In a huge escalation of tensions, Russian missiles, said Kyiv, pounded a military base – a critical hub for cooperation with NATO countries – in west Ukraine on Sunday, killing 35 people. While the safety of journalists – apart from civilians – in the warzone remains a big concern, a 51-year-old American correspondent – Brent Renaud – was killed in Irpin, outside the capital city. On Monday, both the countries will hold a fresh round of talks.
Here are ten updates on the Ukraine war, which is in its third week now:
1. A fresh round of talks via video-conference will take place Monday between Kyiv and Moscow, Mykhailo Podoliak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and part of the negotiating team, said. “Again. Negotiations go non-stop in the format of video conferences. Working groups are constantly functioning. A large number of issues require constant attention. On Monday, March 14, a negotiating session will be held to sum up the preliminary results… (sic),” he wrote in a tweet.
2. Another fresh appeal to “close the skies” was sent out by Zelensky to NATO with a warning. “If you don’t close our sky, it is only a matter of time before Russian rockets fall on your territory, on NATO territory,” the 44-year-old said in a video address.
3. Over 30 cruise missiles targeted the sprawling facility at Yavoriv military base on Sunday, perilously close to the border with Poland – a NATO member. Poland is also a transit route for Western military aid to Ukraine, and the strikes followed Moscow’s threats to target those shipments, according to reports.
4. A statement by the White House on Sunday said that US President Joe Biden and France’s Emmanuel Macron in a call stressed on their commitment to hold Russia’s Vladimir Putin accountable for the war. Macron has earlier slammed Putin over his statements that what he describes as a “special military operation” has been launched for “denazification”.
5. Tensions are also mounting between the US and China and top aides of the two countries are set to meet in Rome on Monday for talks.Beijing has been pressured to openly decry the war as the Kremlin faces global sanctions. The Washington has also said that Moscow has asked for military aid from Beijing.
6. Fresh shockwaves have been sent across the West with the death of Brent Renaud, a US journalist caught in fire just outside Kyiv. “We are devastated by the loss of Brent Renaud. As an award-winning filmmaker and journalist, Brent tackled the toughest stories around the world often alongside his brother Craig Renaud. In recent weeks, Brent was in the region working on a TIME Studios project focused on the global refugee crisis,” a statement by the Time magazine read.
7. The war has now come close to the NATO borders. The western part of the country, which was initially not as affected by the war as the north, south and the eastern region, is also witnessing fighting now. An airport in Ivano-Frankivsk, another city in western Ukraine south of Lviv and 250 kilometers (155 miles) away from Ukraine’s border with NATO members Slovakia and Hungary, was hit in the Russian airstrikes, local officials were quoted as saying by news agency AP.
8. More than 2,000 people have been killed in the besieged port city of Mariupol. According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, suffering in the port city is “simply immense” and that hundreds of thousands of residents are “facing extreme or total shortages of basic necessities like food, water and medicine”, AP reported.
9. Nine people were killed in bombings in the southern city of Mykolaiv, near the Black Sea.
10. More than 2.7 million have fled the war so far, according to the United Nations. Of these, over 1 million have arrived in Poland.
(With inputs from AP, Reuters, AFP)
