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Summary
Before we launch a new blog for the day, here is a comprehensive rundown on where the crisis currently stands:
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Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy accused Russian forces of seizing a humanitarian convoy near Mangush west of Mariupol. “Employees of the state emergency service and bus drivers have been taken captive,” he said, adding that 100,000 people remained in the city living “in inhumane conditions. In a total blockade. Without food, water, medication. Under constant shelling, under constant bombing”.
- Russian forces are now inside Mariupol, a senior US defence official said. Two “super-powerful bombs” rocked the city on Tuesday even as rescue efforts were ongoing, local authorities said.
- Russia’s combat power in Ukraine has declined below 90% of its pre-invasion levels for the first time since its attack began, a senior US defence official said on Tuesday, suggesting heavy losses of weaponry and growing casualties and describing morale issues, command-and-control problems, a reliance on conscripts and a stalled advance to Kyiv.
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Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused to rule out the use of nuclear weapons in an interview with CNN on Tuesday. Peskov told the broadcaster that such arms could be used if Russia faced an “existential threat”. Russia has the world’s largest stockpile of nuclear warheads.
- The Pentagon later condemned Peskov’s refusal to rule out the use of nuclear weapons.
- US President Joe Biden is expected to announce new sanctions against Russia and new measures to tighten existing ones when he visits Brussels this week.
- The deputy head of Kyiv’s police force has accused Russia of using white phosphorous munitions in the city of Kramatorsk in Donetsk. Oleksiy Biloshytskiy shared online footage, which could not be independently verified, of material burning fiercely underneath a pile of aggregate. “Another use of phosphorus ammunitions in Kramatorsk,” he said.
- Zelenskiy will speak virtually at the Nato summit in Brussels on Thursday, where US president Joe Biden is also planning to push for new sanctions against Russia. “Three important summits are scheduled this week: G7, Nato and the EU,” he said. “New packages of sanctions, new support.”
- About 300,000 people in the occupied southern city of Kherson are running out of food and medical supplies, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s foreign ministry said. Kherson was the first major Ukrainian city to fall into Russian hands since the invasion began on 24 February.
- Russia plans to unleash a “great terror” on Kherson by kidnapping residents and taking them across the Russian border, an FSB whistleblower has claimed. The Kremlin was no longer willing to “play nicely” with protesters in the Ukrainian city, a letter said.
- Russian forces have only three further days of fuel, food and ammunition left to conduct the war after a breakdown in their supply chains, Ukrainian military commanders have claimed. The statements were described as “plausible” by western officials.
- Russian forces have “kidnapped” 2,389 children from the Russian-controlled territories of Luhansk and Donetsk, the US embassy in Kyiv has said, citing figures by Ukraine’s foreign ministry. The embassy said: “This is not assistance. It is kidnapping.”
- The Ukrainian health minister, Viktor Lyashko, said 10 hospitals had been completely destroyed since Russia invaded. Other hospitals could not be restocked with medicines and supplies because of nearby fighting, the minister added.
- The UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres, said it is time for Russia to end its “absurd” and “unwinnable” war in Ukraine, as the EU prepared to set up a “trust fund” aimed at helping Kyiv repel the invasion and rebuild afterwards. Speaking to reporters at the UN’s headquarters in New York, Guterres said the war was “going nowhere, fast”.
- 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.
Russian forces have “looted and destroyed” a laboratory at the site of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, Ukrainian officials said.
“Russian occupiers illegally seized the newest laboratory,” the State Agency of Ukraine for Exclusion Zone Management said in a statement late on Tuesday.
The laboratory processes radioactive waste and contains “highly active samples and samples of radionuclides” which are now “in the hands of the enemy” the agency added.
The lab was described as a “unique complex with powerful analytical capabilities” unavailable elsewhere in Europe.
The Russians captured the plant in the first few days of the war, holding workers there hostage for weeks before some were released.
Pentagon condemns Kremlin refusal to rule out use of nuclear weapons
The Pentagon has condemned Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov’s refusal to rule out the use of nuclear weapons during the Ukraine conflict.
Russian President Vladimir Putin raised the threat of using nuclear weapons and in an interview with CNN on Tuesday, Peskov refused to rule out their use.
Peskov told the broadcaster that such arms could be used if Russia faced an “existential threat”. Russia has the world’s largest stockpile of nuclear warheads.
President Putin has raised the threat of using nuclear weapons – and his spokesperson Dmitry Peskov refused to rule out their use, in an interview with me tonight. pic.twitter.com/uxQqncLGYN
— Christiane Amanpour (@amanpour) March 22, 2022
US department of defense spokesman John Kirby said Moscow’s nuclear remarks were “dangerous”.
Speaking to reporters, he said:
It’s not the way a responsible nuclear power should act.”
However, Kirby added that Pentagon officials “haven’t seen anything that would lead us to conclude that we need to change our strategic deterrent posture”.
“We monitor this as best we can every day,” he added.
Former US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta also criticised Peskov’s comments.
“I don’t see how you can see it any other way but as dangerous when Russia is looking for a possible excuse for the use of low-yield nuclear weapons,” Panetta told CNN.
“And basing it frankly on a very false premise that somehow Russia is being threatened. I think that presents a real concern that Russia at least is considering that possibility.”
Stock markets have risen sharply in Asian trade on Wednesday thanks to wider uncertainty about the state of the US economy and the possibility of interest rate rises.
The prospect of increased borrowing costs in the US means that American government bonds have dropped in value, sending investors scurrying to put their money into stocks and shares – despite a lot of volatility in the financial markets because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Amid alarm about an escalating global conflict, some fear the US Federal Reserve could cause a recession by increasing rates as it tries to tackle inflation.
Leading economist Mohamed El-Erian told Bloomberg the Fed’s credibility was being eroded, and thatit “appears to have a choice between risking a recession or prolonging inflation...This awful trade-off is familiar to too many developing countries”.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.6%, with Hong Kong, Seoul and Sydney all registering similar sized gains, Reuters reports.
The index is at its highest since 4 March. Japan’s Nikkei jumped 2.5% to touch a two-month top and the moves follow a gain of 1.1% for the S&P 500 and nearly 2% for the Nasdaq on Tuesday.
Bond markets dipped further with two-year Treasury yields are up 76 basis points (bps) in March and 10-year yields are up almost 60 bps to 2.4154%, the highest since 2019. When the yield or interest rate goes up, the value of bonds goes down.
The invasion has wreaked havoc across all markets, with a big jump in volatility. Commodities such as oil, aluminium and wheat, for example, have soared because of fears of scarcity and loss of supply from Russia and Ukraine.
Updated
US president Joe Biden will travel to Europe for a meeting with leaders of Nato, the EU and G7 in Brussels on Thursday, where he will announce more US aid to help tackle the growing refugee crisis in Poland and other eastern European countries, the White House has said.
In a statement, the White House said Biden will outline “further American contributions to a coordinated humanitarian response to ease the suffering of civilians inside Ukraine and to respond to the growing flow of refugees”.
Updated
Elon Musk’s Space X has reportedly sent “thousands” of Starlink dishes to Ukraine in order to bolster its internet connectivity.
Company president Gwynne Shotwell told CNBC on Tuesday that the kits were largely funded by private sources.
Starlink dishes were initially sent to Ukraine shortly after Russia invaded and have been installed across the country, including a rooftop in the southern port of Odesa.
In recent weeks, internet access across Ukraine came under cyber attacks, various media outlets reported.
“I’m proud that we were able to provide the terminals to folks in Ukraine. It’s been enormously helpful, I think, to ensure people are still communicating,” Shotwell said during a panel at the Satellite 2022 conference in Washington, DC.
Estonia’s former president has said he is hosting two Ukrainian refugees at his own private house.
In a tweet on Tuesday, Toomas Hendrik said two refugees from Kyiv are staying at his home.
I rarely post personal news but two unrelated events since Saturday have taken up somewhat more than the usual nonstop routine:
— toomas hendrik ilves (@IlvesToomas) March 21, 2022
1. I brought to Estonia and have put up at my house 2 Ukrainian refugees from Kyiv.
2. I finally came down with Covid. Tho 3x vaxxed it really sucks
Zelenskiy says Mariupol under 'constant bombing', accuses Russia of seizing humanitarian convoy
In Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s nightly national address, the Ukrainian president provided an update on the situation unfolding in Mariupol, saying there are still 100,000 people in the city living in “inhumane” conditions while accusing Russian forces of seizing a humanitarian convoy near Mangush, just 20km south-west of Mariupol.
As of today, there are about 100,000 people in the city. In inhumane conditions. In a total blockade. Without food, water, medication. Under constant shelling, under constant bombing.”
The president added that officials are continuing to attempt to organise humanitarian corridors for Mariupol residents but efforts have been sabotaged by continued shelling.
Sadly, almost all of our efforts are sabotaged by Russian occupants, by [their] shelling or deliberate terror.
Today, one of the humanitarian convoys was seized by occupants on an arranged route near Mangush.
Employees of the State Emergency Service and bus drivers have been taken captive. We are doing everything to set our people free and unblocked the movement of humanitarian cargo.”
Despite the difficulties, Zelenskiy said 7,026 people were able to be saved from Mariupol with efforts continuing to arrange humanitarian corridors in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Zaporizhia, and Luhansk regions.
Zelenskiy wrapped up his nightly address by promising he was continuing to work “to push Russia towards peace”.
We are continuing to work on various levels to push Russia towards peace, towards the end of this brutal war. Ukrainian representatives are continuing negotiations that basically take place daily. It is very hard, sometimes, scandalous. But step by step we are moving forward.”
Zelenskiy also noted the three summits scheduled for this week: G7, Nato and the EU.
New packages of sanctions, new support. We’ll keep working and will keep fighting as much as we can. Until the end. Courageously and openly. On all of those platforms. With full energy. With all our strength. And we will not get tired. We will have rest when we win. And it will definitely happen.”
Updated
Recently released satellite images taken by private US space technology company Maxar Technologies show scenes of devastation across the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol.
Multiple destroyed apartment buildings are seen burning buildings in the Livoberezhnyi district as thousands of residents sought to escape the Russian siege of the city on Tuesday.
Biden to announce new sanctions on members of Russia's Duma
US President Joe Biden is expected to announce new sanctions against Russia and new measures to tighten existing ones when he visits Brussels this week.
The United States is preparing sanctions on more than 300 members of Russia’s lower house of parliament as soon as Thursday, according to The Wall Street Journal, which cited unnamed officials and internal documents.
“No final decisions have been made about who we will sanction and how many we will sanction,” said a White House spokesperson.
“We will have additional sanctions measures to announce that will be rolled out in conjunction with our allies on Thursday when the President has the opportunity to speak with them.”
Biden’s Europe trip is also set to include an announcement on joint action to enhance energy security on the continent, which is highly reliant on Russian gas, and a visit to Poland to show solidarity with Ukraine’s neighbour.
Scenes of normality contrast with the catastrophic attacks Russia continues to launch on Ukraine.
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.
The G20 along with the smaller Group of Seven - comprising just the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, Japan and Britain - is a key international platform for coordinating everything from climate change action to cross-border debt.
According to Reuters, a senior G7 source said:
There have been discussions about whether it’s appropriate for Russia to be part of the G20.
If Russia remains a member, it will become a less useful organisation.”
Asked whether US President Joe Biden would move to push Russia out of the G20 when he meets with allies in Brussels this week, national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters at the White House Tuesday: “We believe that it cannot be business as usual for Russia in international institutions and in the international community.”
However, the United States plans to consult with its allies before any other pronouncements are made, he said.
A European Union source separately confirmed the discussions about Russia’s status at forthcoming meetings of the G20, whose rotating chair is currently held by Indonesia.
“It has been made very clear to Indonesia that Russia’s presence at forthcoming ministerial meetings would be highly problematic for European countries,” said the source, adding there was however no clear process for excluding a country.
US defense officials have praised the bravery and courage of the Ukrainian people in their fight against the Russian invasion.
A senior US official described the Ukrainian defence as one of “bravery and courage and just the absolute grit that you see coming out of the Ukrainian people”.
“They’re being very creative, very nimble,” the official said, adding that Ukrainians “have been defending their airspace with great dexterity”.
Referring to Russia’s continued catastrophic attacks, the official said:
And rather than demoralising the Ukrainians, I think you’ve all seen that this kind of violence has only motivated them more, which means that they’re resisting more, which means the Russians continue to get frustrated and flummoxed and kind of stuck where they are.”
However, the official did some credit to the work of the United States and other western nations, saying:
So this stiff defence that they’re putting up did not just happen by accident. And while a lot of it is due to their bravery and their courage and just the absolute grit that you see coming out of the Ukrainian people, it also is a reflection of a lot of work by the United States and other western nations to provide them this competency as well as the capability.
So they get -- they must get and should get -- the lion’s share of the credit here. But obviously the tools that they’re using, in many cases, came from outside the country, the United States as well as other donor nations.”
More from the US department of defense briefing.
A senior US defense official has given a critical review of Russia’s ability to take over Ukraine, describing morale issues, command-and-control problems, a reliance on conscripts and a stalled advance to Kyiv.
The official said:
We still hold them about 30 kilometers to the east of Kyiv, which is where they were last week.
The official also described morale issues inside Russian ranks
Anecdotally, we still assess that the Russians are experiencing morale issues at various levels and at various places ... They did not expect this level of resistance.
Describing a reliance on conscript soldiers, the official added:
Some of them were not told what they were actually going to be doing inside Ukraine. We know they relied on conscripts, and they still do. I mean, still it has been largely a conscript army. And so these are very young men who haven’t -- don’t have a long experience with soldiering and -- and we believe that all those factors are combining to affect their morale.”
Additionally, the official said Russian forces continue to be plagued by logistical problems.
We believe that they are having command-and-control problems just in terms of communications. And again, this is another one of those logistic/sustainment issues that we’ve seen them struggle with. I mean, they just weren’t fully-prepared for operations of this intensity for this long on so many different multiple lines of attack, and so we do see them having some command-and-control difficulties, both in terms of a military operational concept issue -- in other words, being able to integrate air to ground, being able to make decisions in real-time effectively, but also from a physical perspective, just in terms of their ability to communicate over established links.”
Ultimately, the official said Russia has not achieved their objectives, which is population centres so that they could occupy and take over Ukraine.
So what have they gained in -- in now 26 days? They got Melitopol’, they got Berdyans’k and they got Kherson. That’s it. They don’t have Kyiv, they don’t have Kharkiv, they don’t have Mariupol, although -- obviously, you guys know this better than me -- I mean, there’s a lot of fighting going on there.”
Updated
Russia’s combat power declined to below 90% of pre-invasion levels: US official
Russia’s combat power in Ukraine has declined below 90% of its pre-invasion levels for the first time since its attack began, a senior US defence 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 24 February invasion, along with enough aircraft, artillery, tanks and other firepower for its full-scale attack.
The US defence official, on condition of anonymity and according to a transcript published by the US department of defense, told reporters:
We assess Russian combat power at just below 90 percent.
They’re expending an awful lot, but they also built up an awful lot since the early fall, and they just have a lot available to them.
For the first time they may be just a little bit below 90 percent.”
The official did not provide evidence for the claims.
They have put a lot into this fight, and they still have a lot left. I -- we recognise that they are taking casualties every day. They are losing aircraft. They are losing armour and vehicles, no doubt about that -- tanks, APCs, artillery units, helicopters, fixed-wing jets. They’re losing, -- you know, I wouldn’t say they’re losing everything every day in those categories, but we do see them continue to suffer casualties and losses, but they had -- they built up an awful lot of combat power, as we said way back in the fall, that Mr. Putin had arranged an oppressive alignment of combined-arms capability that he still has the vast majority available to him.”
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan estimated on Tuesday the number of Russian casualties was in the thousands but declined to offer a precise figure.
100,000 people in Mariupol living in 'inhumane' conditions, Zelenskiy says
Ukrainian president Zelenskiy also provided an update on the situation unfolding in Mariupol, saying there are still 100,000 people in the city living in “inhumane” conditions.
As of today, there are about 100,000 people in the city. In inhumane conditions. In a total blockade. Without food, water, medication. Under constant shelling, under constant bombing.”
The president added that officials are continuing to attempt to organise humanitarian corridors for Mariupol residents.
Sadly, almost all of our efforts are sabotaged by Russian occupants, by [their] shelling or deliberate terror.
Today, one of the humanitarian convoys was seized by occupants on an arranged route near Mangush.
Employees of the State Emergency Service and bus drivers have been taken captive. We are doing everything to set our people free and unblocked the movement of humanitarian cargo.”
Despite the difficulties, Zelenskiy said 7,026 people were able to be saved from Mariupol.
Updated
Russian president Vladimir Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron have continued talks, the French government has confirmed.
In a statement, the Elysée Palace said that the pair spoke by phone on Tuesday to continue Macron’s previous conversations with Putin regarding a ceasefire and ongoing safety concerns. The statement read:
There is currently no agreement but President Macron remains convinced of the need to continue his efforts. There is no other way out than a ceasefire and Russia’s good faith negotiations with Ukraine.”
It added that Macron “stands alongside Ukraine”.
Macron also spoke on Tuesday to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi ahead of the summit in Brussels on Thursday.
Updated
Hello it’s Samantha Lock with you and we continue to deliver all the latest breaking developments in Ukraine.
Ukrainian president Zelenskiy wrapped up his nightly address by promising he was continuing to work “to push Russia towards peace”.
We are continuing to work on various levels to push Russia towards peace, towards the end of this brutal war. Ukrainian representatives are continuing negotiations that basically take place daily. It is very hard, sometimes, scandalous. But step by step we are moving forward.”
Zelenskiy also noted the three summits scheduled for this week: G7, Nato and the EU.
New packages of sanctions, new support. We’ll keep working and will keep fighting as much as we can. Until the end. Courageously and openly. On all of those platforms. With full energy. With all our strength. And we will not get tired. We will have rest when we win. And it will definitely happen.”
Updated
Catch up
- Russian forces are now inside the besieged southern city of Mariupol, a senior US defence official said. Two “super-powerful bombs” rocked Mariupol on Tuesday even as rescue efforts were ongoing, local authorities said. More than 200,000 people are trapped in the city, where the situation has been described as a “freezing hellscape riddled with dead bodies and destroyed buildings”, Human Rights Watch said.
- Volodymyr Zelenskiy has accused Russian forces of seizing a humanitarian convoy near Mangush. “Employees of the State Emergency Service and bus drivers have been taken captive. We are doing everything to set our people free and unblocked the movement of humanitarian cargo,” he said in his latest address on Telegram.
- Zelenskiy will speak virtually at the Nato summit this week, where US president Joe Biden is also planning to push for new sanctions against Russia. “Three important summits are scheduled this week: G7, NATO and the EU.” he said. “New packages of sanctions, new support.
- About 300,000 people in the occupied southern city of Kherson were running out of food and medical supplies, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s foreign ministry said. Kherson was the first major Ukrainian city to fall into the hands of Russian troops after they invaded Ukraine on 24 February.
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Russian forces have only three further days of fuel, food and ammunition left to conduct the war after a breakdown in their supply chains, Ukrainian military commanders have alleged. The claims of major shortages were described as “plausible” by western officials although they said they were unable to corroborate the analysis.
- Russian forces have “kidnapped” 2,389 children from the Russian-controlled territories of Luhansk and Donetsk, the US embassy in Kyiv said today, citing figures by Ukraine’s foreign ministry. The embassy said: “This is not assistance. It is kidnapping.”
- At least one person has died after drones attacked a scientific institute in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, AFP reports. Rescuers were seen removing a body from the scene, as smoke rose from the seven-storey building at the Institute for Superhard Materials in north-west Kyiv, part of the National Academy of Science of Ukraine.
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The Ukrainian health minister, Viktor Lyashko, said 10 hospitals had been completely destroyed since Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February. Other hospitals could not be restocked with medicines and supplies because of nearby fighting, the minister added.
- A Ukrainian official claimed that Russian forces had used phosphorous in the city of Kramatorsk in Donetsk. Oleksiy Biloshitsky, first deputy head of the National Police of Kyiv, said in a post on Facebook on Tuesday: “Another use of phosphorus munitions in Kramatorsk. Prohibitions and conventions are for the civilized world.” The claim could not be verified.
- A Ukrainian journalist, Victoria Roshchyna, has been released from captivity by Russian forces, Ukrainian outlet Hromadske said. There is, however, growing concern about well-known photojournalist Maksym Levin, who was last reported to be on the frontline near Kyiv, but nobody has had any contact with him since 13 March.
- Russia plans to unleash a “great terror” on the southern occupied city of Kherson by kidnapping residents and taking them across the Russian border, an FSB whistleblower has claimed. The Kremlin was no longer willing to “play nicely” with protesters in the Ukrainian city, a letter said.
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A Russian court has sentenced jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny to nine years in prison after convicting him of fraud and contempt of court. Navalny 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.
- The UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres, has said it is time for Russia to end its “absurd” and “unwinnable” war in Ukraine, as the EU prepared to set up a “trust fund” aimed at helping Kyiv repel the invasion and rebuild afterwards. Speaking to reporters at the UN’s headquarters in New York, Guterres said the war was “going nowhere, fast”.
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The European Commission will set out plans tomorrow for how people fleeing Ukraine will access jobs, education and housing in the EU, Reuters reports. Maroš Šefčovič, the commission’s vice-president, said the bloc must ensure the right resources are in place to meet people’s needs after initial efforts were focused on receiving people at the border.
– Léonie Chao-Fong, Guardian staff
Updated
Bermet Talant reports:
We have some more information on the humanitarian convoy that president Zelenskiy said had been seized by Russian forces:
Iryna Vereschuk, deputy prime minister, said 11 buses and two cars from Ukraine’s state emergency service were stopped at the Russian checkpoint at the entry to Manhush. As of 21:15 local time, the fate of 11 drivers and 4 employees of the State Emergency Service was unknown, she said on Telegram.
News organisation Ukraine Pravda reported that the vehicles were taken in an unknown direction, and negotiations for setting the captives free were continuing.
In his address, Zelenskiy recapped his conversations with Pope Francis, his address to the Italian parliament, and his talks with Slovakian president Zuzana Čaputová and with Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau.
“I am grateful to the Greek Foreign Minister, who was the first European official to decide to support the work of our humanitarian corridors in Mariupol in order to save our people from the city and bring humanitarian aid that is very crucial for everyone there,” he added.
“Three important summits are scheduled this week: G7, Nato and the EU.” he continued. “New packages of sanctions, new support. We’ll keep working and will keep fighting as much as we can. Until the end. Courageously and openly. On all of those platforms. With full energy. With all our strength. And we will not get tired. We will have rest when we win. And it will definitely happen.”
Updated
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has accused Russian forces of seizing a humanitarian convoy near Mangush.
“Employees of the State Emergency Service and bus drivers have been taken captive. We are doing everything to set our people free and unblocked the movement of humanitarian cargo,” he said in his latest address on Telegram. “Despite all difficulties, we have saved 7,026 people from Mariupol. Tomorrow we will continue this important work. Our representatives are trying to arrange humanitarian corridors in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Zaporizhia, and Luhansk regions.”
Updated
Joe Biden is planning new sanctions on Russian lawmakers, the Wall Street Journal
From WSJ:
President Biden intends to announce the sanctions on more than 300 members of the Russian State Duma as soon as Thursday during his trip to Europe, where he will meet with allies from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to formulate their next steps, according to U.S. officials and internal documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
The sanctions will be announced in coordination with the European Union and members of the Group of Seven industrialized nations, U.S. officials said.
The National Security Council declined to comment.
“The president is traveling to Europe to ensure we stay united, to cement our collective resolve, to send a powerful message that we are prepared and committed to this for as long as it takes,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters today.
He signaled there will be “new designations, new targets” for sanctions.
Updated
A Ukrainian official claimed that Russian forces had used phosphorous in the city of Kramatorsk in Donetsk.
Bermet Talant reports:
Oleksiy Biloshitsky, first deputy head of the National Police of Kyiv, said in a post on Facebook on Tuesday: “Another use of phosphorus munitions in Kramatorsk. Prohibitions and conventions are for the civilized world.” The claim could not be verified.
White phosphorus is routinely held by militaries around the world and is used legally in combat as a smokescreen in daytime and as an incendiary to light up an area at night. But it is illegal to use it against civilians because it causes serious and exceptionally painful burns on contact with skin.
Updated
The disappearance of a photojournalist who was reporting from a frontline near Kyiv more than a week ago has fuelled growing concerns over the dangers faced by Ukrainian journalists covering Russia’s invasion of their country.
Maks Levin has not been heard from since 13 March, when he was reporting in the Vishgorod district, north of Kyiv, where he had been capturing both the fighting and fleeing civilians, according to fellow Ukrainian photographer Markiian Lyseiko.
Levin’s phone has been out of service since he sent his last message that morning, when he was stopped while travelling between villages, Lyseiko wrote on Facebook, adding that he believes Levin may have been injured or captured by Russian forces during intense fighting that day.
Levin’s disappearance has prompted public appeals for information from fellow Ukrainian journalists.
“Our good friend, talented war photojournalist Maks Levin, has gone missing. He had yet another field day in a combat zone outside Kyiv on March 13. Ever since then, no one has had any contact with him. If you follow this war, you have definitely seen a lot of his works,” tweeted Illia Ponomarenko, defence reporter for the Kyiv Independent.
Press freedom groups say that Levin is not the first Ukrainian journalist to have disappeared.
The Committee to Protect Journalists said two other journalists, Oleh Baturyn and Viktoria Roshchina, had previously gone missing but have since been released by their abductors, who are presumed to belong to the Russian armed forces.
Read more:
Updated
Russian invaders have three days of supplies left, says Ukraine military
Russian forces have only three further days of fuel, food and ammunition left to conduct the war after a breakdown in their supply chains, Ukrainian military commanders have alleged.
The claims of major shortages were described as “plausible” by western officials although they said they were unable to corroborate the analysis.
The report from the Ukrainian armed forces general command was said to be consistent with evidence that the Russian advance had stalled, and that they had reverted to using “indiscriminate and attritional” artillery attacks on civilians.
“We do think that the Russian forces have used a lot of material including particular categories of weapons and we have seen isolated reports of particular units that have lacked supplies of one sort or another,” the official said.
“It is consistent with an advance which has ground to a halt. Failures in the logistic chain has been one of the reasons they have not been as effective as they hoped.”
A Pentagon official added there were continuing morale issues among Russian troops, with food and fuel shortages, as well as frostbite due to a lack of adequate clothing.
“They’re struggling on many fronts,” the US official said.
The Ukrainian military said that a major problem for the Russian advance was a failure to lay down a fuel pipe to the front, although the claim could not be independently verified.
Read more:
Updated
Experts are providing more context to earlier comments made today by Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov about Russia’s possible use of nuclear weapons in the context of the Ukraine invasion.
Peskov said Russia would only use nuclear weapons if its very existence were threatened, reported Reuters.
Here’s Matt Tait, former principal security consultant for iSEC Partners and NGS Secure:
This is a restatement of long-standing doctrine, not a new thing https://t.co/2divp48FjL
— Pwn All The Things (@pwnallthethings) March 22, 2022
Don't get me wrong, they enjoy the US panicking about their nuclear weapons, but this is a statement divorced from a change of posture.
— Pwn All The Things (@pwnallthethings) March 22, 2022
This is the actual video, so yes, very explicitly a restatement of existing policy, and stated only in response to being pressed on that question, nothing more https://t.co/m0BFlo5U4I
— Pwn All The Things (@pwnallthethings) March 22, 2022
He literally even says "you can go read the (long-standing) policy of when they would be used"
— Pwn All The Things (@pwnallthethings) March 22, 2022
It's fair to start parsing out "existential threat", because it *is* larger than "only in response to nukes", but it's also technical, not casual, language, and the short answer is absent NATO getting directly involved, strategic weapons are v unlikely to get used in the war
— Pwn All The Things (@pwnallthethings) March 22, 2022
More information has emerged on US president Joe Biden’s planned trip to Europe tomorrow to meet with Nato allies.
From the State Department’s twitter:
[White House] National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan provides an overview of [POTUS’s] trip this week to consult with [Nato] Allies: “The West has been united, the President is traveling to Europe to ensure we stay united, to cement our collective resolve.” #UnitedWithUkraine
.@WhiteHouse National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan provides an overview of @POTUS’s trip this week to consult with @NATO Allies: “The West has been united, the President is traveling to Europe to ensure we stay united, to cement our collective resolve.” #UnitedWithUkraine pic.twitter.com/DsN0YfcY0X
— Department of State (@StateDept) March 22, 2022
Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiy will be speaking with the Japan parliament.
From Japan parliament member Taro Kono:
President Zelenskyy of Ukraine to speak to the Parliament at 18:00 this afternoon.
— KONO Taro (@konotaromp) March 22, 2022
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg today about reinforcing Nato’s deterrence and defense ahead of a Nato meeting happening later this week.
From Blinken’s twitter:
Important discussion with [Jens Stoltenberg] today on reinforcing NATO’s deterrence and defense. [Nato] Leaders will meet this week to underscore our support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and commitment to NATO’s collective defense.
Important discussion with @JensStoltenberg today on reinforcing NATO’s deterrence and defense. @NATO Leaders will meet this week to underscore our support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and commitment to NATO’s collective defense.
— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) March 22, 2022
Video has emerged online reportedly showing air strikes in the Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, located in eastern Ukraine.
Russian strikes in Kramatorsk. https://t.co/sVPmVAAdcE pic.twitter.com/GPygZuzwfe
— Rob Lee (@RALee85) March 22, 2022
Other reports have also emerged of Russian forces puportedly using banned phosphorus ammunition in the area.
Oleksiy Biloshitskiy reports that the #Russian occupiers had recorded another use of banned phosphorus ammunition in #Kramatorsk. pic.twitter.com/h2A8YZz7wQ
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) March 22, 2022
Updated
Former Ukraine president Petro Poroshenko called out UK prime minister Boris Johnson over Johnson’s past comparisons between Ukraine’s fight against Russia and Brexit.
From ITV News:
How many Britons died because of Brexit? Zero’ Former Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko tells ITV News that [Boris Johnson] should ‘please’ avoid comparing the Ukrainian resistance to Brexit
'How many Britons died because of Brexit? Zero'
— ITV News Politics (@ITVNewsPolitics) March 22, 2022
Former Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko tells ITV News that @BorisJohnson should 'please' avoid comparing the Ukrainian resistance to Brexit https://t.co/1eNOWg9igo pic.twitter.com/6ZXuiIIUt1
Previously, Johnson caused fury among political leaders across Europe – and outrage among opponents of Brexit at home – after he compared the resistance of the Ukrainian people to Russia’s invasion to the UK’s decision to leave the EU, reported the Guardian’s Toby Helm and Daniel Boffey.
Updated
Russia defaulting on its foreign debts would likely have “limited” consequences for the global financial system, said a senior official at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) today, reported AFP.
“If there were a default, I think the direct effect on the rest of the world would be quite limited, because the numbers that we’re looking at are relatively small from a global perspective,” said Gita Gopinath, the first deputy managing director of the IMF.
“It is not a systemic risk to the global economy,” although some banks have “greater exposure”, said Gopinath in an interview with Foreign Policy magazine.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the US and other allies have imposed tough financial sanctions against Russia, causing concern about Russia’s ability to make debt payments.
While Russia has still managed to service its loans, worries remain about the future, especially after the expiration of a US exemption that allows the transactions on 25 May.
Updated
The US State Department said today that it “strongly condemns” Russia’s trial against Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, reports Reuters.
The US State Department said on Tuesday that it “strongly condemns” what it called Russia’s “orchestration of a sham trial” against Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, after a court found him guilty of large-scale fraud and contempt of court, a move likely to extend Navalny’s jail time by years.
State Department spokesperson Ned Price said the “disturbing” decision was another example of a widening crackdown on dissent and freedom of expression that he said Russia was carrying out to hide its war in Ukraine.
Navalny was sentenced to nine years in a maximum security penal colony today after being found guilty on fraud and contempt charges.
Updated
UK foreign secretary Liz Truss spoke with Ukraine foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba today about the UK’s plans to increase economic pressure on Russia amid its invasion of Ukraine.
From Liz Truss’ twitter:
Good to speak to Ukrainian FM [Dmytro Kuleba]. We discussed how the UK, alongside G7 allies and partners, will increase economic pressure against Putin’s regime. We will not stop in our mission to cut off funds for Russia’s brutal war machine.
Good to speak to Ukrainian FM @DmytroKuleba. We discussed how the UK, alongside #G7 allies and partners, will increase economic pressure against Putin’s regime.
— Liz Truss (@trussliz) March 22, 2022
We will not stop in our mission to cut off funds for Russia’s brutal war machine. pic.twitter.com/fUzddHkaQv
Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiy will virtually participate in the Nato summit happening later this week, reports Reuters citing Interfax news.
Details on how Zelenskiy will participate are still being worked out, according to his press aide.
From Reuters:
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy will take part virtually in a NATO summit on Thursday to discuss the war with Russia, but exact details are still being worked out, Interfax Ukraine cited Zelenskiy’s press spokesman as saying on Tuesday.
The spokesman, Sergii Nykyforov, said that at a minimum, Zelenskiy would make a video address to the meeting and might take part in the full discussion, Interfax said.
Updated
Summary
It is 9pm in Kyiv. Here’s where things stand now:
- Russian forces are now inside the besieged southern city of Mariupol, a senior US defence official said. Two “super-powerful bombs” rocked Mariupol on Tuesday even as rescue efforts were ongoing, local authorities said. More than 200,000 people are trapped in the city, where the situation has been described as a “freezing hellscape riddled with dead bodies and destroyed buildings”, Human Rights Watch said.
- About 300,000 people in the occupied southern city of Kherson were running out of food and medical supplies, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s foreign ministry said. Kherson was the first major Ukrainian city to fall into the hands of Russian troops after they invaded Ukraine on 24 February.
-
Russian forces have only three further days of fuel, food and ammunition left to conduct the war after a breakdown in their supply chains, Ukrainian military commanders have alleged. The claims of major shortages were described as “plausible” by western officials although they said they were unable to corroborate the analysis.
- Russian forces have “kidnapped” 2,389 children from the Russian-controlled territories of Luhansk and Donetsk, the US embassy in Kyiv said today, citing figures by Ukraine’s foreign ministry. The embassy said: “This is not assistance. It is kidnapping.”
- At least one person has died after drones attacked a scientific institute in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, AFP reports. Rescuers were seen removing a body from the scene, as smoke rose from the seven-storey building at the Institute for Superhard Materials in north-west Kyiv, part of the National Academy of Science of Ukraine.
-
The Ukrainian health minister, Viktor Lyashko, said 10 hospitals had been completely destroyed since Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February. Other hospitals could not be restocked with medicines and supplies because of nearby fighting, the minister added.
- A Ukrainian journalist, Victoria Roshchyna, has been released from captivity by Russian forces, Ukrainian outlet Hromadske said. There is, however, growing concern about well-known photojournalist Maksym Levin, who was last reported to be on the frontline near Kyiv, but nobody has had any contact with him since 13 March.
- Russia plans to unleash a “great terror” on the southern occupied city of Kherson by kidnapping residents and taking them across the Russian border, an FSB whistleblower has claimed. The Kremlin was no longer willing to “play nicely” with protesters in the Ukrainian city, a letter said.
-
A Russian court has sentenced jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny to nine years in prison after convicting him of fraud and contempt of court. Navalny 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.
- The UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres, has said it is time for Russia to end its “absurd” and “unwinnable” war in Ukraine, as the EU prepared to set up a “trust fund” aimed at helping Kyiv repel the invasion and rebuild afterwards. Speaking to reporters at the UN’s headquarters in New York, Guterres said the war was “going nowhere, fast”.
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The European Commission will set out plans tomorrow for how people fleeing Ukraine will access jobs, education and housing in the EU, Reuters reports. Maroš Šefčovič, the commission’s vice-president, said the bloc must ensure the right resources are in place to meet people’s needs after initial efforts were focused on receiving people at the border.
That’s it from me, Léonie Chao-Fong, for today. My US colleague, Gloria Oladipo, will continue to bring you all the latest developments in Ukraine. Goodbye for now.
The Ukrainian foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said he has spoken with his British counterpart, Liz Truss, to “coordinate positions” ahead of the upcoming G7 summit in Brussels.
Call with my British counterpart and friend @trussliz. Ukraine and the UK coordinated positions ahead of the upcoming G7 summit in Brussels. We agreed that there should be no hesitation when it comes to imposing new stiff sanctions on Russia to stop its murderous war machine.
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) March 22, 2022
Updated
Russian invaders have three days of supplies left, says Ukraine military
Russian forces have only three further days of fuel, food and ammunition left to conduct the war after a breakdown in their supply chains, Ukrainian military commanders have alleged.
The claims of major shortages were described as “plausible” by western officials, although they said they were unable to corroborate the analysis.
The report from the Ukrainian armed forces general command was said to be consistent with evidence that the Russian advance had stalled, and that they had reverted to using “indiscriminate and attritional” artillery attacks on civilians.
“We do think that the Russian forces have used a lot of material, including particular categories of weapons and we have seen isolated reports of particular units that have lacked supplies of one sort or another,” the official said.
“It is consistent with an advance which has ground to a halt. Failures in the logistic chain has been one of the reasons they have not been as effective as they hoped.”
A Pentagon official added there were continuing morale issues among Russian troops, with food and fuel shortages, as well as frostbite due to a lack of warm weather gear.
“They’re struggling on many fronts,” the US official said.
Updated
A quick snap from Reuters:
Russia will only use nuclear weapons if its very existence were threatened, Russian state-owned news agency has cited Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov as saying.
At the White House, Sullivan was asked about what the US and allies would do if China decides to supply arms to Russia to shore up its invasion of Ukraine, Julian Borger reports.
The president will certainly consult on the question of China’s potential participation in the conflict of Ukraine while he’s in Brussels.
He’ll do so with Nato. He’ll also do so when he addresses the 27 leaders of the European Union because on April 1, the European Union is having a summit with China. And so this will be an opportunity on Thursday for the United States and our European partners to coordinate closely on what our message is.
We believe we’re very much on the same page with our European partners and we will be speaking with one voice on this issue.
Sullivan was also asked about Joe Biden’s decision to visit Warsaw, especially as his vice president, Kamala Harris, has just been there.
“Poland has taken the brunt of the humanitarian impact outside of Ukraine in terms of the refugee flows,” the national security adviser said.
Poland is where the United States has surged a significant number of forces to be able to help defend and shore up the eastern flank. Poland has to contend not just with the war in Ukraine, but with Russia’s military deployments to Belarus, which have fundamentally changed the security equation there.
And so for all of those reasons, we feel that it is the right place for him to go, to be able to see troops, to be able to see humanitarian experts and to be able to meet with a frontline and very vulnerable ally.
Updated
A senior aide to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said China should play a more “noticeable role” in bringing the war in Ukraine to an end, Reuters reports.
Andriy Yermak, who heads Zelenskiy’s office, also said he expected a dialogue “very soon” between Ukraine’s leader and the Chinese president, Xi Jinping.
Speaking at a virtual news conference organised by the Chatham House think-tank in London, Yermark said:
So far we’ve seen China’s neutral position. And, as I said before, we believe that China ... should play a more noticeable role in bringing this war to (an) end and in building up a new global security system.
We also expect China to contribute meaningfully to this new system of security for Ukraine and we also expect China to be one of the guarantors within the framework of this security system.
We treat China with utmost respect and we expect it to play a pro-active role there.
Forest fires have erupted in the vicinity of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor, with Ukraine claiming that Russian control of the abandoned power plant is hampering efforts to control the flames, Oliver Milman reports.
At least seven fires have been spotted within Chernobyl’s exclusion zone via satellite imagery taken by the European Space Agency, according to a statement by Ukraine’s parliament.
The fires were probably ignited by the “armed aggression of the Russian federation”, the parliament said, although it’s not clear whether it was shelling, arson or some other factor that caused the outbreak. Fires like these within 10km of the plant are “particularly dangerous”, the statement added, with Ukraine claiming its firefighters are unable to tackle the blazes due to Russia’s presence.
Russian forces captured the Chernobyl plant in the opening days of the invasion of Ukraine in February. The site is known for a 1986 explosion and resulting fire that caused a major nuclear disaster, spreading radioactive contamination across Europe. The plant and surrounding area have largely been sealed off since then.
However, about 200 tons of fuel remain at the bottom of the crippled reactor and is relatively unprotected. Experts have raised concern that fierce fighting in the area could damage the reactor further and cause radioactive material to escape.
Ukrainian authorities say the ongoing war is also hindering attempts to monitor radiation levels at Chernobyl. “There is no data on the current state of radiation pollution of the exclusion zone’s environment, which makes it impossible to adequately respond to threats,” said Energoatom, Ukraine’s state-run nuclear company. “Radiation levels in the exclusion zone and beyond, including not only Ukraine, but also other countries, could significantly worsen.”
The US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, is briefing the White House press about Joe Biden’s trip to Brussels and Warsaw on Thursday and Friday, Julian Borger reports.
He said the US and allies would announce a new package of sanctions on Russia on Thursday. Sullivan did not go into details but he said:
One of the key elements of that announcement will focus not just on adding new sanctions but on ensuring that there is joint effort to crack down on evasion, on sanctions-busting, on any attempt by any country to help Russia basically undermine, or weaken, or get around the sanctions.
“That is an important part of this next phase,” Sullivan said.
We have applied an enormous amount of economic pressure, and in order to sustain and escalate that pressure over time, part of that is about new designations, new targets, but a big part of it is about effective enforcement.
The European Commission will set out plans tomorrow for how people fleeing Ukraine will access jobs, education and housing in the EU, Reuters reports.
Maroš Šefčovič, the commission’s vice-president, told reporters earlier today:
Nearly 3.4 million people, overwhelmingly women and children, have already arrived in the EU after fleeing Ukraine. Both the scale and speed are unprecedented, with a child arriving in the EU every second on average.
The bloc must ensure the right resources are in place to meet people’s needs, he said, after initial efforts were focused on receiving people at the border.
On Wednesday, the commission will detail a series of actions to ensure access to education, jobs, healthcare and housing, “with a particular focus on children”, Šefčovič said.
The European Union has granted “temporary protection” to people arriving from Ukraine, including rights to residency, access to the labour market, social welfare and medical care.
Updated
A video of the UK defence secretary, Ben Wallace, speaking by phone to an impostor posing as the Ukrainian prime minister was published on Monday – hours after Downing Street said it believed that Russian state actors were responsible for the hoax.
In the clip, Wallace appears to be asked if he will support Ukraine’s nuclear aims; Russia has falsely claimed that Kyiv has nuclear ambitions.
A defence source said:
It’s a doctored clip. What you don’t hear is the defence secretary also saying that the UK can’t have anything to do with alleged Ukrainian nuclear ambitions, because the UK is committed to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.
The pranksters Vovan and Lexus, suspected of links to Russia’s security service, claimed responsibility for the video.
Updated
Russian forces shell children's hospital in Luhansk Oblast, Ukraine emergency services say
The roof of a children’s hospital in Severodonetsk, Luhansk Oblast, caught fire after it was shelled by Russian forces, Ukraine’s state emergency service said.
Seven children and 15 adults were evacuated from the hospital, it said.
⚡️State Emergency Service: Russians shell children’s hospital in Severdonetsk, Luhansk Oblast.
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) March 22, 2022
The hospital's roof caught fire. Seven children and 15 adults were evacuated, the State Emergency Service reported on March 22.
The Kremlin says it would not “engage in state-level banditry”, rejecting President Biden’s warnings that US businesses could become potential targets for cyber-attacks by Russia, Johana Bhuiyan reports.
Biden on Monday said that there was “evolving intelligence” that Russia was considering options to attack the US, to which Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov responded:
The Russian Federation, unlike many western countries, including the United States, does not engage in state-level banditry.
In the event of cyber-attacks, expert Glenn S. Gerstell told Guardian reporter Kari Paul that the private sector in the US is not well equipped to defend itself because companies have been historically “reactive and side-stepped cyber-responsibility”.
“We’re prepared to respond in the sense that our military has an extraordinary offensive capability to respond on a cyber level – but we are not ready to defend as a country,” Gerstell said.
The private sector is not prepared for attacks. It has relied on buggy software to protect itself, and cyber-threats are growing faster than our ability to adapt to them.
We need to impose some kind of mandatory solution, because the pure market solution isn’t viable.
Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said the US Department of Defense has yet to encounter any cyber-attacks but that they “wanted to make sure that leaders knew and were aware that the Russians would probably try this kind of tactic going forward”.
Though there was no certainty an attack would occur, senior White House cybersecurity official Anne Neuberger said companies that provide critical infrastructure should bolster their cyber-defences.
Updated
The Pentagon has been briefing the press off-camera, Julian Borger writes.
For all the talk of potential chemical or biological weapons, the US military sees no signs such weapons are being prepared for imminent use, according to reporting from the briefing.
A senior defence official said there is bitter fighting in and around Mariupol, which the Russians want to be able to declare as a first strategic victory and also use to prevent Ukrainian forces being diverted to defend Kyiv. The port city is now under naval shelling from ships in the Sea of Azov.
Around Mykolaiv, meanwhile, the Russians are having to withdraw in the face of pushback from the town’s Ukrainian defenders. There is also a Ukrainian counterattack around Izyum, a town 75 miles south of Kharkiv.
The official said there are early indications that the Ukrainians are “now able and willing to take back territory”.
The Pentagon said there are continuing morale issues among Russian troops, with food and fuel shortages, as well as frostbite due to a lack of warm weather gear. “They’re struggling on many fronts,” the US official said.
Updated
Summary
It is 7pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand now:
- Russian forces are now inside the besieged southern city of Mariupol, a senior US defence official said. Two “super-powerful bombs” rocked Mariupol on Tuesday even as rescue efforts were ongoing, local authorities said. More than 200,000 people are trapped in the city, where the situation has been described as a “freezing hellscape riddled with dead bodies and destroyed buildings”, Human Rights Watch said.
- About 300,000 people in the occupied southern city of Kherson were running out of food and medical supplies, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s foreign ministry said. Kherson was the first major Ukrainian city to fall into the hands of Russian troops after they invaded Ukraine on 24 February.
- Russian forces have “kidnapped” 2,389 children from the Russian-controlled territories of Luhansk and Donetsk, the US embassy in Kyiv said today, citing figures by Ukraine’s foreign ministry. The embassy said: “This is not assistance. It is kidnapping.”
- At least one person has died after drones attacked a scientific institute in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, AFP reports. Rescuers were seen removing a body from the scene, as smoke rose from the seven-storey building at the Institute for Superhard Materials in north-west Kyiv, part of the National Academy of Science of Ukraine.
-
The Ukrainian health minister, Viktor Lyashko, said 10 hospitals had been completely destroyed since Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February. Other hospitals could not be restocked with medicines and supplies because of nearby fighting, the minister added.
- A Ukrainian journalist, Victoria Roshchyna, has been released from captivity by Russian forces, Ukrainian outlet Hromadske said. There is, however, growing concern about well-known photojournalist Maksym Levin, who was last reported to be on the frontline near Kyiv, but nobody has had any contact with him since 13 March.
- Russia plans to unleash a “great terror” on the southern occupied city of Kherson by kidnapping residents and taking them across the Russian border, an FSB whistleblower has claimed. The Kremlin was no longer willing to “play nicely” with protesters in the Ukrainian city, a letter said.
-
A Russian court has sentenced jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny to nine years in prison after convicting him of fraud and contempt of court. Navalny 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.
- The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has described the war in Ukraine as “unwinnable”. Speaking to reporters today, Guterres said Ukrainians are enduring a “living hell” and the reverberations of the war in Ukraine are being felt worldwide.
- The Ukrainian military has claimed Russian forces have stockpiles of ammunition and food that will last for “no more than three days”. A UK official said the Ukrainian military claim “sounds entirely plausible”.
- The wife of the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has thanked France’s first lady and other leaders’ wives for helping to ensure sick children reached safety. Writing to Le Parisien newspaper, Olena Zelenska paid tribute to Europeans who have been housing and helping Ukrainian refugees, saying they deserved a Nobel peace prize.
- A journalist at Russia’s Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper has said that a story that appeared on its website yesterday claiming nearly 10,000 Russian troops had been killed in Ukraine so far was the result of a “hack” on the website.
Hello, I’m Léonie Chao-Fong and I will continue to bring you all the latest developments on the war in Ukraine. As always, feel free to drop me a message if you have anything to flag. You can reach me on Twitter or via email.
Updated
A UK official said the Ukrainian military claim that the Russian invasion army has only three days of food and ammunition left “sounds entirely plausible”, Julian Borger writes.
“They have real supply chain issues,” the official said.
If they were to send in weapons now, they would struggle to get them into theatre within weeks because they are so bad at this.
But it’s not consistent. There are some areas that are better than others, but most of them are crap.
On claims Belarus is about to enter the war, the British official was sceptical.
Lukashenko’s main concern is staying in power and this would be a threat, so I think he will try to avoid it.
What you might end up seeing are grey areas of people that are disavowed or people who are paid by the Russians who are on leave from the army and all that sort of thing.
But I will be a little surprised if there’s a formal movement of Belarus troops.
Russian forces now inside Mariupol, US defence official says
Some Russian forces are now inside the besieged southern city of Mariupol, a senior US defence official said.
From Foreign Policy magazine’s Jack Detsch:
NEW: Russian forces are now inside Ukraine's besieged city of Mariupol, including separatist forces that came from the Donbas region: senior U.S. defense official
— Jack Detsch (@JackDetsch) March 22, 2022
More than 200,000 people are trapped in Mariupol, where the situation has been described as a “freezing hellscape riddled with dead bodies and destroyed buildings”, Human Rights Watch said.
Two “super powerful bombs” rocked the city today even as rescue efforts were ongoing, local authorities said.
It is clear that the occupiers are not interested in the city of Mariupol, they want to raze it to the ground, to reduce it to ashes.
Updated
A Ukrainian journalist who was reportedly held captive by Russian forces has been released, Ukrainian outlet Hromadske said.
In a statement published today, Hromadske said one of their journalists, Victoria Roshchyna, was released by Russian troops on Monday after being taken prisoner on 16 March.
Now she is in the area that is controlled by the Ukrainian government. She is travelling to Zaporizhzhia, where she has to meet her relatives.
The media outlet said pro-Russian media had shared a video in which Roshchyna said Russian soldiers had saved her life.
This record was a condition for her liberation, it was shooted under the pressure of the Russian occupiers. All truth about her detention and captivity Victoria will tell herself very soon.
Russian propagandists published video in which Victoria denies her claims to the Russians and said they saved her life. This record became a condition of release.
— Hromadske Int. (@Hromadske) March 22, 2022
Victoria will tell us about the actual conditions of captivity later. Now she will regain her strength
Updated
Russia plans to unleash a “great terror” on the southern occupied city of Kherson by kidnapping residents and taking them across the Russian border, an FSB whistleblower has claimed, the Times reports.
A letter, thought to have been written by a member of Russia’s domestic security service and dated from Monday, said the Kremlin was no longer willing to “play nicely” with protesters in the Ukrainian city, where residents have staged regular rallies against the occupiers.
People will be taken from their homes in the middle of the night, the letter said.
Even if we have to deport as many as half the city — we are ready for that.
The letter also said:
If it were possible to identify protest leaders, they would have been liquidated already.
Protesters are saved only by the fact that it is unclear who exactly needs to be captured.
There are also fears that a move to violence may end in a real riot, which could only be suppressed by large-scale fighting.
In the past few days, an order had been given “from the very top” for a solution to be found, the whistleblower said.
A “great terror” coordinated by the security services would aim to reduce protest with “extremely strict methods of dispersal”, including “severe injury” to individual demonstrators.
A second phase would involve “door-to-door terror” with residents kidnapped and taken abroad, the letter said.
The letter is thought to have been written by the FSB insider known only by his codename Wind of Change. Earlier letters have been deemed authentic by Russian security service experts, the Times writes.
Updated
At least one person killed in drone attack on Kyiv science institution
At least one person has died after drones attacked a scientific institute in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, on Tuesday, AFP reports.
Military rescuers were seen removing a body covered with a black plastic sheet from the scene, as smoke rose from the seven-storey building at the Institute for Superhard Materials in north-west Kyiv, which is part of the National Academy of Science of Ukraine.
A Russian defence ministry intelligence official said three people had been killed, but there was no other confirmation of the toll.
The official, who asked not to be identified by name, told AFP:
During today’s air raid the armed forces of the Russian Federation used Orlan drones, one of which dropped a bomb, as a result of which the premises caught fire.
Later two more drones appeared and also tried drop bombs, they were downed. It used to be an industrial workshop here, a civilian institution. No military.
Updated
It has been three weeks since Russia updated the official death toll of its invasion in Ukraine, leaving open the question of how many of its soldiers have been killed or wounded in the chaotic opening stages of its war, Andrew Roth writes.
In early March, the Russian defence ministry admitted that 498 Russian soldiers had been killed in action and 1,500 wounded, a large number after just 10 days of fighting that pointed to the danger of its attempts to take Kyiv in a lightning raid.
Critics said the official government numbers should be treated with scepticism. And US and Ukrainian officials have since claimed that Russia has suffered 10, 20 or 30 times as many casualties, claiming that Russian losses could rival the wars in Chechnya or Afghanistan. And amid an information vacuum in Russia, rumours have spread over the hundreds, or thousands more, who have been killed in the ensuing weeks.
“It’s almost a state secret,” said a Russian military commentator who asked not to be quoted by name to discuss the issue. “We don’t know exactly [how many people have died] … at the given moment, it’s better to discuss other questions.”
Russian news outlets continuing to operate inside the country have largely stopped reporting on the death toll from the war, as censors have forbidden any discussion that calls the conflict a “war” or “invasion”.
But on Monday, the Russian tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda, which frequently posts pro-Kremlin news reports, published a bombshell buried deep in a news story about the war: “According to Russian defence ministry data … 9,861 Russian soldiers had been killed in action and another 16,153 had been wounded.”
Just minutes later, the line was gone. No other Russian news agencies reported the remarks, and it was not clear why Komsomolskaya Pravda alone would have access to that information.
Updated
300,000 people running out of food in Kherson, Ukraine says
Oleg Nikolenko, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s foreign ministry, said about 300,000 people in the occupied southern city of Kherson were running out of food and medical supplies.
The city of Kherson was the first major Ukrainian city to fall into the hands of Russian troops after they invaded Ukraine on 24 February.
Kherson’s 300k citizens face a humanitarian catastrophe owing to the Russian army’s blockade. Food and medical supplies have almost run out, yet Russia refuses to open humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians. Russia’s barbaric tactics must be stopped before it is too late!
— Oleg Nikolenko (@OlegNikolenko_) March 22, 2022
On Monday, Ukrainian armed forces said Russian troops used stun grenades and gunfire to disperse a rally of anti-occupation protesters in Kherson.
Video footage showed protesters in Kherson’s Freedom Square running to escape as projectiles landed around them, as loud bangs and gunfire was heard.
Footage shared on social media suggested that Russian forces continued to respond violently to peaceful protesters today.
From ABC News’ Patrick Reevell:
For the second day in a row Russian troops appear to have used tear gas to disperse a peaceful protest by Ukrainians in the occupied city of Kherson.
— Patrick Reevell (@Reevellp) March 22, 2022
The Russian forces are becoming more violent trying to break the resistance there. pic.twitter.com/bE7tkiPZWo
Updated
Updated
Democrat majority leader Chuck Schumer has called on the the US Senate to revoke Russia’s trade status as a “most favoured nation”.
The House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed legislation to remove Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) for Russia on 17 March.
Reuters quote Schumer saying “Putin’s regime is wicked and the best message we can send him is to pass PNTR legislation with overwhelming bipartisan support.”
Updated
There is growing concern about well-known photojournalist Maksym Levin, who was last reported to be on the frontline near Kyiv, but nobody has had any contact with him since 13 March.
Our good friend, talented war photojournalist Maks Levin, has gone missing.
— Illia Ponomarenko 🇺🇦 (@IAPonomarenko) March 22, 2022
He had yet another field day in a combat zone outside Kyiv on March 13. Ever since then, no one has had any contact with him.
If you follow this war, you have definitely seen a lot of his works. pic.twitter.com/ILjrt6LofO
Levin’s friend Markiyan Lyseiko has told Ukrainian news source Ukrinform that the photojournalist was in Vyshhorod district. He had left his car near the village of Guta Mezhyhirska. The area where he headed into was the scene of intense fighting.
Poland has said it received a “positive response” to the suggestion that Russia should be excluded from the G20 group of major economies in meetings in Washington last week.
Reuters reports the Polish economic development and technology minister, Piotr Nowak, saying in a statement that the matter had been discussed, and that “during the meetings we made a proposal to exclude Russia from the G20, which was met with a positive response and approval, and the matter is to be handed over to President Biden.”
Reuters says there was no immediate response from the US Department of Commerce. Nowak said the US commerce secretary, Gina Raimondo, was at the meeting.
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Olena Zelenska, the wife of the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has thanked France’s first lady, Brigitte Macron, and other leaders’ wives for helping to ensure sick children reached safety. And she paid tribute to Europeans who have been housing and helping Ukrainian refugees, saying they deserved a Nobel peace prize.
Writing to Le Parisien newspaper, Zelenska said that when Russia began attacking Ukraine she had issued an appeal for the support of the world’s first ladies. Brigitte Macron was one of the first to respond, she added, and their relationship was “warm and friendly”.
“My appeal was heard,” Zelenska said. “I want to thank all Europeans who are now helping our people, giving them homes, feeding them, encouraging them … like us, you weren’t prepared for having so many traumatised people in your country. But the way you have reacted is worth of a collective Nobel peace prize. Ukrainians are marvellous people and very grateful. Our children will never forget what you have done for us.”
Read more of Kim Willsher’s report from Paris here: Olena Zelenska thanks other first ladies for supporting Ukraine
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In the UK, opposition leader Keir Starmer has called on the British government to “ramp up” sanctions on Russia to “cripple” its ability to function as a country.
The Labour leader said western powers needed to continue their support for Ukraine, including supplying more military equipment, while avoiding direct conflict with Russia. Associated Press quote him telling BBC Radio 4’s World At One:
Everybody understands why every step has to be taken to prevent this escalating into a direct Nato-on-Russia conflict.
That is why we need to provide more military support, that’s why sanctions have to be ramped up again further and faster and that’s why we need to have a stronger, more compassionate humanitarian response.
What we need to do is to continue to provide that level of support, continue to support the Ukrainians, and ramp up those sanctions, which need to go beyond just isolating Russia. They have to cripple its ability to function.
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The arrival of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees in Moldova is putting huge pressure on its health care system and it has appealed for help from the European Union and UN agencies, the country’s health minister said today.
More than 331,000 refugees have entered Moldova since Russia invaded Ukraine and 100,000 of them are still in the country, Ala Nemerenco told a joint press conference with the World Health Organization (WHO), streamed live from Chisinau.
Reporting for Reuters, Karol Badohal reminds us that Moldova is a small, former Soviet republic sandwiched between Ukraine and Romania, an EU member. It is one of Europe’s poorest countries and has a total resident population of just 2.6 million people. It aspires to join the EU and Nato.
“Obviously the resources of the country are limited and we wouldn’t want this to affect or become a burden for the citizens of the Republic of Moldova,” Nemerenco said.
“That is why we have addressed all our partners to ask for support in this situation,” she said. “Unfortunately, these events without any precedent here are really very serious and put our health system under very big pressure.”
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The UN secretary-general, António Guterres, says Ukrainians are enduring a “living hell” and the reverberations of the war in Ukraine are being felt worldwide.
Skyrocketing food, energy and fertiliser prices are “threatening to spiral into a global hunger crisis”, he says, with developing nations already “suffocating under the burden of Covid”.
At the same time, we cannot lose hope. From my outreach with various actors, elements of diplomatic progress are coming into view on several key issues.
There is enough on the table to cease hostilities and seriously negotiate now.
Guterres adds:
This war isn’t winnable. Sooner or later it will have to move from the battlefields to the peace table.
That is inevitable. The only question is how many more lives must be lost? How many more bombs must fall? How many Mariupols must be destroyed or many more Ukrainians and Russians will be killed?
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Ukraine war is 'unwinnable', UN chief says
UN secretary-general António Guterres has been speaking to reporters, where he has described the war in Ukraine as “unwinnable”.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine almost a month ago, the world has seen “appalling human suffering and destruction” in Ukraine, “systematic bombardments that terrorise civilians” and the “shelling of hospitals, schools, apartments buildings and shelters”, Guterres says.
All of it is intensifying, getting more destructive and more unpredictable by the hour.
The devastated city of Mariupol has been encircled by Russian forces for more than two weeks, subjected to relentless bombardment and shelling, Guterres said, and for what?
Even if Mariupol falls, Ukraine cannot be conquered city by city, street by street, house by house.
The only outcome to all this is more suffering, more destruction and more horror as far as the eye can see.
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Drone video released today is said to show huge explosions at factories and industrial buildings in the besieged city of Mariupol, which continues to come under Russian bombardment.
The office of the Italian prime minister, Mario Draghi, said Italy wants Ukraine to join the European Union.
Ukraine had offered “heroic” resistance to the Russian invasion, Draghi said, promising continued support for refugees fleeing the fighting, as well as military aid.
The Italian leader told parliament:
The arrogance of the Russian government has collided with the dignity of the Ukrainian people, who have managed to curb Moscow’s expansionist aims and impose a huge cost on the invading army.
#Ucraina, Draghi: Vogliamo disegnare un percorso di maggiore vicinanza dell’Ucraina all’Europa. Voglio dire al Presidente #Zelensky che l’Italia è al fianco dell’Ucraina in questo processo. L’Italia vuole l’Ucraina nell’Unione Europea
— Palazzo_Chigi (@Palazzo_Chigi) March 22, 2022
The Ukrainian leader, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, delivered an address to the Italian parliament via video link earlier today, where he warned Russia’s attack on Ukraine risks causing famine in countries around the world.
For Russian troops, Ukraine is the gates of Europe, where they want to break in, but barbarism must not be allowed to pass.
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Alisher Usmanov, the Russian oligarch once said to be the UK’s richest person, claims to have placed hundreds of millions of pounds of his assets into an irrevocable trust, potentially leaving them outside the sanctions regime established by western governments, Simon Goodley reports.
The tycoon – a former 30% shareholder in Arsenal football club who has also ploughed millions into sponsoring Everton and is subject to sanctions – can today be revealed as connected to at least six luxury UK properties and one central London office building, collectively worth more than £170m and held via a complex web of offshore companies and family members.
The list of assets linked to Usmanov has been compiled by the Russian asset tracker, a partnership involving the Guardian, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and other international news organisations that are reporting on the wealth of Russia’s most powerful operators.
The project has also found evidence that the oligarch has:
- Close relatives who are named as the owners of luxury properties in countries including Italy, Germany and Latvia.
- The use of a $350m private jet and a helicopter deregistered from the Isle of Man on the day Usmanov was sanctioned by the UK, plus another now deregistered from Luxembourg, the LX-VIP.
- A 512ft, $600m private yacht called Dilbar, along with a concession to moor the vessel until 2036 in Barcelona port, which is thought to be worth about $20m.
Trans women in Ukraine are reportedly being denied passage to safer countries, despite their legal status as women and the danger posed by Russia’s transphobic policies, Lorenzo Tondo reports.
As strange hands searched her body and pulled back her hair to check if it was a wig, Judis looked at the faces of the Ukrainian border guards and felt fear and despair.
“Ukrainian border guards undress you and touch you everywhere,” Judis says.
You can see on their faces they’re wondering ‘what are you?’ like you’re some kind of animal or something.
Judis is a transgender woman whose birth certificate defines her as female. Legally, there is no reason why she should not be allowed to pass with the thousands of women who are crossing Ukrainian borders to safety every day.
Yet, on 12 March at about 4am, after a long and humiliating search, border guards determined she was a man and prevented her passage into Poland.
When Ukraine imposed martial law on 24 February, all men aged between 18 and 60 were banned from leaving the country. Since then, it is estimated that hundreds of Ukrainian trans people have attempted to cross the border.
The Guardian has been told by activists and aid workers that, despite their legal status as women, dozens have been mistreated and pushed back at the borders, with many fearing for their lives in the event that Russia’s transphobic regime takes over.
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Kremlin critic Navalny sentenced to nine years in prison
A Russian court has sentenced jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny to nine years in prison after convicting him of fraud and contempt of court.
Navalny 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.
He was also fined 1.2m roubles (£8,700). Navalny has dismissed the latest criminal case against him as politically motivated and pleaded not guilty.
9 years. Well, as the characters of my favorite TV series “The Wire” used to say: “You only do two days. That's the day you go in and the day you come out"
— Alexey Navalny (@navalny) March 22, 2022
I even had a T-shirt with this slogan, but the prison authorities confiscated it, considering the print extremist.
Navalny was jailed last year when he returned to Russia after receiving medical treatment in Germany following a poison attack with a Soviet-era nerve agent.
Navalny blamed Putin for the attack. The Kremlin said it had seen no evidence that Navalny was poisoned and denied any Russian role if he was.
After the last court hearing into his case on 15 March, he posted on Instagram:
If the prison term is the price of my human right to say things that need to be said... then they can ask for 113 years. I will not renounce my words or deeds.
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Here’s more on the article published yesterday in Russia’s Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper that said nearly 10,000 Russian soldiers had been killed in the conflict in Ukraine, a report the paper has since claimed was the work of hackers.
The online article quoted the Russian defence ministry as saying 9,861 Russian servicemen had 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, Reuters reports.
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.
Russia has not officially updated its casualty figures since 2 March, when it said 498 servicemen had been killed and 1,597 wounded.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters today that he could not comment on the incident, saying it was a question for Komsomolskaya Pravda. He said he had no information on casualty figures.
Earlier, the Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said the newspaper article marked “only the beginning of the realisation of [the Russians’] national catastrophe”. “In the real world there are almost twice as many as Russians killed,” Podolyak wrote on Telegram.
It was not possible to independently verify any of the purported casualty claims.
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A train carrying 780 survivors from the besieged city of Mariupol is expected to arrive at Lviv railway station within the next 10 minutes, Daniel Boffey reports.
It is already 30 minutes behind schedule. The group are arriving from Zaporizhzhia, a city 125 miles north-west of Mariupol.
From Lviv station, three buses will take them immediately to the Polish border from where they will be settled in Poland or Germany.
Kostiantyn Labartkava, a coordinator for the Red Cross, is waiting at Lviv station to help those who arrive.
He said:
My experience is that they will be in a terrible state. They likely got out of Mariupol the day before yesterday. I don’t know how.
People will be in tears but we will be here to help with their medical problems and whatever we can do for their psychological trauma. There will be food rations and a special package for children of sweets, juice and cookies.
We expect more tomorrow.
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Russian forces 'kidnapped' 2,389 children from Donetsk and Luhansk, US embassy says
The US embassy in Kyiv cited Ukraine’s foreign ministry as saying 2,389 Ukrainian children have been “illegally removed” from the Russian-controlled territories of Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts and taken to Russia.
The embassy said:
This is not assistance. It is kidnapping.
According to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, Russian forces have illegally removed 2,389 Ukrainian children from Donetsk and Luhanks oblasts to Russia. This is not assistance. It is kidnapping.
— U.S. Embassy Kyiv (@USEmbassyKyiv) March 22, 2022
Kyiv has accused Moscow of illegally deporting children from Mariupol amid reports that Russian troops were directing civilians towards the Russian-controlled breakaway eastern regions of Donbas.
In a statement on Monday, Ukraine’s foreign ministry said Russian forces had forcibly deported 2,389 children from Donetsk and Luhansk, and called the move “a gross violation of international law”.
From Iryna Venediktova, Ukraine’s prosecutor general:
Russian forces are not only targeting and killing our children, but also forcibly moving them to the RF. Investigation is ongoing on the forcible transfer of 2,389 children from temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine to Russia. @MFA_Ukraine #RussianWarCrimes
— Iryna Venediktova (@VenediktovaIV) March 21, 2022
The Guardian could not verify these figures.
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A superyacht linked to Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich was held up by a group of Ukrainian protesters as it tried to dock in Turkey.
Protesters in a tiny inflatable dinghy attempted to block the 140-metre (460-foot) superyacht Solaris, reported to be worth £430m, from docking in the resort of Bodrum in south-west Turkey on Monday.
A group of #Ukrainian kids, members of a yachtsman club, tried to prevent Roman Abramovich’s yacht from docking in 🇹🇷 Bodrum. The yacht docked only with the help of police.#StandWithUkraine️ #RussianOligarchs #putinswar #BanRussia pic.twitter.com/3e3rWqU1xU
— olexander scherba🇺🇦 (@olex_scherba) March 21, 2022
The yacht arrived in Turkey just over a week after it left Montenegro’s Adriatic resort town of Tivat on 13 March, having skirted the waters of EU countries that have sanctioned the oligarch over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It managed to dock in Mugla, in the Aegean Sea resort of Bodrum, despite the protests.
A second yacht linked to Abramovich, called Eclipse, docked in the Turkish tourist resort of Marmaris on Tuesday, Reuters cited a port source as saying.
The Eclipse, which is one of the world’s biggest at 162.5 metres (533 feet) long, arrived in Marmaris after cruising south-east of the Greek islands of Crete and Rhodes, according to Marine Traffic data.
There was no indication that Abramovich was onboard either of the vessels.
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10 Ukrainian hospitals completely destroyed, minister says
Speaking on national television, the Ukrainian health minister, Viktor Lyashko, said 10 hospitals had been completely destroyed since Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February, Reuters reports.
Other hospitals could not be restocked with medicines and supplies because of nearby fighting, Lyashko added.
Reuters could not independently verify his figures.
The World Health Organization (WHO), meanwhile, says it has confirmed 62 separate attacks on healthcare facilities in Ukraine since the conflict began, resulting in 15 deaths and at least 37 injuries.
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The Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak says the war in Ukraine is not over territory but about “everything that symbolises the Russian world”.
Earlier today, Podolyak described Ukraine’s forces as “combat-ready” and “logistically mature”. “It can build the infrastructure of war in a day or two and relocate the economy,” he said.
The war is definitely not over territory, trade or oil embargoes. 🇺🇦 is fighting for the 27th day for its freedom, against the invasion of barbarism, inhumanity & massacre of civilians. Against everything that symbolizes the "Russian world". Fortitude to our heroes & cities. pic.twitter.com/DAhjXJkzQx
— Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M) March 22, 2022
Podolyak is a member of the Ukrainian negotiating team in talks with Russia, which appear to have made little progress this week. On Monday, the Kremlin accused Kyiv of stalling negotiations by making proposals unacceptable for Russia. Ukraine has said it is willing to negotiate but will not surrender or accept Russian ultimatums.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said it would not be possible to negotiate without meeting his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.
Speaking in an interview with European public television networks on Monday, Zelenskiy said:
I believe that until such time as we have a meeting with the president of the Russian Federation... you cannot truly understand what they are prepared to do in order to stop the war and what they are prepared to do if we are not ready for this or that compromise.
Hello. I’m Léonie Chao-Fong and I’ll be bringing you all the latest developments on the war in Ukraine. Feel free to drop me a message if you have anything to flag, you can reach me on Twitter or via email.
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Updated
Today so far …
- The Ukrainian military has claimed Russian forces have stockpiles of ammunition and food that will last for “no more than three days” in its operational report this morning. Officials said the situation is similar with fuel, adding: “Mobilisation is carried out chaotically ... most of them have no military specialty, because they have never served in the military.” Ukraine also claimed its forces have retaken the town of Makariv, just 50km west of Kyiv.
- The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, urged direct talks with Vladimir Putin, saying: “Without this meeting it is impossible to fully understand what they are ready for in order to stop the war.”
- Zelenskiy told the Italian parliament that: “For Russian troops, Ukraine is the gates of Europe, where they want to break in.” The Italian prime minister, Mario Draghi, said Ukraine had offered “heroic” resistance and that Italy would support Kyiv’s bid to join the European Union.
- Zelenskiy has also tweeted that he has spoken to Pope Francis, saying “the mediating role of the Holy See in ending human suffering would be appreciated”.
- A journalist at Russia’s Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper has said that a story which appeared on its website yesterday claiming nearly 10,000 Russian troops had been killed in Ukraine so far was the result of a “hack” on the website.
- A Ukrainian MP for Odesa, Oleksiy Honcharenko, has said he anticipated a Russian land operation against the city launched from the Black Sea. Residential areas in Odesa were reportedly targeted for the first time during the war on Monday.
- The mayor of Boryspil, Volodymyr Borysenko, has urged civilians to leave the town. It is located just outside Kyiv, near Ukraine’s largest international airport.
- Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk has made a new appeal to Russia to allow humanitarian supplies into the besieged southern city of Mariupol and to let civilians leave. A convoy of 15 buses carrying 1,114 evacuees is set to depart on a 200km trip to the city of Zaporizhzhia today, where people will receive food, medical and psychological support, as well as resettlement assistance.
- In Kyiv, a brand new shopping centre was destroyed in a missile attack that killed at least eight people, the largest attack yet on the capital.
- Dmitry Muratov, the Nobel peace prize-winning editor of Russian news outlet Novaya Gazeta has announced he will be putting his Nobel medal up for auction to raise money for Ukrainian refugees.
- European Union leaders intend to set up a “trust fund” for Ukraine as it battles Russia’s invasion and to help it rebuild after the war, according to a draft document prepared ahead of Thursday’s EU summit.
- Ireland is preparing for up to 200,000 refugees from Ukraine. The government’s cabinet will discuss a “significant Ukraine memo” today to consider the challenges this poses, particularly the housing challenge.
I am now handing over to my colleague Léonie Chao-Fong to take you through the next few hours of our coverage.
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The BBC’s Orla Guerin is reporting a loud explosion in Kyiv where she is staying.
#Kyiv - a very loud explosion here in the last few minutes. First time I have heard the windows rattle in my hotel. Not sure yet what was hit and if it was incoming or Ukrainian defences shooting down a missile.
— Orla Guerin (@OrlaGuerin) March 22, 2022
Residential areas in Odesa were hit for the first time during the war on Monday, reportedly from munitions fired from Russian navy ships in the Black Sea. A Ukrainian MP for Odesa, Oleksiy Honcharenko, has told the BBC:
We understand that clearly Odesa is a strategic aim of this war, but the Russian army can’t go on land there, our army is holding ground.
There are hundreds of international journalists in Kyiv, and some in Odesa, who saw that these attacks are in residential areas with no military targets.
They are planning a land operation against Odesa, we see their ships full of marines. I think the idea is to attack Odesa from several destinations.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, told the Italian parliament this morning 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.
Reuters report that in return, the Italian prime minister, Mario Draghi, said Ukraine has offered “heroic” resistance and that Italy would support Kyiv’s bid to join the European Union.
“The arrogance of the Russian government has collided with the dignity of the Ukrainian people, who have managed to curb Moscow’s expansionist aims and impose a huge cost on the invading army,” Draghi told parliament after Zelenskiy’s address.
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Komsomolskaya Pravda report on Russian military losses was result of 'hack'
Russia’s Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper was hacked on Monday, and a false story on Russian military deaths in Ukraine was posted on its site, the newspaper’s Kremlin correspondent said this morning.
Alexander Gamov, the journalist, said the story – which had said nearly 10,000 Russian troops had been killed – was fake and was deleted after a few minutes.
Reuters report that Gamov provided the explanation for the story, which was picked up by some western media, on the Kremlin’s daily conference call after Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he was unable to comment on the incident.
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Overnight on Facebook, the mayor of Boryspil, Volodymyr Borysenko, has urged civilians to leave the town. It is located just outside Kyiv, near Ukraine’s largest international airport.
In the video address, Borysenko said: “The fewer civilians in the city, the easier it is for armed forces to operate. There is no urgent need to remain in the city as firefights are going on around it. I call on the civilian population to be smart and leave town as soon as an opportunity arises.”
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The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has tweeted to say that he has spoken to Pope Francis. Alongside a photo of Zelenskiy at his desk, he said: “Told His Holiness about the difficult humanitarian situation and the blocking of rescue corridors by Russian troops. The mediating role of the Holy See in ending human suffering would be appreciated. Thanked for the prayers for Ukraine and peace.”
Talked to @Pontifex. Told His Holiness about the difficult humanitarian situation and the blocking of rescue corridors by Russian troops. The mediating role of the Holy See in ending human suffering would be appreciated. Thanked for the prayers for Ukraine and peace. pic.twitter.com/wj4hmrTRGd
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) March 22, 2022
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EU leaders intend to set up a “trust fund” for Ukraine as it battles Russia’s invasion and to help it rebuild after the war, according to a draft document seen by Agence France-Presse.
Leaders from the 27-nation bloc meet in Brussels on Thursday for a two-day summit focused on dealing with the fallout from the Kremlin’s assault on Ukraine.
“Bearing in mind the destruction and enormous losses brought upon Ukraine by Russia’s military aggression, the European Union is committed to provide support to the Ukrainian government for its immediate needs and, once the Russian onslaught has ceased, for the reconstruction of a democratic Ukraine,” the draft conclusions for the meeting said.
“To that end, the European Council agrees to set up a Ukraine Solidarity Trust Fund and calls for preparations to start without delay.”
The draft, still under negotiation, gave no further details on the planned size or working of the fund.
The EU has already agreed €1.2bn euros ($1.3bn) in emergency funding to help the Ukrainian authorities.
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The fall of Mariupol would be an economic blow to Ukraine and a symbolic victory for Russia, writes Bermet Talant for us today.
Mariupol is a metallurgical centre for iron and steelworks, heavy machinery manufacturing, and ship repairs. Ukraine’s largest steel plants owned by the country’s leading metallurgical group, Metinvest, are located in Mariupol. One of them, Azovstal, was badly damaged by Russian shelling this week. Mariupol is also home to the largest trading port in the Azov Sea from which Ukraine exports grain, iron and steel.
Not only does Mariupol lie in the territory that is claimed by the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic, an area recognised by Russia before the full-scale invasion, but it is also part of Vladimir Putin’s vision of “Novorossiya” – a territory stretching across eastern and southern Ukraine along the Black Sea coastline that is viewed by Putin as “historically Russian lands”.
Read more of Bermet Talant’s piece here: Why is Mariupol so important to Russian forces?
This comes from my colleague Daniel Boffey in Lviv:
After the repeated failure of Russian forces to respect humanitarian corridors from the devastated port city of Mariupol, the world will be watching nervously as a convoy of 15 buses carrying 1,114 evacuees tries to escape today through Russian-occupied territory.
The civilians are being from escorted by emergency services but not the Ukrainian military on a 200km trip from Berdiansk, a village on the outskirts of Mariupol, north west to the city of Zaporizhzhia.
In Zaporizhzhia, people will receive food, medical and psychological support, as well as resettlement assistance, according to the local authorities.
The development came as Ukrainian MP Anton Gerashchenko claimed that the siege of Mariupol is being led by Col Gen Mikhail Mizintsev, a favourite of Vladimir Putin, who was said to be responsible for Russian operations in Syria.
He has been the head of the National Center for Defense Management of the Russian Federation since December 2014 and has held the post of colonel-general since 2017.
The Russian government denies shelling civilians.
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Dmitry Muratov, the Nobel peace prize-winning editor of Russian news outlet Novaya Gazeta has announced he will be putting his Nobel medal up for auction to raise money for Ukrainian refugees.
In a statement posted to the Novaya Gazeta website, he said:
Novaya Gazeta and I have decided to donate the 2021 Nobel peace prize medal to the Ukrainian Refugee Fund. I ask the auction houses to respond and put up for auction this world-famous award.
The article also called for an end to combat fire, an exchange of prisoners and the release of the bodies of the dead, and the provision of humanitarian corridors and assistance.
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Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk has made a new appeal to Russia to allow humanitarian supplies into the besieged southern city of Mariupol and to let civilians leave.
Reuters report she said on Ukrainian television: “We demand the opening of a humanitarian corridor for civilians.”
Vereshchuk also said Russia’s armed forces were preventing humanitarian supplies reaching residents of the southern city of Kherson.
Earlier, Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said in a televised interview that one of Russian’s main priorities is to take control of the capital Kyiv, but trying to do so was “suicide”. He also said active hostilities between Ukraine and Russia could end within two to three weeks.
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Ireland is preparing for up to 200,000 refugees from Ukraine. The government’s cabinet will discuss a “significant Ukraine memo” today to consider the challenges this poses, particularly the housing challenge.
Transport minister Eamon Ryan said on Monday that 10,000 had already arrived.
Authorities are expected to conduct an urgent audit of the availability of hotels and house shares, but also community centres and religious order properties which could be made available as the refugee crisis worsens.
Garda are also put in extra resources to speed up the vetting required of members of the public who afford homes or house shares.
Quick build modular housing is also an option, ministers have said in the face of a wider housing crisis in Dublin and outside the capital.
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Our Emma Graham-Harrison reports in transit in Ukraine.
On the road to Dnipro car after car we pass has “CHILDREN” taped to the windshield
— Emma Graham-Harrison (@_EmmaGH) March 22, 2022
A country on the run to save their children’s lives, a few letters their only protection against bullets and shells
They know from Mariupol Russia often doesn’t care, but it’s all they have
Over 3.5 million Ukrainians have now fled the country – UNHCR
A quick Reuters snap here that 3,528,346 Ukrainians have fled abroad according to the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR). More than 2 million have crossed into Poland, the agency said.
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Ukrainian MP Dmytro Gurin has described the situation in his hometown of Mariupol as a “war crime”, telling Sky News in the UK that “the shelling never stops, the shooting never stops. Now there’s 300,000 people in Mariupol without food. It’s not war any more. We clearly see that Russia wants to start hunger just to force its diplomatic position.”
Gurin said he was currently “very pessimistic” about a diplomatic resolution to the situation, saying that any agreement with Vladimir Putin would be worth “less than the paper it was written on”.
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Finland’s Nokian Tyres has said it would continue production in Russia to retain control of its local factory.
Nokian’s chief executive, Jukka Moisio, told Helsingin Sanomat in an interview that the company did not want its Russian factory to end up “in wrong hands” to avoid its Russian factories being used to make tyres for the military.
“In our opinion it is better that the factory is in our control than in someone else’s,” Moisio told the paper.
Anne Kauranen reports for Reuters that shares in Nokian fell as much as 13% on Monday, after Finnish media reported that the company had seemed to tell analysts in a call last week that it would seek to win market share from rivals that are exiting Russia. Nokian denied this on Tuesday.
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Ika Ferrer Gotić, who is a news producer and anchor at the N1 news channel, has posted this video clip which she says shows Ukrainian children sleeping on the floor in Warsaw’s Central Station in Poland.
Ukrainian children sleeping on the Central Station floor. We have just been granted permission to get into one of the top floor wings. This is what 9am looks like on #Warsaw Central. Poland is now hosting over two million refugees. | @N1info @N1infoZG @N1infoBG @N1infoSA #Ukraine pic.twitter.com/ChO0Hsbajk
— Ika Ferrer Gotić (@IkaFerrerGotic) March 22, 2022
Alexei Navalny found guilty of large-scale fraud by Russian court
Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has been found guilty of large-scale fraud by a Russian court, report Reuters.
Russian prosecutors are seeking to move Navalny to a maximum security penal colony for 13 years on charges of fraud and contempt of court.
Navalny 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.
Kirsten Grieshaber has been reporting for Associated Press from Berlin on the enrolment of young refugees from Ukraine into makeshift schools there. On Monday seven-year-old Myroslav Kerashchenko was one of 40 children who joined classes.
His mother, Mariia, told reporters: “It gets me emotional when I see all the help and solidarity here. Every day, I hope that we can go back to Ukraine, but it is too dangerous for now, so in the meantime it is wonderful that my son can go to school in Germany,” she added.
The classes for the refugees were put together by Burcak Sevilgen and Faina Karlitski, who in only two weeks raised the funds, organised the rent-free classrooms and advertised their programme on the messaging service Telegram. The lessons will prepare the children for entering Berlin’s regular school system.
Natalia Khalil, 33, from Rivne in western Ukraine, is teaching the third and fourth graders, while Tatjana Gubskaya, 56, will be in charge of the first and second graders. Gubskaya fled Ukraine with her daughter and a seven-year-old grandson, who is in her classroom.
“The kids are grateful to have some kind of routine again and meet other children from Ukraine — they and their mothers have all been very stressed lately,” said Gubskaya.
The teachers will be paid €500 per month (£420) in donations until they have work permits and can be officially hired.
Updated
On Sky News this morning in the UK, the government’s small business minister Paul Scully has been appearing, and he was asked about US President Joe Biden’s chemical weapons warning. He told viewers:
President Biden and Prime Minister [Boris Johnson] have been really resolute in making sure that we can take every action in the international community to address these crimes of Vladimir Putin. We’ve got to remember with all of this that this is Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine. It is not the Russian people. So we’ve got to make sure that we can appeal to the Russian people to bring an end to this.
He was also asked about the UK’s efforts to impose economic sanctions on individuals, and said:
We’ve sanctioned more than 1,000 individuals and entities. We’ve been very much on the front foot in passing the Economic Crime Bill, which I did last last week, which included registering the beneficial ownership of properties within the UK so that we can use that as a tool to better target sanctions against the individuals that are supporting Putin.
A quick snap from Reuters here that Russian energy giant Gazprom said on Tuesday it was continuing to supply gas to Europe via Ukraine in line with requests from European consumers. The company said requests stood at 108 million cubic metres for 22 March, up from 104.7 million cubic metres for 21 March.
Hello from London, it is Martin Belam here taking over from my colleague Samantha Lock in Sydney. If you were looking for something to listen to about the invasion of Ukraine then Tuesday’s episode of Today In Focus features our leader writer Tania Branigan talking to Nosheen Iqbal about whether China can broker an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
She says that although China and Russia share strategic interests, their economic interests diverge, and that this is where Chinese president Xi Jinping may have some leverage in swaying Russian president Vladimir Putin – should China choose to exert it.
You can listen to it here: Today in Focus – Can China broker an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine?
Summary
Here is where the crisis stands as of 9am in Ukraine this morning.
- The Ukrainian military has claimed Russian forces have stockpiles of ammunition and food that will last for “no more than three days” in its operational report this morning. Officials said the situation is similar with fuel, adding: “Mobilisation is carried out chaotically ... most of them have no military specialty, because they have never served in the military.” Ukraine also claimed its forces have retaken the town of Makariv, just 50km west of Kyiv.
- The UK’s ministry of defence says Ukrainian forces continue to repulse Russian attempts to occupy the southern city of Mariupol while Russian forces elsewhere in Ukraine have “endured yet another day of limited progress” with most forces largely stalled in place.
- Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged direct talks with Vladimir Putin, saying: “Without this meeting it is impossible to fully understand what they are ready for in order to stop the war.” He also said his country will never bow to ultimatums from Russia and cities directly under attack, including the capital, Kyiv, and Mariupol and Kharkiv would not accept Russian occupation.
- Russia’s false accusations that Ukraine has biological and chemical weapons is a “clear sign” that Vladimir Putin is considering using them himself, Joe Biden said. “[Putin’s] back is against the wall and now he’s talking about new false flags,” he said. The Pentagon has accused Russian forces of committing war crimes in Ukraine, saying there is “clear evidence” of such, and the spokesman of the US Defence Department said it would help gather evidence of them.
- Biden spoke after the Pentagon said it had seen “clear evidence” Russian forces were committing war crimes and that it was helping collect evidence.
- Biden said only India among the Quad group of countries was “somewhat shaky” in acting against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, as India tries to balance its ties with Russia and the west.
-
Japan criticised Russia’s decision to withdraw from bilateral peace treaty talks to formally end World War Two hostilities between Moscow and Tokyo.
- Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign affairs chief, heralded new plans to develop an “EU Rapid Deployment Capacity” that could allow the bloc to “swiftly deploy up to 5,000 troops” for different types of crises. He insisted a “European army” will not be created.
- Russia threatened to cut ties with the US after Joe Biden called Vladimir Putin a war criminal, claiming his comments “put Russian-American relations on the verge of a breach”.
- Almost 10,000 Russian soldiers may have already been killed in the war in Ukraine since Russia invaded almost four weeks ago, and more than 16,000 wounded, according to reports of previously-undisclosed figures from the defence ministry in Moscow revealed in a pro-Kremlin tabloid newspaper, Komsomolskaya Pravda. The paper later released a statement claiming it had been hacked.
- British prime minister Boris Johnson is “desperate” to go to Ukraine and has a “real emotional connection” with the Ukrainian people, the Tory party chair has claimed. It was reported at the weekend that Johnson wanted to go to Kyiv but on Monday No 10 sources indicated this was unlikely to happen.
- Some of Chernobyl’s exhausted workers have been permitted to leave the site. They have been on duty for the last three weeks since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, fuelling concerns about the site’s safety.
- The UK defence attaché has said Russia’s claims that it fired “hypersonic” missiles in western Ukraine is probably an effort to detract from the lack of progress in its ground campaign.
- In Kyiv, a brand new shopping centre was destroyed in a missile attack that killed at least eight people, the largest attack yet on the capital.
- The Ukrainian military said Russian forces hold the land corridor with Crimea and are blocking access to the Sea of Azov, according to a recent operational report.
- A total of 2,421 civilian casualties have been recorded in Ukraine since Russia invaded, including 925 killed and 1,496 injured, according to an update from the UN Human Rights office (OHCHR).
Updated
Japan has criticised Russia’s decision to withdraw from bilateral peace treaty talks to formally end World War Two hostilities between Moscow and Tokyo.
Russia and Japan have still not formally ended hostilities because of the standoff over the islands located off Japan’s northernmost island of Hokkaido. They are known in Russia as the Southern Kurils and in Japan as the Northern Territories.
Moscow’s decision to withdraw from the talks come in retaliation to sanctions imposed by Tokyo over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The islands were seized by the Soviet Union at the end of World War Two, and Russia claims the acquisition was as fair as any international change of boundaries after the war. Japan has disputed this.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Monday:
“Under the current conditions Russia does not intend to continue negotiations with Japan on a peace treaty” citing Japan’s “openly unfriendly positions and attempts to damage the interests of our country”.
During a parliamentary session on Tuesday, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida responded:
This entire situation has been created by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Russia’s response to push this onto Japan-Russia relations is extremely unfair and completely unacceptable. Japan would like to protest this move.
We will unite with the international community and take resolution action so Japan can continue following the foundation of the international order.”
Japan has imposed sanctions on 76 Russian individuals, seven banks, and 12 other bodies, including defence officials and the state-owned arms exporter, Rosoboronexport.
Russian forces 'largely stalled', UK defence says
The UK’s ministry of defence has just released its latest intelligence report, saying Ukrainian forces continue to repulse Russian attempts to occupy the southern city of Mariupol.
The report reads:
Despite heavy fighting, Ukrainian forces continue to repulse Russian attempts to occupy the southern city of Mariupol.
Russian forces elsewhere in Ukraine have endured yet another day of limited progress with most forces largely stalled in place.
Several Ukrainian cities continue to suffer heavy Russian air and artillery bombardment with the UN reporting that more than 10 million Ukrainians are now internally displaced as a result of Russia’s invasion.”
Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 22 March 2022
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) March 22, 2022
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/H04Aix2uOs pic.twitter.com/TWVZbPaPTh
A superyacht linked to Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich was nearing the Turkish tourist resort of Marmaris on Tuesday, ship tracking data showed, a day after another yacht linked to him docked in the resort of Bodrum, also in southwest Turkey, according to a Reuters report.
The yacht Eclipse was heading in the direction of Marmaris, about 3km (1.9 miles) from its port after cruising southeast of the Greek islands of Crete and Rhodes, according to Marine Traffic data.
The data also showed the 140-metre (460-foot) superyacht Solaris remained moored in Bodrum, some 80km (50 miles) away, having skirted the waters of European Union countries which have sanctioned the oligarch over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
There was no indication that Abramovich was aboard either of the vessels. He was among several wealthy Russians added last week to a European Union blacklist, and EU governments have acted in recent days to seize yachts and other luxury assets from them.
US President Joe Biden has said only India among the Quad group of countries was “somewhat shaky” in acting against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, as India tries to balance its ties with Russia and the west.
While the other Quad countries - the United States, Japan and Australia - have sanctioned Russian entities or people, India has not imposed sanctions or even condemned Russia, its biggest supplier of military hardware.
Biden told a Business Roundtable event on Monday:
In response to his aggression, we have presented a united front throughout the Nato and in the Pacific.
The Quad - with the possible exception of India being somewhat shaky on some of these - but Japan has been extremely strong, so is Australia in terms of dealing with Putin’s aggression.”
After a virtual summit between Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, on Monday, India’s foreign ministry said Australia understood India’s position on Ukraine, which “reflected our own situation, our own considerations”, according to a Reuters report.
India still depends on Russia for a continuous supply of arms and ammunition amid a Himalayan border standoff with China and tension with Pakistan.
India is also considering buying more Russian oil at a discount, with two Indian state companies recently ordering 5m barrels.
Updated
As Russia’s invasion against Ukraine rages on, many civilians have increased their war effort.
In Zaporizhzhia, women are seen making steel vests for Ukrainian soldiers using scrap metals from cars.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is primarily Vladimir Putin’s war, but if there is a second man whose name and reputation will be tied to the devastation unleashed by Moscow it is Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov.
His fighters were part of the first wave assault on the country, and died in large numbers around the Hostomel airbase, with one key commander among those killed.
Elite Chechen squads were also reportedly recruited for failed attempts to assassinate key Ukrainian leaders in the first 48 hours of the invasion, western intelligence said.
More recently Kadyrov’s men have appeared among forces imposing a brutal siege on the port city of Mariupol, where targets have included a maternity hospital and the suffering of hundreds of thousands has become emblematic of Ukrainian pain.
Read the full story below.
The Ukrainian military claims its forces have retaken the town of Makariv, just 50km west of Kyiv.
In an update provided by the general staff of the armed forces, officials said its forces pushed Russian troops out of the town.
“Owing to counterattack ... the enemy is compelled to retreat to unfavourable borders. So, during the day, thanks to the heroic actions of our defenders, the state flag of Ukraine was raised over the city of Makarov, the enemy was rejected.”
The alleged victory comes three days after a Russian mortar attack struck the town and killed seven people, according to local police.
Russian forces bombed the Retroville shopping mall in the Podilsky district of Kyiv with a missile on Sunday night. Eight people were killed in the attack.
It was the largest attack to hit the capital since the invasion began and targeted a brand new shopping centre, causing significant damage as well as to surrounding buildings and cars.
Footage of the rescue operation can be viewed in the video below.
Russian supplies will last 'no more than 3 days', Ukraine military says
The Ukrainian military has released its operational report as of 6am this morning, claiming Russian forces have stockpiles of ammunition and food that will last for “no more than three days”.
According to available information, the Russian occupation forces operating in Ukraine have stockpiles of ammunition and food for no more than three days.”
Officials said the situation is similar with fuel and blamed Russia’s inability to organise a pipeline to meet the needs of troops as the reason behind the logistic failure.
Citing a particular example in the Okhtyrka district of the Sumy oblast, Ukraine’s armed forces said “disobedience of Russian servicemen” led to about 300 servicemen who refused to carry out orders.
And in the temporarily occupied territories of Luhansk region, due to heavy losses of manpower, Ukraine said Russia “continues to mobilise citizens of the quasi-formation of the LPR” however “a large part of the population does not support the policy of the occupiers, does not want to take up arms and hides from the representatives of the occupying power.”
It is significant that mobilisation is carried out chaotically, the people who are mobilised are not distributed by specialties, most of them have no military specialty, because they have never served in the military.
Contracts are signed with citizens who have Russian passports, and those who have only a pseudo-republic passport are registered as volunteers.”
In an earlier report, officials said Russian forces were holding the land corridor with Crimea and are blocking access to the Sea of Azov.
The city of Sumy is also partially blocked while artillery shelling continues on the city of Kharkiv.
Military officials said they estimate Russian lost about 300 personnel on Monday alone.
“It is expected that the enemy will continue to launch insidious missile and bomb strikes and carry out artillery shelling of critical infrastructure of Ukraine using jet artillery, aircraft, high-precision weapons and indiscriminate munitions.” the report read.
The Pentagon earlier accused Russian forces of committing war crimes in Ukraine, saying the Kremlin had carried out indiscriminate attacks as part of an intentional strategy in the conflict.
“We certainly see clear evidence that Russian forces are committing war crimes and we are helping with the collecting of evidence of that,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told a news briefing. “But there’s investigative processes that are going to go on, and we’re going to let that happen. We’re going to contribute to that investigative process”.
If you missed it earlier, watch Kirby’s remarks from the briefing in the video below.
The Russian Embassy to the US has issued a response to Ukraine’s claim that Russian troops forced civilians in Mariupol across the border to Russian camps.
The statement, issued at 10pm EST, reads:
We paid attention to the statements of the Ukrainian authorities circulated in the US media about the alleged creation of ‘filtration camps’ by our military near Mariupol.”
The embassy continued to claim that Russia is only operating checkpoints “to avoid diversion operations” by the Ukrainian military and to allow Russian forces to “carefully inspect motor vehicles heading to safe regions”.
“The Russian military does not create any barriers for the civilian population, but helps to stay alive, provides them with food and medicine,” the statement added.
The Ukrainian spirit of resistance and perseverance has awed the international community and many global leaders.
In the photos below, two men meet to play a game of chess on a bench in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv while a young family prepares a meal outside a train station while waiting to travel to Poland.
'Clear sign' Putin is considering using biological and chemical weapons, Biden says
Russian accusations that Kyiv has biological and chemical weapons are false and illustrate that Russian President Vladimir Putin is considering using them himself in his war against Ukraine, US President Joe Biden said on Monday, without citing evidence.
Reuters reports Biden told at a Business Roundtable event on Monday:
[Putin’s] back is against the wall and now he’s talking about new false flags he’s setting up including, asserting that we in America have biological as well as chemical weapons in Europe, simply not true.
They are also suggesting that Ukraine has biological and chemical weapons in Ukraine. That’s a clear sign he’s considering using both of those.”
The remarks echoed prior comments by officials in Washington and allied countries, who have accused Russia of spreading an unproven claim that Ukraine had a biological weapons program as a possible prelude to potentially launching its own biological or chemical attacks.
Russia’s defence ministry has accused Kyiv, without providing evidence, of planning a chemical attack against its own people in order to accuse Moscow of using chemical weapons in the invasion of Ukraine.
Earlier this month, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan spoke with Nikolay Patrushev, secretary of Russia’s Security Council, warning him of consequences for “any possible Russian decision to use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine.” The White House did not specify what those consequences would be.
Updated
Satellite images show multiple explosions and rising smoke around an industrial compound in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol. It is unclear when the area was struck.
Hundreds of thousands of increasingly desperate people have been trapped in Mariupol, many without water, heat or power, for three weeks. Officials have said at least 2,300 have died.
Reporters from Reuters who reached Mariupol on Monday described an “apocalyptic wasteland”, with bodies lying by the road in blankets, windows blasted out of charred apartment blocks, and groups of men digging graves by the roadside.
Photograph: Azov Handout/Reuters
Zelenskiy calls for direct talks with Putin
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has called for direct talks with his Russian counterpart as the key to ending the war.
Ukraine and Russia have held several rounds of talks via videoconferencing, but so far without a major breakthrough, and Zelenskiy reiterated that direct talks with his Russian counterpart “in any format” were now needed.
Without this meeting it is impossible to fully understand what they are ready for in order to stop the war.”
Zelenskiy said his country would be “destroyed” before it surrenders its cities to invading Russian forces.
The Ukrainian president made clear his countrymen would not “hand over” the capital, the eastern city of Kharkiv, or the heavily bombarded and besieged Mariupol.
Ukraine cannot fulfil Russian ultimatums.
We should be destroyed first.”
Updated
Summary
Hello it’s Samantha Lock with you and we unpack all the latest developments in Ukraine.
Russia’s war on its neighbour is well into its fourth week. Casualties are in the thousands and millions have fled the country seeking refuge abroad.
Here is where the crisis currently stands:
- Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged direct talks with Vladimir Putin, saying: “Without this meeting it is impossible to fully understand what they are ready for in order to stop the war.” He also said his country will never bow to ultimatums from Russia and cities directly under attack, including the capital, Kyiv, and Mariupol and Kharkiv would not accept Russian occupation.
- Russia’s false accusations that Ukraine has biological and chemical weapons is a “clear sign” that Vladimir Putin is considering using them himself, Joe Biden said. “[Putin’s] back is against the wall and now he’s talking about new false flags,” he said. The Pentagon has accused Russian forces of committing war crimes in Ukraine, saying there is “clear evidence” of such, and the spokesman of the US Defence Department said it would help gather evidence of them.
- Biden spoke after the Pentagon said it had seen “clear evidence” Russian forces were committing war crimes and that it was helping collect evidence.
- Biden also warned the US business community of intelligence pointing to a growing Russian cyber threat and urged companies to “immediately” prepare defences.
- Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign affairs chief, heralded new plans to develop an “EU Rapid Deployment Capacity” that could allow the bloc to “swiftly deploy up to 5,000 troops” for different types of crises. He insisted a “European army” will not be created.
- Russia has threatened to cut ties with the US after Joe Biden called Vladimir Putin a war criminal, claiming his comments “put Russian-American relations on the verge of a breach”.
- Almost 10,000 Russian soldiers may have already been killed in the war in Ukraine since Russia invaded almost four weeks ago, and more than 16,000 wounded, according to reports of previously-undisclosed figures from the defence ministry in Moscow revealed in a pro-Kremlin tabloid newspaper, Komsomolskaya Pravda. The paper later released a statement claiming it had been hacked.
- British prime minister Boris Johnson is “desperate” to go to Ukraine and has a “real emotional connection” with the Ukrainian people, the Tory party chair has claimed. It was reported at the weekend that Johnson wanted to go to Kyiv but on Monday No 10 sources indicated this was unlikely to happen.
- Some of Chernobyl’s exhausted workers have been permitted to leave the site. They have been on duty for the last three weeks since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, fuelling concerns about the site’s safety.
- The UK defence attaché has said Russia’s claims that it fired “hypersonic” missiles in western Ukraine is probably an effort to detract from the lack of progress in its ground campaign.
- In Kyiv, a brand new shopping centre was destroyed in a missile attack that killed at least eight people, the largest attack yet on the capital.
- The Ukrainian military said Russian forces hold the land corridor with Crimea and are blocking access to the Sea of Azov, according to a recent operational report.
- A total of 2,421 civilian casualties have been recorded in Ukraine since Russia invaded, including 925 killed and 1,496 injured, according to an update from the UN Human Rights office (OHCHR).
