A mosque in the southeastern Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, where 80 civilians were taking shelter, has been shelled by Russian forces, Ukraine's foreign ministry said today. This comes after Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said the mayor of Melitopol was kidnapped by Russian soldiers occupying the city.
The war, continuing for over two weeks now, saw the Western allies stepping up sanctions against Russia as the US imposed a ban on Russian seafood, vodka and diamonds, and along with the European Union, banned exports of luxury goods to Russia.
Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden yet again ruled out any direct intervention in the Ukraine-Russia crisis and warned that such conflict pitting the NATO alliance against the Kremlin "is World War III".
Russia and Ukraine failed to make a breakthrough Thursday in their first top-level talks since Moscow's invasion two weeks ago, as Russian advances sparked fears the Ukrainian capital Kyiv could soon be encircled.
Here are the Live Updates on Ukraine-Russia War:
The United States is willing to take diplomatic steps that the Ukrainian government would find helpful, a State Department spokesperson said on Saturday, after President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the West should be more involved in negotiations to end the war.
"If there are diplomatic steps that we can take that the Ukrainian Government believes would be helpful, we're prepared to take them", the spokesperson said.
"We are working to put the Ukrainians in the strongest possible negotiating position, including by increasing pressure on Russia by imposing severe costs and by providing security assistance to help Ukrainians defend themselves."
Russia-Ukraine War: "Army's Abuses Must Seize": France's Macron, German Chancellor Urge PutinFrance and Germany urged Russia's Vladimir Putin Saturday to end the deadly days-long siege of the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, the French presidency said after three-way talks.
"Around 1,300" Ukrainian troops have been killed since Russia invaded its pro-Western neighbour, the country's President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday as Moscow's forces closed in on the capital Kyiv.
Zelensky made the disclosure at a media briefing, the first time Kyiv had given such a toll since the beginning of fighting. On March 2 Russia said it had lost nearly 500 soldiers, but has not updated the figure since.
Russia-Ukraine War: "Informed Them Real State Of Affairs": Russia On Germany, France TalksRussian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday slammed what he said was the "flagrant violation" of international humanitarian law by Ukraine's forces as he held phone talks with the leaders of France and Germany, the Kremlin said.
Russian engineers have arrived to measure radiation at a Ukrainian nuclear plant, the seizure of which during Moscow's invasion of the country sparked international alarm, officials said.
Russia occupied Zaporizhzhia, Europe's biggest atomic power plant, after its forces attacked it on March 4.
Its reactors appeared undamaged after the assault despite a fire that broke out there after tanks bombarded it.
Officials from Russia's nuclear firm Rosatom arrived at the site on Friday, the Ukrainian nuclear agency Energoatom said in a message on Telegram.
The Russians told Ukrainian personnel they were there "to evaluate the radiation level" and "help to repair the plant" which was hit by shells, Energoatom said.
Russia Ukraine War: Germany's Deutsche Bank Shuts Down Its Operations In Russia Over UkraineGermany's biggest lender Deutsche Bank said Friday it was following other international companies in shutting down its operations in Russia in protest of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
Russia Ukraine Crisis: In Ukraine Ghost City, Florist Stays Open To 'Cheer People Up'Most business owners have shut up shop and fled Ukraine's Mikolaiv, but florist Angela Kalisnik continues to sell tulips and roses just a short drive away from the frontline.
French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz were holding new talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the war in Ukraine on Saturday, the Elysee palace said.
The three leaders had already had spoken by telephone on Thursday when both Macron and Scholz had "demanded an immediate ceasefire by Russia."
Hospitals came under fire overnight in the port city of Mykolaiv in the south of Ukraine, including a cancer treatment centre and an eye clinic, an AFP reporter said Saturday.
The windows were blown out of the cancer treatment centre, where patients were undergoing chemotherapy and the doors damaged.
"They shot at the civilian areas, without any military objective," said the hospital's head, Dmytro Lagochev.
Ukraine War: Russian Rockets Destroy Airbase Near Ukraine Capital, Says MayorRussian rocket attacks destroyed a Ukrainian airbase near the town of Vasylkiv in the Kyiv region on Saturday morning, Interfax Ukraine quoted the local mayor as saying.
Russia Warns Sanctions Could Cause International Space Station To CrashRussia has warned that thesanctions could cause the International Space Station to crash,news agency AFP reported quoting an official.
A top Ukrainian adviser on Saturday pushed back against suggestions Israel tried to nudge Ukraine into caving to Russian demands during talks.
Israel has been engaged in diplomatic efforts to try to end the war in Ukraine. Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and spoke by phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Russian rocket attacks destroyed a Ukrainian airbase near the town of Vasylkiv in the Kyiv region on Saturday morning, Interfax Ukraine quoted the local mayor as saying. The rocket attacks also hit an ammunition depot, Vasylkiv Mayor Natalia Balasynovych said. (Reuters)
Ukraine expects a new wave of attacks on the Kyiv, Kharkiv and Donbass regions after a slowdown in Russia's offensive, Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to the Ukrainian president's chief of staff, said on Saturday. Arestovych also said Ukraine did not expect Belarus to join the Russian invasion force. (Reuters)
A mosque in the southeastern Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, where 80 civilians were taking shelter, has been shelled by Russian forces, Ukraine's foreign ministry said on Saturday. "The mosque of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent and his wife Roxolana (Hurrem Sultan) in Mariupol was shelled by Russian invaders. More than 80 adults and children are hiding there from the shelling, including citizens of Turkey," the ministry wrote on its Twitter account. (AFP)
Italian police have seized a superyacht from Russian billionaire Andrey Igorevich Melnichenko, the prime minister's office said on Saturday, a few days after the businessman was placed on an EU sanctions list following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The 143-metre (470-foot) Sailing Yacht A, which has a price tag of 530 million euros ($578 million), has been sequestered at the northern port of Trieste, the government said. (Reuters)
Russian troops have destroyed 3,491 Ukrainian military infrastructure facilities in Ukraine so far, Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying on Saturday. Russian forces "continue the offensive in Ukraine on a broad front", Konashenkov said. Reuters was not immediately able to verify his statement. (Reuters)
The Ukraine President called on the mothers of Russian soldiers to prevent their sons being sent to war in Ukraine.
Western sanctions against Russia could cause the International Space Station to crash, the head of Russian space agency Roscosmos warned Saturday, calling for the punitive measures to be lifted. According to Dmitry Rogozin, the sanctions, some of which predate Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, could disrupt the operation of Russian spacecraft servicing the ISS. As a result, the Russian segment of the station -- which helps correct its orbit -- could be affected, causing the 500-tonne structure to "fall down into the sea or onto land", the Roscosmos chief wrote on Telegram. (AFP)
Ukraine was at a turning point in the war with Russian forces appearing to be regroup for a possible assault on Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, as the US imposed new sanctions on senior Kremlin officials and Russian oligarchs. With the Russian assault in its third week, Zelenskiy, who has rallied his people with a series of addresses from the capital Kyiv, said Ukraine had "already reached a strategic turning point". "It is impossible to say how many days we still have (ahead of us) to free Ukrainian land. But we can say we will do it," he said. "We are already moving towards our goal, our victory." (Reuters)
Air raid sirens were heard across most Ukrainian cities early on Saturday morning urging people to seek shelters, local media reported. Sirens were heard in the capital city of Kyiv, the western city of Lviv in Odessa, and Kharkiv, Cherkasy, as well as in the Sumy region in northeast of the country, a number of local Ukrainian media reported. Russian forces appeared to be regrouping on Friday for a possible assault on Kyiv, with satellite images showing them firing artillery as they closed in on the capital. (Reuters)
Russian forces inched towards Kyiv and pounded civilian areas in other Ukrainian cities Friday, drawing warnings of "unimaginable tragedy" as the US and the EU moved to tighten the economic noose around the Kremlin. Sixteen days after Moscow shocked the world by invading Ukraine, the United Nations and others said it may be committing war crimes in cities such as Mariupol, which for days now has been besieged by Vladimir Putin's forces. On Friday, officials in the southern port said more than 1,500 people had been killed during 12 days of attacks. (AFP)
The mayor of southern Ukraine's Melitopol was kidnapped on Friday by Russian soldiers occupying the city, President Volodymyr Zelensky and Ukrainian officials said. "A group of 10 occupiers kidnapped the mayor of Melitopol Ivan Fedorov," Ukraine's parliament said on Twitter. "He refused to cooperate with the enemy," it added. It said the mayor was seized when he was at the city's crisis centre dealing with supply issues. (AFP)
