Street fighting breaks out in Kyiv
RUSSIA, UKRAINE, BELGIUM, US, VATICAN CITY: The Russian military says it has launched a barrage of cruise missiles at Ukrainian military facilities.
Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Maj Gen Igor Konashenkov said Saturday that the military struck a range of Ukrainian military installations with long-range Kalibr cruise missiles.
He said that since the start of Russia’s attack Thursday, the military has hit 821 Ukrainian military facilities, including 14 air bases and 19 command facilities, and destroyed 24 air defense missile systems, 48 radars, seven warplanes, seven helicopters, nine drones, 87 tanks and eight military vessels.
Konashenkov claimed that the Russian military has taken full control of the southern city of Melitopol, about 35 kilometres inland from the Azov Sea coast, and said Russia-backed separatists have made significant gains in the eastern region of Donbas.
Ukraine’s Health Minister reported that 198 people, including three children, had been killed and more than 1,000 others had been wounded during Europe’s largest land war since World War II. It was unclear whether those figures included both military and civilian casualties.
In Kyiv, a missile struck a high-rise apartment building in the south-western outskirts near one of the city’s two passenger airports, leaving a jagged hole of ravaged apartments over several floors. A rescue worker said six civilians were injured.
The conflict has driven thousands of Ukrainians from their homes in search of safety. UN officials said more than 120,000 Ukrainians had left the country for Poland, Moldova and other neighbouring nations.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, posted a video on Twitter on Saturday, telling the public not to believe false reports.
He was alive. Kyiv had not fallen. Any reports of Ukraine laying down its arms was a lie, Zelenskyy said.
Meanwhile, the United States, European Union and United Kingdom on Saturday agreed to block “selected’ Russian banks from the SWIFT global financial messaging system and to impose ”restrictive measures” on its central bank in retaliation for its invasion of Ukraine.
The Central Bank sanctions restrictions target $600 billion in reserves that the Kremlin has at its disposal. Saturday’s move includes cutting key Russian banks out of the SWIFT financial system, which daily moves countless billions of dollars around more than 11,000 banks and other financial institutions around the world.
Meanwhile, the United States has authorised an additional $350 million as immediate military assistance to Ukraine, taking its security support for Ukraine over the past year to over $1 billion.
Meanwhile, Pope Francis went to the Russian Embassy to the Holy See to express his concern over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to Moscow’s ambassador, in an unprecedented departure from diplomatic protocol.
It was believed to be the first time a Pope has gone to an embassy to talk to an Ambassador in a time of conflict. Foreign envoys are usually summoned by the Vatican’s Secretary of State or meet with the Pope in the Apostolic Palace.
– THE INDIAN EXPRESS, THE HINDUSTAN TIMES,THE MALAY MAIL