Ukraine’s Human Rights Commissioner Lyudmila Denisova said those killed in Thursday’s bombing were volunteers accompanying a convoy of buses sent to the northern city of Chernihiv to evacuate residents.
He said Russian forces besieging Chernihiv had made it impossible to evacuate civilians from the city, which has been cut off from food, water and other supplies.
The Russian bombing continued for two days after Moscow announced it would reduce military operations around Kyiv and Chernihiv. The NATO leader said on Thursday that this was a reconstruction and not a withdrawal.
The southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol and a “corridor” between two eastern cities, Izyum and Volnovakha, are also becoming the main battle fronts in Ukraine, an interior ministry adviser said on Thursday.
A view shows an apartment building that was destroyed during the conflict in the besieged southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine, on Wednesday. (Alexander Ermochenko / Reuters)
Ukrainian forces are preparing for new Russian attacks in the southeastern region, where Moscow’s weapons are now being trained after repelling an attack on the capital Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday.
Five weeks after the devastation that devastated the cities, American and European officials said that Russian President Vladimir Putin had been misled by his generals about the terrible performance of the Russian army.
Fierce resistance from Ukrainian forces prevented Russia from capturing any major city, including the capital, Kiev, which it attacked with armored columns from the northwest and east.
Moscow says it is now focusing on the “liberation” of the Donbas region – two southeastern provinces controlled in part by Russia-backed separatists since 2014.
In a video speech early in the morning, Zelensky said that the movement of Russian troops away from Kyiv and the northern city of Chernihiv was not a withdrawal but rather “the consequence of the work of our defenders.”
“Ukraine was seeing” an accumulation of Russian forces for new strikes in Donbas and we are preparing for that, “he said.
CLOCKS Putin “massively misjudged” the invasion of Ukraine, says the head of the British secret services:
Putin “massively misjudged” the invasion of Ukraine, says the head of the British secret services
Some Russian soldiers in Ukraine have refused to carry out orders and others have sabotaged their own equipment, said Jeremy Fleming, head of Britain’s GCHQ intelligence service. “It’s an indication of how badly Vladimir Putin has valued the capabilities of Russian forces,” Fleming said. 1:49
Efforts to reach civilians in Mariupol
This includes Mariupol, once a city of 400,000, where most of the buildings have been destroyed or destroyed in four weeks of continuous Russian bombing and siege. A convoy of Ukrainian buses left for the port on Thursday to try to reach trapped civilians, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.
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He said 45 buses were on their way to the city after the International Committee of the Red Cross confirmed that Russia had agreed to open a safe corridor. All previous attempts to reach Ukrainian-controlled areas of Mariupol with the help or buses to evacuate civilians have failed.
The civilians who managed to leave the city usually did so using private cars, but the number of drivers left in Mariupol has decreased and fuel stocks are low.
Local resident Pavel, 42, appeared Wednesday standing next to the grave of his friend Igor, who was killed by fire while riding in a car together in the southern port city of Mariupol. (Alexander Ermochenko / Reuters)
The city mayor said this week that up to 170,000 residents have been trapped in Mariupol without electricity and few supplies.
The United Nations believes thousands of people have died there, many buried in insignificant graves.
“Everyone knows there is a humanitarian catastrophe there,” Zelenski told Belgian lawmakers in a video speech on Thursday.
A briefing from the British Ministry of Defense stated that fierce fighting continues in Mariupol, but that Ukrainian forces are still in control of the city center.
In Russian-controlled areas of Mariupol, people occasionally climb out of cellars to appear as ghosts among the ruins.
A man identified only as Pavel was placing a bowl and a spoon as a tribute to a makeshift tomb, on a piece of grass outside a ruined apartment building, marked with a simple wooden cross.
“Our friend. March 16. Driving a car. A bullet hit him in the neck. He died in five minutes,” he said. “I was in the car. I brought him home.”
Ukrainian army members are searching the area from their position along the first line north of the Ukrainian capital Kiev on Thursday. (Sergei Supinsky / AFP / Getty Images)
Meanwhile, the UN humanitarian co-ordinator for Ukraine said the United Nations and its partners had delivered supplies to thousands of people in the country’s northeast, but were unable to reach some encircled southern cities.
Osnat Lubrani said on Thursday that portions of food from the humanitarian organization People in Need and the UN World Food Program would benefit nearly 6,000 people in Sumy and other areas such as Trostianets and Okhtyrka.
In addition, he said, the UNHCR’s basic household items, including blankets and kettles, will support 1,500 people and sanitation kits will help provide sanitation and drinking water to 6,000 people.
CLOCKS Why some fast food chains are still open in Russia:
Because some fast food chains are still open in Russia
Hundreds of fast-food restaurants remain open in Russia, despite global chains such as McDonald’s, Burger King and KFC announcing plans to suspend operations in the country due to the war in Ukraine. These restaurants are probably owned by franchisees, which makes it difficult for companies to close. 2:05
Russian troops leave Chornobil
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says it has been informed by Ukraine that Russian forces in control of the Chornobil nuclear site have “registered, transferred control” of the facility to Ukrainian personnel. Ukraine said three escorts of Russian forces had already left the site for Belarus, while the remaining troops were reportedly preparing to leave, the agency said on Thursday. The agency said it could not confirm reports of Russian forces receiving high doses of radioactivity while in the closure zone of the now-closed plant, but was seeking further information to provide an independent assessment of the situation. A wounded man speaks to a left-wing soldier after being evacuated by Irpin on the outskirts of Kiev on Wednesday. (Rodrigo Abd / The Associated Press)
The death toll in Mykolaiv is rising
The death toll from a Russian rocket attack on Tuesday at the regional headquarters of the regional government in the southern city of Mykolaiv has risen to 20, Ukrainian emergency services said on Thursday. The governor accused Russia of waiting until people arrived for work before hitting the building. Emergency services said they were still working at the scene. CLOCKS The shipbuilding city of Mykolaiv has paid the price for the blockade of Russian troops:
The cost of the tough resistance of a Ukrainian city against Russian forces
Ukrainian forces in the southern city of Mykolaiv have been able to prevent Russian troops from advancing, but at a cost – a Russian airstrike destroyed part of a regional government building in the city on Tuesday, and officials expect the attacks to intensify. 2:28
Putin “not fully informed”
The White House said that the Russian president’s advisers did not give him an accurate account of his army’s failures in Ukraine. “We will agree with the conclusion that Mr. Putin has not been fully informed by his Department of Defense at every step of the last month,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Wednesday. Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peshkov told reporters on Thursday that “neither the State Department nor the Pentagon have any real information about what is happening in the Kremlin.” CLOCKS The White House says Putin was misled by advisers on the war in Ukraine:
White House says Putin misled by advisers on Ukraine war
Advisers to Russian President Vladimir Putin are protecting him from how badly the invasion of Ukraine is going, senior US officials have said. The head of the UK intelligence service says Russia has massively misjudged Ukraine’s ability to defend itself. 3:14
New information indicates that some Russian soldiers in Ukraine had refused to carry out orders, sabotaged their own equipment and accidentally shot down one of their own aircraft, the head of the British spy agency GCHQ, Jeremy Fleming, said on Wednesday.
The old sarcophagus covering the damaged fourth reactor at the Chornobil nuclear power plant appears in 2017. Russian forces reportedly regained control of the plant in Ukraine. (Gleb Garanich / Reuters)
“And although Putin’s advisers are afraid to tell him the truth, what is happening and the extent of these miscalculations must be clear to the regime,” Fleming said in a speech at the Australian National University in Canberra on Thursday.
“[Putin] degraded the financial consequences of the sanctions regime. “He overestimated the capabilities of his army to ensure a quick victory.”
Russia is in a position to face Western sanctions, according to a lower house official in the Russian parliament.
Vladimir Gutenev, chairman of the State Duma’s committee on industry and trade, said Russia’s economy had become “increasingly resilient” in recent years and could face “serious” sanctions challenges.
The talks between Ukraine and Russia were to be repeated on Friday via video, according to the head of the Ukrainian …
