A Ukrainian firefighter sprays water inside a house destroyed by shelling, in Kyiv, Ukraine (AP photo)Russia-Ukraine War Crisis Highlights: Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych on Wednesday said he expected the active phase of the Russian invasion to be over by the end of April as the Russian advance had already stalled in many areas, Reuters reported. Speaking on local television, Arestovych said Russia had already lost 40% of its attacking forces, and also played down the prospect of Russia waging nuclear war.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian leaders have accused Russia of seizing 15 rescue workers and drivers from a humanitarian convoy trying to get desperately needed food and other supplies into the bloodied port city of Mariupol, which also came under naval attack after weeks of air and land strikes. Russian military forces destroyed a new laboratory at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant that among other things works to improve management of radioactive waste, the Ukrainian state agency responsible for the Chernobyl exclusion zone said Tuesday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy estimated that 100,000 civilians remained in Mariupol.
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In other news, with Europe facing its most precarious future since World War II, US President Joe Biden will huddle with key allies in Brussels and Warsaw this week as the leaders try to prevent Russia’s war on Ukraine from spiraling into an even greater catastrophe. Biden embarks Wednesday on a four-day trip that will test his ability to navigate the continent’s worst crisis since WWII ended in 1945. There are fears that Russia could use chemical or nuclear weapons as its invasion becomes bogged down in the face of logistical problems and fierce Ukrainian resistance.
Outside the station, it's not just about compassion for refugees, but anger and resentment towards the Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Express Photo)
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Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addresses the nation every evening and tonight for the first time,he addressed in English. He asked for people everywhere to show solidarity.
The UN Security Council on Wednesday overwhelmingly defeated a Russian resolution that acknowledged Ukraines growing humanitarian needs but didnt mention the Russian invasion that caused the escalating crisis which has left millions of Ukrainians in desperate need of food water and shelter.
To be adopted Russia needed a minimum of nine yes votes in the 15member Security Council and no veto by one of the four other permanent members _ the US Britain France and China But Russia got support only from its ally China with the 13 other council members abstaining reflecting Moscows failure to get widespread backing for its war in Ukraine which marks its onemonth anniversary Thursday.
The Russian defeat came on the same day the General Assembly started considering a resolution drafted by Ukraine and two dozen other countries and cosponsored by nearly 100 nations which clearly states that Russias aggression is responsible for the growing humanitarian emergency The assembly was also to consider a rival South African resolution that doesnt mention Russia and is similar to Moscows defeated council resolution Action on those resolutions was delayed until Thursday because of the huge number of speakers. (AP)
FOREIGN SECRETARY Harsh Vardhan Shringla reached New York, hours before the UN General Assembly and the Security Council were expected to vote on draft resolutions on the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine early on Thursday.
Shringla, who participated in the Security Council meeting on cooperation between the UN and the League of Arab States on Wednesday, will be key to negotiating three resolutions on Ukraine at the UN.
There are three resolutions at play now, two at the UN General Assembly and one at the UN Security Council. The Indian Express has learnt that the focus of all three resolutions is on the humanitarian situation. Read more
The United States Embassy in Moscow on Wednesday received a list of its diplomats that were declared "persona non grata", a State Department spokesperson said, in what Russian media said was a response to a U.S. move ousting Russian staff at the United Nations.
Washington last month said it was expelling 12 Russian diplomats at the country's U.N. mission in New York over national security concerns, and later announced it would oust an additional Russian at the U.N. who it said was a spy.
Russia, which denies the allegations, told the United States on Wednesday it would throw out an unspecified number of American diplomats in response to the moves, Interfax news agency said.
"The American side was told very firmly that any hostile U.S. actions against Russia would provoke a decisive and comparable response," the agency said. (Reuters)
A total of 4,554 people were evacuated from Ukrainian cities through humanitarian corridors on Wednesday, a senior official said, considerably fewer than managed to escape the previous day.
Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the president's office, said in an online post that 2,912 people had left the besieged city of Mariupol in private vehicles. On Tuesday, he said 8,057 people had managed to escape from cities across the country. (Reuters)
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen was set to meet with US lawmakers Wednesday to discuss a possible freeze on Russian reserves of gold.
The move comes after several lawmakers introduced the Stop Russian GOLD Act, meant to target Russia's ability to sell its gold reserves to avoid the impact of sanctions.
Current sanctions on Russian elites, the country's Central Bank, President Vladimir Putin and other measures do not impact Russia's gold stockpile, which Putin has been accumulating for several years. Russia holds roughly $130 billion in gold reserves, according to lawmakers. (AP)
The Russian offensive against Mariupol has turned the city into “ashes of a dead land”, the city council asserted on Tuesday, describing the increased bombarding and shelling ever since Ukraine rejected the Kremlin’s proposal to lay down their arms and surrender.
Mariupol has been a key fighting ground as Moscow looks to overturn its 2014 loss when the Russia-backed separatists had failed to capture the city in the Donetsk oblast (region). But why does Mariupol hold the key to the Russian offensive? Sonal Gupta explains.
Kateryna Mytkevich endured four weeks living with the fear of planes, rockets and missiles raining on her native city of Chernihiv in northern Ukraine before deciding to flee with her child.
“I have never seen such cruelty before,” said the 38-year-old, speaking from the Polish city of Przemysl, a transit hub near the border with Ukraine. “Chernihiv is fully destroyed, they are approaching Kyiv. Even Poland.”
“There is no electricity, no gas, no mobile connection in Chernihiv. We came through Kyiv, and we didn’t know whether Kyiv was still standing,” she said, breaking into tears.
Mytkevich is one of more than 3.6 million refugees the United Nations says have fled Ukraine so far, with more expected as the conflict showed no sign of abating. About 6.5 million are internally displaced within the country. Read more
European Union leaders may discuss Russia's demand that "unfriendly" countries pay in roubles for Russian gas sales at a two-day summit in Brussels starting on Thursday, a senior EU official said. "This can be discussed," the official said, adding that leaders may assess whether Moscow's request would threaten the effectiveness of EU sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. (Reuters)
A veteran envoy of President Vladimir Putin has resigned over the Ukraine war, two sources said, as U.S. President Joe Biden flew to Europe for an emergency NATO summit on Ukraine, where invading Russian troops are stalled, cities are under bombardment and the besieged port of Mariupol is in flames.
*Russia plans to switch its gas sales to "unfriendly" countries to roubles, Putin said, responding to a freeze on Russia's assets by foreign nations over events in Ukraine that he said had destroyed Moscow's trust.
*NATO nations' leaders will agree on Thursday to deploy four new battle groups in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said.
*Biden said Russia's potential use of chemical weapons against Ukraine was a real threat as he left for Brussels with plans for more sanctions on members of Russia's parliament.
*Stoltenberg said NATO worries China could support Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
*Satellite photographs showed massive destruction in Mariupol, once a city of 400,000 people, with columns of smoke rising from burning residential apartment buildings. None of the following reports could immediately be verified:
*Russia said its forces used long-range weapons fired from the sea to hit a Ukrainian arms depot outside the northwestern city of Rivne and two Tochka-U missile launchers in an industrial zone in the outskirts of Kyiv.
*Ukrainian officials said two civilians were killed in overnight shelling in the Mykolaiv region, a bridge was destroyed over the River Desna in Chernihiv and residential buildings and a shopping mall were struck in two districts of Kyiv, wounding at least four people.
*Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russian forces were using the exclusion zone around the defunct Chernobyl nuclear plant to prepare new attacks.
*More than 145,000 babies are in urgent need of nutrition support in Ukraine, UNICEF said.
*The head of the International Committee of Red Cross will raise "pressing humanitarian issues" in Ukraine during ongoing talks in Moscow with senior Russian officials, the agency said.
*The EU on Wednesday is due to set out plans on how it will provide jobs, education and housing for refugees.
*Germany, which has recorded nearly 239,000 Ukrainian refugee arrivals, said it plans to take more measures to help refugees from Ukraine. (Reuters)
A veteran envoy of President Vladimir Putin has resigned over the Ukraine war and left Russia with no intention to return, two sources said on Wednesday, the first senior official to break with the Kremlin since Putin launched his invasion a month ago.
The Kremlin confirmed that Anatoly Chubais had resigned of his own accord. Chubais was one of the principal architects of Boris Yeltsin's economic reforms of the 1990s and was Putin's boss in the future president's first Kremlin job. He held senior business and political jobs under Putin, lately serving as Kremlin special envoy to international organisations.
Chubais hung up the phone when contacted by Reuters. The sources did not say where he was. U.S. President Joe Biden flies to Europe on Wednesday for an emergency NATO summit on Ukraine, where invading Russian troops are stalled, cities are under bombardment and the besieged port of Mariupol is in flames. (Reuters)
The mayor of Kyiv says Russian forces have killed 264 civilians, including four children, in the Ukraine capital since the war started last month.
Mayor Vitali Klitschko said Wednesday that battles were being waged in the area of Liutizh, a village 30 kilometers (about 20 miles) north of Kyiv and that Ukrainian forces have wrested back control of areas to the north-west and the north-east of the city, including most of Irpin. He said the western town of Makariv has also been taken back by Ukranian troops. (AP)
Just minutes old, baby Katya lies on her mother Tamara Kravchuk's chest, unaware of the joy and solace she has brought. It is a moment of bliss and gratitude, despite the war raging close by.
"I'm so happy. No matter what happens now - I'm the happiest person... my daughter is healthy. God willing there will be peace," said 37-year-old Kravchuk, lying in a hospital bed in the Ukrainian port city of Mykolaiv.
Staring at her new daughter's face and tiny hands, she talks of the future. The desperation and anxiety that dominated her thoughts before Katya's birth are gone - for now.
"I think the war will end and we will live as it was before, our life will be calm again," said Kravchuk. "I hope our children won't see all these crazy things and everything will be good."
The head of the maternity ward, Valentin Podaranchuk, is all smiles after delivering Katya. (Reuters)
Ukrainian ship is stranded off Chile after Russia invaded Ukraine
Russia will only accept rubles for gas deliveries to 'unfriendly countries', which include all EU members, says Putin. (AFP)
Russian energy giant Gazprom said on Wednesday it was continuing to supply natural gas to Europe via Ukraine in line with requests from European consumers. The company said requests stood at 106.5 million cubic metres for March 23, down from 108 million cubic metres for March 22. (Reuters)
Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych on Wednesday said he expected the active phase of the Russian invasion to be over by the end of April as the Russian advance had already stalled in many areas, Reuters reported. Speaking on local television, Arestovych said Russia had already lost 40% of its attacking forces, and also played down the prospect of Russia waging nuclear war. Reuters could not independently verify his statements. (Reuters)
Nestle said on Wednesday that it is suspending brands including KitKat and Nesquik, among others, in Russia. “We are focused on providing essential foods such as baby food and medical/hospital nutrition products. This means we will suspend the vast majority of our pre-war volume in Russia," a Nestle spokesperson said. (Reuters)
Ukrainian leaders accused Russia of seizing 15 rescue workers and drivers from a humanitarian convoy trying to get desperately needed food and other supplies into the bloodied port city of Mariupol, which also came under naval attack after weeks of air and land strikes.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy estimated that 100,000 civilians remained in Mariupol, scene of some of the war’s worst devastation, as Russia presses a nearly month-old offensive by bombarding cities and towns. Those made it out described a shattered city.
“They bombed us for the past 20 days,” said 39-year-old Viktoria Totsen, who fled into Poland. “During the last five days, the planes were flying over us every five seconds and dropped bombs everywhere—on residential buildings, kindergartens, art schools, everywhere.”
Zelenskyy, speaking Tuesday in his nightly video address to his nation, accused Russian forces of blocking the aid convoy despite agreeing to the route ahead of time. He said they seized one convoy, near Manhush, just outside Mariupol, taking the emergency workers and drivers captive and that authorities are trying to win their release. (AP)
Agreement has been reached to try to evacuate civilians trapped in Ukrainian towns and cities through nine "humanitarian corridors" on Wednesday, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.
Signalling no agreement had been reached with Russia to establish a safe corridor from the heart of Mariupol, she said people wishing to leave the besieged port city would find transport in nearby Berdyansk. (Reuters)
Russian gas deliveries to Europe through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline across the Baltic Sea dipped slightly on Wednesday, while gas continued to flow eastwards from Germany into Poland along the Yamal-Europe pipeline.
Flows to Germany through Nord Stream 1 stood at 65,361,776 kilowatt hours per hour (kWh/h) by 0728 GMT, slightly down from 67,955,181 kWh/h at midnight, the Nord Stream website showed.
Eastbound flows into Poland from Germany along the Yamal-Europe pipeline were at 1,717,560 kWh/h at the Mallnow border point, down from 2,362,830 kWh/h at midnight, data from operator Gascade showed.
The usually westbound pipeline reversed on March 15 as nominations to ship gas into Germany fell to zero, while Polish customers bought gas from Germany. (Reuters)
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov Wednesday said sending peacekeepers to Ukraine could lead to a direct confrontation between Russia and the Nato military alliance.
Poland said last week that it would formally submit a proposal for a peacekeeping mission in Ukraine at the next Nato summit.
"I hope they understand what they are talking about," Lavrov told staff and students at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations. "This will be the direct clash between the Russian and Nato armed forces that everyone has not only tried to avoid but said should not take place in principle." (Reuters)
It will soon be a month since Russia invaded Ukraine, and despite several rounds of talks between the representatives of the two sides, it remains unclear when and how the war might end. Russia invoked the threat of Ukraine joining NATO as a pretext for the invasion; President Volodymyr Zelenskyy however, appeared to acknowledge last week that his country will not be part of the US-led military alliance in the foreseeable future.
Among the scenarios that have been seen as potentially workable is the “Finlandisation” of Ukraine — something that France’s President Emmanuel Macron was said to have suggested as “one of the models on the table” (he denied it later) amid rising tensions in early February, and which had been floated earlier in 2014, the year Russia annexed Crimea and fighting broke out in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region. (Read more)
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said Wednesday that agreements have been made to evacuate trapped civilians from Ukrainian towns through nine "humanitarian corridors."
In the besieged city of Mariupol, Vereshchuk said evacuees would find transport in the city of Berdyansk, which is more than 80 kilometers to the southwest. (Deutsche Welle)
Today, March 23, is Day 29 of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Here’s what you need to know today:
At least 953 civilians have died in the war until midnight March 21, according to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Among the dead are 76 children. The UN agency says the actual number of casualties is likely to be higher as real time reporting and verification of the toll is difficult in the areas that are seeing the most fighting.
The Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office has said at least 117 children have died and 115 injured. OHCHR says at least 1,557 civilians were wounded. (Read more)
The war in Ukraine has killed 121 children so far, the office of the prosecutor general said Wednesday in a message on the Telegram app, adding that the number of wounded children stood at 167. (Reuters)
Ukrainian writer Marjana Gaponenko hails from Odesa on the Black Sea coast. She lives in Vienna and Mainz but talks daily with her grandmother who still lives in her home city. Born in 1932, the latter was raised in the Donbas region in the east which has been largely occupied by Russia.
Following Vladimir Putin’s occupation of nearby Crimea in 2014, the recent build-up of Russian navy ships off the Odesa coast awakened bad memories for the writer’s family.
Right now, Gaponenko says that even she, the wordsmith, is at a loss for words. She feels it is “obscene to work on literature right now.” (Read more)
The United Nations will face three resolutions Wednesday on the worsening humanitarian situation in Ukraine after Russia decided to call for a vote on its Security Council resolution that makes no mention of its attack on its smaller neighbour.
The General Assembly is scheduled to start considering two rival resolutions Wednesday morning — one supported by Ukraine and Western nations that makes clear Russia is responsible for the escalating humanitarian crisis and the other sponsored by South Africa that doesn't mention Russia.
The Security Council will vote on the third resolution, which is sponsored by Russia and widely criticised for not referring to its invasion of Ukraine. (AP)
Russian President Vladimir Putin intends to attend a G20 summit being hosted by Indonesia later this year, Russia's ambassador in Jakarta said Wednesday, following calls by some members for the country to be barred from the group.
"Not only G20, many organisations are trying to expel Russia....the reaction of the West is absolutely disproportional," ambassador Lyudmila Vorobyova told a news conference on Wednesday.
The United States and its Western allies are assessing whether Russia should remain within the Group of Twenty (G20) grouping of major economies following its invasion of Ukraine, sources involved in the discussions told Reuters.
Ukrainian leaders accused Russia of seizing 15 rescue workers and drivers from a humanitarian convoy trying to get desperately needed food and other supplies into the bloodied port city of Mariupol, which also came under naval attack after weeks of air and land strikes.
The Red Cross confirmed a humanitarian aid convoy trying to reach the city had not been able to enter.
The convoy's attempt to deliver assistance came as Russian navy vessels joined in what have been weeks of Russian air and land strikes into Mariupol, US officials said. (AP)
At the Siemens Gamesa factory in Aalborg, Denmark, where the next generation of offshore wind turbines is being built, workers are on their hands and knees inside a shallow, canoe-shaped pod that stretches the length of a football field. It is a mold used to produce one half of a single propeller blade. Guided by laser markings, the crew is lining the sides with panels of balsa wood.
The gargantuan blades offer a glimpse of the energy future that Europe is racing toward with sudden urgency. The invasion of Ukraine by Russia — the European Union’s largest supplier of natural gas and oil — has spurred governments to accelerate plans to reduce their dependence on climate-changing fossil fuels. Armed conflict has prompted policymaking pledges that the more distant threat of an uninhabitable planet has not. (Read more)
The scenario for the Nato military exercise in the Arctic circle has been similar for years now: Norway is attacked by a fictional country, triggering the alliance's collective defense clause and leading to troops from the United States and more than a dozen partners coming to the defense of the country.
But this year, the bi-annual exercise, known as Cold Response, has taken on an added significance for some of the roughly 3,000 US Marines taking part in it because of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Relations between Norway and Russia, which share an Arctic border, gradually improved in the post-Cold War era before suffering a setback when Moscow annexed Crimea in 2014. (Reuters)
The United States and its Western allies are assessing whether Russia should remain within the Group of Twenty (G20) grouping of major economies following its invasion of Ukraine, sources involved in the discussions told Reuters on Tuesday.
The likelihood that any bid to exclude Russia outright would be vetoed by others in the club — which includes China, India, Saudi Arabia and others — raised the prospect of some countries instead skipping G20 meetings this year, the sources said.
"There have been discussions about whether it’s appropriate for Russia to be part of the G20," said a senior G7 source. "If Russia remains a member, it will become a less useful organisation." (Reuters)
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has denied that Russia's invasion has stalled.
Asked on CNN what Russian President Vladimir Putin has achieved in Ukraine, he said: "Well, first of all not yet. He hasn't achieved yet." But he insisted the military operation was going "strictly in accordance with the plans and purposes that were established beforehand."
Peskov reiterated that Putin's main goals were to "get rid of the military potential of Ukraine" and "ensure that Ukraine changes from an anti-Russian center to a neutral country." (AP)
Russian military forces have destroyed a new laboratory at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant that among other things works to improve management of radioactive waste, the Ukrainian state agency responsible for the Chernobyl exclusion zone said Tuesday.
The Russian military seized the decommissioned plant at the beginning of the war. The exclusion zone is the contaminated area around the plant, site of the world's worst nuclear meltdown in 1986.
The state agency said the laboratory, built at a cost of 6 million euros with support from the European Commission, opened in 2015. (AP)
The US and its allies would consult whether Russia should remain within the G-20 grouping of major economies after its invasion of Ukraine, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has said, underlining that it "cannot be business as usual" for Moscow.
"We believe that it cannot be business as usual for Russia in international institutions and in the international community," US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters at a White House news conference when asked about Russia's membership of G-20. (PTI)
Even as Ukraine faces extraordinary devastation, a new world disorder is becoming apparent. The United States has to do the balancing act of providing a strong response to Russia. But it is also hemmed in by the fact that it is dealing with an armed nuclear power and needs to avoid direct confrontation. Whether this balancing act can be pulled off remains to be seen. Europe is now caught between its desire to send a strong message to Russia and sanctimonious moralising. But its credibility is impugned because it is simply not willing to pay even the minimal economic price for a strong stand.
Russia in the meantime has made a classic mistake. It is one of the great mysteries of international politics that despite their terrible record at winning asymmetric wars, powerful countries continue to think they can win. Post World War II history is full of examples of conflict between a seemingly strong power and a weaker adversary resulting in immense losses for the former, if not full defeat. (Read more)
?? The battle for Ukraine's cities thundered across its suburbs Tuesday, with the Ukrainian military saying it forced Russian troops out of a strategically important Kyiv suburb, while Russian forces took partial control of three northwest areas where there's been fighting for weeks.
?? A senior US defense official said Tuesday that Russian ground forces were still largely stalled outside the capital city, but Russian ships spent the past day shelling the already devastated southern port city of Mariupol from offshore.
?? Thousands of civilians made the dangerous escape from Mariupol on Tuesday. Some described fleeing through street gun battles and past corpses as Russian forces tried to pound the city into submission.
?? There was no word of a diplomatic breakthrough. Ukraine's President described negotiations with Russia as "step by step, but they are going forward."
?? The US intends to announce new sanctions against Russia this week.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to his British counterpart Boris Johnson on Tuesday about the situation unfolding in war-torn Ukraine.
During their discussion, PM Modi reiterated India’s consistent appeal for cessation of hostilities and a return to the path of dialogue and diplomacy, the Prime Minister’s Office said.
He emphasized India’s belief in respect for international law and the territorial integrity and sovereignty of all states, as the basis of the contemporary world order, it added. (Read more)
FRAMING the Russia-China alliance over Ukraine as a debate between democracies and autocracies, visiting US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland told The Indian Express Wednesday that US was ready to help India move away from dependence on Russia for defence supplies.
On the Russia-Ukraine crisis, how do you read India’s statements?
We had very broad and deep conversations (Nuland met External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and her counterpart Harsh Vardhan Shringla) about what’s in this war. Unfortunately, Indian students got trapped, and they were able to get out, but unfortunately one Indian lost his life which was very tragic. Read excerpts from an exclusive interview here.
As Ukrainians fleeing the war continue to head to the border with Poland, Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski has said that the city has reached its capacity to accept refugees, and if there is another wave, Europe and the US will have to step in and share the burden.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Trzaskowski said the Russian invasion has proven Poland’s stand right, and Europe needs to be more assertive against Russian President Vladimir Putin. Ukraine, he said, is also fighting for Poland’s freedom.
“We are at capacity, we cannot accept 100,000 more refugees,” he said. (Read more)
Russia has "manifestly failed" to accomplish its three major goals through the country's "brutal" invasion of Ukraine, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has said.
On February 24, Russian forces launched military operations in Ukraine, three days after Moscow recognised Ukraine's breakaway regions Donetsk and Luhansk as independent entities.
Sullivan told reporters that Russia intended to accomplish three basic objectives in launching its unprovoked attack against Ukraine: first, to subjugate Ukraine; second, to enhance Russian power and prestige; and third, to divide and weaken the West. (PTI)
President Joe Biden plans to announce new sanctions against Russia on Thursday while in Brussels for meetings with NATO and European allies, according to a top national security aide.
Biden, who will take part in a special meeting of NATO and address the European Council summit, is also expected to underscore efforts to enforce the avalanche of existing sanctions already announced by the U.S. and allies.
“He will join our partners in imposing further sanctions on Russia and tightening the existing sanctions to crack down on evasion and to ensure robust enforcement,” said White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, who declined to further preview new sanctions the president will announce.
Biden is traveling to Brussels and Poland — which has received more than 2 million Ukrainian refugees who have fled since the Feb. 24 invasion — looking to press for continued unity among Western allies as Russia presses on with its brutal invasion of Ukraine. (AP)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian forces not only blocked a humanitarian convoy trying to reach besieged Mariupol with desperately needed supplies on Tuesday but took captive some of the rescue workers and bus drivers
He said the Russians had agreed to the route ahead of time
We are trying to organize stable humanitarian corridors for Mariupol residents but almost all of our attempts unfortunately are foiled by the Russian occupiers by shelling or deliberate terror Zelenskyy said in his nighttime video address to the nation
Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said the Russians seized 11 bus drivers and four rescue workers along with their vehicles She said their fate was unknown The figures couldnt immediately be confirmed. (AP)
Russia's combat power in Ukraine has declined below 90 percent of its pre-invasion levels for the first time since its attack began, a senior U.S. defense official said on Tuesday, suggesting heavy losses of weaponry and growing casualties.
The United States has estimated Russia assembled more than 150,000 troops around Ukraine before the Feb. 24 invasion, along with enough aircraft, artillery, tanks and other firepower for its full-scale attack.
'For the first time they may be just a little bit below 90 percent,' the U.S. defense official told reporters on condition of anonymity.
The official did not provide evidence.Nearly a month into the war, Russian troops have failed to capture a single major city and their advance has been halted on nearly all fronts by Ukrainian forces. Moscow has instead turned to bombarding cities with artillery, missiles and bombs.
Russia denies targeting civilians.Much of that bombardment has been focused on the southeastern city of Mariupol. (Reuters)
At least 100,000 people want to leave city - deputy PMBy Natalia Zinets and Pavel PolityukLVIV/KYIV, Ukraine, March 23 (Reuters) - Talks between Ukraine and Russia are confrontational but moving forward, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday, as the West plans to announce more sanctions against the Kremlin amid a worsening humanitarian crisis.
Intense Russian air strikes are turning besieged Mariupol into the "ashes of a dead land", the city council said on Tuesday, as street fighting and bombardments raged in the port city. Hundreds of thousands are believed to be trapped inside buildings, with no access to food, water, power or heat.
Both civilians and Ukrainian troops were coming under Russian fire, said regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko.Russian forces and Russian-backed separatist units had taken about half of the port city, normally home to around 400,000 people, Russia's RIA news agency said, citing a separatist leader. (Reuters)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to his British counterpart Boris Johnson on Tuesday about the situation unfolding in war-torn Ukraine.
During their discussion, PM Modi reiterated India’s consistent appeal for cessation of hostilities and a return to the path of dialogue and diplomacy, the Prime Minister’s Office said.
He emphasized India’s belief in respect for international law and the territorial integrity and sovereignty of all states, as the basis of the contemporary world order, it added. Read more
More than 3.5 million people have fled abroad from the war in Ukraine, United Nations data showed on Tuesday, leaving Eastern Europe scrambling to provide them with care, schools and jobs even as daily numbers crossing borders ease.
The millions who have left Ukraine since Russia's invasion began have made their way on foot, by rail, bus or car to neighbouring countries such as Poland and Romania before some travel on across Europe. Most, however, have not done so.
While fewer have crossed borders over the past week, the scale of the task of providing homes to those seeking safety in the European Union is becoming increasingly apparent, above all in Eastern and Central Europe.
Poland, home to the biggest Ukrainian Diaspora in the region even before the war, has taken in more than 2.1 million people and while some plan to head elsewhere, the influx has left public services struggling to cope. (Reuters)
Maria had just bought a three-room apartment in Kyiv before Russia invaded Ukraine. Now she is in the Romanian capital Bucharest, rummaging for tiny socks for her four-month-old daughter in a crate of free clothes for refugees. Around her, other mothers who have fled Ukraine were stocking up on donated formula and diapers for their babies.
Maria left Kyiv with her daughter Amelia, seven-year-old son Kirill and her parents after hearing explosions nearby. The maternity hospital where she gave birth four months ago no longer exists. "In Kyiv we used to have a really nice life, but now I don't have anything, just my children," she said. "I lost everything. Every morning when I wake up here and I hear planes, I'm afraid that the war can come here to Romania."
She has rented an apartment in Bucharest and is waiting for her husband, who is working aboard a ship, to return to decide what to do next.
More than 500,000 people from Ukraine have fled to Romania since Feb. 24. Most have already moved further west, but just under 80,000 remain, primarily women with small children. They are acutely aware of the dangers they could face if they remain in Ukraine. (Reuters)
A Russian newspaper has accused hackers of planting fake news on its website after a report briefly appeared there saying nearly 10,000 Russian soldiers had been killed in Ukraine. The incident marked the second apparent breach within a week of the tightly controlled war narrative that the Kremlin promotes through loyal Russian media.
An online article on the site of mass-market paper Komsomolskaya Pravda, still accessible via a web archive tool, quotes the Russian defence ministry as saying 9,861 Russian servicemen have been killed and 16,153 wounded in what Moscow calls its special military operation in Ukraine.
Those figures had been removed from a version of the same article visible on the website on Tuesday.
Instead, an advisory said: 'On March 21, access to the administrator interface was hacked on the Komsomolskaya Pravda website and a fake insert was made in this publication about the situation around the special operation in Ukraine. The inaccurate information was immediately removed.' (Reuters)
A Russian court on Tuesday sentenced jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny to nine years in prison on fraud charges, in a ruling that will keep President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent opponent out of active politics for years ahead.
Navalny, who was also found guilty of contempt of court, is already serving a two-and-a-half year sentence at a prison camp east of Moscow for parole violations related to charges he says were trumped up to thwart his political ambitions. (Reuters)
Ukraine's military warned the public on Tuesday of more indiscriminate Russian shelling from bogged-down Russian troops, and U.S. President Joe Biden issued his strongest warning yet that Russia is considering using chemical weapons.
Amid the devastation caused by Russia's unceasing bombardment of Ukrainian cities, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy highlighted the death of a 96-year-old survivor of Nazi concentration camps, killed in his flat by shelling in Kharkiv.
Nearly four weeks into their invasion, Russian troops have failed to capture any major Ukrainian city and have been halted on nearly all fronts, but are hammering residential districts with artillery, missiles and air strikes.
Russian forces were expected to continue to attack critical infrastructure with "high-precision weapons and indiscriminate munitions”, Ukraine's armed forces said in a statement. (Reuters)
Ukraine's military warned the public of more indiscriminate Russian shelling of critical infrastructure and the government appealed to Russia on Tuesday to allow humanitarian supplies into besieged Mariupol and let desperate civilians out.
* The focal point is Mariupol, a strategically important southern port. There, horror and bewilderment stalk the devastated city, where some bury neighbours in roadside graves.
* Russian artillery continues to blast the eastern cities of Kharkhiv, Sumy and Chernihiv.
* More than 3.5 million people have fled abroad from Ukraine, according to United Nations data, leaving Eastern Europe scrambling to provide them with care, schools and jobs. About 10 million people in all have been displaced by the fighting, almost a quarter of the population.
* About half a million refugees who have fled to Poland need support for mental health disorders.
* The European Union cannot agree on whether or how to impose sanctions on Russia's lucrative energy sector. Germany and the Netherlands say the bloc is currently too dependent on Russian oil and gas to impose an embargo now.
* Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said it would not be possible to negotiate an end to the war without meeting Russian leader Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin said it wants talks to more "active and substantial".
* A Russian newspaper has accused hackers of planting fake news on its website after a report briefly appeared there saying nearly 10,000 Russian soldiers had been killed in Ukraine. It was the second apparent breach within a week of the tightly controlled war narrative that the Kremlin promotes through loyal Russian media.
* The U.N. General Assembly is expected to vote again this week on a motion criticising Russia for the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine. (Reuters)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the Italian parliament on Tuesday that his country was on the brink of surviving its war with Russian forces that he warned wanted to break through to the rest of Europe. "For Russian troops, Ukraine is the gates of Europe, where they want to break in, but barbarism must not be allowed to pass," he said.
Zelenskyy said Mariupol had been devastated by Russian bombardments. City officials say it has no food, medicine, power or running water. “There is nothing left there,” Zelenskiy said in the video address.
As he was speaking, the city council said Russian forces had dropped two large bombs on Mariupol but gave no details of casualties or damage. Reuters could not independently verify the report. “Once again it is clear that the occupiers are not interested in the city of Mariupol. They want to level it to the ground and make it the ashes of dead land,” the council said in a statement. (Reuters)
The US embassy in Kyiv cited Ukraine’s foreign ministry as saying that 2,389 Ukrainian children have been “illegally removed” from the Russian-controlled territories of Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts and taken to Russia. “This is not assistance. It is kidnapping,” it said.
Some of Ukraine's most vulnerable orphans have reached relative safety at a hospital in Kyiv where doctors hope to be able to provide care and perform life-saving surgeries. More than 70 children, including infants, who have spent the past two weeks cared for in bomb shelters in the besieged city of Sumy in northeastern Ukraine have been safely evacuated, local officials said over the weekend.
Most were transferred to Lviv in western Ukraine but some were too sick to continue the journey. Four infants are now being treated at the Kyiv Heart Centre, the country's leading cardiology and cardiac surgery hospital. 'These children have no parents, they lived in an orphanage. All four were born earlier this year,' said Borys Todurov, a cardiac surgeon at Kyiv Heart Centre.
'They found themselves on the frontline, they found themselves in a situation where they needed help but there was no one to help them because the fighting started,' he said, adding that they were unable to travel on to Lviv because they were 'in critical condition.' (Reuters)
UN refugee agency says more than 3.5 million refugees have now fled Ukraine in the wake of Russia's invasion, reports AP.
Ukraine made a new appeal to Russia on Tuesday to allow humanitarian supplies into the besieged southern city of Mariupol and to let civilians leave.
"We demand the opening of a humanitarian corridor for civilians," Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on Ukrainian television.
Vereshchuk also said Russia's armed forces were preventing humanitarian supplies from reaching residents of the southern city of Kherson. Russia has repeatedly denied targeting civilians since invading Ukraine on Feb 24. (Reuters)
Ukrainian forces said they retook a strategically important suburb of the capital early Tuesday, while Russia's attack on the embattled southern port of Mariupol raged unabated, with fleeing civilians describing relentless bombardments and corpses lying in the streets.
While Russian forces carried on with the siege of Mariupol after the southern port city's defenders refused demands to surrender, the Kremlin's ground offensive in other parts of the country advanced slowly or not at all, knocked back by lethal hit-and-run attacks by the Ukrainians.
Early Tuesday, Ukrainian troops forced Russian forces out of the Kyiv suburb of Makariv after a fierce battle, Ukraine's Defence Ministry said. The regained territory allowed Ukrainian forces to retake control of a key highway and block Russian troops from surrounding Kyiv from the northwest.
But the Defence Ministry said Russian forces battling toward Kyiv were able to partially take other northwest suburbs, Bucha, Hostomel and Irpin, some of which had been under attack almost since Russia's military invaded late last month.
With troops bogged down in many places, Russian President Vladimir Putin's forces are increasingly concentrating their air power and artillery on Ukraine's cities and the civilians living there, killing uncounted numbers and sending millions fleeing. (AP)