The body count in Ukraine continued to mount on Sunday as invading Russian forces further intensified their offensive. While a deadly airstrike on a military base in the war-torn country’s west claimed as many as 35 lives, bombings in a southern city killed nine civilians.
Despite the establishment of humanitarian corridors to facilitate evacuations from cities under attack, civilians remain in the line of fire, particularly in the besieged port of Mariupol, where a relentless onslaught by Russian troops is making it next to impossible for residents to flee, receive aid, and even to bury their dead.
However, there was an indication of breakthrough in diplomatic talks, as Russian and Ukrainian officials said “substantial progress” had been made in negotiations.
OVER 30 MISSILES LAUNCHED, 35 DEAD
At least 35 people were killed and 134 wounded after Russia fired over 30 cruise missiles at the Yavoriv military base in the country’s Lviv region. The 360-square km (140-square mile) facility is one of Ukraine’s biggest and is the largest in the western part of the country and is located only 25 km away from the Polish border.
The attack marked an escalation of the ongoing conflict, as it hit uncomfortably close to a member nation of the Nato. US President Joe Biden has said Nato would defend every inch of its territory if Russia’s invasion spills over into member states of the Western defence alliance.
RUSSIA PRESSES DEEPER INTO UKRAINE
Despite stiff resistance from defence forces and citizen volunteers alike, Russian troops are making deeper inroads into Ukraine after launching a multi-front offensive.
Mykolaiv, a strategic city close to the southern port of Odesa, has been under intense fire by Russian forces, with nine people killed in airstrikes on Sunday.
Citing British intelligence reports, Reuters said Russian forces advancing from Crimea were trying to circumvent Mykolayiv as they look to drive west towards Odesa.
In eastern Ukraine, Vladimir Putin’s army was trying to surround Ukrainian forces as they advanced from the port of Mariupol in the south and the second city Kharkiv in the north.
Russian airstrikes also targeted the airport in Ivano-Frankivsk, a city in western Ukraine south of Lviv.
VIDEO | Russian tanks, snipers fire at civilians in besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol
INDIA RELOCATES UKRAINE EMBASSY TO POLAND
As the entirety of Ukraine inexorably descends into war, India has decided to relocate its embassy in the country to Poland.
The embassy had been functioning from an office in Lviv in western Ukraine after Indian officials moved out of the capital Kyiv following the evacuation of a majority of Indian nationals from the country last week. But with Russian strikes becoming commonplace in the western region too, the Indian government announced the move to neighbouring Poland.
“In view of the rapidly deteriorating security situation in Ukraine, including attacks in the western parts of the country, it has been decided that the Indian Embassy in Ukraine will be temporarily relocated in Poland,” the external affairs ministry said in a statement.
TRAPPED MARIUPOL RESIDENTS AWAIT AID
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has sent more than 2.5 million people fleeing across borders and trapped hundreds of thousands in besieged cities.
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Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday nearly 125,000 civilians have been evacuated through safe-passage corridors so far, but expressed concerns about Mariupol, which is surrounded by Russian forces.
Zelenskyy said the Russian “occupiers” are blocking nearly 100 tons of aid dispatched for the port city, including food, water and medicine. According to reports, people trapped in Mariupol are running dangerously low on essentials.
The city council in Mariupol said in a statement that 2,187 residents had been killed since the start of the invasion.
1,582 civilians dead in 12 days: Bodies being buried in mass graves in Ukraine’s Mariupol | VISUALS
US JOURNALIST KILLED IN RUSSIAN FIRE
Later in the day, reports emerged that an American journalist was shot and killed while another was wounded by Russian forces in the town of Irpin on the outskirts of Kyiv. The slain reporter was identified as Brent Renaud, 50, an award-winning filmmaker who used to work for The New York Times.
Ukrainian authorities did not immediately identify the wounded journalist by name.
White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan called Renaud’s death “shocking and horrifying”, and warned that the US and its allies would impose “appropriate consequences” against Russia for the killing.
HOPE FOR RESOLUTION SOON?
Despite the violence, both sides gave their most upbeat assessment yet of the prospects for progress at bilateral talks that have been held periodically since Russia the start of the invasion, although they gave no details of what might be agreed.
“Russia is already beginning to talk constructively,” Ukrainian negotiator and presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak said in a video posted online. “I think that we will achieve some results literally in a matter of days.”
RIA news agency quoted a Russian delegate, Leonid Slutsky, as saying that they had made significant progress and it was possible the delegations could soon reach draft agreements.
(With inouts from AP, Reuters)
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WATCH | Missile attack by Russian troops destroy Vasylkiv military airbase