter.com/Mufgz23WYz
— Lorenzo Tondo (@lorenzo_tondo) March 17, 2022
A peace deal between Kyiv and Moscow is being drafted by lawyers but a breakthrough depends on the Kremlin accepting a ceasefire, Ukraine’s defence minister has said, as the French government accused Russia of pretending to negotiate.
My colleague Daniel Boffey, in Brussels, has more on the peace talks between the two sides. He writes:
Oleksii Reznikov, who has been leading the Ukrainian delegation in the negotiations, said technical work was progressing but that Russia had to stop its shelling for any compromise to be possible.
Speaking via video link to MEPs on the committee of foreign affairs and the security and defence subcommittee, Reznikov said international leaders, such as Israeli prime minister, Naftali Bennett, were trying to mediate but that it appeared Russia would have to be forced into real negotiations.
He said:
We will, of course, first of all, during the negotiations talk about a ceasefire, about humanitarian corridors, the provision of the civilian population with evacuation, with water, with food, and maybe later we can sign this agreement for peace.
Updated
There remains a “very big gap” between Ukraine and Russia in peace talks between the two nations, western officials have said.
Reuters quotes an unnamed official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, as saying that both sides are taking peace talks seriously but that there was little sign of an imminent breakthrough:
Both sides are taking them seriously but there is a very, very big gap between the positions in question.
Another official said: “Those ... who saw [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin addressing the nation yesterday would be forgiven for thinking that Russia was not in compromising mood.”
Updated
European Space Agency suspends joint Russia Mars mission
The European Space Agency (ESA) says it has suspended a joint mission with Russia to land a rover on Mars, because of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
The venture had been planned to launch in September using a Russian launcher and lander in order to drill into the surface of Mars in search of signs of life. But that will no longer go ahead as planned, the ESA says:
As an intergovernmental organisation mandated to develop and implement space programmes in full respect with European values, we deeply deplore the human casualties and tragic consequences of the aggression towards Ukraine. While recognising the impact on scientific exploration of space, ESA is fully aligned with the sanctions imposed on Russia by its member states.
The ESA’s full statement is linked in the tweet below:
Statement from ESA Council, 17 March 2022, on the situation arising from the war in Ukraine regarding #ExoMars and other ESA programmes 👉 https://t.co/NpNCZ3ov2S
— ESA (@esa) March 17, 2022
Updated
Reports of survivors emerging from rubble of bombed Mariupol theatre
Reports are emerging of survivors being rescued from the wreckage of a theatre bombed by Russian forces in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, according to local officials.
Ukrainian authorities are working to rescue hundreds of civilians trapped in the basement of the Drama Theatre of Mariupol, which had been designated as a shelter for displaced civilians, including children and older people.
Pyotr Andryushchenko, an adviser to Mariupol’s mayor, said it was not yet clear how many people survived at the facility, which had been used to shelter up to 1,000 people in recent days.
Serhiy Taruta, a former head of the Donetsk region, wrote on Facebook:
After an awful night of not knowing, we finally have good news from Mariupol on the morning of the 22nd day of the war. The bomb shelter [of the theatre] was able to hold. The rubble is beginning to be cleared.
People are coming out alive.
Another lawmaker, Lesia Vasylenko, who was in London as part of a delegation, said there were reports of injuries but no deaths, Associated Press reported.
Liudmyla Denisova, the Ukrainian parliament’s commissioner for human rights, said adults and children were coming out alive but the full extent of the impact remained unclear.
She wrote on Telegram:
In Mariupol, the release of civilians from the rubble of the drama theater has begun.
The building withstood the impact of a high-powered air bomb and protected the lives of people hiding in the bomb shelter. Work is under way to unlock the basement.
Updated
Vladimir Putin has spoken about the west’s sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine on the eighth anniversary of the country’s annexation of Crimea.
While acknowledging the sanctions had caused problems, the Russian president claimed they were also “creating opportunities” for businesses who now had “nothing to fear”.
Updated
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has invoked the fall of the Berlin Wall in an attempt to persuade German MPs to do everything possible to halt Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Speaking to the German parliament via video, the Ukrainian president said attempts to address Germany’s links with Russia over the years had been repeatedly met with the response: “Economy, economy, economy”.
More than 187,000 refugees from Ukraine have arrived in Germany since Russia’s invasion three weeks ago, according to Germany’s interior ministry.
German police have recorded 187,428 refugees, mostly women, children and older people, as of Thursday, the ministry said.
Around 4,500 Ukrainian refugees have also been registered in Spain, although the real number is probably much higher, Spain’s migration minister, José Luis Escrivà, said today.
Escrivà said:
It is difficult to know the real number of refugees because many go directly to their families here in Spain without registering with the authorities.
More than 3 million people have fled Ukraine in what the UN Refugee Agency called Europe’s worst refugee crisis since the second world war.
Updated
Arnold Schwarzenegger has pleaded for Vladimir Putin to “stop this war”, and told Russian soldiers their lives are being “sacrificed for a senseless war condemned by the entire world”.
In a nine-minute video posted to his Twitter account, the actor and former California governor outlined his history with Russia and said the “strength and heart of the Russian people” has always inspired him.
Part of the video’s purpose was to try to make Russian soldiers more aware of the circumstances around the conflict, he said.
To the Russian soldiers listening to this broadcast, you already know much of the truth that I have been speaking. You have seen it with your own eyes.
I love the Russian people. That is why I have to tell you the truth. Please watch and share. pic.twitter.com/6gyVRhgpFV
— Arnold (@Schwarzenegger) March 17, 2022
He added:
This is not the war to defend Russia that your grandfathers or your great-grandfather’s fought. This is an illegal war.
Addressing the Russian president directly, Schwarzenegger says:
To President Putin, I say: ‘You started this war. You are leading this war. You can stop this war.’
Updated
A Russian court has extended the arrest of US basketball star Brittney Griner for at least two more months, according to Russian state news agency Tass.
Tass quoted the Khimkinsky court of the Moscow region as saying:
The court granted the request of the investigation and extended the period of detention of the US citizen Griner until May 19.
Griner, a two-time Olympic champion, has been detained by Russian customs authorities, who claim they discovered vape cartridges containing hashish oil in her luggage at an airport near Moscow. She was arrested last month and could face up to 10 years in prison if found guilty of bringing drugs into Russia.
The Russian state-owned news agency also quoted Ekaterina Kalugina, a member of Russia’s public monitoring commission, a semi-official body with access to Russian prisons.
Kalugina told Tass that Griner, 31, was sharing a cell with two other women with no previous convictions, adding that Griner’s only issue was that the prison beds were too short for her 6’7” frame.
Updated
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has invoked the fall of the Berlin Wall in an attempt to persuade German MPs to do everything possible to halt Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Kate Connolly reports.
Speaking to the German parliament via video, the Ukrainian president upbraided Europe’s largest economy for having persisted in the past in its insistence that the gas pipelines Nord Stream 1 and 2 and other business projects with Russia, were “purely economic” and not political.
Zelenskiy said attempts to address the issue with Germany over the years had been repeatedly met with the response “economy, economy, economy” and delays in efforts to allow his country to become a member of Nato and the EU, as well as insufficient economic sanctions on Russia before the invasion, had contributed to allowing the attack.
He referred to a “new wall” in the middle of Europe, “between freedom and lack of freedom” which he accused Germany of having helped to build by protecting its business interests with Russia at the cost of isolating Ukraine, epitomised by its support of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline via the Baltic Sea, which has now been abandoned.
“This wall is only getting bigger with every bomb that lands on Ukraine and with every decision that is not taken,” he said.
Updated
Uzbekistan has called for a diplomatic resolution of the conflict in Ukraine and said it would not recognise Moscow-backed separatists in the self-proclaimed republics in Luhansk and Donetsk, Reuters reports.
The Uzbek foreign minister, Abdulaziz Kamilov, told parliament that while Uzbekistan wanted to maintain good relations with both Russia and Ukraine, it opposed the war. His remarks signal the strongest anti-war statement to come from Russia’s former Soviet allies so far.
Kamilov said:
First, Uzbekistan is seriously concerned by the situation around Ukraine.
Second, we are the proponents of finding a peaceful solution to this situation and resolving the conflict through political and diplomatic means.
But in order to do that, first of all, hostilities and violence must stop immediately.
Uzbekistan’s economy is heavily dependent on exports to Russia as well as remittances from its citizens working in Russia.
Last week, Kazakhstan’s president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, said “all countries must strictly adhere to the norms and principles of the charter of the United Nations” and “new diplomatic opportunities must be sought to resolve the conflict situation peacefully”.
Updated
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has called for a “natural cleansing” of “scum and traitors” within Russia who question his invasion of Ukraine.
In a television address on 16 March, he also accused the west of trying to split Russian society and provoke civil confrontation.
Rescue workers say ‘there are survivors’ in rubble of Mariupol theatre
Rescue workers searching in the rubble of a theatre smashed by a Russian airstrike in the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol say they believe there are survivors to Wednesday evening’s attack.
Ukrainian authorities are struggling to determine the fate of hundreds of civilians who had been sheltering in the theatre after images showed an entire section of the three-storey building had collapsed after the strike.
Petro Andrushchenko, an adviser to the city’s mayor, said some people had survived the blast.
He told Reuters:
The bomb shelter held. Now the rubble is being cleared. There are survivors. We don’t know about the (number of) victims yet.
Rescue work was under way to reach survivors and establish the number of casualties, Andrushchenko added.
The theatre, which had been designated as a shelter for displaced civilians, including children and elderly people, withstood the strike and some people managed to escape, said the former governor of the Donetsk region, Sergiy Taruta, without providing further details.
Tetyana Ignatchenko, a spokesperson of the Donetsk regional military administration, said there had been 1,000 people inside the Mariupol theatre a week ago.
But after that, many people were able to escape. We can’t say exactly how many people were in the theatre. We can only assume 400-500. Half of them.
In a late-night address on Wednesday, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, referred to the theatre attack.
The heart is breaking from what Russia does to our people, our Mariupol, and our Donetsk region.
Speaking to reporters today, Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said the allegation that Russia had bombed the theatre was a “lie”.
Zakharova said:
Russia’s armed forces don’t bomb towns and cities.
Updated
The US president, Joe Biden, will speak with the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, on Friday to discuss Russia’s war against Ukraine “and other issues of mutual concern”, the White House said.
The call comes after US officials warned China may have already decided to provide Russia with economic and financial support during its war on Ukraine.
The US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, met his Chinese counterpart, Yang Jiechi, in an “intense seven-hour session” earlier this week to present the US case against Russia’s invasion.
A US official familiar with the discussion said the Chinese had “already decided that they’re going to provide economic and financial support” before the Rome meeting. “The question really is whether they will go further,” they added.
Earlier today, a Chinese official criticised the Nato secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg, for his comments that China had an obligation as a member of the UN security council to help bring an end to the war in Ukraine.
Speaking after a meeting of Nato defence ministers yesterday, Stoltenberg called on China to “clearly condemn the invasion and not to support Russia”, adding that China had an obligation to condemn the invasion.
In response, the Chinese mission to the EU said:
We need no lecture on justice from the abuser of international law . . . Nato continues to expand its geographical scope and . . . needs to have good reflection.
The remark was in reference to Nato’s accidental bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade in 1999, which killed three journalists.
Updated
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has not changed his position that the international borders in place since 1991 must continue to be recognised, a presidential adviser said.
Zelenskiy has repeatedly insisted that Ukraine will not compromise on its “territorial integrity” since the Russian invasion on 24 February, Reuters reports.
Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in 2014 but the region is still regarded by the United Nations as part of Ukraine. Russia has also recognised declarations of independence by the two self-proclaimed republics in Luhansk and Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.
Speaking on national television today, Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Zelenskiy, said:
His main position has not changed. We will never give up our national interests.
Updated
A Russian airstrike on civilians sheltering in a theatre in the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol “looks to be specific targeting” of a civilian building, a UK Foreign Office minister said.
Ukrainian authorities are still attempting to determine the fate of hundreds of people who had taken refuge in the theatre, with the pavements outside the venue reportedly marked with huge white letters spelling out “children” in Russian.
Images showed an entire section of the three-storey building had collapsed after the strike on Wednesday evening.
James Cleverly, the minister for Europe in the UK’s Foreign Office, said the attack appeared to be a “self-evident breach of international law” and called for evidence to be documented of the assault to put together a war crime case.
In an interview with ITV’s Good Morning Britain, the minister was asked whether he thought the bombing of the shelter “looked like a war crime”.
Cleverly responded:
Ultimately it is for international courts and tribunals to make the formal decision but self-evidently, this is civilian infrastructure which we’ve seen had the word ‘Kids’ painted in Russian outside of this building.
This looks to be specific targeting of civilian infrastructure and, as I say, that is a self-evident breach of international law and the law of armed conflict.”
He added that evidence of potential war crimes must be collated so that “those people who are responsible for these, whether they are battlefield commanders, right up to the top of the organisation, can be held accountable once this war is concluded”.
The Russian defence ministry has denied bombing the theatre in Mariupol.
Hello everyone. It’s Léonie Chao-Fong with you as we unpack all the latest developments in Ukraine. Feel free to drop me a message if you have anything to flag, you can reach me on Twitter or via email.
Updated
Ukraine’s defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov, has been speaking via video link to MEPs on the committee of foreign affairs and security and defence subcommittee and the issue of the peace negotiations with the Kremlin has been raised, Daniel Boffey reports.
Reznikov said lawyers were involved in drawing up joint documents but that any breakthrough would depend on Russia agreeing to a total ceasefire.
He said:
We will, of course first of all, during the negotiations talk about a ceasefire, about humanitarian corridors, the provision of the civilian population with evacuation with water, with food, and maybe later we can sign this agreement for peace.
But on the terms of Ukrainian people, we would never accept any capitulation and our armed forces are ready to resist. So today, we could say the negotiations are more or less on a technical level. And of course, lawyers are involved, politicians are involved and I’m not going to go into more details about negotiations.
But I have to assure you that there is nothing yet to be satisfied about. But I hope that we will end this war very soon and of course by defeating the Kremlin.
Updated
Updated
Summary
The time in Kyiv is 1pm. Here is a round-up of today’s main headlines:
- Losses are mounting in the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, with 53 people killed by Russian forces on Wednesday alone, the regional governor said on Thursday. “We are suffering heavy losses - 53 citizens were killed yesterday,” Governor Viacheslav Chaus said.
- One person has been killed by a Russian missile attack in Kyiv this morning, Ukraine’s emergency services are reporting. Rescue services said they received a report of a residential building on fire in the Darnytsky district at 5.02am on Thursday.
-
Ukrainian authorities struggled to determine the fate of hundreds of civilians who had been sheltering in a theatre smashed by a Russian airstrike in the besieged city of Mariupol, the Associated Press reported.
- An educational institution in the city of Merefa in the Kharkiv region was also reportedly struck by Russian missiles overnight, Ukraine’s state emergency services said.
- The Kremlin claimed it was putting “colossal” energy into talks on a possible peace deal with Ukraine. “Our delegation is putting in colossal effort and demonstrates more readiness towards them than the other side,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
- The UK defence ministry released its latest intelligence report, claiming the Russian invasion of Ukraine has “largely stalled on all fronts”.
- The Ukrainian military also released its morning operational report, claiming Russia has been unsuccessful in carrying out its ground operation and continues to launch rocket-bomb strikes on Ukrainian cities. Officials said Russian troops are launching cyber-attacks and destroying TV and radio signals in order to discredit Ukraine’s leadership.
- Ukraine is asking Japan for high-quality satellite imagery to help it fend off Russian troops, the Nikkei newspaper reported on Thursday.
- The exodus of refugees fleeing Ukraine continues, with most seeking refuge in neighbouring Poland. According to UN estimates, more than 3 million people have fled Ukraine since Russia invaded on 24 February.
That’s it from me, Tom Ambrose, for now. My colleague Léonie Chao-Fong will be along shortly to continue bringing you all the latest.
Updated
Ukrainian authorities struggled to determine the fate of hundreds of civilians who had been sheltering in a theatre smashed by a Russian airstrike in the besieged city of Mariupol, the Associated Press reported.
It came as officials said Russian artillery had on Thursday destroyed more civilian buildings in another frontline city.
Some hope emerged, as an official said some people had managed to survive the Mariupol theatre strike.
The AP reported:
A photo released by Mariupol’s city council showed an entire section of the large, 3-story theater had collapsed after the strike Wednesday evening. Several hundred people had taken refuge in the building’s basement, seeking safety amid Russia’s 3-week, strangulating siege of the strategic Azov Sea port city.
At least as recently as Monday, the pavement in front of and behind the once-elegant theater was marked with huge white letters spelling out “CHILDREN” in Russian, according to images released by the Maxar space technology company.
Rubble had buried the entrance to the shelter inside the theater, and the number of casualties was unclear, Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk regional administration, said on Telegram. Ukrainian parliament member Sergiy Taruta, a former governor of the Donetsk region where Mariupol is located, later said on Facebook that some people had managed to escape alive from the destroyed building. He did not provide any further details.
Kyrylenko said Russian airstrikes also hit a municipal swimming pool complex in Mariupol where civilians, including women and children, had been sheltering.
“Now there are pregnant women and women with children under the rubble there,” he wrote, though the number of casualties was not immediately known.
Updated
The Kremlin claimed it was putting “colossal” energy into talks on a possible peace deal with Ukraine.
“Our delegation is putting in colossal effort and demonstrates more readiness towards them than the other side,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
“Agreeing such a document, the observance of all its parameters and their implementation could very quickly stop what is happening.”
Asked about a Financial Times report that Ukraine and Russia had made significant progress on a tentative peace plan, Peskov told Reuters: “It is not right - there are elements there that are right but on the whole it is incorrect.”
The Kremlin, he said, would announce progress when there was progress to report. “Address all other questions to the Financial Times though,” Peskov said.
Peskov said Joe Biden’s claim that Vladimir Putin was a war criminal was unacceptable and that the United States had no right to lecture Russia after its involvement in so many conflicts.
Updated
About 4,500 Ukrainian refugees have been registered in Spain since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, but the real number is much higher, Spain’s migration minister, José Luis Escrivá, said on Thursday.
More than 3 million people have fled the war in Ukraine in what the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) called Europe’s worst refugee crisis since World War Two.
“It is difficult to know the real number of refugees because many go directly to their families here in Spain without registering with the authorities”, the minister said.
The majority of European countries have offered to take in refugees in the past weeks to help alleviate the pressure on Ukraine’s neighbours as the conflict between Russia and Ukraine continues.
Poland has taken in more than 1.8 million Ukrainians so far while Romania and Moldova have registered 435,432 and 337,215, respectively, following the invasion.
Updated
Railways ground to a halt in many places across Poland on Thursday, hit by a widespread traffic control system outage, operator PKP PLK said, disrupting an important means of transport for refugees fleeing Ukraine.
Infrastructure minister Andrzej Adamczyk said that railway workers were dealing with the situation and normal service would be resumed as soon as possible.
Almost 2 million people have fled to Poland from Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion on 24 February. Poland has offered free rail tickets to refugees, allowing them to travel to stay with friends and family around the country.
“Regarding the transport of refugees, which has been the key task of the railway over the past few days, we are in full coordination of the process together with the ministry of infrastructure ... so that the process is not halted and can be carried out to the extent possible,” The PKP PLK deputy chief executive, Mirosław Skubiszyński, told reporters.
The traffic control outage was nearly nationwide, affecting 820 km (510 miles) of track, he added to Reuters.
Updated
Ukraine is asking Japan for high-quality satellite imagery to help it fend off Russian troops, the Nikkei newspaper reported on Thursday.
Japanese governments and private companies operate satellites that have the ability to capture detailed images day and night, and through clouds and other obstructions in the atmosphere.
The Japanese government will carefully consider whether providing such data to Ukraine is politically acceptable or allowed under the current legal framework, the report said without citing sources.
It comes as Japan’s military says it spotted four large Russian amphibious warfare ships sailing close to its islands as they traveled west, possibly towards Europe, Reuters reported.
Pictures of the amphibious transports, typically used for landing expeditionary forces ashore, published by Japan’s defence ministry showed what appeared to be military trucks loaded onto the deck of one of the vessels.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said the world must officially recognise that Russia has become a terrorist state.
During his daily video address, the Ukrainian president once again called on western leaders for the implementation of a no-fly zone and new sanctions packages against Russia.
Updated
No casualty toll yet after Russian bombardment of theatre in Mariupol, says official in mayor's office
An official in the Mariupol mayor’s office said on Thursday the city authorities did not yet have a casualty toll after what they said was a Russian bombardment of a theatre in the besieged Ukrainian city.
Russia’s defence ministry on Wednesday denied it had carried out an air strike against a theatre in Mariupol, RIA news agency said.
Updated
Russian government websites are facing unprecedented cyber-attacks and technical efforts are being made to filter foreign web traffic, the Tass news agency cited the digital ministry as saying on Thursday.
Russian government entities and state-owned companies have been targeted over events in Ukraine, with the websites of the Kremlin, flagship carrier Aeroflot and major lender Sberbank among those to have seen outages or temporary access issues in recent weeks.
The ministry was working to adjust to the new conditions, it said, as cyber attacks ratchet up.
“If previously their power at peak moments reached 500 gigabytes, then now it is at 1 terabyte,” the ministry said. “That is two to three times more powerful than the most serious incidents of this kind that have been previously reported.”
As Russia becomes increasingly isolated from global financial systems and supply chains, the government has proposed a raft of measures to support the IT sector, among others.
Technology firms will have access to preferential tax and lending conditions and the digital ministry has previously suggested Russian IT companies discuss a phased transfer of technical support components with foreign firms.
Citing draft government documents, Interfax reported late on Wednesday that the digital ministry had proposed allocating 14 billion roubles ($134.30m) to support IT companies in the form of grants.
Reuters could not immediately verify that report.
Updated
Russia has the might to put enemies led by the United States in their place and Moscow will foil the west’s Russophobic plot to tear Russia apart, one of Vladimir Putin’s closest allies said on Thursday.
Dmitry Medvedev, who served as president from 2008 to 2012 and is now deputy secretary of Russia’s security council, said the United States had stoked “disgusting” Russophobia in an attempt to force Russia on its knees and then rip it apart.
“It will not work - Russia has the might to put all of our brash enemies in their place,” Medvedev said.
Updated
Losses are mounting in the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, with 53 people killed by Russian forces on Wednesday alone, the regional governor said on Thursday.
“We are suffering heavy losses - 53 citizens were killed yesterday,” Governor Viacheslav Chaus said.
The information could not immediately be verified. Russia denies targeting civilians, Reuters reported.
It comes as Russia’s armed forces said they had hit a military depot in the Rivne region in western Ukraine on Wednesday.
High-precision missiles hit a depot in Sarny, Rivne region, destroying storage facilities for missiles and ammunition, the ministry said.
I’m Tom Ambrose and I’ll be bringing you all the latest news throughout the morning.
Updated
Summary
Before I hand over to my colleague Tom Ambrose here is a rundown of the latest developments. For a more detailed summary, please refer to our earlier update.
- One person has been killed by a Russian missile attack in Kyiv this morning, Ukraine’s emergency services are reporting. Rescue services said they received a report of a residential building on fire in the Darnytsky district at 5.02am on Thursday.
- An educational institution in the city of Merefa in the Kharkiv region was also reportedly struck by Russian missiles overnight, Ukraine’s state emergency services said.
- The UK defence ministry released its latest intelligence report, claiming the Russian invasion of Ukraine has “largely stalled on all fronts”.
- The Ukrainian military also released its morning operational report, claiming Russia has been unsuccessful in carrying out its ground operation and continues to launch rocket-bomb strikes on Ukrainian cities. Officials said Russian troops are launching cyberattacks and destroying TV and radio signals in order to discredit Ukraine’s leadership.
- An educational institution in the city of Merefa in the Kharkiv region was reportedly struck by Russian missiles overnight, Ukraine’s state emergency services is reporting.
- The exodus of refugees fleeing Ukraine continues with most seeking refuge in neighbouring Poland. According to UN estimates, more than three million people have fled Ukraine since Russia invaded on 24 February.
- The comedy satire in which Volodymyr Zelenskiy unexpectedly becomes Ukraine’s president will be aired again on Netflix in the US. The resurrection of the TV series Servant of the People comes amid a global outpouring of praise for the former comedian who is now leading his country’s fight against the Russian invasion. “You asked and it’s back,” Netflix announced.
Updated
Russian government websites are facing unprecedented cyber attacks and efforts are being made to filter foreign web traffic, Russia’s state news agency TASS cited the digital ministry as saying on Thursday.
Russian government entities and state-owned companies have been targeted over events in Ukraine, with the websites of the Kremlin, flagship carrier Aeroflot and major lender Sberbank among those to have seen outages or temporary access issues in recent weeks.
More than 3 million refugees have fled Ukraine, UN says
According to UN estimates, more than three million people have fled Ukraine since Russia invaded on 24 February.
Most have sought refuge in neighbouring Poland, arriving to the border by train or bus.
United Nation secretary-general António Guterres gave an update on the number of refugees late on Wednesday, saying: “The people of Ukraine desperately need peace. And the people around the world demand it. Russia must stop this war now.”
More than 3 million Ukrainian refugees have fled their country.
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) March 16, 2022
The people of Ukraine desperately need peace.
And the people around the world demand it.
Russia must stop this war now.
Updated
Here’s a quick take on the markets, according to a recent Reuters report.
Hong Kong led strong gains in Asian stock markets on Thursday, buoyed by signs of progress in peace talks between Russia and Ukraine and by expectations of more support for China’s wobbly economy.
Pan-European stock futures also looked set for a firmer open, pointing 0.21% higher.
US stock futures indicated a slightly lower restart, but followed a 2.2% surge for the S&P 500 overnight.
Investors took in stride the long expected start of monetary tightening in the United States.
Treasury yields eased a little after spiking to nearly three-year highs overnight - with shorter-end yields rising more to flatten the curve - after the Fed on Wednesday raised the policy rate for the first time since 2018.
The Fed increased rates by a quarter point, as expected, and telegraphed equivalent hikes at every meeting for the remainder of this year to aggressively curb inflation.
The dollar, though, remained on the back foot and oil stabilised well south of recent multi-year highs amid signs of material progress in talks between Russia and Ukraine to end the war.
In some lighter news, the comedy satire in which Volodymyr Zelenskiy unexpectedly becomes Ukraine’s president will be aired again on Netflix in the US.
The resurrection of the TV series Servant of the People comes amid a global outpouring of praise for the former comedian who is now leading his country’s fight against the Russian invasion. “You asked and it’s back,” Netflix announced.
On Tuesday, Zelenskiy received a standing ovation as he addressed the US Congress via video link with an impassioned plea for more weaponry and the establishment of a no-fly zone to help Ukraine survive the Russian invasion, which began on 24 February.
Before politics, Zelenskiy wrote and produced standup comedy shows, TV series and films, and sold tickets to live concerts.
Servant of the People sees Zelenskiy, who is now 44, play a teacher who unexpectedly becomes president after a video of him complaining about corruption goes viral.
Once elected, Zelenskiy’s character faces a difficult task to reform Ukraine, fight corruption and unify the nation despite resistance from politicians serving the interests of oligarchs. The show resonated with Ukrainians and audiences in other former Soviet countries
Russian invasion 'largely stalled on all fronts', British intelligence says
The UK defence ministry has released its latest intelligence report, claiming the Russian invasion of Ukraine has “largely stalled on all fronts”.
The report reads:
Russian forces have made minimal progress on land, sea or air in recent days and they continue to suffer heavy losses.
Ukrainian resistance remains staunch and well-coordinated. The vast majority of Ukrainian territory, including all major cities, remains in Ukrainian hands.”
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 17 March 2022
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) March 17, 2022
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/OdjSV0U43C
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/gxOTw78P0M
Hungary says it expects a “bigger wave” of refugees to arrive from Ukraine next week, prime minister Viktor Orban said in a video message posted to his official Facebook page.
Visiting a border crossing point near Hungary’s border with Romania and Ukraine, Orban said more border guards would be posted there next week to handle an increased number of refugees.
Orban did not say why he expected more refugees next week. Over the past week the number of Ukrainian refugees arriving to Hungary has fallen substantially, according to a Reuters report.
Updated
An educational institution in the city of Merefa in the Kharkiv region was reportedly struck by Russian missiles overnight, Ukraine’s state emergency services is reporting.
Rescue services said they received a call at 3.39am this morning with reports a two-story building was partially destroyed and on fire.
“On March 17, as a result of another shelling, enemy missiles hit one of the educational institutions in the city of Merefa in the Kharkiv region,” the agency said in an update this morning
Rescue teams are working to extinguish the blaze and no casualties have so far been reported.
Updated
The exodus of refugees fleeing Ukraine continues with most seeking refuge in neighbouring Poland.
According to UN estimates, more than three million people have fled the country since Russia invaded on 24 February.
Updated
The latest Ukrainian city to suffer wide-spread damage from Russian missile attacks is the besieged port city of Mariupol.
A before and after comparison photo shows the extent of damage inflicted upon the city’s theatre which was the site of a makeshift civilian shelter and bombed by Russian forces on Wednesday, officials said.
Mariupol council posted an image of the city’s theatre showing it sustained heavy damage in the attack and said casualty numbers were being confirmed. The word “children” had been written outside the theatre. Zelenskiy said “our hearts are broken” by the strike, and likened the siege of the city to that of Leningrad in the second world war.
Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba called the attack “another horrendous war crime” and said the building is now “fully ruined”.
Another horrendous war crime in Mariupol. Massive Russian attack on the Drama Theater where hundreds of innocent civilians were hiding. The building is now fully ruined. Russians could not have not known this was a civilian shelter. Save Mariupol! Stop Russian war criminals! pic.twitter.com/bIQLxe7mli
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) March 16, 2022
Zelenskiy calls Russia a ‘terrorist state’
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy gave a national address late last night where he called Russia a ‘terrorist state’ and said its attack on Mariupol was no different from the siege of Leningrad.
In case you missed it, here is a recap of his remarks:
The war has not stopped yet. Russia’s war crimes continue. The Russian economy is still able to maintain the military machine. That’s why we need new sanctions against Russia. The world must finally recognise officially that Russia has become a terrorist state.”
Zelenskiy also directly addressed Russians, asking them to question whether the siege of Mariupol is any different from the siege of Leningrad and promising Russian soldiers who lay down their arms a chance to survive.
Speaking in Russian, he said:
Citizens of Russia! How is your siege of Mariupol different from the siege of Leningrad during WWII? Who are you taking over from?”
Every Russian soldier who lays down his arms will get a chance to survive, he added.
There is still an opportunity. There is [an opportunity] for every soldier sent to the territory of our country, for every single one who hasn’t been killed or injured or captured.
The Russian army is suffering losses that it did not see in Syria or Chechnya; that Soviet troops [didn’t have] in Afghanistan. If your war, war against the Ukrainian people, will continue, mothers of Russia will lose more children than in the Afghan and Chechen wars altogether. Why do you need it?
Every Russian soldier who lays down his arms will get a chance to survive.
I’m addressing conscripts, who were thrown into a boiler of this war - not their war, - and other soldiers who still have a self-preservation instinct. Lay down your arms. It is better than dying on the battlefield on our land.”
An emergency UN Security Council meeting is set to get underway today.
The United States, Britain, France, Albania, Norway and Ireland requested the meeting due to the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Ukraine, diplomatic sources said.
“Russia is committing war crimes and targeting civilians,” the British diplomatic mission to the UN said on its Twitter account late on Wednesday evening. “Russia’s illegal war on Ukraine is a threat to us all.”
Russia asked to postpone a UN Security Council vote on a resolution it drafted about the “humanitarian” situation in Ukraine.
The vote, first scheduled for Wednesday and then pushed to Thursday afternoon, is to be set for Friday morning - unless the draft is dropped altogether due to lack of support from Moscow’s allies.
Discussions are also underway, according to other diplomatic sources, to allow Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to speak to the United Nations General Assembly.
Ukraine’s UN representative Sergiy Kyslytsya called Russia’s appeal to UN members an “egregious hypocrisy” .
“UN member may like to think twice before they dive in blood of children and adults executed by Russian military in Ukraine,” he added.
Russian appeal to UN members to support most egregious hypocrisy - “humanitarian” draft resolution by a serial killer is outrageous. UN member may like to think twice before they dive in blood of children & adults executed by Russian military in Ukraine. Stay with 141 of ESS/11-1 pic.twitter.com/3MHit2nM7g
— Sergiy Kyslytsya (@SergiyKyslytsya) March 17, 2022
The Ukrainian military has just released its morning operational report, claiming Russia has been unsuccessful in carrying out its ground operation and continues to launch rocket-bomb strikes on Ukrainian cities.
Officials said Russian troops are launching cyberattacks and destroying TV and radio signals in order to discredit Ukraine’s leadership.
“In addition to this, the opponent continues to actively disseminate misinformation about the so-called ‘special operation’ movement among the own population,” the ministry of defence report reads.
“The occupation forces continue to bear losses. They have major problems with the assembling of combat units and security units. The personal composition of the opponent is demoralised, which led to an increase in the number of cases of desertification and the refusal of the military forces of the Russian Federation to participate in the war on Ukraine.”
Updated
Russian missile strike in Kyiv kills one, residential building on fire
One person has been killed by a Russian missile attack in Kyiv this morning, Ukraine’s emergency services are reporting.
Rescue services said they received a report of a residential building on fire in the Darnytsky district at 5.02am on Thursday.
“On arrival, rescuers found that as a result of a damaged missile remains, the 16th and technical floor of the building was demolished, and the 16th floor of the apartment was set on fire,” the agency said in an update this morning.
Some 30 people were evacuated with a search still underway.
One person was confirmed to have died while three were injured as a result of the shelling and destruction of the building, emergency services said.
Updated
Biden calls Putin a war criminal, Kremlin responds 'unforgivable rhetoric'
Joe Biden has denounced Vladimir Putin as a war criminal, delivering his sharpest rebuke yet of the Russian leader just hours after the Ukrainian president pleaded with Congress to provide more aid to his country.
“I think he is a war criminal,” Biden said of Putin on Wednesday.
The president’s comment marked a distinct rhetorical shift for the White House, which had deflected previous questions about whether Putin should be considered a war criminal for the Russian military’s attacks on Ukrainian civilians.
“There is a process, and we have stood up a process internally – an internal team – to assess and look at and evaluate evidence of what we’re seeing happen on the ground,” the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, said earlier this month.
The Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said Biden’s comments were “unacceptable and unforgivable rhetoric”, according to Russia’s state-owned Tass news agency.
Summary
Thanks for joining us for today’s live coverage on the war in Ukraine.
I’m Samantha Lock and I’ll be bringing you all the latest developments as they unfold. It is just before 7am in Ukraine and here is where the crisis currently stands.
- Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said humanitarian corridors failed on Wednesday because “Russian soldiers didn’t stop shelling and didn’t guarantee safety” in a national address late last night. The president called Russia a “terrorist state” and pleaded for more support from the west, including air defence systems, jets, lethal weapons and ammunition.
- Zelenskiy also directly addressed Russians, asking them to question whether the siege of Mariupol is any different from the siege of Leningrad and promising Russian soldiers who lay down their arms a chance to survive.
- Russian forces bombed a theatre and swimming pool complex where civilians were sheltering in the encircled Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, officials said. Mariupol council posted an image of the city’s theatre showing it sustained heavy damage in today’s attack and said casualty numbers were being confirmed. Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of Donetsk regional administration, said that pregnant women and children were sheltering at the pool, calling the attack “pure terrorism”. The word “children” had been written outside the theatre. Zelenskiy said “our hearts are broken” by the strike, and likened the siege of the city to that of Leningrad in the second world war.
- Satellite imagery revealed extensive damage across Sumy, Chernihiv and Kharkiv. The images, taken by US space technology company Maxar Technologies, shows burning homes in a residential area of Chernihiv, Ukraine, as well as artillery impact craters next to a residential area in Kharkiv and a damaged Olympic sports training centre.
- Joe Biden referred to Vladimir Putin as a “war criminal”, his sharpest rebuke yet of the Russian president, after he announced an extra $800m in security assistance to Ukraine, to buy more weapons and military equipment. The Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said Biden’s comments were “unacceptable and unforgivable rhetoric”, according to Russia’s state-owned Tass news agency.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called on the US Congress to provide more weapons to help his country fight off Russian airstrikes and for further sanctions against Russia, including the withdrawal of all US businesses.
- Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba said that what his country needs from the west is “weapons and sanctions, and the rest will be done by Ukraine” in an interview with CNN.
- The United States committed to more military aid to Ukraine, including long-range missile defence and Switchblade armed drones to better defend against Russian aircraft and armour from a distance.
- Russian forces shot and killed 10 people standing for bread in the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, the US embassy in Kyiv said. Ukrainian officials said the attack took place at 10am local time on Wednesday (8am GMT). Russia’s defence ministry denied the report, claiming no Russian soldiers were in Chernihiv.
- The UN security council will meet Thursday at the request of six western nations that sought an open session on Ukraine. The UK’s UN mission tweeted: “Russia is committing war crimes and targeting civilians. Russia’s illegal war on Ukraine is a threat to us all.” The meeting comes ahead of an expected vote on a Russian humanitarian resolution that has been sharply criticised for making no mention of Moscow’s war against Ukraine.
- Russian forces released the mayor of the Ukrainian city of Melitopol, the Ukrainian president said. Ukraine’s state services for communications shared a video showing Zelenskiy speaking to Ivan Fedorov following his release. The president said Fedorov was abducted by Russian forces on 11 March who tried to persuade him to collaborate but “our man withstood. He did not give up.”
- China’s ambassador to Ukraine praised Ukraine’s unity and resistance in remarks which appear to contradict the country’s earlier stance. Fan Xianrong said China “will never attack Ukraine” but will support it economically and politically during a meeting with Lviv’s regional military administration, Ukrainian media outlet Ukrinform originally reported.
- British intelligence said set backs for Russian forces has meant its troops are resorting to the use of “older, less precise weapons” which are “less militarily effective and more likely to result in civilian casualties.
As usual, for any tips and feedback please contact me through Twitter or at samantha.lock@theguardian.com
The Guardian keeps you up to the minute on the crisis in Ukraine with a global perspective and from our team around the world and around the clock. Thank you for reading and please do stay tuned.
