Fighting has reached the streets of Ukraine’s capital as Russia presses ahead with its invasion.- President Volodymyr Zelenkskyy pledges to defend the country, says he will not surrender.
- Russia’s military claims it has taken control of the southeastern city of Melitopol.
- Nearly 200 people have been killed so far, including civilians, three of whom were children, according to Ukraine’s health minister.
- More than 150,000 Ukrainians have fled the country since the beginning of Moscow’s assault, the UN says.
- Western countries have announced sweeping sanctions on Moscow, including measures targeting President Vladimir Putin himself.
More than 150,000 Ukrainians have fled the country since the start of Russia’s invasion, the UN’s high commissioner for refugees has said.
“Displacement in Ukraine is also growing but the military situation makes it difficult to estimate numbers and provide aid,” Filippo Grandi tweeted.
Russia has closed its airspace to flights from Bulgaria, Poland and the Czech Republic in a series of tit-for-tat moves.
“Air carriers of these states and/or registered in them are subject to restrictions on flights to destinations on the territory of the Russian Federation, including transit flights through the airspace of the Russian Federation,” the federal air transport agency, Rosaviation, said.
The move came after all three countries closed their own airspace to Russian carriers. Several other European nations have taken the same move, including Estonia, Latvia and Slovenia.
“There is no place for planes of the aggressor state in democratic skies,” Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas tweeted.
Germany’s government is in talks over approving the delivery of 400 rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) to Ukraine via a third country but no final decision on whether to do so has been taken, the country’s defence ministry says.
If carried through, the move would signal a major policy shift after Berlin faced criticism for refusing to send weapons to Kyiv, unlike other Western allies.
Germany has a long-standing policy of not exporting weapons to war zones, rooted partly in its bloody 20th-century history and resulting pacifism. Countries aiming to onpass German weapons exports need to apply for approval in Berlin first.
Berlin is also still to decide on a request from Estonia regarding the passing on of old GDR howitzers to Ukraine. Finland had bought the howitzers in the 1990s after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and later re-sold them to Estonia.
There are reports of Ukrainian forces in the key southeastern port city of Mariupol preparing to defend it from a possible Russian assault.
“Witnesses [in Mariupol] are telling us that there are what they describe as increasing numbers of Ukrainian paramilitaries on the streets, helping the Ukrainian army to defend the city from what we understand is a push by Russian forces from the west,” Stratford said.
“We know that the city has also suffered heavy shelling from the east,” he added.
“We’ve also been speaking to people fleeing the area north of Crimea, around the city of Kherson. People are alleging that Russian forces that have taken control of some of those towns are preventing Ukrainian citizens from leaving there.”
“There are increasing fears about the tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of civilians, who are trying to put as much distance as they can between them and the Russian forces advancing on Ukrainian cities, as the front lines become increasingly blurred.”
The Russian army has been given orders to broaden its offensive in Ukraine “from all directions” after Kyiv refused to hold talks in Belarus, the country’s defence ministry says.
“After the Ukrainian side rejected the negotiation process, today all units were given orders to develop the advance from all directions in accordance with the operation’s plans,” Russian army spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a statement.