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Russia-Ukraine Crisis Highlights: Russian forces pressed their assault on Ukrainian cities Friday, with new missile strikes and shelling on the edges of the capital Kyiv and the western city of Lviv, as world leaders pushed for an investigation of the Kremlin’s repeated attacks on civilian targets, including schools, hospitals and residential areas.
Outside Lviv, black smoke billowed for hours after the early morning strike by several missiles, which the mayor said hit a facility for repairing military aircraft near the city's international airport, also damaging a bus repair facility.
Additionally, more than 700 civilians - including 52 children - have been killed in Ukraine since Russia invaded three weeks ago, but the "actual number is likely much higher," UN political affairs chief Rosemary DiCarlo told the Security Council on Thursday.
"Most of these casualties were caused by the use in populated areas of explosive weapons with a wide impact area. Hundreds of residential buildings have been damaged or destroyed, as have hospitals and schools," DiCarlo said.
The World Health Organisation has verified 43 attacks on healthcare in Ukraine that have killed 12 people and injured dozens more, including health workers, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the Security Council.
Russian President Vladimir Putin launched what he called a special military operation before dawn on February 24, ignoring Western warnings and saying the "neo-Nazis" ruling Ukraine threatened Russia's security. Russia's assault is said to be the biggest on a European state since World War Two and threatens to upend the continent's post-Cold War order.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called on Saturday for comprehensive peace talks with Moscow to stop its invasion of Ukraine, saying it would otherwise take Russia "several generations" to recover from its losses in the war.
Russian forces have taken heavy losses and their advance has largely stalled since President Vladimir Putin launched the assault on Feb. 24, with long columns of troops that bore down on Kyiv halted in its suburbs.
But they have laid siege to cities, blasting urban areas to rubble, and in recent days have intensified missile attacks on scattered targets in western Ukraine, away from the main battlefields in the north and east.
More than 3.3 million flee Ukraine, 6.5 million internally displaced: AFP
More than 3.3 million refugees have now fled Ukraine since the Russian invasion, the United Nations said Saturday, while nearly 6.5 million are thought to be internally displaced within the country.
UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, said 3,328,692 Ukrainians had left since the war began on February 24, with another 58,030 joining the exodus since Friday's update.
"People continue to flee because they are afraid of bombs, airstrikes and indiscriminate destruction," said UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi.
Ukraine calls on China to 'condemn Russian barbarism': AFP
UK warns against post-Ukraine reset with Putin: AFP
The West must not try to "normalise relations" with Russian President Vladimir Putin after his invasion of Ukraine, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Saturday, calling the crisis a "turning point for the world"
"There are some around the world... who say that we're better off making accommodations with tyranny... I believe they are profoundly wrong," the British leader told his Conservative Party's Spring conference in Blackpool, northwest England.
"To try to renormalise relations with Putin after this, as we did in 2014, would be to make exactly the same mistake again, and that is why Putin must fail.
"This is a turning point for the world and it's a moment of choice. It's a choice between freedom and oppression," he added.
His Foreign Secretary Liz Truss warned Saturday that peace talks to end the conflict could be a "smokescreen" for more extreme Russian military manoeuvres.
"I'm very sceptical," Truss told The Times newspaper in an interview.
"What we've seen is an attempt to create space for the Russians to regroup. Their invasion isn't going according to plan.
"I fear the negotiation is yet another attempt to create a diversion and create a smokescreen. I don't think we're yet at a point for negotiation," she added.
Truss echoed comments by British intelligence that Putin could turn to "more and more extreme actions", noting "appalling atrocities already".
Russia says it used hypersonic Kinzhal missiles to destroy a large weapons depot in Ukraine's western Ivano-Frankivsk region: Reuters
Russia said on Saturday it had used hypersonic Kinzhal (Dagger) missiles to destroy a large weapons depot in Ukraine's western Ivano-Frankivsk region. Russia's Interfax news agency said it was the first time Russia had deployed the hypersonic Kinzhal system since it sent its troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24.
Dozens dead after military barracks hit in south Ukraine: AFP
Dozens of soldiers were killed after Russian troops struck a Ukrainian military barracks in the southern city of Mykolaiv, witnesses told AFP on Saturday while a rescue operation was underway.
"No fewer than 200 soldiers were sleeping in the barracks" when Russian troops struck early Friday, a Ukrainian serviceman on the ground, 22-year-old Maxim, told AFP without providing his last name. "At least 50 bodies have been recovered, but we do not know how many others are in the rubble," he said. Another soldier estimated that the bombing could have killed around 100 people. Authorities have not yet released an official death toll.
Switzerland brands war in Ukraine 'devastating madness': AFP
Russia's war in Ukraine is driven by "devastating madness", and Switzerland is prepared to pay the price for defending freedom and democracy, Swiss President Ignazio Cassis said Saturday.
Switzerland has decided to impose the same sanctions on Russia as the European Union but Cassis insisted Switzerland's neutrality was not at stake.
However, he said Switzerland could not simply stand by in the "confrontation between democracy and barbarism", and was prepared to take an economic hit.
"On February 24, the face of the world changed, and not in a good way. We must valiantly and tirelessly defend freedom and democracy. This has a price. A price that Switzerland is ready to assume", he wrote in Le Temps newspaper.
"This war is driven by a devastating madness which shatters all the principles and values of our civilisation."
While the there was no question of an economic crisis or a downturn for now, Cassis said the conflict would have an impact on the Swiss economy.
He said the country would have to cope with "sustained and significant inflation and rising energy prices", while the Swiss franc currency would remain a safe haven, which will hit exports.
"There is no solution which, with a wave of a magic wand, would save Switzerland from the consequences resulting from the current situation", he added.
Cassis said Switzerland will not send military support to Ukraine but neutrality could not mean indifference.
"Switzerland cannot tolerate this war without reacting," he wrote.
"Russia has massively violated the prohibition of the use of force, a principle anchored in international law. By remaining inactive, Switzerland would have played the game of the aggressor."
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Russia does not appear to be looking to escalate the conflict in Syria, the leading U.S. general in the Middle East said on Friday, even as Moscow pursues its invasion of Ukraine.
Russian forces have remained in Syria since 2015 when they helped turn the tide in a civil war in favor of PresidentBasharal-Assad.The United States has roughly 900 troops in Syria, sometimes near Russian troops. While the interactions are generally safe and professional, a small number of U.S. troops were wounded in 2020 when a Russian military patrol slammed into their vehicle.
"We have no evidence that the Russians are intent on escalating anything in Syria," U.S. General Frank McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command, told reporters at the Pentagon."I don't see any evidence that the temperature is rising, particularly in Syria as a result of what's going on in Ukraine," McKenzie said, adding that the United States was watching it closely. (Reuters)
USofficials have observed an uptick in the use of digital assets to facilitate illicit finance since Russia invaded Ukraine, but the transaction volume is too small to play a big role in helping Moscow evade sweeping sanctions, a senior Treasury official said. (Reuters)
Chinese President Xi Jinping told his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden on Friday that the war in Ukraine must end as soon as possible, according to Chinese state media. "The top priorities now are to continue dialogue and negotiations, avoid civilian casualties, prevent a humanitarian crisis, cease fighting and end the war as soon as possible," Xi told Biden on a video call.
All parties should jointly support the Russia-Ukraine dialogue and negotiations while the United States and NATO should also conduct talks with Russia to solve the "crux" of the Ukraine crisis and resolve the security concerns of both Russia and Ukraine, Xi said. (Reuters)
US President Joe Biden sought to prevent Beijing giving new life to Russia's invasion of Ukraine in a video call on Friday with Chinese President Xi Jinping, as Moscow pressed on with bombardments that have taken the place of military advances.
With Russia trying to regain the initiative in a stalled campaign, three missiles landed at an airport near Lviv, a city where hundreds of thousands thought they had found refuge far from Ukraine's battlefields.
The Russian defence ministry said it was "tightening the noose" around the besieged southern port of Mariupol, where officials said more than 1,000 people may still be trapped in makeshift bomb shelters beneath a destroyed theatre. (Reuters)
