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Summary
Here is a comprehensive rundown on where the crisis currently stands:
- Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged direct talks with Vladimir Putin, saying: “Without this meeting it is impossible to fully understand what they are ready for in order to stop the war.” He also said his country will never bow to ultimatums from Russia and cities directly under attack, including the capital, Kyiv, and Mariupol and Kharkiv would not accept Russian occupation.
- Russia’s false accusations that Ukraine has biological and chemical weapons is a “clear sign” that Vladimir Putin is considering using them himself, Joe Biden said. “[Putin’s] back is against the wall and now he’s talking about new false flags,” he said. The Pentagon has accused Russian forces of committing war crimes in Ukraine, saying there is “clear evidence” of such, and the spokesman of the US Defence Department said it would help gather evidence of them.
- Biden spoke after the Pentagon said it had seen “clear evidence” Russian forces were committing war crimes and that it was helping collect evidence.
- Biden also warned the US business community of intelligence pointing to a growing Russian cyber threat and urged companies to “immediately” prepare defences.
- Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign affairs chief, heralded new plans to develop an “EU Rapid Deployment Capacity” that could allow the bloc to “swiftly deploy up to 5,000 troops” for different types of crises. He insisted a “European army” will not be created.
- Russia has threatened to cut ties with the US after Joe Biden called Vladimir Putin a war criminal, claiming his comments “put Russian-American relations on the verge of a breach”.
- Almost 10,000 Russian soldiers may have already been killed in the war in Ukraine since Russia invaded almost four weeks ago, and more than 16,000 wounded, according to reports of previously-undisclosed figures from the defence ministry in Moscow revealed in a pro-Kremlin tabloid newspaper, Komsomolskaya Pravda. The paper later released a statement claiming it had been hacked.
- British prime minister Boris Johnson is “desperate” to go to Ukraine and has a “real emotional connection” with the Ukrainian people, the Tory party chair has claimed. It was reported at the weekend that Johnson wanted to go to Kyiv but on Monday No 10 sources indicated this was unlikely to happen.
- Some of Chernobyl’s exhausted workers have been permitted to leave the site. They have been on duty for the last three weeks since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, fuelling concerns about the site’s safety.
- The UK defence attaché has said Russia’s claims that it fired “hypersonic” missiles in western Ukraine is probably an effort to detract from the lack of progress in its ground campaign.
- In Kyiv, a brand new shopping centre was destroyed in a missile attack that killed at least eight people, the largest attack yet on the capital.
- The Ukrainian military said Russian forces hold the land corridor with Crimea and are blocking access to the Sea of Azov, according to a recent operational report.
- A total of 2,421 civilian casualties have been recorded in Ukraine since Russia invaded, including 925 killed and 1,496 injured, according to an update from the UN Human Rights office (OHCHR).
Today’s ‘Today in Focus’ episode focuses on the question: Can China broker an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine?
They’re longtime strategic partners but Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is testing the strength of Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping’s relationship, the Guardian’s Tania Branigan explains.
Ukrainians continue in their fight to live life as normal.
An impromptu group meets to play a game of chess on a bench in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv.
Russian forces bombed the Retroville shopping mall in the Podilsky district of Kyiv with a missile on Sunday night. Eight people were killed in the attack.
It was the largest attack to hit the capital since the invasion began and targeted a brand new shopping centre, causing significant damage as well as to surrounding buildings and cars.
Footage of the rescue operation can be viewed in the video below.
Updated
Britain’s Prince William has paid tribute to Ukraine during a visit to a British military training camp in the jungles of Belize during a week-long tour of the Caribbean.
Prince William, a former British Royal Air Force pilot, spoke about safeguarding democracy and pointed out that Belize had joined many other nations condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Today we think of those struggling in Ukraine and we stand with them in solidarity,” Prince William said during a formal dinner on the grounds of the Cahal Pech Archaeological Reserve with Belize’s prime minister.
Some 925 civilians have been killed in Ukraine since the Russian invasion began, according to an update from the UN Human Rights office (OHCHR).
A total of 2,421 civilian casualties have been recorded in the country, including 925 killed and 1,496 injured, the agency said.
Among the dead are 11 girls, 25 boys and 39 more children whose gender is not known, the OHCHR said.
Most of the casualties were recorded in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, accounting for 1,017 casualties (256 killed and 761 injured) while the city of Kyiv, Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Kherson, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Sumy, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk and Zhytomyr regions saw 1,404 casualties.
Most of the civilian casualties recorded were caused by the use of explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including shelling from heavy artillery and multiple-launch rocket systems, and missile and air strikes,” the OHCHR said.
The office warned that the actual figures are likely to be “considerably higher” especially in recent days “as the receipt of information from some locations where intense hostilities have been going on has been delayed and many reports are still pending corroboration.”
The Ukrainian military has released its operational report as of 10pm this evening.
According to officials, Russian forces hold the land corridor with Crimea and are blocking access to the Sea of Azov.
The city of Sumy is also partially blocked while artillery shelling continues on the city of Kharkiv.
The report also claims Russia is carrying out “aggressive propaganda campaigns” aimed at servicemen of the armed forces of Belarus to join the military invasion of Ukraine.
Russian forces continue to use the airfield network of the republic of Belarus and are trying to rebuild the railway section from Valuyki to Kupyansk in order to improve the logistics of the group, Ukraine’s ministry of defence added.
On Monday, Ukrainian forces claim they thwarted 13 enemy attacks and destroyed 14 tanks, 8 infantry fighting vehicles, 2 multi-purpose light armoured vehicles, 3 artillery systems and 4 vehicles, while air defence units hit 2 enemy air targets.
Military officials said they estimate Russian lost about 300 personnel.
“It is expected that the enemy will continue to launch insidious missile and bomb strikes and carry out artillery shelling of critical infrastructure of Ukraine using jet artillery, aircraft, high-precision weapons and indiscriminate munitions.” the report read.
Updated
Daily life in cities across Ukraine can be illustrated in some of the images below.
A children’s swing stands desolate as Czech hedgehogs and barbed wire now cover the beachfront near Lusanivka in the souther Ukrainian city of Odesa.
Barricades, anti-tank obstacles and sandbags are scattered throughout the once bustling streets to protect the city’s treasured monuments.
Odesa’s National Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet, once a thriving symbol of the city, is protected by barricades and sandbags.
The EU’s foreign affairs chief has insisted there will be no creation of a “European army” but heralded new plans to develop the ‘EU Rapid Deployment Capacity’ that could allow the bloc to “swiftly deploy up to 5,000 troops” for different types of crises.
Josep Borrell was speaking during a joint session of the ministers of defence and foreign affairs where the group approved a document known as the Strategic Compass.
We do not want to create a European army. It is not about creating a European army. The European armies will remain, each Member States having its own military army.”
However, Borrell urged members to work closer together and better coordinate their expenditure.
We have to be able to react and one of the ways to react rapidly is the [EU] Rapid Deployment Capacity that has been agreed.
I am very happy that finally this proposal has been agreed by the Member States, which will allow us to mobilise [up to] 5,000 troops, trained and equipped to react to crises. We will strengthen our Command-and-control capabilities, and we will conduct together live exercises together. It has never happened. European armies have been training together apart from the Nato framework.”
New satellite images released by private US space technology company Maxar Technologies provides another view of the widespread damage Russian troops have inflicted upon Ukrainian cities.
'Clear sign' Putin is considering using biological and chemical weapons, Biden says
Russian accusations that Kyiv has biological and chemical weapons are false and illustrate that Russian President Vladimir Putin is considering using them himself in his war against Ukraine, US President Joe Biden said on Monday, without citing evidence.
Reuters reports Biden told at a Business Roundtable event on Monday:
[Putin’s] back is against the wall and now he’s talking about new false flags he’s setting up including, asserting that we in America have biological as well as chemical weapons in Europe, simply not true.
They are also suggesting that Ukraine has biological and chemical weapons in Ukraine. That’s a clear sign he’s considering using both of those.”
The remarks echoed prior comments by officials in Washington and allied countries, who have accused Russia of spreading an unproven claim that Ukraine had a biological weapons program as a possible prelude to potentially launching its own biological or chemical attacks.
Russia’s defence ministry has accused Kyiv, without providing evidence, of planning a chemical attack against its own people in order to accuse Moscow of using chemical weapons in the invasion of Ukraine.
Earlier this month, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan spoke with Nikolay Patrushev, secretary of Russia’s Security Council, warning him of consequences for “any possible Russian decision to use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine.” The White House did not specify what those consequences would be.
Updated
Zelenskiy calls for direct talks with Putin
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has called for direct talks with his Russian counterpart as the key to ending the war.
Ukraine and Russia have held several rounds of talks via videoconferencing, but so far without a major breakthrough, and Zelenskiy reiterated that direct talks with his Russian counterpart “in any format” were now needed.
Without this meeting it is impossible to fully understand what they are ready for in order to stop the war.”
Zelenskiy said his country would be “destroyed” before it surrenders its cities to invading Russian forces.
The Ukrainian president made clear his countrymen would not “hand over” the capital, the eastern city of Kharkiv, or the heavily bombarded and besieged Mariupol.
Ukraine cannot fulfil Russian ultimatums.
We should be destroyed first.”
Updated
The Pentagon has accused Russian forces of committing war crimes in Ukraine, saying the Kremlin had carried out indiscriminate attacks as part of an intentional strategy in the conflict.
“We certainly see clear evidence that Russian forces are committing war crimes and we are helping with the collecting of evidence of that,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told a news briefing. “But there’s investigative processes that are going to go on, and we’re going to let that happen. We’re going to contribute to that investigative process”.
Watch Kirby’s remarks from the briefing in the video below.
The minister for Europe and foreign affairs Jean-Yves Le Drian has spoken with US secretary of state Antony Blinken to discuss the upcoming meeting in Brussels between the Nato and G7 heads of State on Thursday.
According to a spokesperson of the french ministry of foreign affairs, the pair discussed US president Biden’s participation in the European Council meeting.
“His presence will highlight transatlantic unity and the close cooperation that exists between Nato and the EU,” the statement read.
The minister and the secretary discussed the dire humanitarian situation in Ukraine caused by Russia’s military invasion of that country and the indiscriminate targeting of Ukrainian urban centres by Russian forces.
They underscored the urgency of implementing a total ceasefire throughout all of Ukraine – a top priority. They agreed on the importance of coordinating very closely on food security in light of the supply chain interruptions caused by the Russian offensive in Ukraine. Also in light of the continued the Russian offensive, they agreed on the need to continue stepping up sanctions and reiterated their support for IAEA proposals to strengthen security and safety at Ukrainian civilian nuclear facilities.”
Hello it’s Samantha Lock with you as we continue to unpack all the latest developments in Ukraine.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has given another late night address, providing a concise update as to where things stand on day 26 of the war.
According to the president, a Russian jet was shot down in the Kharkiv region, near Chuhuiv.
“Our military has already shot down so many Russian jets and helicopters that one can only wonder: what do their pilots have instead of brains? Also emptiness?” Zelenskiy asked.
“I said ‘also’ not accidentally, because they have emptiness instead of their hearts and souls, instead of everything that makes humans human.”
In Kherson, Zelenskiy said Russian forces shot at people who “came out peacefully, unarmed, to rally for their freedom.”
“Russian troops do not even know what it is like to be free. They were driven here, to be honest, like convicts sentenced to death, condemned to disgrace.”
A convoy of civilians came under fire in Zaporizhia region, he added. “There were many children. Four children were hospitalised. Two are in critical condition.”
Eight humanitarian corridors were in operation on Monday out of Kyiv, Donetsk, and Luhansk regions. Vorzel, Bucha, Velyka Dymerka, Mariupol, Lysychansk, Severodonetsk, Popasna and Kreminna. A total of 8,057 people were evacuated.
Summary
Key updates from the last few hours:
- Russia has threatened to cut ties with the US after Joe Biden called Vladimir Putin a war criminal, claiming his comments “put Russian-American relations on the verge of a breach”.
- Exhausted Chernobyl workers who have been on duty for the last three weeks since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, fuelling concerns about the site’s safety, have been permitted to leave.
- The UK defence attaché has said Russia’s claims that it fired “hypersonic” missiles in western Ukraine is probably an effort to detract from the lack of progress in its ground campaign.
-
The Pentagon has accused Russian forces of committing war crimes in Ukraine, saying there is “clear evidence” of such, and the spokesman of the US Defence Department said it would help gather evidence of them.
- Almost 10,000 Russian soldiers may have already been killed in the war in Ukraine since Russia invaded almost four weeks ago, and more than 16,000 wounded according to reports of previously-undisclosed figures from the defence ministry in Moscow revealed in a pro-Kremlin tabloid newspaper.
- Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said his country will never bow to ultimatums from Russia and cities directly under attack, including the capital, Kyiv, and Mariupol and Kharkiv would not accept Russian occupation.
- British prime minister Boris Johnson is “desperate” to go to Ukraine and has a “real emotional connection” with the Ukrainian people, the Tory party chair has claimed. It was reported at the weekend that Johnson wanted to go to Kyiv but on Monday No 10 sources indicated this is unlikely to happen.
- A video of defence secretary Ben Wallace being duped into speaking by phone to an impostor posing as the Ukrainian prime minister was published on Monday – hours after Downing Street said it believed Russian state actors were responsible for the hoax.
- A 96-year-old man who survived a string of Nazi concentration camps including Buchenwald and Bergen-Belsen was killed by an explosion during the Russian assault on the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, a spokesperson for the Buchenwald concentration camp memorial foundation confirmed.
- Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said his country will never bow to ultimatums from Russia and cities directly under attack, including the capital, Kyiv, and Mariupol and Kharkiv would not accept Russian occupation.
My colleague Samantha Lock will have more on the latest developments in the war in Ukraine, so stay tuned.
Updated
The UK defence attaché has said Russia’s claims that it fired “hypersonic” missiles in western Ukraine is probably an effort to detract from the lack of progress in its ground campaign.
UK defence attaché, AVM Mick Smeath:
The Ministry of Defence’s Defence Intelligence note that Russia has claimed that it has fired a number of “hypersonic” missiles against targets in western Ukraine.
If true, these were likely the Kinzhal; an air launched ballistic missile system based on the Iskander ballistic missile which has itself already been heavily used by Russian forces in their attack on Ukraine.
Russian claims of having used the developmental Kinzhal is highly likely intended to detract from a lack of progress in Russia’s ground campaign.
Deployment of Kinzhal is highly unlikely to materially affect the outcome of Russia’s campaign in Ukraine.
Chernobyl workers who have been on duty at the radioactive waste facilities for the last three weeks since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have been permitted to leave, the UN nuclear watchdog said Monday.
A single shift of technical staff who were on duty when Russia took control had been unable to leave for weeks, fueling concerns about the site’s safety. The departing workers will be replaced with Ukrainian colleagues.
More from Reuters:
For more than three weeks the Ukraine facilities, next to the now-defunct power plant that in 1986 was the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster, were operated by a single shift of staff that happened to be on duty when Russian forces took control on Feb. 24. All had been unable to leave until Sunday.
For weeks the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been saying the situation, which meant that the staff on duty were exhausted and working under extreme pressure, posed a growing risk to the site’s safety and called for them to be rotated out.
“Ukraine’s regulatory authority said about half of the outgoing shift of technical staff left the site of the 1986 accident yesterday and the rest followed today, with the exception of thirteen staff members who declined to rotate,” the IAEA said in a statement.
The Ukrainian regulator said most of the Ukrainian guards who have also been there since it was seized remained at the site, the IAEA added. The agency said last week that there were 211 technical staff and guards at the site, without breaking that number down further.
The departing technical staff have been replaced by Ukrainian colleagues who like them are based in the nearby town of Slavutych, the IAEA said, citing the Ukrainian regulator.
Updated
Russia has threatened to cut ties with the US after Joe Biden called Vladimir Putin a war criminal.
The Russian foreign ministry said it had summoned the US ambassador, John Sullivan, for a meeting over Biden’s “recent unacceptable statements”. In a statement, the ministry said the US president’s comments “are unworthy of a state figure of such a high rank” and “put Russian-American relations on the verge of a breach”.
The US state department has echoed Biden’s accusations, stating that Russia is “engaged in mass slaughter”, as has the Pentagon.
“We continue to see indiscriminate attacks against civilians which we believe in many cases is intentional,” John Kirby, the defence department spokesperson, said. Kirby said that the US was seeing “clear evidence that Russian forces are committing war crimes”.
Read more:
Interim summary
Our global live blogging around the clock of the war in Ukraine now passed from the US east coast to the US west coast, so please continue reading as we bring you all the developments in the crisis.
My colleague Dani Anguiano in California will now continue bringing you the news. Here’s what’s happened in the last few hours:
- British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is “desperate” to go to Ukraine, according to the chair of the Conservative party, Oliver Dowden, but there appears to be no prospect of that at this time.
- The Pentagon has accused Russian forces of committing war crimes in Ukraine, saying there is “clear evidence” of such, and the spokesman of the US Defence Department said it would help gather evidence of them.
- Almost 10,000 Russian soldiers may have already been killed in the war in Ukraine since Russia invaded almost four weeks ago, and more than 16,000 wounded according to reports of previously-undisclosed figures from the defence ministry in Moscow revealed in a pro-Kremlin tabloid newspaper.
- Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said his country will never bow to ultimatums from Russia and cities directly under attack, including the capital, Kyiv, and Mariupol and Kharkiv would not accept Russian occupation.
Boris Johnson "desperate" to go to Ukraine - senior Conservative
The Tory chairman, Oliver Dowden, has claimed British prime minister Boris Johnson is “desperate to go to Ukraine” and has a “real emotional connection” with the Ukrainian people.
It was reported at the weekend that Johnson wanted to go to Kyiv, but on Monday Downing Street sources indicated this is unlikely to happen.
Dowden told Andrew Marr on London’s LBC Radio: “Well, I think the Prime Minister is desperate to go to Ukraine and has throughout this
conflict felt a real - as the British people have done - a real
emotional connection with the suffering of the Ukrainian people and a
need for the West to unite in standing up to this threat from Russia
which has been exposed to Ukraine.
He continued: “And actually, for example, with the bazookas that are currently being fired in Ukraine, people are saying ‘God Save the Queen’, because they know that it was the British that were leading that effort.”
Asked what the point of going in person would be, Dowden said: “Well I
think it’s both to see what’s going on on the ground - because it’s very
different talking to somebody on the phone versus actually seeing it
in practice, and by the way, I should say that no decisions have been
taken in relation to this - but then secondly, it’s actually to
experience what is happening there, to see what is happening.
“To the people on the ground, I think that is very different to just speaking remotely.”
Updated
"Clear evidence that Russian forces are committing war crimes" - Pentagon
The US defence department just held a news briefing and accused Russian forces of committing war crimes in Ukraine and said it would help gather evidence of them, as it accused the Kremlin of carrying out indiscriminate attacks as part of an intentional strategy in the conflict, Reuters reports.
“We certainly see clear evidence that Russian forces are committing war crimes and we are helping with the collecting of evidence of that,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told a news briefing.
“But there’s investigative processes that are going to go on, and we’re going to let that happen. We’re going to contribute to that investigative process. As for what would come out of that, that’s not a decision that the Pentagon leadership would make.”
Last Wednesday US president Joe Biden told a reporter at an event at the White House that he thinks Russian president Vladimir Putin is a war criminal, prompting Putin to threaten to cut ties between Russia and the US.
A day later, at an event on Capitol Hill in Washington to mark St Patrick’s Day, Biden then called Putin a “murderous dictator” and a “pure thug”.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was asked what he thought about Biden saying he thinks Putin is a war criminal and Blinken said: “Personally, I agree with him...Intentionally targeting civilians is a war crime. I find it difficult to conclude that the Russians are doing otherwise.”
There is more reporting of the scenes of devastation at the Retroville shopping area in Kyiv, which everyone surveying the desolate scene concurs is the most powerful to have hit the Ukrainian capital since the start of the Russian invasion last month, AFP reports.
AFP further reports:
Inside the devastated shopping mall, the once shiny floor is flooded with water from burst pipes and the airy ceiling is hanging in chunks from its frame.
From the bowels of the complex, a security alarm is still ringing inside a Western DIY store, where the shelves of power drills and light fittings seem, bizarrely, to be still waiting for customers.
An Orthodox priest in a khaki-coloured cassock tries to pick his way through the rubble, muttering prayers and insults to the “Russian terrorists”.
A soldier with a black scarf over his face approaches. “There are bits of body over there,” he whispers to the priest.
Constantin, 22, was there when the explosion happened.
“It blew everything sky high. I don’t know if it was a missile or a massive rocket. It landed right on the gym club.”
He averts his piercing blue gaze, shutting out questions about the number of victims, who they were. They were his neighbours.
The six bodies stretched out under the plastic groundsheet are all dressed in military fatigues. They could have been soldiers catching up on some sleep.
The remains of a huge engine block nearby, surrounded by serrated sheets of tank chassis, lends credence to that theory.
As advancing Russian forces tighten their grip on Kyiv, it has become almost commonplace to come across camouflage vehicles, military hardware and anti-aircraft guns hidden in underground public car parks.
Locals acknowledge the Ukrainian army is using their area as a base. Russian troops are just a few kilometres (miles) away in Irpin, which they have pummelled out of recognition, and residents awake this Monday morning to the boom of cannon fire.
Then the wail of sirens ripples out across the capital.
“It’s the biggest bomb to have hit the city until now,” says Dima Stepanienko. The 30-year-old says he was “flung to the foot of the bed” by the blast that destroyed the Retroville.
Does this mean war has reached Kyiv?
“I’m scared,” he whispers, looking away.
Blast rips new district to shreds as war reaches into Kyiv, with reports of most powerful attack yet on the Ukrainian capital.
Here are some grim details from the city, as reported moments ago by the Agence France-Presse news agency.
AFP writes:
The six corpses lie in a row beneath an awning plastered with garish advertising company logos.
Their bare feet stick out from under a black plastic groundsheet.
Two of the bodies are dirty with blood-caked earth, horribly twisted and half naked, a sign the victims were caught in their sleep.
On Sunday night, the brand new Retroville shopping centre on the north-western outskirts of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, was hit by a Russian air strike that destroyed everything in for metres around.
At least eight people died, according to the first official toll.
The attack, most probably a missile strike, ripped through the southern section of the vast mall at about 10:45 pm, shaking the entire city.
“I was just minding my business at home,” local resident Vladimir says. “My apartment shook with the force of the blast. I thought the building would collapse,” he recalls, visible shaken.
The Russians “were probably targeting the power station a few hundred metres away”, he surmises, pointing to a large white cooling tower in the distance.
Opened in early 2020, just before Covid struck, the Retroville was the pride of the locals - a temple to retail therapy boasting 250 shops, Western brands, a multiplex cinema, 3,000 parking places.
This area of the suburb of Vinogradar used to be all market gardens and vineyards. Now ultra-modern grey tower blocks have sprung up everywhere. Some are still vacant. Others aren’t even finished yet.
Around the shattered shopping centre, hardly a single window has survived the blast. Shards of broken glass litter the paving stones at the foot of the 20-storey tenement blocks.
The car park on the south side of the shopping centre is a wreck of mangled cars, twisted metal and treacherously sharp debris.
The Sportlife fitness centre and swimming pool, built over the car park, have been reduced to a tangle of steel and filthy puddles. Lumps of polystyrene insulation, deformed by the blaze, float in the murky water. The acrid smell of burning catches your throat. Mud-covered debris sticks to your shoes.
A handful of firefighters and soldiers trawls through the smoking wreckage of a 10-story building wreckage searching for more victims.
“That was where the shopping centre offices were,” explains a local, nodding towards the concrete shell of the edifice. “Luckily there was no one in there at the time.”
Everyone surveying the desolate scene concurs that the attack on the Retroville is the most powerful to have hit Kyiv since the start of the Russian invasion.
There will be more from this AFP dispatch in the next post.
Almost 10,000 Russian soldiers have died in war, according to pro-Kremlin newspaper
Almost 10,000 Russian soldiers may have already been killed in the war in Ukraine since Russia invaded almost four weeks ago, according to reports of previously-undisclosed figures from the defence ministry in Moscow.
A pro-Kremlin tabloid said 9,861 Russian soldiers died in Ukraine and 16,153 were injured, the Wall Street Journal has reported.
Komsomolskaya Pravda, the pro-Kremlin tabloid, says that according to Russian ministry of defense numbers, 9,861 Russian soldiers died in Ukraine and 16,153 were injured. The last official Russian KIA figure, on March 2, was 498. Fascinating that someone posted the leaked number. pic.twitter.com/LHrBWIQ49z
— Yaroslav Trofimov (@yarotrof) March 21, 2022
Others are looking into this.
I couldn't believe this was not a faked screenshot, but indeed, it's not. https://t.co/APYgX7gfUn
— Christo Grozev (@christogrozev) March 21, 2022
These figures may now have been scrubbed from the original source.
And that graph has now been deleted! https://t.co/4lBjWFg4qx
— Yaroslav Trofimov (@yarotrof) March 21, 2022
Updated
The US state department has confirmed a meeting took place between the US ambassador John Sullivan and the Russian government, during which Sullivan demanded that Moscow follow international law and allow consular access to all US citizens detained in Russia, Reuters reports.
Here’s the report:
State department spokesperson Ned Price said it is “completely unacceptable” that the United States has been denied consular access to detained American citizens in Russia.
He said there has been no change to the case of WNBA All-Star basketball player Brittney Griner, whom Russia said it had detained last month for possession of vape cartridges containing hash oil. The US has still not been allowed consular access to Griner, Price said.
Russia’s foreign ministry said on Monday it had summoned Sullivan to tell him that Joe Biden’s calling Russian President Vladimir Putin a “war criminal” had pushed bilateral ties to the brink of collapse.
“It is awfully rich to hear a country speak about ‘inappropriate comments’ when that same country is engaged in mass slaughter, including strikes and attacks that have resulted in civilian lives,” Price told reporters.
Updated
Summary
It’s just past 9pm in Kyiv. Here’s where things stand now:
- At least eight people were killed after Russian forces bombed a shopping centre in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, according to Ukrainian officials. They warned that the number of fatalities could rise. The shelling wrecked nearby buildings and left smoking piles of rubble and wreckage spread over several hundred metres.
- Ukraine rejected out of hand an ultimatum from Moscow for people in the devastated city of Mariupol to surrender before 5am on Monday. “There can be no question of any surrender, laying down of arms” in the stricken Black Sea port, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, said.
- Ukraine also turned down Moscow’s offer to open two humanitarian corridors out of Mariupol in exchange for its residents’ capitulation. Hundreds of thousands of people have been trapped in the city – many without water, heat or power – for more than a fortnight. Officials have said at least 2,300 residents have died, with some buried in mass graves.
-
The governor of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, Oleksandr Starukh, said buses evacuating civilians from front line areas today were hit by Russian shelling, wounding four children, Reuters reports. In an online post, Starukh said four children had been taken to hospital as a result of Russian shelling.
- Russian troops used stun grenades and gunfire to disperse a rally of anti-occupation protesters in the southern city of Kherson, Ukraine’s armed forces said. Video footage appeared to show civilians in Kherson’s Freedom Square running to escape as projectiles landed around them. Loud bangs and what sounds like gunfire can also be heard. At least one person was wounded, the armed forces said.
- Authorities in Odesa accused Russian forces of carrying out a strike on residential buildings in the outskirts of the city early on Monday, the first such attack on the Black Sea port. Odesa city council said apartment blocks in the city’s outskirts had been hit by airstrikes, causing no casualties but starting a fire.
- The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said Ukraine would never bow to ultimatums from Russia and that cities such as Kyiv, Mariupol and Kharkiv would not accept Russian occupation. The Ukrainian negotiator, Mykhaylo Podolyak, told the BBC that Ukraine’s resilient performance has forced Russia “to more adequately assess the reality” of the situation, which has helped in encouraging “some sort of a dialogue”.
-
A 96-year-old Holocaust concentration camp survivor was killed in a bomb attack in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation said. Boris Romantschenko died on Friday after his home was hit by a projectile, according to his granddaughter. Romantschenko was a survivor of the Buchenwald, Peenemünde, Mittelbau-Dora and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps.
- Belarus may soon attack Ukraine and is preparing to potentially let Russia position nuclear weapons on Belarusian soil, a senior Nato intelligence official warned. The official said the conflict in Ukraine was on the verge of entering a stalemate, with Ukrainian forces preventing Russia from making progress but the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, showing no willingness to back down.
- The US has said it cannot independently confirm or refute a Russian claim over the weekend that it fired hypersonic missiles at a Ukrainian target. A senior US defence official said the use of such a weapon makes little sense from a military perspective.
- A Russian court ordered Meta to stop Facebook and Instagram activities in Russia immediately, on the grounds of “extremist activity”. The decision to ban Facebook and Instagram will not apply to the WhatsApp messenger service.
Updated
The Ukrainian negotiator Mykhaylo Podolyak said Ukraine’s resilience had forced Russia “to more adequately assess the reality” of the situation, which has led to “some sort of a dialogue” in peace talks between the two nations.
Speaking to the BBC, Podolyak said Kyiv would not make any compromise on territorial integrity or Ukraine’s sovereignty, echoing President Zelenskiy’s earlier statement that Ukraine would never bow to ultimatums from Russia.
Any decision on a peace agreement will be made between Zelenskiy and the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin. Podolyak said there was no agreed date when their meeting may happen.
Updated
Updated
Russia has warned of a breach of its relations with Washington and summoned the US ambassador in Moscow for an official protest over Joe Biden’s labelling of Vladimir Putin as a war criminal, as the US president held talks with European allies on efforts to stop the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Jennifer Rankin and Julian Borger report.
Biden talked to the leaders of the UK, France, Germany and Italy on Monday as part of his effort to maintain a unified front against Moscow, amid signs of cracks within the EU on how far to go in imposing sanctions on Russian oil and gas.
The Russian foreign ministry said it had summoned the US ambassador, John Sullivan, for a meeting over “recent unacceptable statements” by Biden about Putin, days after Biden called Putin a “war criminal” amid the bombardment of Ukrainian cities.
The ministry said in a statement that “it was emphasised that remarks such as these by the American president, which are unworthy of a state figure of such a high rank, put Russian-American relations on the verge of a breach”.
The US and Russia maintained diplomatic relations from 1933, throughout the Cold War, but relations between Washington and Moscow have become far more volatile since Putin embarked on a campaign of territorial expansion.
The UK, France, Albania, Ireland and Norway have also accused Russia of war crimes in Ukraine. The UN’s International Court of Justice has ordered Moscow to halt its invasion, and the prosecutor at the International Criminal Court has launched a war crimes investigation.
Updated
Emergency services worked through the night to pull survivors from rubble in Ukraine after a Russian strike hit a residential district in Kyiv on Sunday.
Footage shared by the state emergency service shows rescuers carrying an injured man away on a stretcher.
Ukraine will never bow to ultimatums from Russia, Zelenskiy says
In an interview published by the Ukrainian public broadcasting company Suspilne and quoted by Reuters, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, insisted that cities such as Kyiv, Mariupol and Kharkiv would not accept Russian occupation.
Zelenskiy is quoted as saying:
We have an ultimatum with points in it. Follow it and then we will end the war.
The Ukrainian leader added:
Ukraine cannot fulfil the ultimatum.
Updated
The governor of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, Oleksandr Starukh, said that buses evacuating civilians from front line areas today were hit by Russian shelling, wounding four children, Reuters reports.
In an online post, Starukh said four children had been taken to hospital as a result of Russian shelling.
Evacuation buses from Mariupol, carrying children, were shelled by Russians, there are severely injured - head of Zaporizhia military administration in a comment for Ukrainian public broadcaster
— Olga Tokariuk (@olgatokariuk) March 21, 2022
Reuters could not confirm the report independently.
Updated
Summary
It’s 7.45pm in Kyiv. Here’s where things stand now:
- At least eight people were killed after Russian forces bombed a shopping centre in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, according to Ukrainian officials. They warned the number of fatalities could rise. The shelling wrecked nearby buildings and left smoking piles of rubble and wreckage spread over several hundred metres.
- Ukraine rejected out of hand an ultimatum from Moscow for people in the devastated city of Mariupol to surrender before 5am on Monday. “There can be no question of any surrender, laying down of arms” in the stricken Black Sea port, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, said.
- Ukraine also turned down Moscow’s offer to open two humanitarian corridors out of Mariupol in exchange for its residents’ capitulation. Hundreds of thousands of people have been trapped in the city – many without water, heat or power – for more than a fortnight. Officials have said at least 2,300 residents have died, with some buried in mass graves.
- Russian troops used stun grenades and gunfire to disperse a rally of anti-occupation protesters in the southern city of Kherson, Ukraine’s armed forces said. Video footage appeared to show civilians in Kherson’s Freedom Square running to escape as projectiles landed around them. Loud bangs and what sounds like gunfire can also be heard. At least one person was wounded, the armed forces said.
-
Authorities in Odesa accused Russian forces of carrying out a strike on residential buildings in the outskirts of the city early on Monday, the first such attack on the Black Sea port. Odesa city council said apartment blocks in the city’s outskirts had been hit by airstrikes, causing no casualties but starting a fire.
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A 96-year-old Holocaust concentration camp survivor was killed in a bomb attack in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation said. Boris Romantschenko died on Friday after his home was hit by a projectile, according to his granddaughter. Romantschenko was a survivor of the Buchenwald, Peenemünde, Mittelbau-Dora and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps.
- Belarus may soon attack Ukraine and is preparing to potentially let Russia position nuclear weapons on Belarusian soil, a senior Nato intelligence official warned. The official said the conflict in Ukraine was on the verge of entering a stalemate, with Ukrainian forces preventing Russia from making progress but the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, showing no willingness to back down.
- The US said it could not independently confirm or refute a Russian claim over the weekend that it fired hypersonic missiles at a Ukrainian target. A senior US defence official said the use of such a weapon makes little sense from a military perspective.
- Russian forces abducted four Ukrainian journalists from their homes in Melitopol this morning, Ukraine’s national union of journalists said. The union said publisher Mykhailo Kumok, editor Yevhenia Borian and reporters Yulia Olkhovska and Liubov Chaika – all associated with the Melitopolskie Vedomost newspaper – were held for several hours before being released.
- A Russian court ordered Meta to stop Facebook and Instagram activities in Russia immediately on the grounds of “extremist activity”. The decision to ban Facebook and Instagram will not apply to the WhatsApp messenger service.
- The Russian state was responsible for hoax calls to Ben Wallace and Priti Patel supposedly from the Ukrainian prime minister, Downing Street has said. In its first statement attributing blame to the call, No 10 said it believed Russian state actors were responsible, without giving further details on who linked to the Kremlin had been identified as being behind the calls.
Hello, I’m Léonie Chao-Fong and I’ll continue to bring you all the latest developments from the war in Ukraine. Feel free to get in touch on Twitter or via email.
Updated
Belarus may attack Ukraine soon, Nato official says
Belarus, a close Russian ally, may soon attack Ukraine and is preparing to potentially allow Russia to position nuclear weapons on Belarusian soil, according to a senior Nato intelligence official.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said the alliance was concerned that Belarusian troops may join the fight in Ukraine.
The Nato official said:
The Belarusian government is preparing the environment to justify a Belarusian offensive against Ukraine and the imminent deployment of Russian nuclear weapons in Belarus.
Ukrainian officials have been warning publicly that Belarus might join the war. While Belarus has allowed Russian troops to use its territory to launch ground and air operations, Nato has not seen any firm evidence that Belarusian troops have participated directly in warfare in Ukraine, the official said.
I’m not telling you they’re going to put nukes in there tomorrow. What I mean is they’ve taken steps politically to now be able to receive nuclear weapons if such a decision is made.
The official went on to describe the conflict in Ukraine as on the verge of entering a stalemate, with Ukrainian forces preventing Russia from making progress but the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, showing no willingness to back down.
The official said:
If we’re not in a stalemate, we are rapidly approaching one. The reality is that neither side has a superiority over the other.
Despite making no significant progress in the past two weeks, Putin appears unwilling to admit failure, the official said.
The problem with a stalemate is that it will lead to a “long, drawn-out fight” that will involve a “severe” loss of life and damage, the official said.
Neither side here can win. Neither side will capitulate.
Updated
Swiss authorities have seized a luxury mountain home believed to be owned by the Russian oligarch Petr Aven, who is a close ally of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, Reuters reports.
The three-bedroom flat is on the fifth floor of a luxury complex at a golf resort in the picturesque Bernese Oberland, surrounded by snowy peaks, according to the NZZ am Sonntag newspaper.
Aven, 67, is a close confidant of Putin and a major shareholder of the group that owns Russia’s biggest private bank, Alfa. Last month, he said he would contest “spurious and unfounded” EU sanctions adopted by Switzerland.
Switzerland, a country that has traditionally chosen a policy of neutrality, is a major trading hub for Russian commodities. It is estimated that Swiss banks hold up to $213bn (£161bn) of Russian wealth.
Updated
Russian forces abducted four Ukrainian journalists from their homes in Melitopol on Monday morning, Ukraine’s national union of journalists said.
In a statement on Telegram, the union said gunmen went to the homes of publisher Mykhailo Kumok, editor Yevhenia Borian and journalists Yulia Olkhovska and Liubov Chaika and “took them in an unknown direction”.
This morning, #Russia invaders came to the home of 4 journalists of the MV-Holding in Melitopol and took them away. The Union of Journalists of Ukraine reported that three journalists were released after a conversation "about the need to cooperate with the occupiers."
— zaborona_media (@zaborona_media) March 21, 2022
All four people are associated with the Melitopolskie Vedomosti, a newspaper based in the Russian-occupied town of Melitopol in Ukraine’s south, CNN reports.
They were held in an unknown location for several hours before being released, the union said. Their condition is not yet known.
On Friday, Ukrainian the media outlet Hromadske revealed that one of its journalists, Victoria Roshchina, had been missing since 15 March.
According to Hromadske, Roshchina had planned to go to the embattled city of Mariupol. On 12 March, her colleagues were unable to make contact. She is believed to have been detained a few days later by Russian forces.
Our journalist Victoria Roshchyna is held captive by the Russian occupiers. She was reporting from hotspots in Eastern and Southern Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian war. On March 12, we couldn't contact Victoria 1/3 pic.twitter.com/4728hwDs72
— Hromadske Int. (@Hromadske) March 18, 2022
Updated
At least eight people have died after shelling hit a Kyiv shopping centre late on Sunday, destroying nearby buildings and leaving a pile of rubble and wreckage spread over several hundred metres.
A group of 50 Ukrainian orphans due to fly to the UK are stuck in Poland after a key piece of paperwork was not provided in time, PA news agency reports.
The group, whose ages range between two and 19, were due to fly from Warsaw to London today, before travelling up to Scotland later in the week.
However, a form that should have been sent by the Ukrainian government to a Polish ministry, needed to release the group, was not sent in time before the plane left for Heathrow airport.
The flight will not take place before Wednesday earliest, with organisers looking at alternative options. The children and their carers are awaiting the next flight in a hotel.
The SNP Westminster leader, Ian Blackford, who was due to join the flight, told PA:
We’ve been up against a race against time to get the paperwork that needs to be in place signed off on and there’s been a delay on that.
So, for the time being, it means that nothing is going to happen today.
I think the key thing is that a lot of people will determine everything is done to support the orphans that are currently in Poland.
That has always been the first and last concern of all of this, so we’ll continue to work with everybody to make sure that arrangements can be put in place to give the children that sanctuary in Scotland.
Updated
The Buena Vista Music Bar was one of Kyiv’s most popular cocktail venues until war arrived.
It has remained open despite the conflict engulfing the city, and is now a refuge for citizens, military and the press. People come for a hot meal, to meet others who have remained in the Ukrainian capital and to take in the day’s news.
Maks Leonov, the bar’s owner, is determined to keep the doors open for as long as possible.
Updated
Russian troops used stun grenades and gunfire at Kherson protest, Ukraine says
Ukraine’s armed forces said Russian troops used stun grenades and gunfire to disperse a rally of anti-occupation protesters in the southern city of Kherson, Reuters reports.
As we reported earlier, video footage shared on social media today appears to show civilians in Kherson’s Freedom Square running to escape as projectiles land around them. Loud bangs and what sounds like gunfire can also be heard.
In a statement, the Ukrainian armed forces press service said:
Russian security forces ran up, started throwing stun grenades into the crowd and shooting.
At least one person was wounded, it said, but it is unclear how they were injured in the incident.
Reuters was unable to verify independently what weapons were fired. Russia did not immediately comment on the incident.
Updated
China must play 'important role' in finding solution to Ukraine war, Kuleba says
The Ukrainian foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, has called on China to play an “important role” in efforts to resolve the conflict in Ukraine.
For decades, the Ukrainian-Chinese relations have been based on mutual respect, understanding and benefit. We share Beijing’s position on the need to find a political solution to the war against Ukraine and call on China as a global power to play an important role in this effort.
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) March 21, 2022
On Saturday, the Ukrainian negotiator and presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak urged China to join the west in condemning “Russian barbarism”.
🇨🇳 can be the global security system’s important element if it makes a right decision to support the civilized countries’ coalition & condemn 🇷🇺 barbarism. It is a chance to sit at the table as equals. The West must explain to Beijing how $1.6 trillion differs from $150 billion
— Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M) March 19, 2022
It comes after the US president, Joe Biden, spoke with the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, in a two-hour video call on Friday.
Biden described to his Chinese counterpart “the implications and consequences if China provides material support to Russia as it conducts brutal attacks against Ukrainian cities and civilians”, the White House said in a statement following the call.
On Sunday, China’s ambassador to the US, Qin Gang, said his country was not sending weapons to Russia for use in Ukraine, but he did not definitively rule out the possibility that Beijing may do so in the future.
Updated
Updated
A new TikTok account can be shown falsehoods about the Ukraine war within minutes of signing up to the app, according to an investigation by anti-misinformation outlet NewsGuard, Alex Hern reports.
The company, which monitors the trustworthiness of news outlets across the web, ran a pair of tests to assess how the video-sharing app treated information about the conflict. It found that a new account that did nothing but scroll the app’s algorithmically curated For You Page watching videos about the war would be funnelled towards false or misleading content within 40 minutes.
“Toward the end of the 45–minute experiment, analysts’ feeds were almost exclusively populated with both accurate and false content related to the war in Ukraine – with no distinction made between disinformation and reliable sources,” the research team wrote.
“At a time when false narratives about the Russia-Ukraine conflict are proliferating online, none of the videos fed to our analysts by TikTok’s algorithm contained any information about the trustworthiness of the source, warnings, fact-checks, or additional information that could empower users with reliable information.”
Among the false claims shown to the researchers was the myth that the US has bioweapon laboratories in Ukraine, and the accusation that Putin was “Photoshopped” on to footage of a press conference he gave in early March. Videos also claimed that fake footage was real, and that real footage was fake: videos purportedly of the “Ghost of Kyiv” shooting down Russian jets were taken from a video game, while real videos from the war were decried as fake by pro-Russian accounts.
“Some of the myths in the videos TikTok’s algorithm fed to analysts have previously been identified as Kremlin propaganda,” the researchers said, by the organisation’s Russia-Ukraine Disinformation Tracking Center.
Updated
The US has said it cannot independently confirm or refute a Russian claim over the weekend that it fired hypersonic missiles at a Ukrainian target, but the use of such a weapon makes little sense from a military perspective.
A senior US defence official said:
It could be that they’re trying to send a message to the west. There’s just not a lot of practicality about it.”
Reuters reports:
Russia said on Saturday it had used hypersonic Kinzhal (Dagger) missiles to destroy a large weapons depot in Ukraine’s western Ivano-Frankivsk region.
Russia’s Interfax news agency said it was the first time Russia had deployed the Kinzhal system since it sent its troops into Ukraine on 24 February.
Moscow prides itself on its advanced weaponry, and President Vladimir Putin said in December that Russia was the global leader in hypersonic missiles, whose speed, manoeuvrability and altitude make them difficult to track and intercept
Updated
Germany has added to calls from western countries for Opec to increase oil production and avoid profiteering from global sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
Reuters reports:
OPEC heavyweights Saudi Arabia and the UAE have resisted western calls, including from the US, to use their spare oil output capacity to tame prices that have surged as the invasion prompted fears of supply disruptions.
German economy minister Robert Habeck said:
I’m not asking that they join the sanctions … but I ask not to be a profiteer of European and US sanctions.”
Updated
The decision to ban Facebook and Instagram by a Moscow court on grounds that parent company Meta Platforms is an “extremist organisation” will not apply to WhatsApp messenger service.
On Monday, Moscow’s Tverskoi district court upheld a lawsuit filed by Russian state prosecutors on banning the activities of Meta on Russian territory, the court’s press service said in a statement.
The court said:
The decision does not apply to the activities of Meta’s messenger WhatsApp, due to its lack of functionality for the public dissemination of information.”
Updated
Russia has told the US ambassador that ties are on the verge of being severed following “unacceptable comments” from US president Joe Biden about Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin.
Last week, Biden described Putin as “a war criminal”.
Updated
Russia bans Facebook and Instagram, declares Meta an 'extremist organisation'
A Russian court has ordered Meta to stop Facebook and Instagram activities in Russia immediately, on the grounds of “extremist activity”.
The Russian state-owned news agency Tass earlier reported that a Moscow court rejected an attempt by Meta Platforms to have extremism charges against it dismissed.
The agency reported that Meta had asked for more time to prepare its legal position and had questioned the court’s authority to ban its activities at the request of state prosecutors.
Updated
At least 925 civilians have been killed in Ukraine since the conflict began almost a month ago, the UN human rights office (OHCHR) said.
As of midnight 20 March, 925 civilians have died and 1,496 injured, it said.
The actual number of civilians killed so far in the war in Ukraine is likely to be considerably higher as the OHCHR, which has a large monitoring team in the country, has not yet been able to receive or verify casualty reports from several badly hit cities including Mariupol.
Updated
Updated
A 96-year-old Holocaust concentration camp survivor was killed in a bomb attack in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, German media are reporting.
Boris Romantschenko died on Friday after his home was hit by a projectile, according to his granddaughter. Romantschenko was a survivor of the Buchenwald, Peenemünde, Mittelbau-Dora and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps.
In a statement today, the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation said it was “deeply dismayed” by the news.
Romantschenko had campaigned “intensively” for the memory of the Nazi crimes and was vice-president of the International Committee Buchenwald-Dora, the foundation added.
1/2
— Stift. Gedenkstätten Buchenwald und Mittelbau-Dora (@Buchenwald_Dora) March 21, 2022
Wie wir von Angehörigen erfahren haben, wurde unser Freund Boris Romantschenko, der die KZs #Buchenwald, #Peenemünde, #Dora und #BergenBelsen überlebt hatte, am vergangenen Freitag bei einem Bombenangriff auf sein Wohnhaus in #Charkiw getötet. Wir sind zutiefst bestürzt. pic.twitter.com/SOMAdpQn35
2012 verlas Boris Romantschenko (auf dem Foto zweiter von rechts) während der Gedenkveranstaltung zum Jahrestag der Befreiung des KZ Buchenwald den Schwur von Buchenwald zum "Aufbau einer neuen Welt des Friedens und der Freiheit". pic.twitter.com/CorJ5eM6Ah
— Stift. Gedenkstätten Buchenwald und Mittelbau-Dora (@Buchenwald_Dora) March 21, 2022
Updated
Ukraine and Russia hold further peace talks
Russian and Ukrainian peace negotiators held a 90-minute video call on Monday and working groups will continue to meet throughout the day, a Ukrainian negotiator said, Reuters reports.
David Arakhamia, a member of the Ukrainian delegate, was quoted by Ukrainian media as saying:
Today we are working the whole day.
The US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, warned on Sunday there was little chance of breakthrough in peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.
Thomas-Greenfield said:
We have supported the negotiations that President Zelenskiy has attempted with the Russians, and I use the word attempted because the negotiations seem to be one-sided, and the Russians have not leaned in to any possibility for a negotiated and diplomatic solution.
We tried before Russia decided to move forward in this brutal attack on Ukraine and those diplomatic efforts were not responded to well by the Russians, and they’re not responding now. But we’re still hopeful that the Ukrainian effort will end this brutal war.
Updated
Video appears to show Russian troops firing at civilians in Kherson
A video posted on social media reportedly shows Russian troops throwing grenades and opening fire on a peaceful crowd in the southern port city of Kherson.
Kherson is occupied by Russian forces but there have been persistent civilian protests since it became the first major city to fall since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February.
Ukraine’s centre for strategic communications said Russian forces threw stun grenades at people attending a pro-Ukrainian rally. Some grenades exploded under protesters’ feet, it claimed.
At least two people were injured at the protests, according to reports.
Abhorrent. Disgusting. Inhumane. Unlawful.
— Oksana Pokalchuk (@OPokalchuk) March 21, 2022
Russian soldiers firing at civilians in #Kherson.
Source: https://t.co/uOu4YVJR73 pic.twitter.com/Woxxy3I2Oe
Updated
The Russian state was responsible for hoax calls to Ben Wallace and Priti Patel pretending to be the Ukrainian prime minister, Downing Street has said.
In its first statement attributing blame to the call, No 10 said it believed Russian state actors were responsible, without giving further details on who linked to the Kremlin had been identified as being behind the calls.
It is understood there are fears in Whitehall that Russia could release doctored quotes of his comments for propaganda purposes.
Updated
Bombs are falling on Mariupol “every 10 minutes”, a Ukrainian officer inside the embattled port city told CNN.
Capt Svyatoslav Palamar, of the National Guard Azov Regiment, said he and his fellow fighters would not surrender in Mariupol.
He told CNN:
Bombs are falling every 10 minutes; Russian navy warships are shelling. Yesterday the soldiers defused four tanks, [as well as] armoured vehicles and troops. We still need ammunition, anti-tank weapons and air defence.
Ukraine rejected an ultimatum from Moscow to surrender Mariupol after a Russian deadline set at 5am Moscow time (7am GMT) on Monday passed.
Updated
At least eight people killed in Kyiv shopping centre bombing, authorities say
At least eight people have died after Russian forces bombed a shopping centre in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, according to Ukraine’s prosecutor general.
In a post on its Telegram channel, it said:
As a consequence of the enemy missile strike and the resulting fire, a shopping mall was destroyed, windows in the nearby residential buildings and the vehicles parked in the vicinity were damaged.
It warned that the number of fatalities could rise, adding that the number of dead was based on preliminary information.
Lesia Vasylenko, a Ukrainian MP, shared a video of the aftermath of the bombing reportedly shot by her colleague:
#Kyiv #Podil the devastation of what was a shopping center . Just 15 minutes from center, the explosion lit up the sky last night. Still asking for that #NoFlyZoneOverUkraine video by a colleague MP pic.twitter.com/xfDicatNfo
— Lesia Vasylenko (@lesiavasylenko) March 21, 2022
A journalist from Agence France-Presse reported this morning that at least six bodies were laid out in front of the Retroville shopping mall in the north-western Podilskyi district in Kyiv.
Ukraine’s state emergency services said it received a call at 10.48pm on Sunday that a fire had broken out at several homes and floors of a shopping mall, saying “enemy shelling” had caused fires on several floors and set cars ablaze.
The 10-storey building was hit by a powerful blast that pulverised vehicles in its car park and left a crater several metres wide. By Monday morning, the burnt-out mall was still smoking.
Updated
David Beckham’s Instagram Stories showed life in a perinatal hospital in Kharkiv, Ukraine, after the ex-footballer handed over control of his account to a doctor on Sunday.
Iryna, a children’s anaesthesiologist, showed Beckham’s 71.5 million followers the cramped basement where pregnant women and new mothers were evacuated on the first day of the invasion.
Updated
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, called on European leaders to cease all trade with Russia amid warnings from the Kremlin that further sanctions could “hit everyone”, AFP reports.
In his latest video address, Zelenskiy said:
Please do not sponsor the weapons of war of this country, of Russia. No euros for the occupiers. Close all of your ports to them. Don’t export them your goods. Deny energy resources. Push for Russia to leave Ukraine.
Addressing Germany directly, he said:
You have the strength. Europe has the strength.
Germany has opposed an outright halt on Russian energy imports, despite calls from several EU countries, including the Baltic states, for an embargo on Russian oil and gas imports.
Germany is maintaining its stance that it cannot dispense with oil imports from Russia, a government spokesperson said today.
Earlier, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov warned against a European oil embargo.
Peskov told reporters:
Such an embargo would have very serious consequences for the world energy market. It will have a very serious negative impact on Europe’s energy balance.
Hello everyone. I’m Léonie Chao-Fong, I’ll be bringing you all the latest developments on the war 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
Updated
Morning summary
Here’s a summary of this morning’s key events:
-
Authorities in Odesa have accused Russian forces of carrying out a strike on residential buildings in the outskirts of the city early on Monday, the first such attack on the Black Sea port. However, they reported no casualties.
- Eight humanitarian corridors have been agreed out of Ukrainian cities, but the embattled city of Mariupol is not one of them.
- Missiles have struck military training grounds in north-western city of Rivne.
- British military intelligence suggests Russia is likely to continue prioritising encircling Kyiv in the coming weeks amid heavy fighting north of the city.
Rachel Hall here signing off – I’m passing over to my colleague Léonie Chao-Fong who’ll be keeping you updated for the rest of the day.
Updated
The Czech prime minister, Petr Fiala, has said that the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, is committing “war crimes” in Ukraine, and called for tougher sanctions to stop him.
Updated
Strike on residential buildings in the outskirts of Odesa
Authorities in Odesa have accused Russian forces of carrying out a strike on residential buildings in the outskirts of the Ukrainian city early on Monday, the first such attack on the Black Sea port.
Reuters reports:
The city council said there were no casualties although the strike caused a fire. “These are residential buildings where peaceful people live,” mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov was quoted as saying. Russia denies targeting civilians.
Updated
A Russian-backed separatist leader in eastern Ukraine said it would take more than a week to take control of the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, the Russian news agency Interfax reports.
“I am not so optimistic that two or three days or even a week will close the issue. Unfortunately, no, the city is big,” said Denis Pushilin, head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic.
Updated
The European Union’s migration commissioner has warned that Ukrainian children are in danger of being trafficked they flee their country from the Russian invasion.
Reuters reports:
Ylva Johansson told a news conference in Estonia that about half of 3.3 million Ukrainians who had fled to EU countries since the start of the war were children.
Ukraine has a high number of orphans and children born through surrogate mothers who had not been picked up by their parents. That increased the risk that they could be abducted or become victims of forced adoptions, she said.
“There is a huge risk of vulnerable children being trafficked,” she said.
So far there had been very few unaccompanied children reported at EU borders, she said, and some reports of trafficking.
Lithuania’s foreign minister says the EU “cannot get tired” of imposing sanctions against Russia, or helping Ukraine.
The BBC reports:
Gabrielius Landsbergis warned against a “feeling in the room that we would like to sit down and take a breath”.
He was speaking to reporters in Brussels as he arrived for a meeting of EU foreign and defence ministers. Specifically on sanctions he said it was “unavoidable” startint to talkabout the energy sector.
“And we definitely can talk about oil. Because it is the biggest revenue to Russian budget and also it’s quite easily replaceable,” he said.
Lithuania, which borders Poland, Latvia, Belarus and the Russian Kaliningrad Oblast, has been among the most hard-line and vocal nations when it comes to sanctions against Russia.
Updated
The BBC’s Kyiv correspondent says a new 35-hour curfew has been announced in the city, running from 8pm tonight until 7am on Wednesday.
Anyone seen on the streets without a special pass or who is not making their way to a shelter will be considered an enemy.
A new 35 hour curfew has been announced in Kyiv.
— James Waterhouse (@JamWaterhouse) March 21, 2022
Running from 8pm tonight until 7am on Wednesday.
Authorities say anyone seen on the streets (without a special pass or not making their way to a shelter) will be considered an enemy.
Updated
About 25,000 Ukrainians have arrived in Spain since Russia launched its invasion on 24 February, though only 9,000 of them have registered so far with the authorities, Spanish migration minister José Luis Escrivá said on Monday.
Reuters reports:
In Spain, which is far from the conflict, many of the Ukrainians who have arrived are staying with relatives or friends and have not yet notified the authorities, Escrivá said.
“We have expanded the granting of residence permits to include all people who lived in Ukraine at the time of the invasion, not just Ukrainians,” Escrivá said in an interview with Spanish public news channel TVE.
Escriva said he expects around 9,000 more refugees to register with Spanish authorities this week and to receive European Union temporary protection orders allowing them to immediately obtain residence and work permits in the country.
Ukrainians can freely enter the EU without a visa but require residency permits to remain.
Updated
European Union foreign ministers will discuss slapping more sanctions on Russia, including sanctions on the country’s energy and oil sector, the bloc’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said.
Reuters reports:
“The ministers will discuss that,” Borrell told reporters ahead of an EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels, responding to a question whether measures against Russian oil exports would be talked about.
The Kremlin has said that an embargo on Russian oil would hit Europe hard but would not affect the US, responding to proposals from some European Union foreign ministers for an oil embargo as part of further sanctions against Russia.
There are some other lines on Reuters from the Kremlin press conference:
- Progress in peace talks with Ukraine is not moving as fast as it should, and more must be made before any meeting between Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
- Claims that Russia is not allowing Ukrainian citizens to evacuate through humanitarian corridors are “lies”.
Updated
The BBC has more detail on the ammonia leak this morning:
Ukrainian officials have said that a 50-ton tank of the poison gas was damaged when the Sumykhimprom facility was hit by Russian shelling, and that this created an ammonia cloud.
The cloud affected an area of about 2.5km (1.5 miles), the region’s governor, Dmytro Zhyvytskyy, said.
He said one injury had been reported – a worker at the plant. Residents of the nearby city of Novoselytsya were advised to shelter because of the wind direction.
Ammonia is largely used to make fertiliser and is corrosive. It can cause pain and burns to the airway and injuries to the eyes.
Updated
Ukraine had “of course” rejected a Russian ultimatum for people in Mariupol to surrender and the situation in the besieged city was “very difficult”, said the country’s deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk.
Reuters reports:
Russia offered to open humanitarian corridors from the city from 10am Moscow time (7am GMT) if residents lay down arms.
“Of course we rejected these proposals,” Vereshchuk said. “The situation there is very difficult.”
Updated
Italy’s prime minister, Mario Draghi ,will hold a phone call with the US president, Joe Biden, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and the British prime minister, Boris Johnson, later on Monday, Rome’s government said in a statement.
The phone call will be dedicated to preparations ahead of the next Nato, G7 and European Council meetings planned for later in the week, it added.
Updated
Dmytro Gurin, a member of the Ukrainian parliament who is from Mariupol, believes Russia is trying to starve the city to force its surrender, the BBC reports.
Gurin said the city, where an estimated 300,000 people are trapped, will not surrender.
He said:
Russians don’t open humanitarian corridors, they don’t let humanitarian convoys enter the city.
“We clearly see now that the goal of the Russians is to start to [create] hunger [in the city] to enforce their position in the diplomatic process, and if the city does not surrender, and the city will not surrender, they won’t let people out.”
Gurin said teams are unable to clean through the rubble of a theatre which Ukrainian officials say was bombed by Russia last Wednesday. Hundreds of people are believed to remain trapped in the basement.
Gurin could not give an estimate on how many people had managed to flee the area as “we don’t have connection with Mariupol”.
More than 2.1 million people have fled Ukraine for Poland – 2,114,000 since the war began – the Polish border guard said on Monday.
The BBC’s correspondent in Warsaw, Adam Easton, reports:
Numbers crossing are falling, however. On Sunday alone, 33,800 people crossed the frontier, the agency wrote on Twitter, down 16% from Saturday.
By 6am GMT on Monday, 5,700 had crossed, that’s down 17% from the same period on Saturday. Some of the people fleeing have already left Poland for other destination countries.
Warsaw University migration research professor Maciej Duszczyk estimates around 1.2 million people remain.
More than a quarter of a million people (264,000) have returned to Ukraine via Poland since the war began.
Updated
Russia’s defence ministry has confirmed that Russia hit a military facility in Ukrainian’s Rivne region with cruise missiles, after an early video message from the city’s mayor, Interfax reports.
Reuters reports defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov:
High-precision air-launched cruise missiles have struck a training centre for foreign mercenaries and Ukrainian nationalist formations.”
Interfax also reports that Russia’s defence ministry says Russia does not plan to and has not hit any chemical industry facilities in Ukraine, following reports this morning of an ammonia leak.
Updated
Eight humanitarian corridors out of Ukraine agreed
Eight humanitarian corridors have been agreed for people to leave Ukrainian cities on Monday, but not from the embattled city of Mariupol, Ukrainian deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.
She said efforts to reach Mariupol with humanitarian supplies continued to fail.
Updated
Russia is likely to continue prioritising encircling Kiev in the coming weeks amid heavy fighting north of the city, according to the latest update from the UK’s defence intelligence.
Although fierce Ukrainian resistance has stalled the progress of Russian forces, which remain about 25km from the city, capturing the capital remains the primary military objective, the daily briefing said.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 21 March 2022
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) March 21, 2022
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/o31FnBRw3w
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine pic.twitter.com/reAkTEnHFj
Updated
The war between Ukraine and Russia, two of the world’s top crop producers, could lead to a food crisis “on the global” scale, French farming minister Julien Denormandie said in Brussels on Monday ahead of a EU agriculture meeting.
Reuters reports:
EU ministers will discuss the food situation with their Ukrainian counterpart in a video call, he added.
A World Food Programme (WFP) official said on Friday that food supply chains in Ukraine were collapsing, with key infrastructure such as bridges and trains destroyed by bombing and many grocery stores and warehouses empty.
Updated
China’s foreign ministry has pledged an additional 10m yuan (£1.2m) in humanitarian assistance to Ukraine through the Chinese Red Cross.
The promise follows previous pledges of aid to Ukraine including one of 5m yuan (£600,000) from earlier this month.
Updated
The ammonia leak at a chemical plant in Suny caused by Russian shelling this morning is said to be now under control, with one person injured, according to the mayor.
Mayor of #Sumy: the ammonia leak is under control with only 1 injured person pic.twitter.com/JIQBWY8mip
— Stratcom Centre UA (@StratcomCentre) March 21, 2022
Missiles strike military training grounds in northwestern city of Rivne
There are reports circulating that the governor of Rivne oblast, Vitaliy Koval, has said in a video message that Russian forces have hit the city’s military training grounds with two missiles. There is no information on casualties or damage yet.
The city of Rivne is located 300 km west of Kyiv.
Rachel Hall here taking over from Samantha Lock for the rest of the day. If there’s anything we’ve missed, do get in touch at rachel.hall@theguardian.com.
Updated
Summary
Before I hand over this blog to my colleague Rachel Hall, here is where the crisis currently stands:
- Russia’s ministry of defence set a 5am deadline for the embattled city of Mariupol to surrender. “Lay down your arms,” Col-Gen Mikhail Mizintsev, director of the Russian national defence management centre, said on Sunday. Mizintsev added that all those who lay down their arms would be “guaranteed safe passage out of Mariupol” with humanitarian corridors opened from 10am Moscow time on Monday.
- Ukraine quickly rejected the proposal with deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk saying that there can be “no question” of surrender. “Instead of wasting time on eight pages of letters, just open a [humanitarian] corridor,” she told the Ukrainska Pravda newspaper.
- A shopping centre in Kyiv was shelled late last night with rescuers still battling to control the blaze in the Podilskyi district of Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv. Ukraine’s state emergency services said it received a call at 10.48pm that a fire had broken out at several homes and floors of a shopping mall in an update on its official Telegram account. At least six people were killed in the blast, according to a journalist from Agence France-Presse.
- An ammonia leak at a chemical plant in the north-eastern Ukrainian city of Sumy is affecting an area within a 2.5km radius of the spill, the city’s mayor said early this morning. “As a result of Russian enemy shelling, a tank with ammonia with a capacity of 50 tons was damaged,” Dmytro Zhyvytskyiy said in an update posted to his official Telegram, adding that the leak was first reported at 4.30am local time and there is no threat to the population of Sumy.
- US president Joe Biden will travel to Poland on Friday to discuss international efforts to support Ukraine and “impose severe and unprecedented costs on Russia” for its invasion, the White House said. The discussions will follow Biden’s meetings in Brussels, Belgium with Nato allies, G7 leaders, and European Union leaders.
- The Chinese ambassador to the US has denied China had sent weapons and ammunition to support Russia’s war in Ukraine and that Beijing would “do everything to de-escalate the crisis” in an interview with CBS. Qin Gang said reports Beijing may provide military assistance to Russia was “disinformation” and China was sending humanitarian aid to help those affected by the conflict.
- The UK Ministry of Defence released its latest intelligence report, saying heavy fighting is continuing north of Kyiv, though the Russian advance has stalled. “Despite the continued lack of progress, Kyiv remains Russia’s primary military objective and they are likely to prioritise attempting to encircle the city over the coming weeks.”
- Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he believes a failure to negotiate the end of Russia’s invasion will mean “a third world war”. In an interview with CNN on Sunday, Zelenskiy said that he’s “ready for negotiations” with Russian president Vladimir Putin but warned that if they fail “that would mean that this is a third world war.”
- Zelenskiy drew links between Putin’s “final solution” for Ukraine and the Nazi extermination of the Jews as he challenged Israel over its failure to impose sanctions on Russia in an address to the Knesset.
- Mariupol’s city council said Russia bombed an art school where 400 civilians including children were sheltering.
- Slovenia will send its diplomats back to Kyiv soon, according to prime minister Janez Janša.
Updated
At least six dead in overnight bombing of Kyiv shopping centre - reports
At least six people were killed in the overnight bombing of a shopping centre in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, according to a journalist from Agence France-Presse.
Six bodies were laid out in front of the Retroville shopping mall in the north-western Podilskyi district, according to the journalist.
The 10-storey building was hit by a powerful blast that pulverised vehicles in its car park and left a crater several metres wide.
The burnt-out mall was still smoking on Monday morning. All of its south side had been destroyed, as well as a fitness centre in its car park.
Ukraine’s state emergency services said it received a call at 10.48pm that a fire had broken out at several homes and floors of a shopping mall, citing “enemy shelling” had caused fires on several floors and set several cars ablaze in an update on its official Telegram account.
Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, corroborated reports, saying “several explosions” were heard, sharing a photo of the explosion.
Security camera footage also showed a massive explosion and a mushroom cloud, followed by a series of smaller blasts.
Firefighters pulled at least one man covered in dust from the twisted debris, according to footage released by the emergency services.
Neighbours in a housing block whose windows were shattered by the blast said they had seen a mobile rocket launcher near the mall for several days previously.
Rescuers are continuing to comb the wreckage for other victims.
Друзі! Кілька вибухів у Подільському районі столиці. Зокрема, з інформації на даний момент,деякі будинки та на території одного з торгових центрів. Рятувальники, медики і поліція вже на місці. pic.twitter.com/qDjaEhGyj9
— Віталій Кличко (@Vitaliy_Klychko) March 20, 2022
Updated
Kyiv remains Russia’s 'primary military objective', UK defence says
The UK Ministry of Defence has released its latest intelligence report, saying heavy fighting is continuing north of Kyiv, though the Russian advance has stalled.
The report reads:
Russian forces advancing on the city from the north-east have stalled. Forces advancing from the direction of Hostomel to the north-west have been repulsed by fierce Ukrainian resistance.
The bulk of Russian forces remain more than 25km from the centre of the city.
Despite the continued lack of progress, Kyiv remains Russia’s primary military objective and they are likely to prioritise attempting to encircle the city over the coming weeks.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 21 March 2022
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) March 21, 2022
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/o31FnBRw3w
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine pic.twitter.com/reAkTEnHFj
Updated
City mayor Dmytro Zhyvytskyiy has provided an additional update on the ammonia leak at the Sumykhimprom chemical plant.
“As a result of Russian enemy shelling, a tank with ammonia with a capacity of 50 tons was damaged,” Zhyvytskyiy said, adding that there is no threat to the population of Sumy.
Zhyvytskyiy also shared a series of photos purporting to be from the affected plant.
О 07:49 аварію по викиду аміаку у м. Суми на території ПАТ «Сумихімпром» ліквідовано ☑️
— Ukrinform (@UKRINFORM) March 21, 2022
Працівниками підприємства розпочато регламентні роботи по відновленню технологічного процесу. pic.twitter.com/eK1iEUZJCw
The ammonia tank with a capacity of 50 tons in the #Sumy region after #Russian shelling. pic.twitter.com/9G8uiP1bIR
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) March 21, 2022
Updated
Ukraine’s armed forces are reporting artillery fire in Odesa this morning.
The force published a short video purporting to show a series of explosions hitting the water along the coast.
The port city sits on the Black Sea in southern Ukraine.
Ранок в Одесі!
— 🇺🇦Armed Forces (@ArmedForcesUkr) March 21, 2022
Рашисти роблять пристрілочні постріли! pic.twitter.com/dWNfv0LoSO
We have some more information on the ammonia leak from earlier this morning at a chemical plant in the north-eastern Ukrainian city of Sumy.
According to an update from the Sumy regional military administration, the site of the Sumykhimprom plant was shelled at 3.55am on Monday morning.
“As a result of the shelling 1 tank with ammonia was damaged,” Ukraine’s state emergency services said in an update on its Telegram account, adding that as of 5am there was a slight leakage of ammonia.
Rescue workers are fixing a damaged pipeline and an employee at the plant was reportedly injured.
City mayor Dmytro Zhyvytskyiy said the spill is affecting an area within a 2.5km radius of the spill, in an update posted to his official Telegram this morning.
Updated
Thousands have fled Mariupol in Ukraine’s south-east to seek safety in far-flung towns outside the immediate danger of the besieged city.
Ukrainian president Zelenskiy said 4,000 Mariupol residents arrived in nearby Zaporizhia on Sunday alone.
Updated
A Ukrainian mother has recalled the horror of protecting her baby from a missile strike in Kyiv.
Olga, 27, was seriously wounded while sheltering her baby from shrapnel blasts.
Sitting in her bed at Okhmatdyt Children’s hospital in Kyiv, Olga said she mistook her own blood for her baby’s after she was covered in lacerations by the fallout of a missile strike. Her partner Dmytro had to tell her ‘it’s your blood, it’s not hers [the baby’s]’
Watch Olga recall the ordeal below.
Updated
Ukraine’s military has just released its operational report as of 6am this morning, claiming its forces have no suffered any significant changes over the past 24 hours.
Officials said bombing and storming aviation caused “crushing blows” to clusters of Russian equipment and personnel.
The general staff of the armed forces of Ukraine reported that air force units hit seven enemy air targets (one aircraft, four UAVs and two cruise missiles) on Sunday.
“Occupiers continue terrorising locals and looting in temporarily occupied territories,” the report published by the ministry of defence said.
Updated
Biden to travel to Poland to impose more costs on Russia
US president Joe Biden will travel to Poland this week to discuss international efforts to support Ukraine and “impose severe and unprecedented costs on Russia” for its invasion, the White House has said.
The discussions will follow Biden’s meetings in Brussels, Belgium with Nato allies, G7 leaders, and European Union leaders.
A White House press statement reads:
On Friday, March 25, President Biden will travel to Warsaw, Poland, where he will hold a bilateral meeting with president Andrzej Duda. The president will discuss how the United States, alongside our allies and partners, is responding to the humanitarian and human rights crisis that Russia’s unjustified and unprovoked war on Ukraine has created.”
Ahead of Friday’s meeting, Biden will also hold a call with French president Emmanuel Macron, German chancellor Olaf Scholz, Italian prime minister Mario Draghi, and UK prime minister Boris Johnson on Monday.
On Thursday he will attend a summit of Nato leaders, who will use the meeting to look at strengthening the bloc’s own deterrence and defence, immediately and in the long term, to deal with the now openly confrontational Putin.
That gathering is intended not just to show Nato’s “support to Ukraine, but also our readiness to protect and defend all Nato allies,” Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg told CBS’ Face the Nation on Sunday.
“And by sending that message, we are preventing an escalation of the conflict to a full-fledged war between Nato and Russia,” Stoltenberg said.
For many, daily life continues in Ukraine. Street scenes across the western city of Lviv show a tense preparation for Russian attacks, while pro-Ukraine and anti-Putin posters line some bus shelters.
Ukraine rejects deadline to surrender Mariupol
Russia’s ministry of defence earlier set a 5am deadline for the embattled city of Mariupol to surrender.
“Lay down your arms,” Col-Gen Mikhail Mizintsev, the director of the Russian national defence management centre, said on Sunday in a briefing. “A terrible humanitarian catastrophe has developed. All who lay down their arms are guaranteed safe passage out of Mariupol.”
Mizintsev added that local officials would face a “military tribunal” if they didn’t agree to the surrender terms.
However Ukraine has rejected the proposal with deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk saying that there can be “no question” of surrender.
Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk was quoted as saying by Ukrainska Pravda:
There can be no talk of any surrenders, laying down of arms. We have already informed the Russian side about this.
Instead of wasting time on 8 pages of letters, just open a [humanitarian] corridor.”
Updated
Ammonia leak reported at Sumy chemical plant
In case you missed this earlier report, an ammonia leak at a chemical plant in the north-eastern Ukrainian city of Sumy is believed to be affecting an area within a 2.5km radius of the spill, the city’s mayor said.
Dmytro Zhyvytskyiy said the leak was reported at 4.30am local time at the Sumykhimprom plant in an update posted to his official Telegram this morning.
He said the area within a 2.5km radius around the plant was hazardous, adding that residents should seek refuge in shelters and basements for protection while describing ammonia as a “colourless gas with a pungent suffocating odour”.
Ammonia is lighter than air, therefore shelters, basements and lower floors should be used for protection,” he said.
Zhyvytskyiy added that emergency crews were at the scene and prevailing winds meant the nearby city of Sumy – about 350km east of Kyiv and with a pre-war population of around 250,000 – was not under immediate threat.
According to Sumykhimprom’s website the facility produces a range of chemical fertilisers.
The leak comes just days after the Russian government intensified its disinformation efforts alleging Ukraine is preparing to use improvised chemical weapons and has been developing a clandestine WMD programme.
The Russian ministry of defence claimed late Sunday that “nationalists” had “mined” ammonia and chlorine storage facilities at Sumykhimprom “with the aim of mass poisoning of residents of the Sumy region, in case of entry into the city of units of the Russian armed forces”.
Ammonia is potentially lethal in high concentrations.
Updated
Summary
Hello it’s Samantha Lock with you and we unpack all the latest developments in Ukraine.
Russia’s war on its neighbour is well into its fourth week. Casualties are in the thousands and millions have fled the country seeking refuge abroad.
Here is where the crisis currently stands:
- Russia’s ministry of defence set a 5am deadline for the embattled city of Mariupol to surrender. “Lay down your arms,” Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev, director of the Russian national defence management centre, said on Sunday. Mizintsev added that all those who lay down their arms would be “guaranteed safe passage out of Mariupol” with humanitarian corridors opened from 10am Moscow time on Monday.
- Ukraine quickly rejected the proposal with deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk saying that there can be “no question” of surrender. “Instead of wasting time on 8 pages of letters, just open a [humanitarian] corridor,” she told the Ukrainska Pravda newspaper. The deadline has now passed.
- A shopping centre in Kyiv was shelled late last night with rescuers still battling to control the blaze in the Podilskyi district of Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv. Ukraine’s state emergency services said it received a call at 10.48pm that a fire had broken out at several homes and floors of a shopping mall in an update on its official Telegram account. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the attack claimed one victim but information is still being clarified.
- An ammonia leak at a chemical plant in the north-eastern Ukrainian city of Sumy is affecting an area within a 2.5km radius of the spill, the city’s mayor said early this morning. Dmytro Zhyvytskyiy said the leak was reported at 4.30am local time at the Sumykhimprom plant in an update posted to his official Telegram.
- US President Joe Biden will travel to Poland on Friday to discuss international efforts to support Ukraine and “impose severe and unprecedented costs on Russia” for its invasion, the White House said. The discussions will follow Biden’s meetings in Brussels, Belgium with Nato allies, G7 leaders, and European Union leaders.
- The Chinese ambassador to the United States has denied China had sent weapons and ammunition to support Russia’s war in Ukraine and that Beijing would “do everything to de-escalate the crisis” in an interview with CBS. Qin Gang said reports Beijing may provide military assistance to Russia was “disinformation” and China was sending humanitarian aid to help those affected by the conflict.
- The UK’s ministry of defence believes Russian forces are advancing from Crimea and are still attempting to circumvent Mykolaiv as they look to drive west towards Odesa. “These forces have made little progress over the past week,” the report adds.
- Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he believes a failure to negotiate the end of Russia’s invasion will mean “a third world war”. In an interview with CNN on Sunday, Zelenskiy said that he’s “ready for negotiations” with Russian president Vladimir Putin but warned that if they fail “that would mean that this is a third World War.”
- Zelenskiy drew links between Putin’s “final solution” for Ukraine and the Nazi extermination of the Jews as he challenged Israel over its failure to impose sanctions on Russia in an address to the Knesset.
- Mariupol’s city council said Russia bombed an art school where 400 civilians including children were sheltering.
-
Slovenia will send its diplomats back to Kyiv soon, according to prime minister Janez Janša.
Updated
