Vladimir Putin’s forces in Ukraine are increasingly relying on the “indiscriminate shelling” of urban areas as they fail to capture key cities, the UK government has warned.
In its latest update on the crisis situation in Ukraine, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said Russia had suffered “considerable losses” since launching its invasion more than three weeks ago.
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As a result, Russia has “increased its indiscriminate shelling of urban areas resulting in widespread destruction and a large number of civilian casualties”, the MoD said.
“It is likely Russia will continue to use its heavy firepower to support assaults on urban areas as it look to limit its own already considerable losses, at the cost of further civilian casualties.”
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The UK assessment comes as Ukraine accused Russia of further atrocities in the besieged city of Mariupol, where the city council says an art school that was sheltering around 400 people has been attacked.
The latest assault follows Russia’s bombing of a theatre earlier this week that was thought to be sheltering more than 1,000 people.
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Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has condemned Russia’s relentless targeting of Mariupol, calling the bombardment a “terror that will be remembered for centuries to come”.
Pope Francis also used his Sunday address in Vatican City to call on world leaders to “stop this repugnant war”.
“The violent aggression against Ukraine is unfortunately not slowing down,” he said.
“It is a senseless massacre where every day slaughters and atrocities are being repeated.”
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The MoD also warned that it was likely that Russia would continue to use heavy firepower to attack urban areas as a means to limit its own “already considerable losses”.
There were reports on Sunday that a senior Russian Navy officer had been killed.
The Russian president Vladimir Putin celebrated the eight years since his troops seized the Ukrainian region of Crimea with a bizarre rally on Friday.
He spoke in front of a huge crowd in Moscow’s Luzhniki stadium and praised the war effort in Ukraine which has seen hundreds on both sides die.
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Despite being accused of of committing war crimes through his attacks on civilians, the widespread Ukrainian resistance and the repeated suppression of any forms of free speech in Russia, the president told the audience: “We have not had unity like this for a long time.”
Putin also honoured those in Crimea who stood up to “neo-Nazis and radical nationals” and joined Russia, even though world leaders have rejected any claim that there is Nazism in Ukraine’s government.
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In an ominous nod to the future, Putin also promised the crowd: “We know what we have to do next…we’ll definitely carry out all the plans we have made.”
The stadium speech is comparable to the kind of rallies former US president Donald Trump became famous for. The two leaders were said to have a certain kind of rapport, and the former US president has even called Putin’s Ukraine strategy a work of “genius”.
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The rally speaks to the West’s concerns about Putin’s increasingly unhinged behaviour, and comes a day after current US president Joe Biden labelled him a “murderous dictator” and a “pure thug”.
For someone who rails against western culture so much, the setup at Putin’s speech is very Wrestlemania. You half expect to hear glass breaking and see Stone Cold come out with a steel chair pic.twitter.com/KNhUtsWEVF
“We see how heroically our guys are acting, and fighting, in the course of this operation.” (the Kremlin has prohibited Russians from using the word ‘war’ or ‘invasion’ to describe Russia’s invasion of Ukraine) pic.twitter.com/IkcBglWkAH
March 18, 2014, does mark Russia’s complete annexation of Crimea, although the peninsula is still not legally recognised as part of the country by the international community.
It followed an internationally discredited public vote held two days before where the people living in the peninsula were asked whether they wanted to be part of Russia or part of Ukraine.
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While 97% of votes backed joining Russia, Ukraine said the referendum was illegal as it had taken place while Russian forces were in Crimea.
Russian representatives claimed more than 200,000 people attended Friday’s celebrations. The official capacity of the stadium is 81,000, although there were crowds outside the stadium too.
But many attendees told the BBC they had been pressured by their employers in the public sector to attend.
Some students were allowed not to attend lectures as long as they went to the “concert”, while others told the BBC they had not been aware that the event was aimed at consolidating support for the Ukrainian war.
lol, Putin says “we haven’t seen unity like this in a long time,” referring to Russia’s soldiers in Ukraine, claiming that the local civilians have welcomed Moscow’s invading troops. This message is sponsored by @koolaid, folks.
There is thought to be some support for the Russian attack on its European neighbour, but the full extent of the general public’s backing is hard to calculate.
The Kremlin has quashed any efforts to speak out against the invasion, including attempts to call it a war – Russia prefers to call it a “special military operation” – shutting down any protests or independent media outlets.
Children in their last six years of school have to now attend “My Country” lessons where they watch a video of Putin sharing his take on Ukraine’s history.
Children have been seen lining up to create the letter Z – the pro-invasion symbol which was first seen on the side of Russian tanks – and will have lessons dedicated to March 18 which aim to “form an understanding” of patriotism.
Teachers also shared a video showing people in the military are more likely to become heroes, all in honour of the “Crimean spring”.
Is the war really going well?
The Russian offensive is thought to have slowed significantly since it first began more than three weeks ago.
Russian forces are becoming increasingly violent and attacks on the west Ukraine city of Lviv shows the offensive is now spreading out.
Officials in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv say almost 90% of buildings in the city of Mariupol have now been damaged or destroyed by Russian forces, including a bomb shelter within a theatre where hundreds were sheltering.
The word “children” had been writing by Ukrainians in Russian outside for those dropping the bombs, although Kremlin representatives claim the attack was nothing to do with them.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russia is actually not doing as well as it expected to in its invasion because Putin expected the country to be the same as it was in 2014, during the Crimea annexation.
He said Russia “didn’t know what we had for defence or how we prepared to meet the blow”.
Ben Wallace has blamed Russian “dirty tricks” after being pranked by someone claiming to be the Ukrainian prime minister.
In an apparent security breach, the hoax caller managed to get through to the defence secretary’s personal phone this afternoon.
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They pretended to be Ukrainian PM Denys Shmyhal and began asking Wallace a series of questions.
After realising they were not who they claimed to be, the minister ended the call and revealed the “desperate” prank attempt on Twitter.
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He said: “Today an attempt was made by an imposter claiming to be Ukrainian PM to speak with me. He posed several misleading questions and after becoming suspicious I terminated the call.
“No amount of Russian disinformation, distortion and dirty tricks can distract from Russia’s human rights abuses and illegal invasion of Ukraine. A desperate attempt.”
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Later on Thursday, home secretary Priti Patel said she had also been targeted.
No amount of Russian disinformation, distortion and dirty tricks can distract from Russia’s human rights abuses and illegal invasion of Ukriane. A desperate attempt.
Wallace has been an outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin, claiming he had “gone full tonto” by invading Ukraine.
He also predicted that the war would be “Putin’s end” because it was going so badly for Russia.
The alarm was raised by Wallace after he became suspicious during a 10-minute video call on Thursday.
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He ordered an investigation into the security breach but there are serious questions about Whitehall security after Patel said the same thing happened to her earlier this week.
“This also happened to me earlier this week,” Patel said.
“Pathetic attempt at such difficult times to divide us. We stand with Ukraine.”
The Home Office declined to give further details about Patel’s call.
The main evening news programme on Russia’s state-run television was interrupted by a protester holding a poster against the war in Ukraine.
“NO WAR,” the sign read in English. Then, in Russian below: “Stop the war. Don’t believe the propaganda. They are lying to you.”
The rare rare anti-war protest on Channel One – behind the show’s anchor – was brief as the feed abruptly changed cameras.
The OVD-Info website, which monitors political arrests, posted a video in which Ovsyannikova identified herself as an employee of Channel One and spoke against the war.
“What is going on now is a crime,” she said. “Russia is an aggressor country and Vladimir Putin is solely responsible for that aggression.”
“Unfortunately, I’ve spent many of the last few years working for Channel One, doing Kremlin propaganda, and I’m deeply ashamed of this,” she said, according to a translation. “Ashamed that I allowed lies to come from the TV screen. Ashamed that I allowed the zombification of the Russian people.”
“We Russians are thinking and intelligent people,” she added. “It’s in our power alone to stop all this madness. Go protest. Don’t be afraid of anything. They can’t lock us all away.”
British MPs have given a standing ovation to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy as he gave an historic address to the House of Commons.
MPs took to their feet even before Zelenskyy, who appeared via a live video link from Ukraine, had said a word.
Echoing Winston Churchill, a defiant Zelenskyy said: “We will continue fighting for our land, whatever the cost. We will fight in the forests, the fields, the shores and in the streets.”
Concluding his speech, he thanked Boris Johnson by name and called on the UK for more support.
Speaking through a translator provided by Parliament TV, he said: “We are looking for your help, for the help of Western counties.
“We are thankful for this help and I am grateful to you Boris.
“Please increase the pressure of sanctions against this country (Russia) and please recognise this country as a terrorist country.
“Please make sure sure that our Ukrainian skies are safe.
“Please make sure that you do what needs to be done and what is stipulated by the greatness of your country.
“Glory to Ukraine and glory to the United Kingdom.”
Russia has announced new “humanitarian corridors” to provide safe passage for Ukrainian civilians fleeing the invasion instigated by Vladimir Putin.
But the limited ceasefire was dismissed by Ukraine and Western allies as an immoral stunt, as the escape routes would only take displaced people to Russia and its ally Belarus.
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What are humanitarian corridors?
A humanitarian corridor is a temporary pause of armed conflict, agreed by both sides, to allow food and medical aid to be brought to a warzone, or for civilians to evacuate.
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These demilitarised zones are in most cases negotiated by the United Nations, and are seen as vital to avoiding a humanitarian catastrophe, especially when international law is breached by the shelling of civilians.
Humanitarian corridors have been used since the mid-20th century. During the so-called Kindertransport from 1938 to 1939, Jewish children were evacuated to the UK from areas under Nazi control. They were also created during the siege of Sarajevo, Bosnia, in the 1990s and the 2018 evacuation of Ghouta, Syria.
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Access is typically limited to neutral parties, such as the UN or aid organisations including the Red Cross.
What has been proposed?
The Russian invasion has pushed 1.5 million people to flee the country, creating what the head of the UN refugee agency called “the fastest-growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War II”.
Two planned evacuation operations from Mariupol and the nearby city of Volnovakha have failed over the last two days as the sides accused each other of failing to stop shooting and shelling.
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In Mariupol alone, Ukrainian authorities have said they planned to evacuate over 200,000 civilians, or half of the city’s population.
Ahead of a third round of talks between Russia and Ukraine planned for Monday, Moscow said it would open six humanitarian corridors – passages would open for civilians from the capital of Kyiv, the southern port city of Mariupol, and the cities of Kharkiv and Sumy.
But Ukraine rejected the plan given the proposed routes led into Russian or Belarusian territory. These are unlikely destinations for many Ukrainians who would prefer to head towards countries on the western and southern borders. Belarus is a key ally of Putin and served as a launching ground for the invasion.
Where Ukrainians are seeking safety.
PA Graphics via PA Graphics/Press Association Images
According to maps published by the RIA news agency, the corridor from Kyiv will lead to Belarus, and civilians from Kharkiv will only have a corridor leading to Russia. Corridors from Mariupol and Sumy will lead both to other Ukrainian cities and to Russia.
What has Russia said?
The Russian taskforce said the new pledge for humanitarian corridors was announced at the request of French president Emmanuel Macron, who spoke to Putin on Sunday. Macron’s office said he asked for a broader end to military operations in Ukraine and protections for civilians.
“Attempts by the Ukrainian side to deceive Russia and the whole civilised world…are useless this time,” the Russian defence ministry said after announcing the corridors.
What has Ukraine said?
Ukrainian deputy prime minister Irina Vereshchuk called the proposed evacuation routes to Russia and Belarus “unacceptable”. “Our people won’t go to Belarus and to Russia,” she told a news briefing, claiming that Russia was seeking to manipulate Macron’s sincere desire to help.
Macron criticised the proposal as a case of “cynicism”. “I don’t know many Ukrainians who want to seek refuge in Russia. That’s hypocrisy,” he said.
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A spokesperson for Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the Russian proposal was “completely immoral”. “They are citizens of Ukraine, they should have the right to evacuate to the territory of Ukraine,” the spokesperson said.
The International Red Cross has confirmed that the “humanitarian corridor” prepared by Russia for civilians from #Mariupol was full of mines. This is terrible!#Russia was preparing a massacre. This is the genocide of #Ukrainians! It is good that we managed to avoid it this time.
The Ukrainian government is proposing eight humanitarian corridors, including from Mariupol, that would allow civilians to travel to the western regions of Ukraine where there is no Russian shelling.
The Russian proposal was reminiscent of similar ones in Syria. In 2016, a joint Russian and Syrian proposal to set up humanitarian corridors out of besieged opposition-held eastern Aleppo was criticised on humanitarian grounds.
Human rights activists said the tactic, coupled by brutal sieges, effectively gave residents a choice between fleeing into the arms of their attackers or dying under bombardment.
The head of the armed forces has urged British people not to travel to Ukraine to take part in the war with Russia.
Admiral Sir Tony Radakin’s said it was “unlawful as well as unhelpful” for anyone from the UK to get involved in the conflict.
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His comments put him at odds with foreign secretary Liz Truss, who last week said she would support anyone from Britain who wanted to fight Vladimir Putin’s forces.
She said: “The people of Ukraine are fighting for freedom and democracy, not just for Ukraine, but for the whole of Europe. Because that is what president Putin is challenging.
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“And absolutely, if people want to support that struggle, I would support them in doing that.”
But appearing on the BBC’s Sunday Morning programme, Radakin said: “Support from the UK, support in whatever way you can. But this isn’t really something that you want to rush to in terms of the sound of gunfire. This is about sensible support based in the UK.”
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Asked if Liz Truss should not have said she would support anyone who wanted to fight, he added: “I think she was reflecting (that) she could and that we can all understand that sentiment, and that sentiment needs to be channelled into support for Ukraine.
“But we’re saying as professional military people, that actually that is not necessarily the sensible thing to be doing.”
Boris Johnson, meanwhile, has unveiled a six-point plan aimed at defeating Putin.
He is calling for an international humanitarian coalition to help Ukraine and for the maximum economic pressure to be placed on Putin’s regime.
Johnson will meet with leaders from Canada, the Netherlands and central Europe on Monday as he seeks to bolster the global anti-Putin coalition.
He will tell them that Ukraine must receive more military and humanitarian support if Russia is to be beaten.
“Putin must fail and must be seen to fail in this act of aggression,” the PM will say.
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“It is not enough to express our support for the rules-based international order – we must defend it against a sustained attempt to rewrite the rules by military force.
“The world is watching. It is not future historians but the people of Ukraine who will be our judge.”
Boris Johnson will tell fellow leaders that “the people of Ukraine will be our judge” if the west fails to defeat Vladimir Putin.
The Prime Minister will say “the world is watching” as he unveils a six-point plan of action to help preserve Ukraine’s independence in the face of mounting Russian aggression.
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Johnson will this week meet with leaders from Canada, the Netherlands and central Europe as he seeks to bolster the global anti-Putin coalition.
He will tell them that Ukraine must receive more military and humanitarian support if Russia is to be beaten.
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“Putin must fail and must be seen to fail in this act of aggression,” the PM will say.
“It is not enough to express our support for the rules-based international order – we must defend it against a sustained attempt to rewrite the rules by military force.
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“The world is watching. It is not future historians but the people of Ukraine who will be our judge.”
Johnson will unveil his his six-point plan in a New York Times article on Sunday.
He is calling for an international humanitarian coalition to help Ukraine and for the maximum economic pressure to be placed on Putin’s regime.
The ”creeping normalisation of what Russia is doing in Ukraine” must be prevented, according to the PM, while diplomacy aimed at the de-escalation of Russian aggression must be stepped up and fully involve the Ukrainian government.
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Finally, Downing Street said Johnson wants to see “a rapid campaign to strengthen security and resilience across the Euro-Atlantic area.
Canadian prime minister Justine Trudeau and Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte will meet with the PM in Downing Street on Monday to discuss the Ukraine crisis.
It follows talks on Friday with French president Emmanuel Macron and the leaders of Turkey and Serbia.
On Tuesday, Johnson he will host leaders of the ‘V4’ group of central European nations – the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia – which are already experiencing first-hand the humanitarian crisis caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The government has said that Ukrainian refugees with family members in the UK will be able to live here for up to three years, a move which ministers claim could potentially benefit 200,000 people fleeing the war.
Harrowing footage shows the moment Sky News journalists came under fire from Russian forces in Ukraine earlier this week.
Veteran Sky News foreign correspondent Stuart Ramsay and his team of four others were attacked Monday while driving in a vehicle near the capital of Kyiv. Video shows the moment the team’s car was fired upon.
The attackers were Russian saboteurs targeting fleeing civilians, Ramsay reported.
“It’s a professional ambush,” Ramsay says in narration over the video. “The bullets just don’t miss.”
As the car takes fire, the journalists make a run for it down an embankment.
Camera operator Richie Mockler, who continued to film even as bullets pierced the vehicle he was in, took two rounds to his body armor. All five journalists were able to make their escape and are back in the U.K.
“We were lucky,” Ramsay says in the video. “Thousands of Ukrainians are not. And every day, this war gets worse here.”
Sainsbury’s is renaming chicken Kievs to match the Ukrainian spelling of their capital city Kyiv in the wake of the Russian invasion.
The supermarket chain said it would start rolling out new packaging in the coming weeks using chicken Kyiv, rather than the Russian spelling Kiev. Ukrainians pronounce their capital “kee-yiv”. The Russian version is “kee-yev”.
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The retailer also said it has removed all products that are “100 per cent sourced from Russia” from its shelves.
“We stand united with the people of Ukraine. We have reviewed our product range and have decided to remove from sale all products that are 100 per cent sourced from Russia,” a statement said.
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“This means that from today we will no longer sell two products – Russian Standard vodka and Karpayskiye black sunflower seeds.”
What is the history?
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Kiev, based on transliteration from the Russian cyrillic Киев, has long been the accepted international spelling, a hangover from Ukraine being swallowed up by Tsarist Russia and the Soviet Union.
But since independence in 1991, Ukrainians have been anxious to shed the connection with the USSR and the Russification of their country. Kyiv was officially adopted in 1995.
The spelling and pronunciation took on even greater political significance four years ago after Russia’s annexation of the Crimea. It prompted the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to launch the “KyivNotKiev” campaign.
Since international media started to pay closer attention to the country as Russian president Vladimir Putin prepared the ground for an invasion, Ukrainians have implored foreign journalists to report the name accurately.
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But not everyone is saying “chicken Kyiv”
Sainsbury’s is the first UK supermarket to make the switch, and it remains to be seen if other retailers will follow.
In the media, the respected Associated Press news organisation, which produces a hallowed spelling and grammar “stylebook” that is followed by newsrooms across the world, has said “chicken Kiev” will remain its preference.
It tweeted in January: “The spelling Kyiv is AP style for the capital of Ukraine, in line with the Ukrainian government’s preferred transliteration to English and increasing usage. The style for the food dish remains chicken Kiev.”
The spelling Kyiv is AP style for the capital of Ukraine, in line with the Ukrainian government’s preferred transliteration to English and increasing usage. The style for the food dish remains chicken Kiev.
AP changed “style” for the spelling of the city in 2019. AP’s vice president for standards, John Daniszewski, wrote at the time:
“We are making a significant change in our style for the Ukrainian capital city Kiev. It will henceforth be written in text, captions and datelines as Kyiv.
“The change is in line with the Ukrainian government’s preferred name and transliteration. The spelling Kyiv also has been gaining usage over the last decade among governments, international bodies and media organizations.
“The former spelling, Kiev, will still be seen in AP stories in certain contexts, such as the popular culinary dish, chicken Kiev, and in historical contexts, such as Kievan Rus, the name of the early East Slavic culture and state.
“Although the AP prefers traditional English spellings for many cities, including Rome, Moscow and Warsaw (not Roma, Moskva and Warszawa), we regard the Ukrainian spelling of Kyiv as an important adaptation because it is linked to Ukraine’s present status. To many Ukrainians, the former spelling Kiev appears outdated because it is associated with a time when Ukraine was part of the Russian and Soviet states, rather than an independent country.”
