Ukraine Russia conflict updates: Horrific aftermath of Russian air strike
Shocking images have emerged from the International Centre for Peacekeeping and Security where a Russian attack on a base has killed many.
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Tensions remain high as Russian forces inch closer to Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv more than two weeks after the invasion began, but Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky remains defiant.
He declared that Russia can only take the Ukrainian capital if it “razes the city to the ground” at a new conference, Reuters reports.
Mr Zelensky said he is open to peace talks with Russian president Vladimir Putin but the negotiations “must begin with a ceasefire”.
He made another national address late on Saturday evening and said Russian invaders cannot conquer his country.
“They do not have such strength. They do not have such spirit. They are holding only on violence. Only on terror. Only on weapons, which they have a lot,” he said.
“But the invaders have no natural basis for normal life. So that people can feel happy and dream. They are organically incapable of making life normal. Wherever Russia has come to a foreign land, dreams are impossible.”
Mr Zelensky issued a warning to Russian forces that they will face a fight to the death if they attempt to occupy Kyiv.
“If they decide to carpet bomb and simply erase the history of this region … and destroy all of us, then they will enter Kyiv. If that’s their goal, let them come in, but they will have to live on this land by themselves,” Zelensky said.
He said some small towns no longer exist, while “around 1300” Ukrainian troops have been killed since the start of the invasion, the first time he has given a toll for Ukraine’s forces.
Russia said on March 2 it had lost 498 soldiers, but Zelensky says it is closer to 12,000.
At least 579 Ukrainian civilians have been killed, the UN says, stressing that its figures were probably much lower than reality.
Shocking aftermath of Russian attack on base used for NATO
A barrage of air strikes killed thirty-five people and injured more than 130 when Russian troops struck a military training ground outside Ukraine’s western city of Lviv, near the border with Poland, local officials said.
It’s the western most attack of the war to date.
Russia “launched an air strike on the International Centre for Peacekeeping and Security”, the head of the Lviv regional administration, Maksym Kozytsky, said on his verified Facebook page.
“I have to announced that, unfortunately, we have lost more heroes: 35 people died as a result of the shelling of the International Peacekeeping and Security Centre,” Kozytsky later wrote on Telegram, updating an initial toll of nine.
“134 more with injuries of varying severity are in a military hospital,” he added, saying the information on the toll was still being updated.
Fires at the base have been almost fully extinguished and pyrotechnics experts were examining the debris, the governor said.
Some of the injured have been taken to Lviv hospitals.
The military base in Yavoriv, located some 40 kilometres northwest of the city, was a training centre for Ukrainian forces with foreign instructors, including from the United States and Canada.
It was also a hub for joint exercises of Ukrainians soldier with NATO allies.
Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said “foreign instructors work here,” although it was unclear whether any were present during the attacks.
Russian embassy’s rage over stunt
The Russian ambassador is “apoplectic” over an epic stunt on Russia’s embassy in Portugal’s capital, according to former UN war crimes investigator David Savage.
Two neighbouring houses have projected blue and yellow onto the Russian embassy’s Lisbon facade, which are the colours of the Ukrainian flag.
Portugal is one of many European countries welcoming Ukrainian refugees who have been forced to leave the country.
The Russian Embassy in Lisbon. Two neighbouring houses are projecting the blue and yellow onto its facade. The Russian ambassador is reportedly “apoplecticâ€. 🇵🇹fyi @nickfshortpic.twitter.com/FPYndMGYL6
— David Savage 🇺🇦 (@DavidSavage63) March 12, 2022
Surrogate babies nurtured in Kyiv basement
Nannies have been taking care of 19 surrogate babies in a Kyiv basement as the Ukraine war prevents the infants from connecting with their biological parents abroad, the New York Post reports.
An estimated 500 women are now pregnant in Ukraine as surrogate mothers for foreign clients, lawyers involved told the New York Times. Ukraine has one of the largest surrogacy service industries in the world and is one of the few that offer the service to foreigners.
There are 14 companies that offer surrogate services, including the largest, BioTexCom, which is operating the basement nursery in Kyiv. Surrogate mothers are typically paid $US15,000 ($AUD20,000) per child.
Ukraine says Russians shot seven evacuees
Russian troops shot at a group of women and children evacuees leaving a village near Kyiv, killing seven, one of them a child, Ukraine’s military intelligence service says.
It comes amid reports that nine of the 14 humanitarian corridors opened have been successful, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister says, with nearly 13,000 people able to evacuate on Saturday on those routes.
Warning deadly virus could be unleashed
Russia could release a deadly plague on Ukraine more lethal than Covid, warned the former head of the British Army’s chemical weapons unit, while there are also fears of use of chemical weapons which would constitute a “war crime”.
There are worries that the virus could come from one of Ukraine’s 4000 labs with scientists ordered to destroy all “high threat” diseases stored in the facilities.
There’s a chance that Russian troops could storm a lab and use it as a base to unleash a bioweapon or “reckless” bombing could cause deadly pathogens to spill out, said Colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, former chief of the British Army’s chemical weapons unit.
“We all need to be aware of the biosecurity threat from Russia,” he told The Sun.
“I think people are very concerned because they realise a virus can bring the world to its knees.”
Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg has also backed claims that Russia may use chemical weapons and said it would be a war crime.
The Kremlin is using false pretences to justify the possible use of chemical weapons, Stoltenberg added.
“In recent days, we have heard absurd claims about chemical and biological weapons laboratories,” Reuters reported.
“Now that these false claims have been made, we must remain vigilant because it is possible that Russia itself could plan chemical weapons operations under this fabrication of lies. That would be a war crime.”
Meanwhile, de Bretton-Gordon cautioned that Covid could be spliced with something like ebola, which would create “a massive problem”.
“The Russians could use a Ukrainian lab to release a bioweapon,” he said.
“It would be ideal – they could blame the US and Ukraine for the release of the pathogen.
“The chance to go into a lab would be gold dust for the Russians.
“They could use it in their own disinformation campaign – they would use it for propaganda.”
The US government has also voiced concerns that the Russians might try to take control of Ukraine’s labs.
It is working with the Ukrainians on how they can prevent any of those research materials from falling into the hands of Russian forces.
Some Ukrainian labs work with disease such as coronaviruses, tuberculosis, yellow fever, SARS, West Nile, and some strains of influenza.
Claims Putin is suffering from serious illness
The Russian president’s increasingly erratic behaviour is being attributed to the impact of a brain disorder caused by dementia, Parkinson’s disease or roid rage from steroid treatment for cancer, unconfirmed intelligence sources have claimed.
Senior figures from the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, which include Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States, have cited sources close to the Kremlin as blaming Putin’s psychological deterioration for the 69-year-old’s decision to invade Ukraine.
“It is only human sources that can offer you the sort of rich picture that we have of Putin’s psyche,” a security source told The Daily Mail.
“There has been an identifiable change in his decision-making over the past five years or so. Those around him see a marked change in the cogency and clarity of what he says and how he perceives the world around him.’
The Russian leader has been seen with a bloated face and neck lately, which can be a side effect of steroid use.
Back in 2020, the Kremlin denied that the Russian strongman has a mystery illness, possibly Parkinson’s disease, after he appeared to shake in a video labelling the claims as “complete nonsense”.
Kidnapped Ukrainian mayor replaced by Russians
A group of 10 Russian soldiers abducted the elected mayor of the besieged Ukrainian city of Melitopol, which is now under Russian military control, and installed a new representative.
Ivan Fedorov, the elected mayor of Melitopol, was detained by armed men, with a plastic bag placed over his ahead on Friday.
He was accused of terrorism offences after he “refused to co-operate with the enemy,” Ukraine’s parliament said.
Galina Danilchenko, a former member of the city council, was introduced as new mayor on local television, CNN reported.
She said her main task was “to take all necessary steps to get the city back to normal” and claimed there were people still in Melitopol who would try to destabilise “the situation and provoke a reaction of bad behaviour.”
“I ask you to keep your wits about you and not to give in to these provocations,” she said.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has demanded the immediate release of the former mayor, while 2000 citizens rallied on Saturday to support him.
Russians urged to protest against ‘mad maniac Putin’
Jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, the most outspoken critic against Putin, has called for Russians to stand up and protest in Moscow and other cities to send a message to the president, who he described as an “insane little tsar”.
Despite being in maximum security prison, Navalny has continued to add brutal messages condemning Putin to his Instagram account.
“The war was intended to cover up the robbery of Russian citizens and divert their attention away from the country’s internal problems, from the degradation of its economy,” he posted on social media.
“The war was unleashed by the Kremlin gang to make it easier for them to steal.”
There have been almost 14,000 people detained at protests in Russia since the invasion into Ukraine began on February 24, according to protest monitoring group OVD Info.
Navalny was jailed last year after returning to Russia, following treatment in Germany for a poison attack with a nerve agent during a visit to Siberia in 2020.
He said in a grainy video on Friday that he was “against the war” and found it “immoral, fatal and criminal”.
The 45-year-old urged his 6.3 million social-media followers to “take to the streets and fight for peace”.
“Mad maniac Putin will most quickly be stopped by the people of Russia now if they oppose the war,” he said.
“You need to go to anti-war rallies every weekend, even if it seems that everyone has either left or got scared … You are the backbone of the movement against war and death.”
Putin could be sent ‘to the grave’
Key figures in Russia could be plotting Putin’s downfall which could even see the president killed as “discontent” grows, according to a Russian ex-minister.
Andrei Kozyrev, who was foreign minister from 1990 to 1996, has predicted Putin could face a coup and be ousted with an “armed escort either to the grave or to retirement”.
He said many Russian leaders had been thrown out in the past.
“Many Russian tsars were killed. Many were dismissed one way or the other,“ he told the Daily Express.
“Even in the Soviet Union, there were ways; Stalin was said to have been poisoned, Khrushchev was just escorted out of the Kremlin.
“With Putin, I very much expect there to be resistance growing and discontent growing that will be resolved one way or another.
“I don’t know which way but Russian history is full of unexpected outcomes.”
Russia plans to take full control of nuclear plant
Ukraine has chillingly told the UN’s nuclear watchdog that Russia is planning to take “full and permanent control” of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear plant – the largest of its kind in Europe – although Russia has denied the allegation.
Russian troops seized control of the nuclear plant last week, with the attack starting a large fire near one of its six reactors, which drew condemnation from world leaders.
In a letter to the nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Ukraine said that 400 Russian soldiers were “being present full time on site” and it remained under the control of Russian military forces’ commander.
More than 500km away at the Chernobyl nuclear site, repairs were still ongoing to its electrical system after it was damaged in a Russian attack on March 9.
The plant is now dependent on external diesel generators to keep its reactors operating, said the IAEA, and Chernobyl’s 211 personnel and guards have been forced to live there since the day before Russian troops took control.
The watchdog has stressed the “urgent need” for staff to be able to leave so they can “properly rest and rotate”, noting this is a “vital element for safe and secure nuclear power operation”.
“Adding to the difficult situation, communications between the plant and the regulator were lost on 10 March,” it warned, although off site management is still providing information.
Shocking number of children killed
At least 79 children have been killed and more than 100 injured since Russia invaded, according to Ukraine’s top prosecutor.
79 children have been killed and more than 100 injured during the war in Ukraine. Every death and injury will be documented, investigated by juvenile prosecutors and we will do our best to bring to justice each war criminal. Document #RussianWarCrimes via https://t.co/FJySumUDbzpic.twitter.com/0lkuDutS6y
— Iryna Venediktova (@VenediktovaIV) March 12, 2022
Charity groups have also reported that children have gone missing as more than 2.5 million fled into neighbouring countries to escape the violence.
In some cases, desperate parents have sent children across the Ukrainian border to meet relatives and friends but no one has been there to meet them.
Satellite images show horror destruction
Smouldering craters in a snow covered field and destroyed buildings have been revealed in new satellite images from the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol.
Images from Maxar Technologies show smoke rising from an apartment complex, while the roofs of warehouses appear to have large holes in them.
The city has been hit by extensive military strikes in the past few days with the horror damage to the children’s and maternity hospital that was struck on Wednesday also seen on the images.
– With AFP
Originally published as Ukraine Russia conflict updates: Horrific aftermath of Russian air strike
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