India has decided to temporarily relocate the Indian Embassy in Ukraine to Poland as fighting in the country intensified. Over the days since the start of the war on February 24, majority of the Indian diplomats had moved from the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv to Lviv, a city that’s a short distance from the Ukraine-Poland border.
Russian forces expanded their offensive in Ukraine on Friday as they conducted airstrikes in new areas in the country's west, while Russian President Vladimir Putin approved the recruitment of "volunteers" from Syria and elsewhere to join the fight.
The West ramped up economic pressure on Russia, as the US and its allies downgraded Russian's trade status — the latest in efforts to further isolate Russia for the invasion. The war has forced more than 2.5 million people to flee Ukraine, while others seek refuge in basements, subway stations and underground shelters. More evacuations were expected, though repeated attempts to allow people to flee the besieged port city of Mariupol in the south have failed under continued Russian shelling.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said via video from Kyiv: "It's impossible to say how many days we will still need to free our land, but it is possible to say that we will do it."
In the besieged southern city of Mariupol, the city council said at least 1,582 civilians had been killed as a result of Russian shelling and a 12-day blockade that has left hundreds of thousands trapped with no food, water, heat or power.
Russia's defence ministry said the Black Sea port was now completely surrounded and Ukrainian officials accused Russia of deliberately preventing civilians getting out and humanitarian convoys getting in. A new effort to evacuate civilians along a humanitarian corridor from Mariupol appeared to have failed, with Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk saying Russian shelling prevented them from leaving. "The situation is critical," Ukrainian interior ministry adviser Vadym Denysenko said.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Monday said Iran did not support Russia's war in Ukraine, after a call with his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amirabdollahian ahead of the latter’s visit to Moscow on Tuesday.
'Iran is against the war in Ukraine, supports a peaceful solution. I asked to convey my message in Moscow: Russia must stop bombing civilians, commit to the ceasefire, and withdraw from Ukraine,” Kuleba wrote on Twitter. (Reuters)
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Clarissa Ward interrupted her live TV report on Ukrainian refugees to help a distraught older man, then a woman, down a steep and explosion-mangled path, gently urging them on in their language.
A day later, Lynsey Addario, a photographer for The New York Times, captured a grim image of a Russian mortar attack’s immediate outcome: the bodies of a mother and her two children crumpled on a road, amid their suitcase, backpacks and a pet carrier.
The memorable reports illustrate both the skill and gutsiness of female journalists serving as eyewitnesses to Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine and the way their presence has changed the nature of war reporting.
They cover the tactics of war, but give equal measure to its toll. Read more
From the beginning of the war in Ukraine, it was clear that China would not condemn Russia’s invasion. On February 25, Beijing abstained from a vote on a UN Security Council draft resolution condemning the attack. China also abstained from a condemnation of the war by 141 countries in the UN General Assembly.
And Beijing’s implicit support of Russia continues despite Moscow’s continued escalation of the war. Read more
Ukraine's economy is expected to contract by 10% in 2022 as a result of Russia's invasion, but the outlook could worsen sharply if the conflict lasts longer, the International Monetary Fund said in a staff report released on Monday.
The report, prepared ahead of the IMF's approval of $1.4 billion in emergency financing, said Ukraine's economic output could shrink by 25% to 35%, based on real wartime gross domestic product data from Iraq, Lebanon and other countries at war.
The report said Ukraine has an external financing gap of $4.8 billion, but its financing needs were expected to grow and it would require significant additional concessional financing.
The country's public debt was expected to spike to 60% of GDP in 2022 from around 50% in 2021, the report said. (Reuters)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will virtually address the US Congress at 9 am (13.00 GMT) on Wednesday, US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a joint letter to US lawmakers.
“The Congress remains unwavering in our commitment to supporting Ukraine as they face Putin’s cruel and diabolical aggression, and to passing legislation to cripple and isolate the Russian economy as well as deliver humanitarian, security and economic assistance to Ukraine,” they wrote on Monday. (Reuters)
Talks between Ukraine and Russia paused on Monday and will continue on Tuesday, one of Ukraine's negotiators said on Twitter.
'A technical pause has been taken in the negotiations until tomorrow. For additional work in the working subgroups and clarification of individual definitions. Negotiations continue,' said negotiator Mykhailo Podolyak . (Reuters)
Ukraine has demanded an ‘immediate’ ceasefire while President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Kyiv’s negotiators are pushing for direct talks with Putin, news agency DW reported.
A high-voltage power line to Ukraine's Chernobyl nuclear plant was damaged by Russian forces not long after electricity supplies were restored to the facility, grid operator Ukrenergo said in a statement on Monday.
It did not say if all external power supply to the plant had been lost as a result of the damage, but demanded access to the area to carry out repairs.
Ukrenergo did not produce evidence of the damage or the actions of the Russian forces and Reuters was unable to independently verify the extent of the damage or the cause of it. (Reuters)
Fourth round of Ukraine-Russia conflict talks underway, says Kyiv negotiator. (AFP)
Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine said Monday that a strike by Kyiv's forces on the rebel's de facto capital Donetsk had left at least 20 people dead, ahead of talks to resolve the fighting. (APF)
Graphic showing key developments in Ukraine as of March 14, 06:00 GMT.
A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson has said assertions from US officials that Russia asked Beijing for military equipment for its campaign in Ukraine were “disinformation” from the United States. The comments came during a regular Chinese foreign ministry briefing in Beijing, Reuters reported.
The Antonov aircraft plant in Kyiv has been shelled by Russian forces, the Kyiv city administration said on Monday. The industrial plant is located about 11 km north-west of the centre of Kyiv.
The World Health Organization said that it is concerned the war in Ukraine could worsen the Covid-19 pandemic, and it is trying to do more to limit the spread of infectious diseases. Cases in the region are down from the previous week, but there's significant risk there will be more severe disease and death due to low vaccination rates in Ukraine, as well as among the more than 2 million who've fled the country to surrounding areas — regions also with low vaccination rates.
Today, March 14, is Day 20 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Here’s what you need to know about the war now: The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has recorded 1,663 civilian casualties in Ukraine from February 24 until March 13: 596 killed and 1,067 injured. The numbers include: a total of 596 killed (124 men, 85 women, 6 girls, and 10 boys, as well as 27 children and 344 adults whose sex is yet unknown); a total of 1,067 injured (97 men, 69 women, 14 girls, and 4 boys, as well as 39 children and 844 adults whose sex is yet unknown).
The killing of Brent Renaud, a 50-year-old American journalist in Irpin, a suburb of Kyiv, is the second reported death of a journalist in this war, and another tragic reminder of the dangers faced by media professionals covering conflict. A Ukrainian camera operator, Yevhenii Sakun, was reported to have been killed after Kyiv’s TV tower was shelled in the early days of the invasion. Click here to read our daily update of the war.
A nine-storey residential apartment block in Kyiv is reportedly under fire after Russian shelling this morning, The Kyiv Independent newspaper reports. Currently, firefighters are working to put out the blaze. Ukraine’s state emergency service published an update at 7.30 am local time, saying they received a report of a fire that broke out shortly after 5am in Obolonskyi district of the capital.
Just as the threat from Covid, as seen by the meagre impact of the Omicron variant, was receding, India's economy faces an old nemesis: High crude oil prices. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the ensuing bans and sanctions on Russia have already led to a spike in crude oil prices. There are apprehensions that if this conflict is allowed to drag on for months on end, then oil prices could not only spike further but stay that way for long. Read Udit Misra's analysis of the situation to understand the impact on India.
Peace flags were waved, and prayers and songs reverberated in the Panaji’s Fontainhas quarter as parishioners gathered at St Sebastian’s Chapel on Friday evening to pray for peace in Ukraine. The flag of Ukraine furled on a screen, visuals from the war-torn regions of that country were played and Father Roque Da Costa sent a message of peace. This, however, was not the first such meeting in Goa. Read Mayura Janwalkar’s report
India’s neighbours in South Asia have taken their own positions on the war in Ukraine keeping in mind their history, economy, the big power rivalry playing out in their countries, and their relations with these powers. There was a clear divide among the seven countries between those who maintained a neutral position, and those who were unequivocal in their opposition to Russia.
Afghanistan, Bhutan, Maldives and Nepal supported the resolution against Russia in the United Nations General Assembly. Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka abstained. Nepal, which is a member of the UN Human Rights Council, also voted for the HRC resolution to set up an independent investigation into Russia’s alleged violations of human rights in Ukraine. Read our Explainer to understand the relations.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is calling for an urgent solution to prevent a “worst-case scenario” for civilians trapped in the southern city of Mariupol, according to a statement released Sunday. “A worst-case scenario awaits the hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped by heavy combat in Mariupol unless the parties reach a concrete humanitarian agreement urgently,” the statement says.
Negotiations are about to go on between Ukraine and Russia on Monday with officials on both sides offering cautious optimism despite little evidence that Russian president Vladimir Putin’s position has changed. “Again. Negotiations go non-stop in the format of video conferences. Working groups are constantly functioning. A large number of issues require constant attention. On Monday, March 14, a negotiating session will be held to sum up the preliminary results,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podoliak said.
The Australian government has slapped fresh sanctions on Russian oligarchs, including the prominent billionaire Roman Abramovich, who is the London-based owner of Millhouse Capital and the Chelsea Football Club. Australia on Monday designated 33 individuals, including the chief executive of Gazprom, Alexey Miller, and the chair of Bank Rossiya, Dmitri Lebedev. The move against Abramovich, one of the world’s richest men, brings Australia in line with the UK and the US. Click here to read about the Russian oligarchs who have been sanctioned so far.
For those who are joining us now, here’s a round-up of what has happened so far:
? President Zelenskiy urges Nato to impose no fly zone after the attack on the military base that brought the fighting close to the Polish border. “If you don’t close our sky, it is only a matter of time before Russian rockets fall on your territory, on Nato territory,” he said.
? The US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said that Russia would pay “severe price” if it initiated a chemical attack on Ukraine.
? Russia’s defence ministry admitted responsibility for the rocket attack on the International Centre for Peacekeeping & Security, a military base, near Lviv on Sunday.
? The death toll from the attack rose to 35 people. Boris Johnson called Russia’s actions barbaric and said it was a test of all of humanity. US secretary of state Antony Blinken condemned the attack, saying the brutality must stop.
? Russia has asked China for military equipment since the start of the invasion, the Financial Times reported. The request has sparked fear in the White House that Beijing may aid Russia and undermine the West’s efforts in Ukraine.
? Russia’s state media and communication regulator, Rozcomnadzor, says Instagram will be banned, citing the social networking site “calls for violence against Russians” as the reason behind the embargo.
A day after 35 people were killed in a Russian missile attack on a military base in western Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged Nato to impose a no-fly zone in a video statement, news agency AFP reported. “If you don’t close our sky, it is only a matter of time before Russian rockets fall on your territory, on Nato territory,” he said. The attack on the International Peacekeeping and Security Centre base brought the fighting close to the Polish border.
Adviser Jake Sullivan will meet with China’s top diplomat Yang Jiechi in Rome on Monday to discuss Russia’s war against Ukraine and its impact on regional and global security, a source familiar with the plans said.
The meeting had been in planning for some time as part of a broader effort by Washington and Beijing to maintain open channels of communication and manage competition, but the war in Ukraine would be “a significant topic,” the source said.
“This meeting is taking place in the context of Russia’s unjustified and brutal war against Ukraine, and as China has aligned itself with Russia to advance their own vision of the world order, and so I expect … the two of them will discuss the impact of Russia’s war against Ukraine on regional and global security,” the source said. (AP) Read more
Britain will pay people to open their homes to Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion as the government moves to deflect anger over its response to the fastest-growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War Two.
The new scheme called "Homes for Ukraine" will let refugees from the war come to Britain even if they do not have family ties, the government said on Sunday.
Britain will pay people 350 pounds ($456) a month if they can offer refugees a spare room or property for a minimum period of six months. (Reuters) Read more
Instagram users in Russia have been notified that the service will cease from midnight on Sunday after its owner Meta Platforms (FB.O) said last week it would allow social media users in Ukraine to post messages such as “Death to the Russian invaders”.
An email message from the state communications regulator told people to move their photos and videos from Instagram before it was shut down, and encouraged them to switch to Russia’s own “competitive internet platforms”. (Reuters)
More than 500 aircraft leased to Russian airlines by companies based in the West are in danger of never coming out of Russia.
There are no signs of a de-escalation in the war, the West is steadily turning up the heat on punitive sanctions, and President Vladimir Putin has cleared a proposal to nationalise all Western businesses that ceased operations in Russia after the sanctions were announced. But why are airline lessors set to lose more than 500 planes and $12 bn in Russia? Read our explainer here
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan says Russia will face a response from NATO should any of its attacks in Ukraine cross borders and hit members of the security alliance.
Russian missiles on Sunday struck a military training base close to Ukraine’s western border with NATO member Poland and killed 35 people.
Sullivan tells CBS News’ “Face the Nation” that President Joe Biden “has been clear repeatedly that the United States will work with our allies to defend every inch of NATO territory and that means every inch.”
Sullivan says a military attack on NATO territory would cause the invocation of Article 5. That requires other countries in NATO to come to the defense of the attacked nation. Sullivan says “We will bring the full force of the NATO alliance to bear in responding.” (AP)
From yachts, private jets and mansions to football clubs, Russian oligarchs have been facing the heat of sanctions from various countries, especially the US, in the wake of the Russian invasion. While the list grows longer each day and the war on Ukraine continues, there are plenty of questions as to who gets sanctioned and why. But how is the West looking to freeze out Russian oligarchs? Rounak Bagchi explains
Ukraine's human rights ombudsman, Lyudmila Denisova, said Russia used phosphorous bombs during overnight attacks in eastern Ukraine. Use of these weapons in residential areas is prohibited under the Geneva convention.
Denisova shared a photo purporting to show an alleged phosphorus attack in the town of Pospasna in the eastern Luhansk region, but these claims have not yet been independently verified. A senior Ukrainian police officer previously accused Russian troops of launching phosphorus bomb attacks in Luhansk. (DW)
Hours after the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi met on Sunday afternoon to discuss the ongoing war in Ukraine and its impact on India, New Delhi decided to temporarily relocate the Indian Embassy in Ukraine to Poland. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman were among those who attended the meeting.
Over the days since the start of the war on February 24, majority of the Indian diplomats had moved from the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv to Lviv, a city that’s a short distance from the Ukraine-Poland border. Read more
A 51-year-old New York Times correspondent, Brent Renaud, was reportedly shot dead in Ukraine today.
Pope Francis says 'massacre' in Ukraine must stop, reports AFP.
Men in camouflage, hardened by battle, sniffled as a Ukrainian Orthodox choir sang the haunting funeral mass. One man put his arm around another as tears welled in his eyes.
“The glory and freedom of Ukraine has not yet perished,” said the priest during the funeral rites Saturday for two of the four soldiers who died when the city’s military airfield was bombed before dawn Friday.
“For 30 years we were singing these words and saying we would suffer for our freedom, but we could not have imagined these words would become our reality, that we would have to send our sons to defend us against our neighbors,” Father Mykhail, the priest, said.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine is now in its third week. With the four deaths at the airfield, it arrived in Lutsk, a provincial capital only 55 miles from Poland. It was a rare attack in the west by a Russian military that has focused primarily in the south, north and around Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv. Read more
Germany will take in 2,500 refugees who have fled to Moldova from Ukraine, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Saturday, as eastern Europe's efforts to aid refugees come under strain.
The number of refugees who have fled Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion on Feb. 24 now totals nearly 2.6 million and some cities in eastern Europe are running out of accommodation. (Reuters)
Governor of Ukraine’s Lviv region has said that 35 people were killed in a Russian attack on Ukraine’s western military base, news agency Reuters reported.
Nine killed by bombing in southern city of Mykolaiv, says regional governor. Also, a bus carrying Ukrainians crashes in Italy, leaving one dead, reports AFP.
A Russian airstrike on a military training base in western Ukraine killed at least nine people and wounded 57, a local official said Sunday. The assault brought the war closer to the border with Poland after a senior Russian diplomat warned that Moscow considered foreign shipments of military equipment to Ukraine “legitimate targets.”
The governor of the Lviv region, Maksym Kozytskyi, said Russian forces fired more than 30 cruise missiles at the Yavoriv military range, located 30 kilometers (19 miles) northwest of the city of Lviv and 35 kilometers (22 miles) from Ukraine’s border with Poland.
The United States and NATO have regularly sent instructors to the range, also known as the International Peacekeeping and Security Center, to train Ukrainian military personnel. The facility has also hosted international NATO drills.(AP)
Russian forces struck a military training base in western Ukraine on Sunday morning, bringing their offensive closer to the border with Poland. Eight rockets were fired at the Yaroviv military range, located 30 kilometers (19 miles) northwest of Lviv, the regional administration said, without offering any details about possible casualties.
The range is 35 kilometers (22 miles) from Ukraine's border with Poland. Since 2015, the US has regularly sent instructors to the military range, also known as the Yaroviv International Peacekeeping and Security Center, to train Ukraine's military and the facility has also hosted international NATO drills. On Saturday, Russia bombarded cities across Ukraine, pounding Mariupol in the south, shelling the outskirts of the capital, Kyiv, and thwarting the efforts of people trying to flee the violence. (AP)
Qatar's foreign minister will travel to Moscow on Sunday for discussions on the Iran nuclear talks and Russia's invasion of Ukraine, a source familiar with the visit said.The source said Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, whose gas producing country is a US ally, would meet with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.
Eleven month-old talks in Vienna to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal face the prospect of collapse after a last-minute Russian demand forced world powers to pause negotiations despite having a largely completed text.
Russia wants guarantees that its trade with Iran will not be affected by sanctions imposed on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine - a demand Western powers say is unacceptable and Washington has insisted it will not agree to.Sheikh Mohammed on Saturday discussed the nuclear talks in separate phone calls with US. (Reuters)
Russian forces launched a missile attack on a large Ukrainian military facility near the Polish border on Sunday, officials said, in what appeared to be the westernmost attack of the war, and air raid sirens again woke residents in the capital Kyiv.
"The occupiers launched an air strike on the International Center for Peacekeeping and Security" in Yavoriv, the Lviv regional military administration said in a statement.
"According to preliminary data, they fired eight missiles."Initial reports indicated "there are no dead, but information about the injured and wounded is being clarified," said Anton Mironovich, spokesman for the Academy of Land Forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, according to Interfax Ukraine news agency cited. (Reuters)
Ukraine’s Centre for International Peacekeeping and Security in Yavoriv near the Polish border was bombed on Sunday, Lviv military authorities confirmed, according to Reuters.
Ukrainian President Zelenskiy warned Russian forces they face a fight to the death if they try to occupy Kyiv, while France said Russian President Putin had shown no willingness to make peace.
Evacuations
Daily evacuations from a number of Ukrainian cities nearly doubled to some 13,000 people, the deputy prime minister said. Russian attacks continued in areas where Ukraine was trying to evacuate people and bring aid through humanitarian corridors, said the governors of the Kyiv and Donetsk regions.
Military
Zelenskiy said around 1,300 Ukrainian troops have been killed during the invasion and Russia was sending more forces after suffering its biggest losses in decades.
Civilian infrastructure and residential buildings throughout the key Black Sea port of Mariupol suffered extensive damage, said private US satellite firm Maxar.
Washington said it was rushing up to $200 million in additional small arms, anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons to Ukraine.
Diplomacy
Ukraine's foreign minister said his government was willing to negotiate to end the war but would not surrender or accept ultimatums.
The Kremlin said Putin told the leaders of France and Germany about the state of negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv and responded to their concerns about the humanitarian situation in Ukraine.
Zelenskiy said he had spoken to Israeli Prime Minister Bennett and discussed prospects for peace talks to end the conflict.
Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder met Putin for several hours on Thursday in a bid to end the war, Germany's Bild am Sonntag reported. It was unclear what was achieved.
Nuclear power plants
Ukraine said Russia was planning to take full and permanent control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe's biggest, but Russia denied this, according to the UN nuclear watchdog. Repairs to damaged power lines at the Chernobyl plant continued and diesel generators were providing back-up power to systems relevant for safety. (Reuters)
Russia bombarded cities across Ukraine on Saturday, pounding Mariupol in the south, shelling the outskirts of the capital, Kyiv, and thwarting the efforts of people trying to flee the violence.
In Mariupol, which has endured some of the worst punishment since Russia invaded, efforts to bring food, water and medicine into the port city of 430,000 and to evacuate civilians, were prevented by unceasing attacks. More than 1,500 people have died in Mariupol during the siege, according to the mayor's office, and the shelling has even interrupted efforts to bury the dead in mass graves. (AP)
Russia has bombarded cities across Ukraine, pounding Mariupol in the south, shelling the outskirts of the capital, Kyiv, and thwarting the efforts of people trying to flee the violence.
In Mariupol, which has endured some of the worst punishment since Russia invaded, efforts to bring food, water and medicine into the port city of 430,000 and to evacuate civilians, were prevented by unceasing attacks.
More than 1,500 people have died in Mariupol during the siege, according to the mayor's office, and the shelling has even interrupted efforts to bury the dead in mass graves. Talks aimed at reaching a cease-fire again failed Saturday, and while the US announced plans to provide another USD 200 million to Ukraine for weapons, a senior Russian diplomat warned that Moscow could attack foreign shipments of military equipment. (AP)
About 1 1/2 months after the last match of Sergiy Stakhovsky's professional tennis career, the 36-year-old Ukrainian left his wife and three young children in Hungary and went back to his birthplace to help however he could during Russia's invasion.
"I don't have the words to describe it. I would never imagine in my life that it would come to this that I would be in my home city ... with a gun in my hands," Stakhovsky said Saturday, rubbing his left cheek with his palm during a video interview with The Associated Press from what he said was a residential building in Kyiv, Ukraine's beleaguered capital. "A lot of people are saying that they're waking up and hoping ... it was just a bad dream. But, you know, on Day 16, (that) doesn't work anymore," he said. (AP)
YouTube on Saturday announced that it was blocking access around the world to channels associated with Russian state-funded media, , citing a policy barring content that denies, minimises or trivializes well-documented violent events, AFP reported. Among the channels blocked are RT and Sputnik.
'We say goodbye to our YouTube channels that once were leading news sources, with 10 BILLION views combined - so much for freedom of speech,' RT tweeted after the announcement.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy discussed Russian aggression and possible peace talks with Israel Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Saturday, his office said. "We must stop the repression against the civilian population," a statement from his official Twitter handle read.
He also asked for help in the release of the captured mayor of Melitopol and other local public figures.
Seven Ukrainian civilians, including a child, died when Russia shelled a humanitarian convoy of refugees and forced them to turn back, Ukraine's Ministry of Defense said.
The seven were among hundreds of people who tried to flee the village of Peremoha, 20 kilometers (12 miles) northeast of Kyiv. An unknown number of people were wounded in the shelling, the report added.
Moscow has said it would establish humanitarian corridors out of conflict zones, but Ukrainian officials have accused Russia of disrupting those paths and firing on civilians.
On Saturday, Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said just nine of 14 agreed-upon corridors were open on Saturday, and that about 13,000 people were evacuated on them around the country. (AP)
The seven women and children who Ukraine says died when Russian forces attacked a convoy escaping a village in the Kyiv region were not as previously stated in an agreed evacuation corridor, the defence ministry said on Saturday.
Ukraine's intelligence service initially said those who died outside Peremoha on Friday had been in a "green corridor" agreed with Russia. A defence ministry statement later said people had in fact tried to escape by themselves, "so they began evacuating without the 'green corridor' agreed by the parties". (Reuters)
US President Joe Biden is authorising the State Department to provide additional aid to Ukraine of up to USD 200 million.
The funds would cover weapons as well as military services, education and training as Ukrainians seek to repel a Russian invasion.
The aid is part of broader US support in the form of aid and sanctions. When Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, Secretary of State Antony Blinken noted that USD 1 billion in aid had been provided to Ukraine.
The ongoing warfare has led to additional support with Congress this week approving USD 13.6 billion in additional aid, a sum that includes USD 6.5 billion for the costs of sending troops and weapons to Eastern Europe and USD 6.8 billion for refugees and economic aid.
Biden plans to sign the spending bill with the additional aid when he receives it next week. (AP)
Pope Francis is renewing calls for an end to the war in Ukraine, emphasizing the impact on children.
In a tweet, on Saturday, he wrote: “Never war! Think first about the children, about those who are deprived of the hope for a dignified life: dead or wounded children, orphans, children who play with the remnants of war." Francis added: “In the name of God, stop!” Ukrainian officials and the UN human rights office say dozens of children have been killed since the start of the war. (AP)
Most Ukrainian businesses have stopped operating since Russia launched an invasion of Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday.
Zelenskiy's economic adviser previously estimated that the Russian invasion had already caused more than $100 billion of damage. (Reuters)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Saturday that more than 1,300 Ukrainian troops have died so far. (Reuters)
Evacuations of civilians from frontline towns in Ukraine's Kyiv region were proceeding on Saturday and are planned to continue on Sunday, regional governor Oleksiy Kuleba told local media.
"We will try to get people out every day, as long as it's possible to observe a ceasefire," he said. (Reuters)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday that Russia was sending new forces to Ukraine after suffering what he said were its biggest losses in decades.
Zelenskiy also said he had spoken to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron about pressuring Russia to release the mayor of the city of Melitopol, who Ukraine says was kidnapped on Friday by Russian forces.
In a televised address, Zelenskiy urged Russia to uphold an agreed ceasefire to allow evacuations to proceed from the besieged port city of Mariupol, after blaming Moscow for the failure of previous attempts. (Reuters)