Moscow is trying to create new puppet republics in Ukraine similar to the two in Donbas to break his country apart, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address to the nation Saturday.
In another ceasefire violation, seven Ukrainian civilians, including a child, died when the Russian army shelled a humanitarian convoy of refugees near Kyiv and forced them to turn back, Ukrainian authorities claim.
13:59
Sunday’s main developments:
- Russian forces carried an attack on a military range near Lviv, expanding the offensive to western Ukraine.
- Overnight, significant fighting continued in Irpin and Makariv near Kyiv, while Chernihiv came under heavy bombardment. At least one residential building was destroyed in the Russian attack, with one person dead and seven reported injured.
- In Luhansk, the cities of Severodonetsk, Rubizhne, Lysychansk and Popasna are under constant fire. In the Donetsk region, Mariupol remains under siege.
- The humanitarian crisis worsens as gas, water and electricity shortages continue to affect the residents of many cities, including the besieged southern port of Mariupol.
- Ukrainian authorities again accused Russia of violating the ceasefire agreement and opening fire on “humanitarian corridors”. Just nine of 14 agreed-upon corridors were open on Saturday, with 13,000 people evacuated on them around the country.
- At least 2.5 million people have fled Ukraine in the two weeks since Russia invaded it, UNHCR said.
- Read an overview of the main events on Saturday here.
14:55
White House adviser: NATO will respond to any Russian attack on its members
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan says Russia will face a response from NATO should any of its attacks in Ukraine cross borders and hit members of the security alliance.
Russian missiles on Sunday struck a military training base close to Ukraine’s western border with NATO member Poland and killed 35 people.
Sullivan told CBS News that President Joe Biden “has been clear repeatedly that the US will work with our allies to defend every inch of NATO territory and that means every inch.”
Sullivan says a military attack on NATO territory would cause the invocation of Article 5. That requires other countries in NATO to come to the defence of the attacked nation. “We will bring the full force of the NATO alliance to bear in responding,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan says NATO would respond even if a shot by Russia that hit NATO territory was accidental.
14:52
Aid convoy hours away from Mariupol, Zelenskyy says
Ukraine’s president says nearly 125,000 civilians have been evacuated through safe-passage corridors so far, and a convoy with humanitarian aid is headed to the besieged city of Mariupol.
“We have already evacuated almost 125,000 people to the safe territory through humanitarian corridors,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address released on Sunday.
“The main task today is Mariupol. Our convoy with humanitarian aid is two hours away from Mariupol. Only 80km [left].”
“We’re doing everything to counter occupiers who are even blocking Orthodox priests accompanying this aid, food, water and medicine. There are 100 tons of the most necessary things that Ukraine sent to its citizens,” Zelenskyy said.
13:47
Pope Francis: ‘In the name of God, I ask, stop this massacre’
Pope Francis has decried the “barbarianism” of killing children and other defenceless civilians in Ukraine and pleaded to stop the attacks “before cities are reduced to cemeteries”.
In some of his most vigorous denunciations yet of the war in Ukraine, and in an apparent reference to Russia, which invaded Ukraine on 24 February, the pontiff said that “there are no strategic reasons that hold up” in the face of such armed aggression.
Francis told about 25,000 people gathered in St. Peter’s Square for his customary Sunday noon appearance that Mariupol, the southern Ukrainian city that “bears the name” of the Virgin Mary, has “become a city martyred by the heartbreaking war that is devastating Ukraine.”
“In the name of God, I ask: ‘Stop this massacre,’” Francis said, sparking applause from the pilgrims, tourists and Romans, some of whom held Ukrainian flags, in the square.
Francis prayed for an end to the bombings and other attacks and for ensuring that humanitarian corridors “are safe and secure.”
12:58
Soviet drone that crashed near Zagreb contained explosives, Croatian minister of defence says
The large military drone that crashed on the outskirts of the Croatian capital Zagreb on Thursday night had “airplane bomb” parts, Minister of Defence Mario Banožić said on Sunday.
“Traces of explosives were found, as well as other traces that indicate that this was not a scouting aircraft,” he told the gathered press in Zagreb.
“We found airplane bomb parts and have concluded that it was also Soviet-made.”
The 1970s-made missile-like drone Tu-141 is currently in use by Ukrainian forces, but Banožić said that the Russian military could have launched the aircraft.
“There are elements indicating it could have come from either side,” he stated.
A black box has been retrieved, and its contents are being analysed. Banožić also stated that Croatia will work together with NATO — who are conducting a parallel investigation — to try and retrace the drone’s point of origin.
12:30
Ukrainian defence minister calls for closed skies once again
Minister of Defence Oleksii Reznikov has called on NATO to immediately implement a no-fly zone after a Russian missile attack on the Yavoriv training facility near Lviv in western Ukraine.
“Russia has attacked the International Centre for Peacekeeping and Security near Lviv. Foreign instructors work here,” Reznikov said on Twitter. “This is new terrorist attack on peace & security near the EU-NATO border. Action must be taken to stop this. Close the sky!”
Source:euronews.com