Saturday’s main developments:
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The worst of the fighting overnight took place in Irpin, Mykolaiv and Sumy, according to the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
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Gas, water and electricity shortages have heavily affected the residents of Mariupol and Chernihiv, among other cities.
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Russian troops have shelled two humanitarian corridors in Kyiv and Donetsk, regional heads said in separate statements on Saturday.
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Sanctions against Moscow might cause the International Space Station to crash, the head of the Russian space agency said.
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“Thousands” of fighters from the Middle East are expected to come fight on the Russian side against Ukrainian forces, DNR head stated.
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The UN Security Council will meet on Friday to discuss Russia’s unsubstantiated claims that the US is conducting “military biological activities” in Ukraine. The White House has called the claim “preposterous”. Zelenskyy says it shows the Kremlin is planning to use such weapons itself in Ukraine.
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More than 2.5 million people have now fled Ukraine since the Russian invasion began, say the latest figures from the UN migration agency and refugee agency.
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Read an overview of the main events on Friday here.
‘Thousands’ of Middle Eastern fighters to join Russia in Ukraine invasion
The Russia-backed head of the separatist region in eastern Ukraine says he expects thousands of fighters from the Middle East to come to fight the Ukrainian forces.
Denis Pushilin, the head of the separatist government in the Donetsk region, said in remarks broadcast on Russian state television Saturday that “many thousands” of volunteers from the Middle East could shortly join the rebels and fight “shoulder-to-shoulder” against the Ukrainian army.
Pushilin’s remarks follow Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu’s comment on Friday that Russian authorities have received requests from over 16,000 people from the Middle East who are eager to join the Russian military action in Ukraine. He added that many of those volunteers have previously fought with Russia against the so-called Islamic State group.
Russia has waged military action in Syria since September 2015, helping President Bashar Assad’s government reclaim control over most of the country in a devastating civil war. Shoigu’s statement followed Ukraine’s call on volunteers from foreign countries to help fight the Russian troops.
MSF: Civilians in Mariupol dying for lack of medical supplies
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said some residents of Mariupol are dying for lack of medication, while others killed in the fighting are being buried in makeshift graves by their neighbours.
The group said the city has been without drinking water or medicine for more than a week now. It said people are resorting to using water from the ground or tapping heating pipes, then boiling it on makeshift fires.
MSF says food is scarce, and the lack of cellphone or internet connectivity in Mariupol means only residents with access to a portable radio have information on what is happening beyond their immediate neighbourhood.
One MSF staff member described seeing people who have died because of lack of medication, adding that “there are a lot of such people inside Mariupol”.
The aid worker said that there are “many people who were killed and injured, and they’re just lying on the ground. Neighbours [are] just digging a hole in the ground and putting their bodies inside.”
Macron and Scholz speak with Putin about war in Ukraine
French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke again on Saturday with President Vladimir Putin to discuss the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a day after the Versailles summit, the Elysee Palace said.
The three leaders had already had a phone conversation on Thursday during which France and Germany had “demanded from Russia an immediate ceasefire”.
Since their meeting on 7 February in the Kremlin, Emmanuel Macron has had nine phone conversations with Putin.
Russian army continues to shell ‘humanitarian corridors’, local authorities claim
The governors of the regions of Kyiv and Donetsk said in separate statements on Saturday Russian attacks were continuing in areas where Ukraine was trying to evacuate people and bring aid through humanitarian corridors.
“Humanitarian cargo is moving towards Mariupol, we will inform you how it develops […] The situation is complicated, there is constant shelling,” Donetsk governor Pavlo Kyrylenko told local media.
79 children killed since the beginning of war, authorities say
At least 79 children have lost their lives in Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian invasion, while another 100 have been wounded, the Prosecutor General’s Office said on Saturday.
Most victims were from Kyiv, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Sumy, Kherson and Zhytomyr regions. The number is not final because the ongoing hostilities are preventing investigators from reaching some of the scenes, the prosecutor’s office stated.
More than 280 educational institutions have been severely damaged across the country, with nine completely destroyed, local media reported.
Italy seizes yacht owned by oligarch from Putin’s ‘inner circle’
Italian financial police took a Russian-owned superyacht valued at €530 million in the port of Trieste as part of seizures of oligarch wealth to pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin to halt the aggression against Ukraine.
The “Sailing Yacht A” or “SY A”, launched in 2015, was identified by Italian police as belonging to billionaire Andrey Igorevich Melnichenko, who made a fortune in fertiliser production and coal energy. It was seized Friday evening.
Video shows police in cars with flashing lights approaching the triple-mast yacht and officers boarding it.
Italian authorities last week seized some €143m in luxury yachts and villas belonging to Russian billionaires in picturesque retreats such as Sardinia, the Ligurian coast and Lake Como.
Russian army moves closer to Kyiv
Britain’s Defence Ministry says fighting northwest of Kyiv has continued with the bulk of Russian ground forces now around 25 kilometres from the centre of the city.
A daily intelligence update says elements of the large Russian military column north of Kyiv have dispersed. It says this is likely to support a Russian attempt to encircle the Ukrainian capital.
According to the brief, it could also be an attempt by Russia to reduce its vulnerability to Ukrainian counterattacks, which have taken a significant toll on Russian forces.
The update says that beyond Kyiv, the cities of Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Sumy and Mariupol remain encircled and continue to suffer heavy Russian shelling.
Russian army shells mosque in Mariupol
A mosque where more than 80 civilians including children have taken refuge was bombed in Mariupol, Ukraine’s foreign ministry said on Saturday.
“The mosque of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent and his wife Roxolana (Hurrem Sultan) in Mariupol was shelled by Russian invaders,” the ministry said in a tweet.
“More than 80 adults and children are sheltering there, including Turkish citizens,” it added, without specifying when the bombing took place.
The strategic town has been the target of heavy bombardment for days, with its residents suffering under a devastating siege.
German foreign minister asks for solidarity with refugees, promises corridor to Western countries
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock says Germany is working with allies to airlift people who have fled Ukraine to countries farther away as neighbouring nations struggle to cope with all new arrivals.
Baerbock said Saturday that Moldova, a nation of 2.5 million on the border with Ukraine, has taken in 100,000 people — almost as many as Germany, which has a population over 30 times bigger.
She urged allies to show solidarity toward those affected by the war and accused Russia of spreading “ever more crazy propaganda that now doesn’t even shrink from threats to use weapons of mass destruction.”
Russian shelling strikes cancer hospital in Mykolaiv
Russia damaged a cancer hospital and several residential buildings in the southern city of Mykolaiv with shelling from heavy artillery, Ukrainian officials said.
The hospital’s head doctor, Maksim Beznosenko, said several hundred patients were in the hospital during the attack but that no one was killed. The assault damaged the building and blew out windows.
Russian forces have stepped up their attacks on Mykolaiv, located 470 kilometres south of Kyiv, in an attempt to encircle the city.
Ukrainian and Western officials earlier accused Russia of shelling a maternity hospital in the southern city of Mariupol on Wednesday. Three people died in that attack.
Roscosmos: ISS might crash if sanctions against Russia persist
Russia’s space agency has sent NASA and other international partners a letter demanding an end to sanctions, saying they could threaten the International Space Station.
In a tweet on Saturday, the head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, said the letter appealed to the space agencies of Europe, the US, and Canada to keep the space station operational.
He illustrated the appeal with a map showing the flight path of the ISS — and a potential fall zone that straddles much of the world but barely touches upon Russia.
Rogozin has come under heavy criticism for his public support of the war in Ukraine.
Four NASA astronauts, two Russian cosmonauts and one European astronaut are currently on the space station.
09:51Trapped commercial ships should be allowed to evacuate, UN watchdog says
The International Maritime Organization, a UN oversight body for international seafaring and the law of the sea, is calling for a safe corridor in the Black and Azov seas to let commercial ships evacuate.
Many of the waters are mined, and Russian navy vessels are off the shores of Ukraine. Explosions have hit at least two cargo ships in the area, and dozens of others have been stranded.
The IMO Council held an emergency session and said it deplored the attacks of the Russian Federation aimed at commercial vessels, their seizures, including search and rescue vessels, threatening the safety and welfare of seafarers and the marine environment.
