Russian forces are pressing ahead with their military operation in Ukraine to counter what they call a “threat” to their national security from the pro-West Ukrainian government. Kiev and Russia’s Western adversaries call the operations an “invasion”. The situation is fluid in Ukraine right now with both sides claiming victories on the battlefield. Iran Front Page brings you the latest developments on the ground live as they unfold in Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is ready to talk to Russian President Vladimir Putin directly — but “will not make any compromise to the Russian position during these negotiations,” his deputy told CNN.
Though talks between the Ukrainian and Russian foreign ministers, held Thursday in the Turkish city of Antalya, did not yield any major breakthrough, Ukraine hadn’t been too optimistic from the start, said Igor Zhovkva, Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine.
“This is a really good thing that they met, but unfortunately we can say that the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia is not the one making the final decision. The final decision to stop war, to make a ceasefire, to withdraw troops is made by one person only,” he added, apparently referring to Putin.
Zhovkva stated that though Zelensky was ready for a diplomatic solution, he has not heard from the Russian President personally or his aides.
“The last thing I heard from them was we have to still work under the format of two delegations … But, look, even the agreements reached during these negotiations are not held,” Zhovkva noted, pointing to humanitarian corridors in Ukraine that are “being kept in custody by Russian forces.”
Zhovkva said Ukraine was open to neutrality “if the NATO bloc is not ready for the time being to accept Ukraine.”
“But at the same time, we do need hard security guarantees for Ukraine so these awful wars, this awful aggression does not repeat in the future,” he added.
Zhovkva said Ukraine wanted to work with Putin and its neighbors to establish a system he called “the renewed security system of Europe.”
“My country, the Ukrainian people deserve to become a part of the European family…Ukraine is fighting for the security of all of Europe. So when (French) President (Emmanuel) Macron talks about possible European security, how can he talk without having President Zelensky at the table? Without having President Zelensky and Ukraine in the European Union?” Zhovkva added.
Major Ukrainian cities including Dnipro and Lutsk are being “subjected to devastating blows,” said Mykhailo Podoliak, an adviser to the head of the Ukrainian President’s office on Friday.
Explosions shut down two boiler houses in Lutsk, located in the far west near the Polish border, while three major explosions were reported in the western city of Ivano-Frankivsk, he wrote on Twitter.
“Dnipro is also under attack,” he continued, adding, “Russia’s destructive war against civilians and major cities continues.”
At least one person was killed by explosions in the Ukrainian city of Lutsk on Friday, the city’s mayor Ihor Polishchuk said on his official Facebook page.
“Today at approximately 5:45 there were three explosions. Three missiles hit our military airfield. There is one dead. Information about the injured is being clarified. The SES (State Emergency Service) is working on the spot,” he stated.
The city’s alert system “did not work at all,” and the “military administration and the military will work on this issue,” he added.
Three air raids in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro have killed at least one person, state emergency services have claimed, in what appeared to be the first direct attack on the city.
“There were three air strikes on the city, namely hitting a kindergarten, an apartment building and a two-story shoe factory, starting a fire. One person died,” the emergency services announced in a statement.
The World Health Organization advised Ukraine to destroy high-threat pathogens housed in the country’s public health laboratories to prevent “any potential spills” that would spread disease among the population, the agency told Reuters news agency.
In response to questions from Reuters about its work with Ukraine ahead of and during Russia’s invasion, the WHO said in an email that it has collaborated with Ukrainian public health labs for several years to promote security practices that help prevent “accidental or deliberate release of pathogens”.
“As part of this work, WHO has strongly recommended to the Ministry of Health in Ukraine and other responsible bodies to destroy high-threat pathogens to prevent any potential spills,” the WHO, a UN agency, added.
US President Joe Biden on Friday will call for an end of normal trade relations with Russia and clear the way for increased tariffs on Russian imports, a source familiar with the situation has told Reuters news agency.
The US, together with the Group of Seven nations and the EU, will move to revoke Russia’s “most favoured nation” status, multiple people familiar with the situation told Reuters.
Stripping Russia of its favoured nation status paves the way for the US and its allies to impose tariffs on a wide range of Russian goods, which would ratchet up pressure on an economy already heading into a recession.
The EU will not impose sanctions on Russian gas or oil, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said in a video posted on his Facebook page, amid a summit of EU leaders in France.
“The most important issue for us has been settled in a favourable way: there won’t be sanctions that would apply to gas or oil, so Hungary’s energy supply is secure in the upcoming period,” Orban added.
Russian troops have launched a high-precision, long-range attack on two military airfields in the Ukrainian cities of Lutsk and Ivano-Frankivsk and have taken them out of action, Russian news agencies have quoted Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov as saying.
The mayor of Ivano-Frankiivsk, Ruslan Martsinkiv, ordered residents in the neighbouring areas to head to shelters after an air raid alert. The mayor of Lutsk also announced an airstrike near the airport.
The strikes were far to the west from the main Russian offensive and could indicate a new direction of the war.
Al Jazeera’s Imran Khan, reporting from Kyiv, said air raid sirens have been going off from what it was believed to be the west of the capital.
“We did hear that early in the morning there were some strikes in the west of the city,” he added.
About 222,000 people have been evacuated to Russia from Ukraine and its two Russian-backed rebel regions, the TASS news agency reported, citing an unidentified source.
Russian-backed separatists have captured the Ukrainian city of Volnovakha north of the besieged Azov Sea port of Mariupol, the RIA news agency has quoted Russia’s defence ministry as saying.
Volnovakha is strategically important as the northern gateway to Mariupol.
“We are determined to increase even further our pressure on Russia and Belarus. We have adopted significant sanctions and remain ready to move quickly with further sanctions”, the document added.
They also expressed their willingness to assist in the restoration of Ukraine after the termination of Russia’s special military operation in the country.
The war in Ukraine and sanctions against Russia will force the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to lower its global growth forecast next month, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said.
Georgieva stated the unprecedented sanctions imposed on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine had caused an abrupt contraction of the Russian economy and it faced a “deep recession” this year.
She added the IMF had no programme or policy relations with Russia at this point and its Moscow office was not operating. Fund member countries have condemned the war, but there is no discussion currently about ending Russia’s membership in the global lender.
“The manic obsession with which various Russian officials fantasize about non-existent biological or chemical weapons or hazards in Ukraine is deeply troubling and may actually point at Russia preparing another horrific false flag operation. This tweet is for the record,” Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba wrote on Twitter.
Ukrainian authorities have claimed that Russian forces bombed a nuclear research facility on Thursday night.
The State Inspectorate for Nuclear Regulation of Ukraine, quoted by the Kyiv Independent, said the institute in Kharkiv is home to an experimental nuclear reactor.
According to officials, the facility suffered a hit to the exterior and the extent of damage is not yet known. No injuries or fatalities have been reported but it is understood there is a fire at the site.
The Ukrainian side has agreed only four out of 14 humanitarian corridors suggested by Russia for March 10, Mikhail Mizintsev, chief of Russia’s National Defense Management Center, announced.
Nationalists trapped in Mariupol commit all war crimes in the city, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov told reporters.
“I underscore that all these and other war crimes in Mariupol are being committed by the punishers trapped in the city. We have warned repeatedly that, as the ring contracts, the number of provocations from the Nazis will keep growing. They have nowhere to run from there,” Konashenkov noted.
According to the spokesman, “it was these Azov battalion Nazis who had been exterminating civilian population in Donetsk and Lugansk republics, deliberately and with exceptional cruelty, for eight years”.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has hit back at widely discredited Russian disinformation suggesting Ukraine is preparing a chemical attack.
Zelensky stated no chemical weapon or weapons of mass destruction were developed in Ukraine, and Moscow’s accusations that Kyiv was developing biological weapons and preparing a chemical attack made him “really worried.”
“We’ve been repeatedly convinced: If you want to know Russia’s plans, look at what Russia accuses others of,” he said. “We are accused of attacks on allegedly peaceful Russia. And now what? … What else have you prepared for us? Where will you strike with chemical weapons?” Zelensky asked, addressing Russia.
The United Nations Security Council will hold a meeting Friday at the request of Russia about an allegation the United States is developing chemical weapons in Ukraine.
The US’ UN Mission spokeswoman Olivia Dalton said the move was “exactly the kind of false flag effort we have warned Russia might initiate to justify a biological or chemical weapons attack.”
“Russia has a well-documented history of using chemical weapons and has long maintained a biological weapons program in violation of international law. Russia also has a track record of falsely accusing the West of the very violations that Russia itself is perpetrating,” Dalton continued, adding, “We’re not going to let Russia get away with gaslighting the world or using the UN Security Council as a venue for promoting their disinformation.”
Ukraine has lost all communications with the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) announced.
The statement comes a day after the Russian-controlled site lost external power supplies.
With the clouds temporarily clearing around the Ukrainian capital, new satellite images taken earlier on Thursday show that the Russian military convoy northwest of Kyiv that stretched more than 40 miles (more than 64 kilometers) has “largely dispersed and redeployed,” Maxar Technologies says.
The satellite images show that some elements of the convoy have “repositioned” into forests and treelined areas near Lubyanka, Ukraine, according to Maxar.
The satellite images were taken at 11:37 a.m. Kyiv time (4.37 a.m. ET) on Thursday.
Just north of the Antonov Airbase in Hostomel, Ukraine, Russian military vehicles are seen sitting on roadways in residential areas in the town of Ozera — 17 miles northwest of Kyiv.
Towed artillery and other vehicles are seen taking cover in a sparse patches of trees near Lubyanka — about three miles northwest of the Antonov Airbase.
In Berestyanka — 10 miles west of the airbase — a number of fuel trucks and, what Maxar says, appears to be multiple rocket launchers are seen positioned in a field near trees.
Southeast of Ivankiv — the end of what was the 40+ mile convoy — a number of trucks and equipment are still seen on the roadway.
Due to “strong Ukrainian resistance,” Russian forces are increasing their number of deployed forces to encircle key cities which will reduce the number of forces available to continue advancing, according to an intelligence update from the UK’s Ministry of Defence on Thursday.
The UK MoD tweeted the update saying, “Due to strong Ukrainian resistance, Russian forces are committing an increased number of their deployed forces to encircle key cities. This will reduce the number of forces available to continue their advance and will further slow Russian progress.”
The UK MoD also added that protests against Russian occupation have been reported throughout the week in the occupied cities of Kherson, Melitopol and Berdyansk, with 400 “reportedly detained by Russian forces in the Kherson Oblast yesterday.”
US intelligence believes Ukraine will be able to maintain control of Kyiv for several more weeks, according to NBC News, even as Russian troops continue to encircle the capital city.
US official told the outlet that while Russia’s troops are in a position to completely circle Kyiv in the coming week or two, the fight to take total control of the capital will likely take much longer.
The same official stated US intelligence believes the battle to take Kyiv could take another four-to-six weeks, though the official acknowledged that the US’ assessment is fluid and frequently changing.
More than 400,000 civilians have so far been evacuated in Ukraine, Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky said on national television.
“They have been evacuated primarily from areas where there is ongoing combat,” he added.
At least 549 civilians have been killed in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion began on Feb. 24, according to the latest figures from the United Nations Human Rights Office (OHCHR).
Russian forces have moved forward, in the vicinity of Hostomel Airport, by about 5 kilometers (or about 3 miles) in the last day, a senior US defense official told reporters Thursday.
Russian forces continue to “advance their troops” along two parallel lines outside of Kyiv, and in those lines, the closest line has “reached about 40 kilometers east of Kyiv,” the official said.
“We see Russian forces continue to advance their troops, they’re really along two sort of parallel lines there, and we assess that the northern most of those two lines, the closest line has reached about 40 kilometers east of Kyiv,” the official added.
Out of those two lines, “the one that’s to the south of the two which kind of emanated out of Sumy, we also assess that some of [the Russian forces] might have reached approximately 40 kilometers from Kyiv,” the official said.
On the southern line, the official believes Russian forces “might be repositioning themselves back towards Sumy,” but it is not clear how many forces, how fast they are moving back, or why they are doing that, the official added.
The town of Chernihiv is “now isolated,” the official stated.
The official also noted that Russian forces have conducted “775 missile launches” of “all stripes, all different varieties” since the beginning of their invasion in Ukraine. The US has seen “reports of internet outages particularly around Mariupol and Kherson,” over the last 24 hours, the official continued.
Food supply in the city of Mariupol is “decreasing day by day,” according to a statement from the Mariupol city council on Thursday.
The statement called the situation in the city “critical” and said with blocked entrances to the city, there is no way to deliver food and water.
“The city of Mariupol is on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe,” the city council added.
Mariupol mayor Vadym Boychenko has stated 400,000 people were trapped in the port city which had gone through “two days of hell”.
“Every 30 minutes planes arrived over the city of Mariupol and worked on residential areas, killing civilians – the elderly, women, children,” he said in an online post.
Petro Andrushenko, an adviser to the mayor, noted the Russians wanted to “delete our people”.
“They want to stop any evacuation,” he added.
There is “no question” that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has impacted gas prices in the US, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday after a new consumer price index report showed consumer prices spiked more than 7.9% over the last 12 months.
“There’s also no question that when a foreign dictator invades a foreign country, and when that foreign dictator is the head of a country that is the third largest supplier of oil in the world, that that is going to have an impact, and it is,” Psaki told reporters at a White House briefing.
Psaki added, “We’ve seen the price of gas go up at least 75 cents since President Putin lined up troops on the border of Ukraine.”
US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said actions committed by Russia against the Ukrainian people are “war crimes.”
“They constitute war crimes; they are attacks on civilians that cannot be justified by any – in any way whatsoever,” Linda Thomas-Greenfiel said in an interview with BBC Newshour.
State Department spokesperson Ned Price stopped short of declaring Russia’s actions against Ukrainian civilians “war crimes” during a briefing Thursday, instead reiterating that the United States is “supportive of efforts to document and to investigate reports of potential war crimes in Ukraine.”
“The fact is that we’ve seen very credible reports of deliberate attacks on civilians, which would, under the Geneva Conventions, constitute a war crime,” he said at a State Department briefing Thursday, citing attacks on the hospital in Mariupol and strikes on schools, hospitals, buses, cars, and ambulances.
“We are appalled by the brutal tactics that the Russian Federation, the Kremlin, has employed in prosecuting this war of choice,” Price added.
Thomas-Greenfield stated the question of whether Russia is guilty of war crimes is the one “we’re being asked every day, and we’re working with others in the international community to document the crimes that Russia is committing against the Ukrainian people.”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that he rejects a fast-track procedure for Ukraine’s membership in the European Union.
“It is very important that we continue to pursue the things that we have indeed decided in the past,” Scholz told reporters ahead of an EU summit in Versailles, France.
Scholz referred to the association agreement that the EU and Ukraine concluded in 2017 that aims to deepen political and economic ties.
“This is the course we have to follow,” Scholz added.
Moscow has said it will open daily humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians fleeing fighting in Ukraine to Russian territory, despite Kyiv insisting that no evacuation routes should lead to Russia.
“Humanitarian corridors towards the Russian Federation will now be opened, without any agreements, every day from 10:00am,” defence ministry official Mikhail Mizintsev was quoted as saying by Russian agencies.
He added evacuation routes in other directions would proceed “in agreement with the Ukrainian side”.
More than 2.3 million people have fled Ukraine since Russia launched a war on its neighbor late February, the UN refugee agency announced.
“The escalation of conflict in Ukraine has caused destruction of civilian infrastructure and civilian casualties and has forced people to flee their homes seeking safety, protection, and assistance,” the UNHCR said on its website.
“As the situation continues to unfold, an estimated 4 million people may flee Ukraine,” it added.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc and JPMorgan Chase & Co announced they were unwinding their Russian businesses, becoming the first major US banks to exit following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and putting pressure on rivals to follow.
The crisis in Ukraine and Russia, one of the world’s main sources of grain, fertilisers and energy, presents new challenges in securing food supplies on top of a prolonged pandemic, according to the United Nations.
“We weren’t going well even before the pandemic, the hunger was rising slowly and then the pandemic hit,” said Gabriel Ferrero de Loma-Osorio, head of the Committee on World Food Security, a platform within the UN for the fight against hunger.
The Senate passed a massive bill to fund the government and provide new Ukraine-related aid, sending the 2,741-page bill to President Joe Biden’s desk.
Senators voted 68-31 on the bill, which includes $1.5 trillion in government funding and $13.6 billion in aid tied to Ukraine.
European Union leaders are set to agree to cut their reliance on Russian fossil fuels, although are divided over whether to cap gas prices and to sanction oil imports.
As part of a two-day summit in Versailles, France, the leaders are expected to agree to the phasing out of Russian oil, gas and coal, according to a draft statement, which gives no end-date.
Russia’s invasion prompted Brussels on Tuesday to publish plans to reduce its use of gas from Europe’s top supplier this year and end it within the decade.
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