A service member of pro-Russian troops in uniform without insignia jumps off a tank with the letters "Z" painted on it outside a residential building which was damaged during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the separatist-controlled town of Volnovakha in the Donetsk region, Ukraine March 11, 2022. (Reuters)Russia Ukraine War Live Updates: Air raid sirens blared across most Ukrainian cities on Saturday morning urging people to seek shelters, local media reported, after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the war had reached a “strategic turning point”. Russian forces appeared to be regrouping, possibly for a fresh offensive which could target the capital Kyiv, Ukraine’s military and Britian’s defence ministry said.
As Russia called for a Security Council meeting on the issue of biological laboratories in Ukraine, India said any matters relating to obligations under the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention should be addressed through consultation and cooperation between the parties concerned.
Meanwhile, three flights carrying 674 people, mostly students, evacuated from the conflict-ridden city of Sumy in northeastern Ukraine landed in New Delhi on Friday. Although there was no official word from the government about the completion of the evacuation process from Ukraine, these three flights from Poland’s Rzeszow were considered among the last ones.
People carry their belongings after fleeing the war from neighbouring Ukraine, at the border crossing in Palanca, Moldova, March 11, 2022. (AP)
The column of Russian tanks rumbled along a main highway to the east of Kyiv, between two rows of houses in a small town — a vulnerable target.
Soon, Ukrainian forces were sending artillery shells raining down on the Russian convoy, while soldiers ambushed them with anti-tank missiles, leaving a line of charred, burning tanks.
Brovary is just 8 miles from downtown Kyiv, and the skirmish on the M01 Highway on Wednesday illustrated how close Russian forces have come as they continue to tighten a noose on the nation’s capital — the biggest prize of all in the war. The Russians on Friday continued to try to close in on Kyiv, with combat to the northwest and east that consisted mostly of fierce, seesaw battles for control of small towns and roads.
US soldiers continued to deploy Friday to Europe, joining thousands already sent overseas to support NATO allies amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
About 130 soldiers from the 87th Division Sustainment Support Battalion, 3rd Division Sustainment Brigade, lined up with rucksacks inside a terminal at Hunter Airfield in Savannah before marching outside and boarding their chartered flight. It departed amid grey skies and rain.
The battalion's soldiers are in addition to the estimated 3,800 soldiers from the Army's 3rd Infantry Division who have deployed in recent weeks from nearby Fort Stewart, said Lt. Col. Lindsey Elder, the division's spokesperson. The Pentagon has ordered roughly 12,000 total service members from various US bases to Europe, with a couple of thousand more already stationed abroad shifting to other European countries. (AP)
Russian forces appeared to make progress from the northeast in their slow fight toward Ukraine's capital, while tanks and artillery pounded places already under siege with shelling so heavy that residents of one city were unable to bury the growing number of dead.
In a multi-front attack on Kyiv, the Russians' push from the northeast appeared to be advancing, a US defense official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to give the US assessment of the fight. Combat units were moved up from the rear as the forces closed to less than 30 km rom the capital. (AP)
New areas in western Ukraine came under attack Friday, as Ukrainian authorities said Russian airstrikes hit in the western cities of Ivano-Frankiivsk and Lutsk — far from Russia's main targets elsewhere in the country. Russia said it used long-range weapons to put military airfields in the two cities "out of action."
Lutsk Mayor Ihor Polishchuk said four servicemen were killed and another six were wounded. New commercial satellite images appeared to show Russian artillery firing on residential areas that lie between Russian forces and the capital.
The images from Maxar Technologies show muzzle flashes as well as impact craters and burning homes in the town of Moschun, outside Kyiv, the company said. Ukrainian officials accused Russia of damaging a cancer hospital and several residential buildings in the southern city of Mykolaiv with heavy artillery.
Three more Russian airstrikes hit the industrial city of Dnipro in eastern Ukraine on Friday, killing at least one person, according to the Ukrainian interior ministry. Thousands of civilians and soldiers on both sides are believed to have been killed in the invasion. (AP)
The Russian military struck Ukrainian cities far from the main battle lines Friday, pressing its strategy of bombing Ukraine into submission as the country plunged deeper into misery and privation more than two weeks into the war.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has demonstrated in past conflicts in Syria and Chechnya a willingness not only to bomb heavily populated areas indiscriminately but also to use civilian casualties as leverage against his enemies.
On Friday, evidence mounted that the Russian military was doing exactly that in Ukraine. A shoe factory, a psychiatric hospital and an apartment building were among the latest civilian targets hit by Russian forces, Ukrainian officials said.
Interpol is restricting Russia's ability to input information directly into the global police organisation's vast network, deciding that communications must first be checked by the general secretariat in Lyon, France.
The French Foreign Ministry said Friday that the beefed-up surveillance measures follow "multiple suspicions of attempted fraudulent use" of the Interpol system in recent days, but it did not elaborate.
Interpol stressed in a statement Thursday that it is maintaining its pledge of neutrality amid war between two of its members, triggered by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. But it said that "heightened supervision and monitoring measures" of Moscow's National Central Bureau were needed "to prevent any potential misuse of Interpol's channels" like targeting individuals in or outside Ukraine. (AP)
As the war in Ukraine continues, the international community is desperately trying to find a way to facilitate peace talks between Russia and Ukraine. The two sides have held three rounds of talks so far, but no long-term results have come out of these negotiations so far.
Many countries have repeatedly looked to China to help facilitate more meaningful negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv, but Beijing hasn’t offered any clear signal about whether it is willing to get more involved in the unfolding crisis in Ukraine or not.
Danil Bochkov, an expert at the Russian International Affairs Council in Moscow, said it is unlikely that China will agree to voluntarily play the role of mediator between Ukraine and Russia as it could put Beijing at the center of international scrutiny.
US Vice-President Kamala Harris was slammed for breaking into laughter after she was asked whether America will take in Ukrainian refugees. Many on social media dubbed her reaction as “insensitive.
The incident happened when Harris was speaking alongside Polish President Andrzej Duda at a press conference in Warsaw, where she was demonstrating US support for NATO’s eastern allies. “Is the United States willing to make a specific allocation for Ukrainian refugees?” a journalist is heard asking Harris. “And for President Duda, I wanted to know if you think and if you asked the United States to specifically accept more refugees,” she continued.
Chelsea Football Club is facing a financial crisis after their bank accounts were reportedly frozen by Barclays following Roman Abramovich’s sanctions.
According to a report in Sky Sports, the London-based club also had their credit cards frozen.
The reason behind the move is reportedly because the bank needs time to assess the licence Chelsea has been given to continue football-related activities.
“It is a miracle we made it back,” says Mohit Kumar, 20. “It’s surreal…watching a war unfold from your hostel window. There was continuous shelling. Sirens went off after every 4-5 hours… we saw jets being downed.”
The third-year medical student from Sumy State University was among the 242 Indians who on the first of three Ukraine evacuation flights.
Around 600 Indian students, all of whom returned Friday, were holed up at the university in the northeast Ukrainian city, just about 60 km from the Russia border.
The United States imposed sanctions on Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg, three family members of President Vladimir Putin's spokesperson and lawmakers in the latest punishment for Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Those hit by Friday's sanctions include 10 people on the board of VTB Bank, the second-largest lender in Russia, and 12 members of the Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament, the US Treasury Department said in a statement.
"Treasury continues to hold Russian officials to account for enabling Putin's unjustified and unprovoked war," Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said.
Putin's spokesperson Dmitry Peskov was targeted on March 3. Friday's measures extend to his wife and two adult children. They lead "luxurious lifestyles that are incongruous with Peskov's civil servant salary," the Treasury said in a news release. The Kremlin did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment. (Reuters)
The United States imposed sanctions on Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg, three family members of President Vladimir Putin's spokesperson and lawmakers in the latest punishment for Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Those hit by Friday's sanctions include 10 people on the board of VTB Bank, the second-largest lender in Russia, and 12 members of the Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament, the US Treasury Department said in a statement. "Treasury continues to hold Russian officials to account for enabling Putin's unjustified and unprovoked war," Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said.
Putin's spokesperson Dmitry Peskov was targeted on March 3. Friday's measures extend to his wife and two adult children. They lead "luxurious lifestyles that are incongruous with Peskov's civil servant salary," the Treasury said in a news release.The Kremlin did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment. (Reuters)
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia on Friday of kidnapping the mayor of the city of Melitopol, equating it to the actions of "ISIS terrorists."
"They have transitioned into a new stage of terror, in which they try to physically liquidate representatives of Ukraine's lawful local authorities," Zelenskyy said in a video address Friday evening.
Kirill Timoshenko, the deputy head of Ukraine's presidential office, posted a video on the social media site Telegram which he said showed a group of armed men carrying the mayor, Ivan Fedorov, across a square. Russian forces captured the southern port city of Melitopol, with a population of 150,000, on February 26. (AP)
A Russian law giving Moscow stronger powers to crack down on independent journalism is placing Russia under a "total information blackout" on the war in Ukraine, UN independent experts said Friday.
Moscow, whose forces invaded Ukraine on February 24, last week blocked Facebook and other websites and passed a law that imposed a prison term of up to 15 years for spreading intentionally "fake" news about the military.
The move prompted the BBC, Bloomberg and other foreign media to suspend reporting in the country, although the BBC said it was resuming English-language reporting from Russia on March 8 because of the "urgent need to report from inside Russia". (Reuters)