ONGOING ARMED CONFLICT Russia Declares Open War on Ukraine And Launches Missles on Major Cities

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MSN

 

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Sadly not enough of them.

Russian troops in Ukraine are surrendering, sabotaging their own vehicles, Pentagon officials say

 

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Neptune got his Porsche delivered.

MSN

 

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Good evening and thank you for the interesting links. I the next couple of hours I will too be posting updates on latest developments in Ukraine.

One of the most striking headlines from today is BBC's report on 15 hours of heavy bombardment of Mariupol.

Ukrainian city of Mariupol 'near to humanitarian catastrophe' after bombardment

The deputy mayor of Mariupol says he believes hundreds of people have died in the Russian onslaught.

www.bbc.com

 

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Apple joins in.

MSN

 

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Kherson has Fallen to the Russians, Mayor Says in Facebook Post​

The mayor of Kherson has said in a facebook post that the Ukrainian city has fallen to Russian forces.

Igor Kolykhaev wrote that "there were armed visitors in the city council today" and that he had told the troops "we don't have Ukrainian Armed Forces in the city, only civilians and people who want to LIVE here!".

Kolykhaev wrote that Moscow's forces have imposed a curfew from 20:00 to 06:00 local time (22:00 - 08:00 GMT), and said cars with food, medicines and some other supplies will be allowed to enter the city.

He added that cars within the city must drive at "minimum" speed and pedestrians are banned from moving in groups of more than two people.

"So far this is how it is. Ukrainian flag above us. And to keep it the same, these requirements must be met. I have nothing else to offer yet", Kolykhaev said.

 

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China asked Russia not to invade Ukraine until after the 2022 winter olympics had concluded



A recent Western intelligence report says senior Chinese officials told senior Russian officials in early February not to invade Ukraine before the end of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, according to senior Biden administration officials and a European official.

The report indicates that senior Chinese officials had some level of knowledge about Russia’s war plans or intentions before the invasion started last week. President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia met with President Xi Jinping of China in Beijing on Feb. 4 before the opening ceremony of the Olympics. Moscow and Beijing issued a 5,000-word statement at the time declaring that their partnership had “no limits,” denouncing NATO enlargement and asserting that they would establish a new global order with true “democracy.”

The intelligence on the exchange between the Chinese and Russian officials was classified. It was collected by a Western intelligence service and considered credible by officials reviewing it. Senior officials in the United States and allied governments passed it around as they discussed when Mr. Putin might attack Ukraine.

However, different intelligence services had varying interpretations, and it is not clear how widely the information was shared.

China Asked Russia to Delay Ukraine War Until After Olympics, U.S. Officials Say

A Western intelligence report indicates that Chinese officials had some level of knowledge about President Vladimir V. Putin’s war plans or intentions.

www.nytimes.com

 

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After Putin call, Macron says the 'worst is still to come' in Ukraine​

Vladimir Putin has told Emmanuel Macron that Kyiv’s “refusal to accept Russia’s conditions” means, in the French president’s words, “the worst is still to come” in Ukraine, saying Moscow was aiming to take “full control” by diplomatic or military means, according to the Elysée.

As the number of refugees fleeing the conflict passed a million and Russian forces, backed by heavy shelling, advanced on cities and key ports in the south and east, Russia’s president said in a 90-minute call to his French counterpart he was “prepared to go all the way”, the senior French official said.

Putin – who initiated the call – repeated that Moscow’s objective was the “neutralisation, demilitarisation and de-Nazification” of Ukraine, the official said, adding that Macron had responded that Putin was making a “major mistake” that would cost Russia dearly over the long term.

“There was nothing in what President Putin said to reassure us,” the French official said. Macron had told the Russian president he was “lying to himself” and his country would end up “isolated, weakened and under sanctions for a very long time”.

“‘You are lying to yourself,’” Macron told Putin, the official said. “‘It will cost your country dearly, your country will end up isolated, weakened and under sanctions for a very long time.’”

 

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Good evening to those of you who join us now and follow our live updates.

It is exactly 10pm right now in Ukraine. Here is my short summary of key events today.

• Russian forces are in control of both local and regional government buildings in the strategically important Black Sea port of Kherson, local authorities said. Russian forces appeared to be moving to cut Ukraine off from the sea via its key southern ports, claiming the capture of Kherson and tightening the siege of Mariupol.
• Concern is mounting over the movements of a huge column of Russian military vehicles outside Kyiv. While a US defence official suggested it appeared to have “stalled”, there was also speculation that an estimated 15,000 troops attached to it may be regrouping and waiting for logistical supplies before an assault on Kyiv.
• Another key objective for Russian forces in the south-east appeared to be Zaporizhzhia and its nuclear power plant, Europe’s biggest, where Russian troops were trying to break through a barricade to the plant erected by residents and territorial defence forces.
• At least 33 civilians had been killed in a Russian airstrike on a residential area in the northern city of Chernihiv on Thursday, Ukrainian authorities say, with the death toll continuing to rise.
• Vladimir Putin has told Emmanuel Macron that Kyiv’s “refusal to accept Russia’s conditions” means he will continue to pursue his war in Ukraine, the Élysée Palace has said, adding: “We expect the worst is yet to come.”
• In a televised speech shortly after his 90-minute call with Macron, Putin claimed Russian military operations in Ukraine were going according to plan. The president went on to accuse Ukrainian forces of using civilians as “human shields” while providing no evidence.
• Ukraine and Russia agreed to create humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians in a second round of talks this afternoon, but the Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said the outcome of today’s talks had fallen short of Ukraine’s hopes. A third round of talks is set to take place at the start of next week, the Belarus state news agency Belta cited Podolyak as saying.
• Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has called for direct talks with the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, saying it was “the only way to stop this war”. Speaking at a press conference, Zelenskiy called on the west to increase military aid to Ukraine, warning that the rest of Europe would be under threat if Russia was allowed to advance.
• The UK foreign secretary, Liz Truss, has imposed sanctions on the Uzbekistan-born Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov, whose commercial links to Everton football club have been suspended, and the Russian former deputy prime minister Igor Shuvalov, the Foreign Office has said.

 

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A residential building destroyed by shelling is seen on Thursday, March 3, in Borodyanka, northwest of Kyiv, Ukraine.

 

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18 year old Ukrainian volunteers off to war in Kyiv. Three days training and they will be on the front line.

 

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Photo gallery for Friday, March 4.


A woman reacts as she stands in front of a house burning after it was shelled in the city of Irpin.


People try to board a train to flee Kiev. According to the United Nations at least one million people have fled Ukraine for neighbouring countries since the beginning of Russia’s invasion last week.


People take cover from the Russian shelling of Bucha.


A father holds his newborn baby in the basement of a maternity hospital being used as a bomb shelter, during an air raid alert in Kyiv.


Newly married couple Svyatoslav Fursinb and Yarina Arieva pose for photograph after they joined the ranks of the city territorial defence the day after they got married in Kyiv


A dog stands between destroyed Russian armoured vehicles in the city of Bucha.

 

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Heavily bombed block of flats in Kharkiv today.

 

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Hello to all those following CDG’s Ukraine crisis live updates, where our global team is bringing you all the news developments around the clock, as they emerge. We also have exclusive graphic images and videos updates here and here. These are also updated daily!

It is 22.43 pm in Ukraine.

Here’s where things stand this hour:

• Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, has demanded a new round of sanctions on Russia, reports Reuters. He has been discussing the situation with US secretary of state Antony Blinken, who is in eastern Europe.
• The International Monetary Fund has announced it could approve $1.4 billion emergency funding as early as next week as the body warns of war’s ‘severe impact’ on the global economy.
• The United Nations recorded 351 civilians killed and 707 injured just on Friday in Ukraine, according to the UN high commissioner for human rights, as reported by BuzzFeed.
• Russia and Ukraine plan another round of talks on Monday, even though previous talks that produced an agreement to a limited ceasefire in order to protect corridors for civilian have not been honoured by Russia.
• The US government has warned American citizens living or travelling in Russia to “depart immediately”, in new guidelines, published today, by the US state department.
• Volodymyr Zelenskiy reportedly made a “desperate plea” for eastern Europe to provide Russian-made aircraft to Ukraine. In a call with US senators, he is also understood to have called for a no-fly zone, lethal aid, a ban on Russian oil and a suspension of Visa and Mastercard in Russia.

Here is today's selection of exclusive super high-resolution images from areas where fighting and shelling took place this week. Utter devastation everywhere in just 10 days.

 

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Ukraine's armed forces claim to have shot down Russian military helicopter​

Ukraine’s armed forces claim to have shot down a Russian military helicopter. Its operative command released video of a missile hitting a low-flying helicopter, which crashed seconds later.

 

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Good afternoon. In the next couple of hours I will be keeping you updated on latest WW3 developments.



We beging with striking photos from the evacaution of civilians in Irpin this morning where two artillery shells hit a checkpoint for civilians trying to cross into Kyiv. Three people were reported killed, say Ukrainian authorities, including two children.

 

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Scuffles with police and arrests in St. Petersburg today after thousands marched in the centre of the city against Putin's war in Ukraine.

Nearly 4,000 people have been detained at anti-war protests across Russia on Sunday, rights groups and Russian authorities say.

Some 1,700 people were detained in Moscow alone, the RIA news agency reported, citing the interior ministry.
The OVD-Info rights group says detentions took place in 53 cities.
Although protests have become increasingly restricted in recent years, numerous rallies have taken place across Russia since the invasion.
In the last 11 days, more than 10,000 people have been detained at protests, OVD-Info says.
"The screws are being fully tightened - essentially we are witnessing military censorship," Maria Kuznetsova, OVD-Info's spokeswoman, told Reuters news agency from Tbilisi in Georgia.

"We are seeing rather big protests today - even in Siberian cities, where we only rarely saw such numbers of arrests."

 

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Footage from the anti-war protests in Moscow today.

 

[Meatpie]

Good evening.

It’s almost 9.15pm in Ukraine on what is the embattled nation’s twelfth day of being relentlessly attacked by its neighbour, Russia.

Here is a round-up of the main headlines from today so far:

• Russian shelling is preventing the evacuation of civilians from Kyiv, Mariupol, Sumy, Kharkiv, Volnovakha and Mykolayiv, Ukraine’s foreign ministry has said.
• More than 1.7 million Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s invasion have so far crossed into central Europe, the United Nation’s refugee agency said on Monday, as thousands more streamed across the borders.
• A third round of conflict talks between Ukraine and Russia have ended with “small positive developments” relating to potential humanitarian corridors, according to reports. But Russia said it was “too early” to talk about positives.
• The mayor of Lviv said the western Ukrainian city had reached the limits of its capacity to help people displaced by Russia’s assault on Ukraine and appealed to international organisations for help.
• The US assesses that Russia has now committed almost 100% of the forces it had amassed for the Ukraine invasion. That means an estimated 127 battalion tactical groups. The Russian force has launched over 625 missiles, mostly short and medium range surface to air missiles and cruise missiles, US officials say.
• At least 13 civilians have been reported killed in an air strike on a bread factory in the Ukrainian town of Makariv, just outside Kyiv, according to the Ukrainian state emergency service.
• Ukraine has suffered about $10 billion in damage to infrastructure since Russia invaded the country, Infrastructure Minister Oleksander Kubrakov said on Monday.
• Members of the US Congress pushed President Joe Biden’s administration on Monday to facilitate the immediate transfer of fighter aircraft to Ukraine from Nato and eastern European countries.
• The Russian shelling of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe, in Ukraine last week was a “close call” and “must not, under any circumstances, be repeated”, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
• Amnesty International has criticised the Ukrainian authorities for bringing Russian prisoners of war to press conferences. Prisoners of war in Russia’s invasion of its neighbour “must have their rights respected under the Third Geneva Convention”, the non-government organisation said.
• The US ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Michael Carpenter has accused Belarus of “stabbing its neighbour in the back”. He made the comments while denying that United States had confirmed that there were no Belarusian troops in Ukraine, describing it as a “co-aggressor” in Russia’s war on it’s neighbour.
• Russia has accused Ireland of failing to protect its ambassador and staff as required under international law after a truck reversed into the embassy estate forcing open the gates in the process.
• The Russian rouble has slumped to new record lows against the dollar and euro today, losing over a third of its value so far this year. The rouble traded at 131.25 per dollar and 143.3 per euro on Monday morning.
• European Union leaders will discuss Ukraine’s application to join the 27-nation bloc in the coming days, the chairman of EU summits, Charles Michel, said in a tweet on Monday.
• Plans are being drawn up for Ukraine’s President Volodomyr Zelenskiy to address British MPs via video link on Tuesday. He is expected to ask for more arms and repeat calls for an implementation of a no-fly zone, according to Ukraine’s embassy to the UK.
• The British prime minister, Boris Johnson, said a boycott of Russian oil and gas was “very much on the table”. Over the weekend, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said Washington was in “very active discussions” with countries in Europe over banning imports of Russian oil, PA Media reported.