The representative of the Russian Ministry of Defense, Lieutenant General. Igor Konashenkov said Russian ships and aircraft fired rockets Sunday to hit the facility, which he said was used to refuel Ukrainian troops near Mykolaiv. Konashenkov also said that the Russian strikes destroyed ammunition depots in Kostiantynivka and Khresyshche. In an audio message posted by the Italian news agency ANSA, Italian photographer Carlo Orlandi said Odessa woke up to military sirens at 5:45 a.m. Sunday, immediately followed by the sound of bombs falling on the port by two aircraft. Describe a column of dark smoke that emerged from targets and flames from buildings. “What we can see is a dense screen of dark smoke and one explosion after another,” Orlandi said.
KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR: – Ukrainian video blogger feeds false information about Mariupol bombing – Ukrainian forces recapture areas near Kyiv amid fears of traps – Ramadan begins in much of the Middle East amid rising prices – Russian space chief says sanctions could jeopardize International Space Station – Ukrainian volunteer fighters near and far: a collection of photos – Go to for more coverage
OTHER DEVELOPMENTS: KIEV, Ukraine – The regional governor of Kharkiv said Russian troops continued to bomb the city in northeastern Ukraine. Kharkiv regional governor Oleh Synyehubov said on Sunday that Russian artillery and tanks had carried out more than 20 raids in and around Kharkiv in the past 24 hours. Synyyehubov said four people were injured in a Russian rocket attack on Lozova, south of the Kharkiv region. He said Russian tanks had hit a local hospital in the town of Balakliia, damaging the building and prompting authorities to evacuate patients. __ LVIV, Ukraine – President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that Ukrainian troops recapturing areas around Kyiv and Chernihiv do not allow the Russians to retreat without a fight, but “bomb them.” “They are destroying whoever they can.” Zelensky, in his speech to the nation on Saturday night, said that Ukraine knows that Russia has the power to put even more pressure on eastern and southern Ukraine. “What is the goal of the Russian troops?” “They want to occupy Donbass and southern Ukraine.” “What is our goal?” “To defend ourselves, our freedom, our land and our people.” He said a significant portion of Russian forces were stationed around Mariupol, where the city’s defenders were still fighting. “Thanks to this resistance, thanks to the courage and resilience of our other cities, Ukraine has gained invaluable time, time that allows us to nullify the enemy’s tactics and weaken its capabilities,” Zelensky said. Zelensky again called on the West for more modern weapons, such as anti-missile systems and aircraft.
A Ukrainian beauty blogger accused by Russian officials of being a crisis actor when interviewed and photographed by the Associated Press at a bombed-out maternity hospital in Mariupol has appeared in new videos that fuel new misinformation about the attack. A Russian government-linked Twitter account shared an interview with Marianna Vishegirskaya on Friday, in which the young mother said the hospital was not hit by an airstrike last month and told AP reporters she did not want to videotape. But the AP reports and the recordings of the AP journalists’ interactions with her contradict her claim. In the interview, conducted by Russian blogger Denis Seleznev and filmed by Kristina Melnikova, Vishegirskaya is asked to give details of what happened at the hospital on March 9, the day of the bombing. It is not clear where Vishegirskaya is or under what circumstances the interview was filmed. Russian officials have repeatedly tried to question the Mariupol bombing, a key military target for Moscow, as images surfaced around the world and shed light on Russia’s attacks on civilians in Ukraine. In the new videos, Vishegirskaya says those trapped in the basement of the hospital after the attack believed the blasts were caused by “bombing”, not an air strike, because “no one” heard sounds indicating that the bombs had fallen from planes. However, eyewitness accounts and videos from AP reporters in Mariupol show evidence of an airstrike, including the sound of a plane before the explosion, a crater outside the hospital that was at least two floors deep and interviews with a police officer and a soldier at the scene. which both referred to the attack as an “air strike”.
BUCHA, Ukraine – Ukrainian troops moved cautiously to retake territory north of Kiev on Saturday, even amid fears that Russian forces had dropped explosives. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that the outgoing Russian troops were creating a “catastrophic” situation for civilians by leaving mines around houses, abandoned equipment and “even the corpses of the dead.” His allegations could not be independently verified. Ukrainian troops took up positions in the city of Bucha and parked at the entrance to Antonov Airport in Hostomel after seizing territory from Russian forces. In Bucha, AP reporters counted at least six civilian bodies scattered along a street and in the front yard of a house. Ukrainian soldiers, backed by a column of tanks and armored vehicles, tied wires to the bodies and pulled them off the road for fear of being trapped. Soldiers also cleared roadblocks and inspected suspicious objects, placing red rags on unexploded ordnance to draw attention to the possibility of explosions. Residents of the town said the civilians were killed by Russian soldiers without apparent provocation. Ukraine and its Western allies have reported growing indications that Russia is withdrawing its forces from Kyiv and building the strength of its troops in eastern Ukraine. The visible shift did not mean that the country was facing a postponement after more than five weeks of war or that more than 4 million refugees who had fled Ukraine would return soon.
CAIRO – The Muslim holy month of Ramadan – when worshipers fast from dawn to dusk – began at sunrise on Saturday in much of the Middle East, where Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has sent energy and energy prices soaring. food soars. The conflict has weighed heavily on Ramadan, when large gatherings for meals and family celebrations are a tradition. Many were hoping for a happier Ramadan as the coronavirus pandemic prevented the world’s 2 billion Muslims from performing many rituals in the past two years. With the Russian invasion of Ukraine, however, millions of people in the Middle East are now wondering where their next meals will come from. Rising prices are affecting people whose lives have already been shaken by conflict, displacement and poverty from Lebanon, Iraq and Syria to Sudan and Yemen. Ukraine and Russia account for one-third of world wheat and barley exports, which the Middle Eastern countries rely on to feed millions of survivors with subsidized bread and noodle bazaars. They are also leading exporters of other cereals and sunflower oil used for cooking.
