As Russian aggression on Ukraine completes twenty days, latest reports suggest that the offensive has inched closer to central Kyiv with a series of strikes hitting a residential neighborhood as the leaders of three European Union member countries planned a visit to Ukraine’s embattled capital.
More than 2 million people have fled the east European country and thousands have died in the war. The Russian military offensive has almost shaken the foundation of European security established globally following the Cold-War.
Across Ukraine, civilians trapped in besieged or destroyed areas are suffering from electricity outages and shortages of food, medicines and other vital services.
Thousands were hoping the six humanitarian corridors agreed on so far would hold during an expected daylong cease-fire in these areas Thursday — even as talks for a broad truce failed.
A Russian airstrike on a maternity hospital in the port city of Mariupol that killed three people Wednesday, including a child, has drawn outrage, with Ukrainian and Western officials branding it a war crime. During a visit to Poland, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris embraced calls for an international investigation, though she stopped short of directly accusing Russia of having committed war crimes.
“We’ll pray we can get people out of Mariupol,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
The foreign ministers of Ukraine and Russia met Thursday in Turkey in their highest-level talks thus far, but it appeared little progress was made at the meeting.
Here are the key developments to this crisis
-A cameraman for Fox News, Pierre Zakrzewski, has been killed in Ukraine outside Kyiv, the US network said Tuesday. Zakrzewski was killed and his colleague Benjamin Hall was wounded when their vehicle was struck Monday by incoming fire in Horenka, outside the capital, Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott said in a statement.
-Russia’s foreign ministry said Tuesday that US President Joe Biden and a dozen other top officials had been banned from entering the country in a reciprocal response to US sanctions.
-Russia has drawn up lists of 40,000 fighters from Syrian army and allied militias to be put on standby for deployment in Ukraine, a war monitor said Tuesday.
-Russian forces have captured several cities in the Kyiv suburbs and are still trying to take Chernihiv in the north, as well as advance on the cities of Mykolaiv, Kryviy Rih, Voznesensk and Novovorontsovka in the south, the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said Thursday.
-Ninety-seven Ukrainian children have died since the start of Russia’s invasion as fighting rages on, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday in a speech to Canada’s parliament.
-Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk pleaded with the Russian military to allow access for repair crews to restore electricity to the Chernobyl nuclear plant, and to fix a damaged gas pipeline that has cut off heat from Mariupol and other towns in the south.
-Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the country realizes that it can’t join NATO.
-Russia has deployed more than 150,000 troops and retains large and possibly decisive advantages in firepower, despite facing fierce Ukrainian resistance and global financial pressure aimed at crippling its economy
-UK announced asset freezes and a ban on travel to the UK on seven wealthy Russians, including Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich, who was trying to sell the Premier League club in anticipation of sanctions.
(With inputs from agencies)
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