Summary
Key developments today:
Pope Francis has been criticised after saying Ukraine should have the courage of the “white flag” and negotiate an end to the war with Russia. Some politicians and commentators in Europe reacted with anger after the pontiff appeared to stay silent on Russia’s crimes as aggressor in the invasion, which has killed tens of thousands, and placed the onus on Ukraine to make peace.
In response, Ukraine’s minister for foreign affairs, Dmytro Kuleba posted on X:“Our flag is a yellow and blue one. This is the flag by which we live, die, and prevail. We shall never raise any other flags.”
British foreign minister David Cameron has said he opposes sending western troops to Ukraine, even for training missions. In an interview with German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung published on Saturday, Cameron said training missions are best carried out abroad. Placing foreign soldiers in Ukraine would provide targets for Russia.
Russian shelling of towns in eastern Ukraine killed three people on Sunday while a Moscow strike on a residential building in the town of Myrnograd wounded a dozen, Kyiv said.
Ukraine also said Moscow launched missile attacks on the northeastern Kharkiv region and sent attack drones across the centre and south of the country.
Russia, meanwhile, said one woman was killed in Ukrainian shelling of a border village.
A fire broke out at an oil depot in Russia’s Kursk Oblast after a Ukrainian drone was shot down over its grounds, Roman Starovoit, the region’s governor, claimed on March 10, according to a report in the Kyiv Independent, which said it could not verify the information. Starovoit did not include any information on any casualties or damage to the oil depot.
Ukraine has “almost certainly” accelerated the construction of defensive positions on several areas of the front line, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said in its latest intelligence update. This includes anti-tank dragon’s teeth and ditches, infantry trenches, minefields and fortified defensive positions. The update adds this is indicative of the “attritional character” of the conflict, and attempts to breach “will highly likely be accompanied with high losses”.
Ukrainian air defence units destroyed 35 of the 39 Shahed-type drones that Russia launched overnight, the air force said today. The drones were launched from Cape Chauda in occupied Crimea, and Primorsko-Akhtarsk in Russia’s Krasnodar Krai region, the Kyiv Independent reports.
Turkish and US officials have held comprehensive talks about the wars in Ukraine and Gaza and various bilateral issues during meetings in Washington, Turkey’s foreign minister said late on Friday. Hakan Fidan said he discussed ways to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with officials including US counterpart Antony Blinken, reiterating that Ankara believed it is time to discuss paths toward an end to the war but that Turkey did not see this willingness from Kyiv and Moscow. “We need a basis for talking, for this war to stop, and a dialogue to prevent worse crises, and we call for this,” Fidan said.
UK vehicles that fall foul of London’s ultra low emission zone (Ulez) rules can be donated to Ukraine rather than being scrapped from next week, PA reports. Applicants will be able to donate vehicles in return for the same grant payment available to drivers who scrap or retrofit their vehicles - up to £2,000 - Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has announced.
A Moscow court has sentenced a student to 10 days in jail after he renamed his wifi network with a pro-Kyiv slogan during the military offensive in Ukraine, the Ria-Novosti news agency reported on Saturday. The student at Moscow State University replaced the name of the network from his wifi router with Slava Ukraini, meaning ‘Glory to Ukraine’, the rallying cry of Ukraine forces.
This blog is now closing for the day. Thank you for reading.
Updated
Ukraine’s minister of foreign affairs, Dmytro Kuleba has made clear his response to the comment by Pope Francis.
The strongest is the one who, in the battle between good and evil, stands on the side of good rather than attempting to put them on the same footing and call it “negotiations”.
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) March 10, 2024
At the same time, when it comes to the white flag, we know this Vatican's strategy from the first half…
Russian shelling kills three in eastern Ukraine and injures a dozen in airstrike in Myrnograd, says Kyiv
Russian shelling of towns in eastern Ukraine killed three people on Sunday while a Moscow strike on a residential building in the town of Myrnograd wounded a dozen, Kyiv said.
Ukraine also said Moscow launched missile attacks on the north-eastern Kharkiv region and sent attack drones across the centre and south of the country, AFP reports.
Russia, meanwhile, said one woman was killed in Ukrainian shelling of a border village.
“Three people died as a result of today’s shelling in the Donetsk region,” the head of the embattled region Vadym Filashkin said on social media.
A 66-year-old man was also killed in the frontline town of Chasiv Yar, Filashkin said.
Further south, a Russian night-time strike on the east Ukrainian town of Myrnograd wounded a dozen people, Kyiv said.
Russia on Sunday said Ukrainian shelling killed a woman in the border village of Kulbaki, 10 kilometres (six miles) from Ukraine in the Kursk region.
“As a result of a direct hit from a shell, a residential building caught fire and a local woman died. Her husband had extensive burns and is now receiving qualified medical care,” Kursk governor Roman Starovoyt said.
In Moscow-occupied Ukraine, Russian-installed official Denis Pushilin said Kyiv had shelled a bread factory at night in the city of Gorlovka, wounding four workers.
Updated
More reaction to the “courage of the white flag” comments by Pope Francis.
The Associated Press reports:
The foreign minister of Poland, a vocal ally of Kyiv, and Ukraine’s ambassador to the Vatican both used World War II analogies to condemn the pope’s remarks, while a leader of one of Ukraine’s Christian churches on Sunday said that only the country’s determined resistance to Russia’s aggression had prevented a mass slaughter of civilians.
“How about, for balance, encouraging Putin to have the courage to withdraw his army from Ukraine? Peace would immediately ensue without the need for negotiations,” Polish foreign minister Radek Sikorski responded with a post on X.
In a separate post, Sikorski drew parallels between those calling for negotiations while “denying (Ukraine) the means to defend itself” and European leaders’ “appeasement” of Adolf Hitler just before World War II.
Andrii Yurash, Ukraine’s ambassador to the Holy See, said that it was “necessary to learn lessons” from that conflict. His post on X appeared to compare the pope’s comments to calls for “talking with Hitler” while raising “a white flag to satisfy him.”
A Vatican spokesman later clarified that the pope supported “a stop to hostilities (and) a truce achieved with the courage of negotiations,” rather than an outright Ukrainian surrender. Matteo Bruni said that the journalist interviewing Francis used the term “white flag” in the question that prompted the controversial remarks.
“I think that the strongest one is the one who looks at the situation, thinks about the people and has the courage of the white flag, and negotiates,” Francis said, when asked to weigh in on the debate between those who say that Ukraine should agree to peace talks and those who argue that any negotiations would legitimize Moscow’s aggression.
The interview was recorded last month with Swiss broadcaster RSI and partially released on Saturday, Francis used the phrase “the courage of the white flag” as he argued that Ukraine, facing a possible defeat, should be open to peace talks brokered by international powers.
Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, said Sunday that surrender is not on the minds of Ukrainians.
“Ukraine is wounded, but unconquered! Ukraine is exhausted, but it stands and will endure. Believe me, it never crosses anyone’s mind to surrender.
Pope Francis has been criticised after saying Ukraine should have the courage of the “white flag” and negotiate an end to the war with Russia.
Some politicians and commentators in Europe reacted with anger after the pontiff appeared to stay silent on Russia’s crimes as aggressor in the invasion, which has killed tens of thousands, and placed the onus on Ukraine to make peace.
The Latvian president,Edgars Rinkēvičs wrote on X: “My Sunday morning take: One must not capitulate in [the] face of evil, one must fight it and defeat it, so that the evil raises the white flag and capitulates.”
Dennis Radtke, a German Christian Democrat MEP, said the word “shameful” could be used to describe the pope’s comments. “His stance on Ukraine reflects poorly on his pontificate. It is incomprehensible,” Radtke posted on X.
Anton Gerashchenko, a popular blogger and former adviser to Ukraine’s internal affairs ministry, wrote on X: “It does seem strange that the Pope doesn’t urge to defend Ukraine, doesn’t condemn Russia as an aggressor who killed tens of thousands of people, doesn’t urge Putin to stop, but calls on Ukraine to raise the white flag instead. Do all his Cardinals share this position?”
Read the full report here:
Fire breaks out at oil depot in Kursk oblast after Ukrainian drone shot down, says region's governor
A fire broke out at an oil depot in Russia’s Kursk oblast after a Ukrainian drone was shot down over its grounds, Roman Starovoit, the region’s governor, claimed on 10 March, according to a report by the Kyiv Independent.
Starovoit did not include any information pertaining to casualties or damage to the oil depot.
“Air defence is at work in Kursk. A Ukrainian drone fell and caught fire on the grounds of an oil depot. Fire brigades and emergency services are working at the scene of the incident,” Starovoit wrote on his official Telegram channel at 7:22 a.m. local time.
The website reports Russian Telegram channel SHOT claimed that a 3,000-ton tank was damaged at the oil depot in Kursk and that a “powerful fire” also broke out at an oil pipeline in the village of Lykhma in Russia Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug. According to local residents, the fire was “visible several kilometers away from the scene.”
The Kyiv Independent wrote it is not able to verify this information.
Updated
As Russians prepare to give President Putin another six-year term this week, the Guardian’s Andrew Roth examines how an ex-rival has gone from protest candidate to war hawk.
You can read his report here:
A Russian night-time strike on the east Ukrainian town of Myrnograd wounded at least 11 people, Kyiv said Sunday, while Moscow launched attack drones across the country, AFP reports.
Myrnograd is a town in the Donetsk region around 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the frontline with Russian forces.
“Around 03:00 AM on March 10, Russian forces launched three S-300 missiles at the city of Myrnograd. They targeted a residential neighbourhood,” the prosecutor’s office in the Donetsk region said on social media.
It said the strike wounded a “16-year-old boy, five women and five men aged 34 to 95” and that 17 “high rise buildings” were damaged in explosions.
Officials published photographs of destroyed cars, blackened walls of typical Soviet-era housing blocks with debris outside.
Ukraine has “almost certainly” accelerated the construction of defensive positions on several areas of the front line, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said today in its latest intelligence update.
This includes anti-tank dragon’s teeth and ditches, infantry trenches, minefields and fortified defensive positions.
The update adds this is indicative of the “attritional character” of the conflict, and attempts to breach “will highly likely be accompanied with high losses”.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine – 10 March 2024.
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) March 10, 2024
Find out more about Defence Intelligence's use of language: https://t.co/PS5XNUKusV #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/uE33POgjjj
Ukrainian air defence units destroyed 35 of the 39 Shahed-type drones that Russia launched overnight, the air force said today.
The drones were launched from Cape Chauda in occupied Crimea, and Primorsko-Akhtarsk in Russia’s Krasnodar Krai region, the Kyiv Independent reports.
It said Russian forces also launched four S-300 surface-to-air guided missiles. No information was provided on the outcome of the missile launches.
The drones were intercepted over Kirovohrad, Mykolaiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Cherkasy, Odesa, Kherson, Khmelnytskyi, Vinnytsia, Kyiv, and Zhytomyr oblasts. Mobile fire groups of the Ukrainian Air Force were involved in repelling the air attacks, the report said.
UK vehicles that fall foul of London’s ultra low emission zone (Ulez) rules can be donated to Ukraine rather than being scrapped from next week, PA reports.
Applicants will be able to donate vehicles in return for the same grant payment available to drivers who scrap or retrofit their vehicles - up to £2,000 - Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has announced.
The donated vehicles will be permanently transferred to Ukrainian authorities for humanitarian and medical needs.
Ukraine’s infrastructure has been significantly damaged in the conflict and access to healthcare in many areas has been severely impacted.
The mayor had previously made it clear he did not believe altering the Ulez scheme for exporting vehicles would be possible under current laws, until he made an apparent U-turn on the issue in December.
Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, reportedly wrote to his London counterpart to suggest the idea of donating vehicles.
Transport for London collaborated with UK-registered charity British-Ukrainian Aid to allow the scheme, with support from the Ukrainian embassy, the Mayor of London said.
From March 15, the charity will facilitate the donation of the vehicles to Ukraine and provide the relevant documentation for Londoners to receive their scrappage grant.
London Ambulance Service is planning to join the effort by donating 50 decommissioned ambulances to Ukraine.
The EU is fighting anti-Ukraine propaganda ahead of the European parliamentary elections in June.
Experts warn that pro-Russian players are flooding social media with false claims about the war in Ukraine to boost support for far-right and nationalist parties, AFP reports.
According to the report:
Pro-Russian accounts have been pumping out posts on Facebook, X and TikTok that depict Ukrainian refugees as violent criminals or claim that Kyiv’s government officials siphon off financial aid sent by the West to buy luxury yachts and villas for themselves.Another theme with particular potency in countries closest to the conflict is that refugees receive higher state benefits than locals.
The aim of such propaganda is to weaken the EU’s resolve and benefit anti-immigration parties like Germany’s AfD, France’s National Rally or the Party for Freedom in the Netherlands, said Jakub Kalensky, an analyst at the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats (Hybrid CoE) in Helsinki, Finland.
Such disinformation will “definitely play a role” in the June 6-9 vote, when more than 400 million Europeans choose a new five-year parliament, he said.
“When you exaggerate the risk of Ukrainian immigrants, you boost anti-immigration parties,” Kalensky said.
David Cameron says he opposes sending western troops to Ukraine, even for training missions
British foreign minister David Cameron has said he opposes sending western troops to Ukraine, even for training missions.
In an interview with German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung published on Saturday, Cameron said training missions are best carried out abroad. Placing foreign soldiers in Ukraine would provide targets for Russia.
Last month French president Emmanuel Macron said the possibility of western troops being sent to Ukraine could not be ruled out. Britain later confirmed that it had sent small units to Ukraine to help with medical training, but a spokesperson for prime minister Rishi Sunak said the country does not foresee large-scale deployments.
On Friday, French defence minister Sebastien Lecornu said there were no plans for the moment to send combat troops, but that Ukraine’s allies could consider specific training or de-mining missions.
Poland’s foreign minister says the presence of Nato forces in Ukraine “is not unthinkable” and that he appreciates the French president for not ruling out that idea. Radek Sikorski said he appreciated Macron’s initiative “because it is about Putin being afraid, not us being afraid of Putin”
In other developments:
Pope Francis has said in an interview that Ukraine should have what he called the courage of the “white flag” and negotiate an end to the war with Russia. Francis made his comments in an interview recorded last month with Swiss broadcaster RSI, well before Friday’s latest offer by Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan to host a summit between Ukraine and Russia to end the war. “Don’t be ashamed to negotiate before things get worse,” the 87-year-old pontiff said.
Turkish and US officials have held comprehensive talks about the wars in Ukraine and Gaza and various bilateral issues during meetings in Washington, Turkey’s foreign minister said late on Friday. Hakan Fidan said he discussed ways to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with officials including US counterpart Antony Blinken, reiterating that Ankara believed it is time to discuss paths toward an end to the war but that Turkey did not see this willingness from Kyiv and Moscow. “We need a basis for talking, for this war to stop, and a dialogue to prevent worse crises, and we call for this,” Fidan said.
Ukrainian authorities said two people including a teenage boy were killed Saturday in Russian artillery attacks. Serhiy Lysak, governor of Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, said a 16-year-old boy was killed and a 22-year-old man injured in a morning artillery attack that hit the town of Chervonohryhorivka.
Ukrainian officials said Saturday a Russian bomb landed near a block of flats in the southern city of Kherson overnight wounding a child. It published a video of a destroyed building, with a large crater outside it. “A seven-year-old boy who suffered from the shelling is under medical supervision,” authorities said.
Russian air defences have downed a Ukrainian MiG-29 fighter jet over Ukraine’s Donetsk region, the RIA news agency cited Russia’s defence ministry as saying on Saturday. Ukrainian authorities have not reported any fighter jet losses in recent days.
Car traffic was temporarily suspended over the Crimea Bridge on Saturday, Russian authorities said on the Telegram messaging app, a move often made because of expected or actual attacks. The bridge connects mainland Russia to Crimea, which Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014, but which Kyiv still considers its territory.
A Moscow court has sentenced a student to 10 days in jail after he renamed his wifi network with a pro-Kyiv slogan during the military offensive in Ukraine, the Ria-Novosti news agency reported on Saturday. The student at Moscow State University replaced the name of the network from his wifi router with Slava Ukraini, meaning ‘Glory to Ukraine’, the rallying cry of Ukraine forces. The court found him guilty of a “public demonstration of Nazi symbolics … or symbols of extremist organisations,” Ria-Novosti said.
Good morning and welcome to our Ukraine live blog where we will be keeping you up to date with the most recent developments.
