Smoke rises in the sky in Lviv, western Ukraine on Saturday (AP)Russia-Ukraine War Crisis Live: ‘Swift and Pushing’ costs are the only things that will get Russia to change its course, US President Joe Biden said at Warsaw. He also said that Putin should not be in power adding that Ukraine will never be a victory for Russia. Meanwhile, three explosions were reported near Ukraine’s western city of Lviv as US President Joe Biden wrapped up his visit to neighbouring Poland on Saturday, the Associated Press reported. “There have been three powerful explosions near Lviv…Everyone should keep calm and stay indoors,” city council official Igor Zinkevych said in a post on Facebook.
The city of over 700,000 roughly 45 miles east of Ukraine’s border with Poland has been largely spared of major attacks in recent weeks, though Russian forces fired missiles on a military training center near Lviv two weeks ago that killed 35 people. The city has become kind of a safe harbor for many Ukrainians fleeing their ravaged cities and towns, with an estimated 200,000 of them thought to be sheltering there.
Earlier in the day, Biden met the Ukrainian foreign and defence ministers at the Marriott Hotel in central Warsaw in his first talks with top Kyiv officials since Russia’s invasion began. He also met Ukrainian refugees and humanitarian aid workers during a visit to PGE Narodowy Stadium in Warsaw.
A Ukrainian firefighter sprays water inside a house destroyed by shelling, in Kyiv, Ukraine (AP photo)
The United States intends to provide Ukraine with an additional $100 million in civilian security assistance, the State Department said on Saturday.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement that the assistance would be to build the capacity of the Ukrainian ministry of internal affairs with a view to aid "border security, sustain civil law enforcement functions, and safeguard critical governmental infrastructure." (Reuters)
Minutes after US President Joe Buden's speech in Warsaw, a White House official said Biden was not calling for regime change in Russia, Reuters reported. In his speech, Biden had said, 'For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power.'
US President Joe Biden on Saturday called for Russian leader Vladimir Putin's removal, saying, "For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power."
Biden also used a speech in Poland's capital to make a vociferous defense of liberal democracy and the NATO military alliance, while also saying Europe must steel itself for a long fight against Russian aggression.
In what was billed by the White House as a major address, Biden spoke in front of the Royal Castle, one of Warsaw's notable landmarks that was badly damaged during War II. Read More
'Ukraine will never be a victory for Russia,' said US President Joe Biden during his speech at Warsaw.
Nato is a defensive alliance, it has never sought Russia's demise, US president Joe Biden said in Warsaw. He added that American forces are in Europe to defend NATO allies, not to engage with Russian forces.
Maksym Kozytskyy, head of the Lviv region's military administration, confirmed another hit near the city. “There were three more powerful explosions. The air alarm remains! Stay in the shelters, stay calm,” he said. Krishn Kaushik reports from Lviv.
A video of an air alarm that goes off in the middle of an opera in Lviv. Several powerful explosions were heard near Lviv according to reports.
On Saturday, several powerful explosions rang out near Lviv and air raid sirens sounded, the regional governor, Maxym Kozytsky, said on Facebook. He didn't say what was struck.
The city of over 700,000 roughly 45 miles east of Ukraine’s border with Poland has been largely spared of major attacks in recent weeks, though Russian forces fired missiles on a military training center near Lviv two weeks ago that killed 35 people. The city has become kind of a safe harbor for many Ukrainians fleeing their ravaged cities and towns, with an estimated 200,000 of them thought to be sheltering there.
But with Russia continuing to strike and encircle urban populations, from Chernihiv and Kharkiv in the north to Mariupol in the south, Ukrainian authorities said Saturday that they cannot trust statements from the Russian military Friday suggesting that the Kremlin planned to concentrate its remaining strength on wresting the entirety of Ukraine's eastern Donbas region from Ukrainian control. The region has been partially controlled by Russia-backed separatists since 2014. (AP)
Three explosions were reported near Ukraine’s western city of Lviv as US President Joe Biden wrapped up his visit to neighbouring Poland on Saturday. “There have been three powerful explosions near Lviv…Everyone should keep calm and stay indoors,” city council official Igor Zinkevych said in a post on Facebook. (Reuters)
President Joe Biden meets with Ukrainian refugees and humanitarian aid workers during a visit to PGE Narodowy Stadium on Saturday, in Warsaw. (Photos by AP)
Russian forces have taken control of a town where workers at the defunct Chernobyl nuclear plant live, the governor of Kyiv region said, and fighting was reported in the streets of the besieged southern port of Mariupol.
* Russian forces have taken control of the town of Slavutych, where workers at the defunct Chernobyl nuclear plant live, the governor of Kyiv region, Oleksandr Pavlyuk, said.
* The mayor of the besieged southeastern port of Mariupol, Vadym Boichenko, said the situation in city remained critical, with street fighting taking place in its centre.
* Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu was seen chairing an army meeting and discussing weapons supplies in a video posted by his ministry, the first time he had publicly been shown speaking for more than two weeks.
* Russia said on Friday the first phase of its military operation in Ukraine was mostly complete and it would focus on "liberating" the Donbass region.
* U.S. President Joe Biden spoke with top Ukrainian government officials in Warsaw during his visit to Poland to show support for the NATO alliance's eastern flank in the face of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
* Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said agreement has been reached on the establishment of 10 humanitarian corridors on Saturday to evacuate civilians from front line hotspots in Ukrainian towns and cities.
* More than 100,000 people still need to be evacuated from Mariupol, Vereshchuk said.
* President Biden said what is happening in Ukraine will change the history of the 21st century, and we will work together to ensure that this change is in our favour, in Ukraine's favour, in the favour of the democratic world," Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba after meeting Biden in Warsaw. (Reuters)
Nights are spent huddling underground from Russian strikes pounding their encircled city into rubble. Daylight hours are devoted to hunting down drinkable water and running the risk of standing in line for the little food available as shells and bombs rain down.
This is what now passes for life in Chernihiv, a city in northern Ukraine where death is everywhere. It isn't — yet — quite as synonymous with atrocious human suffering as the pulverized southern city of Mariupol has become in the 31 days since Russia invaded Ukraine.
But similarly besieged, blockaded and pounded from afar by Russian troops, Chernihiv's remaining residents are terrified that with each blast, each bomb and every additional body that lies uncollected on the streets, they're caught in the same macabre trap of unescapable killings and destruction.
“In basements at night, everyone is talking about one thing: Chernihiv becoming (the) next Mariupol,” said 38-year-old resident Ihar Kazmerchak, a linguistics scholar. He spoke to The Associated Press by cellphone, amid incessant beeps signaling that his battery was dying. The city is without power, running water and heating. At pharmacies, the lists of medicines no longer available grow longer by the day.
On Wednesday, Russian bombs destroyed Chernihiv’s main bridge over the Desna River on the road leading to Kyiv, Ukraine's capital; on Friday, artillery shells rendered the remaining pedestrian bridge impassable, cutting off the last possible route for people to get out or for food and medical supplies to get in.
Refugees from Chernihiv who fled the encirclement and reached Poland this week spoke of broad and terrible destruction, with bombs flattening at least two schools in the city center and strikes also hitting a stadium, museums, kindergartens and many homes. (AP)
NATO Deputy-General Secretary Mircea Geoana says that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s month-old “barbaric war” against Ukraine is a war he cannot win.
In an interview with The Associated Press, the former Romanian foreign minister and ambassador to the United States added that NATO would be “forced to take appropriate measures” in the event of a chemical or nuclear attack, which follows a string of ominous comments from Moscow officials who refuse to rule out their use. He declined to say what those measures would be.
“NATO is a defensive alliance, but also it’s a nuclear alliance,” he said. “If they will be using chemical weapons or other kinds of higher-end systems against Ukraine, this will be changing fundamentally the nature of the war that Mr. Putin has waged against Ukraine.”
“I can guarantee that NATO is ready to respond proportionately,” he added.
Geoana said Russia’s attack on a theater in the besieged port city of Mariupol, which Ukrainian authorities said Friday killed about 300 civilians, is “another proof that Putin’s war is a war that is unprovoked, illogical, and also barbarian.”
“We hope that Mr. Putin will not go even further down the road of war crimes, and even more devastation against a sovereign nation,” he said. (AP)
When bombs began falling on the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv late last month, forcing Vera Lytovchenko to shelter in the basement of her apartment building, she took her violin with her, hoping it might bring comfort.
In the weeks since, Lytovchenko, a violinist for the Kharkiv Theater of Opera and Ballet, has given impromptu concerts almost every day for a group of 11 neighbours. In the cold, cramped basement, with nothing in the way of decoration except candles and yellow tulips, she has performed Vivaldi, Tchaikovsky and Ukrainian folk songs.
“My music can show that we are still human,” she said in an interview. “We need not just food or water. We need our culture. We are not like animals now. We still have our music, and we still have our hope.”
As their cities have come under siege by Russian forces, Ukrainian artists have turned to music for comfort and connection, filling streets, apartment buildings and train stations with the sounds of Beethoven and Mozart. (NYT) Read more
US President Biden meets Ukrainian foreign, defence ministers in Warsaw, reports AFP quoting the White House.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pushed for further talks with Russia as Moscow signalled it was scaling back its ambitions to focus on territory claimed by Russian-backed separatists in the east.
* Russian forces have taken control of the town of Slavutych, where workers at the defunct Chernobyl nuclear plant live, the governor of Kyiv region, Oleksandr Pavlyuk, said.
* The mayor of the besieged southeastern port of Mariupol, Vadym Boichenko, said the situation in city remained critical, with street fighting taking place in its centre.
* Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu was seen chairing an army meeting and discussing weapons supplies in a video posted by his ministry, the first time he had publicly been shown speaking for more than two weeks.
* Russia said on Friday the first phase of its military operation in Ukraine was mostly complete and it would focus on "liberating" the Donbass region.
* The mayor of Mariupol said he had spoken to France's ambassador to Ukraine about options for evacuating civilians, after French President Emmanuel Macron said he would propose to Russia a plan to help people leave.
* Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said agreement has been reached on the establishment of 10 humanitarian corridors on Saturday to evacuate civilians from front line hotspots in Ukrainian towns and cities.
Ukraine's Zelenskiy called on energy producing countries to increase output so that Russia cannot use its oil and gas wealth to "blackmail" other nations.
* It is "foolish" to believe that Western sanctions against Russian businesses could have any effect on the Moscow government, Russian ex-president and deputy head of security council Dmitry Medvedev was quoted as saying on Friday.
* U.S. President Joe Biden is due to give a speech in the late afternoon in Warsaw saying the "free world" opposes Russia's invasion of Ukraine. (Reuters)
For her 4th birthday, Daria got a bus ride out of Irpin. Her family was among the last to leave the town to Kyiv’s northwest, the scene of some of the worst fighting in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. (AFP)
US President Joe Biden will meet the Ukrainian foreign and defence ministers in Warsaw, news agency AFP reported quoting the White House. Biden is due to give a speech in the late afternoon on Saturday in Warsaw saying the “free world” opposes Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He will argue in a speech that there is unity among major economies on the need to stop Vladimir Putin, the White House has stated.
In Lviv in western Ukraine, people fleeing the Russian siege of Mariupol describe the "horror" of the situation in the city. More than 2,000 civilians have been killed there, according to the latest figures from the town hall.