Ukraine War: Mariupol has suffered some of the heaviest bombardments
New Delhi:
Ukraine on Monday rejected Russian calls to surrender the port city of Mariupol, where residents are besieged with little food, water and power and fierce fighting shows little sign of easing.
Russia earlier called on Ukrainian forces in Mariupol to lay down their arms, saying a “terrible humanitarian catastrophe” was unfolding.
Mariupol has suffered some of the heaviest bombardments since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24.
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U.N. says 925 civilians killed in Ukraine since conflict began
The U.N. human rights office (OHCHR) said on Monday it had recorded 2,421 civilian casualties in Ukraine – 925 killed and 1,496 injured – as of midnight on March 20.
Hours after Russian missiles first struck Ukrainian cities on Feb. 24, German naval commander Terje Schmitt-Eliassen received notice to sail five warships under his command to the former Soviet Republic of Latvia to help protect the most vulnerable part of NATO’s eastern flank.
The hasty dispatch was part of Germany’s scramble to send “everything that can swim out to sea,” as the navy’s top boss phrased it, to defend an area military strategists have long deemed the weakest point for the alliance. The vessels’ sudden departure demonstrated how NATO, and Germany, were propelled by Russia’s invasion into a new reality and face what officials, diplomats, intelligence officials and security sources agree is the most serious threat to the alliance’s collective security since the Cold War.
The German government is determined to deliver more arms to Ukraine, a government spokesperson said on Monday.
One way that could be done is by placing orders through defence companies, the spokesperson told a regular news conference.
The spokesperson added that further deliveries would be based on what Germany has already delivered to Ukraine.
An embargo on Russian oil imports, pushed for by some European countries over Moscow’s military action in Ukraine, would have a direct impact on everyone, the Kremlin said Monday.
Some EU countries including Baltic states have called for an embargo on Russian oil and gas, while Germany has opposed an outright halt on Russian energy imports.
EU foreign ministers on Monday are meeting to discuss the situation in Ukraine and possible tightening of sanctions.
US President Joe Biden is set to attend an EU summit on Ukraine on Thursday in Brussels that will debate energy prices and supply security.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists that an oil embargo “is a decision that will hit everyone”.
“Such an embargo will have a very serious impact on the world energy market, it will have a very serious negative impact on Europe’s energy balance,” he said.
Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko announced a new curfew for the Ukrainian capital later on Monday that would last until Wednesday morning.
The curfew “will begin at 8:00 pm (1800 GMT) and last until 7:00 am (0500 GMT) on March 23,” Klitschko wrote on Telegram.
The Kremlin said on Monday that peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv had yet to yield any major breakthroughs and called on countries that can exert influence over Ukraine to use their clout to make Kyiv more constructive at the negotiations.
Speaking to reporters on a conference call, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said significant progress in the talks still had to be made for there to be a basis for a possible meeting between President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Russia sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24 in what it called a special operation to degrade its southern neighbour’s military capabilities and root out people it called dangerous nationalists.
Ukrainian forces have mounted stiff resistance and the West has imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia in an effort to force it to withdraw its forces.
The Kremlin said on Monday that peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv had yet to yield any major breakthroughs and called on countries that can exert influence over Ukraine to use their clout to make Kyiv more constructive at the negotiations.
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Monday decried Russia’s attack on the Ukrainian port city Mariupol as “a massive war crime”, as the bloc discussed imposing more sanctions on Moscow.
“What’s happening now in Mariupol is a massive war crime, destroying everything, bombarding and killing everybody,” Borrell said at the start of a meeting of EU foreign ministers.
Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on Monday that Ukraine had “of course” rejected a Russian ultimatum for people in Mariupol to surrender and the situation in the besieged city ere was “very difficult”.
Gennady Timchenko, a long-time ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, resigned from the board at gas producer Novatek on Monday after he was targeted by sanctions over Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine.
Novatek, Russia’s largest private natural gas producer, did not provide a reason for his resignation. A representave of Timchenko, who had served on the company’s board of directors since 2009, declined to comment.
Russian air forces hit a Ukrainian army military facility in Rivne Region with cruise missiles, Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Monday. “High-precision air-launched cruise missiles have struck a training centre for foreign mercenaries and Ukrainian nationalist formations,” Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.
Agreement has been reached on creating eight humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians from besieged towns and cities on Monday but the city of Mariupol is not among them, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said. She said efforts to reach Mariupol with humanitarian supplies continued to fail.
The Chinese Red Cross will offer an additional 10 million yuan ($1.57 million) of humanitarian assistance to Ukraine, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters on Monday.
Wang’s comments came at a regular briefing in Beijing and the promise of aid follows previous pledges of aid to Ukraine including one of 5 million yuan from earlier this month.
Ukraine war could lead to global food crisis, says French farming minister
The war between Ukraine and Russia, two of the world’s top crop producers, could lead to a food crisis “on the global” scale, French farming minister Julien Denormandie said in Brussels on Monday ahead of a EU agriculture meeting.
Russian Forces Advance On Kyiv
Russian forces advancing on Kyiv from the north-east have stalled and the bulk of its forces remain more than 25 kilometres from the centre of the city, British military intelligence said on Monday.
At least six people were killed in an overnight bombing on a shopping centre in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, an AFP journalist said on Monday.
Six bodies were laid out in front of the “Retroville” shopping mall in the northwest of Kyiv, according to the journalist. The building had been hit by a powerful blast that pulverised vehicles in its car park and left a crater several metres wide.
Post-Captain Andrei Paliy, the fleet’s deputy commander, died during fighting in the eastern Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, Mikhail Razvozhayev said on the messaging app Telegram.
China pressed to choose sides on Ukraine
US President Joe Biden’s warning of “consequences” for any aid China may give to Russia’s Ukraine war effort could force Chinese President Xi Jinping to choose between a longstanding lucrative trade relationship with the West and a growing strategic partnership with Moscow.
Residents of the northern Ukrainian town of Novoselytsya should seek shelter after an ammonia leak at a nearby chemical factory, an official said Monday, as intense fighting with Russian forces in the area continues.
Sumy regional governor Dmytro Zhyvytsky said there had been an “ammonia leakage” at the Sumykhimprom facility, affecting an area within 2.5 kilometres (1.5 miles) of the plant, which produces fertilisers
The United States could impose more sanctions on Russia and the White House is “nowhere near” lifting any of the restrictions, Daleep Singh, the deputy national security adviser for international economics, said.
“We can broaden our sanctions. So – take the measures, take the sanctions we’ve already applied, apply them in more targets. Apply them to more sectors,” Singh said on Sunday on CBS News’ “60 Minutes.”
New Zealand said on Monday it will provide Ukraine with a further NZ$5 million ($3.46 million) in funds and non-lethal military assistance including some surplus equipment. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the money would be primarily directed to a NATO Trust Fund that provides fuel, rations, communication equipment and first aid kits to support Ukraine as its battles Russian forces that invaded on February
There is an ammonia leak at a chemicals plant in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy besieged by Russian troops, Sumy regional governor Dmytro Zhyvytskyy said on Monday.
Ten million people — more than a quarter of the population — have now fled their homes in Ukraine due to Russia’s “devastating” war, the United Nations refugees chief says Sunday. More than 3.3 million of them have escaped the country.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday that Israel was undertaking many efforts to arrange top-level peace talks between his country and Russia and suggested they might take place in Jerusalem.
Zelenskiy, speaking in his daily video appeal to Ukrainians after addressing Israel’s parliament by video link, said Prime Minister Naftali Bennett had been trying to act as an intermediary between Kyiv and Moscow
Negotiation Only Way Out Of War, Says Ukraine President Zelensky
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has renewed his plea for talks with his Russian counterpart, taking to US television to say negotiations were the only way to “end this war.”
Ukraine on Monday rejected Russian calls to surrender the port city of Mariupol, where residents are besieged with little food, water and power and fierce fighting shows little sign of easing.
“There can be no question of any surrender, laying down of arms,” the Ukrainska Pravda news portal cited Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk as saying early on Monday.