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Ukraine says more than 5,500 evacuated from front-line cities

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Ukraine says more than 5,500 evacuated from front-line cities

  • Ukraine says more than 5,500 people were evacuated from front-line cities on Sunday.
  • Ukraine and Russia will hold a new round of talks by video-conference on Monday, officials have said.
  • The ICRC warns residents of Mariupol face a “worst-case scenario” unless Russia and Ukraine reach an agreement to ensure humanitarian access.
  • A US journalist has been killed near Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv.

Here are the latest updates:

US condemns attack on base near Polish border

Secretary of State Antony Blinken has condemned a Russian attack on a large Ukrainian base near the border with NATO member Poland, which killed 35 people and wounded 134, according to a local official.

“We condemn the Russian Federation’s missile attack on the International Center for Peacekeeping and Security in Yavoriv, close to Ukraine’s border with Poland,” Blinken wrote on Twitter. “The brutality must stop.”

Russia-Ukraine war military dispatch: March 13

Military Dispatch Day 18

  • Russian air strikes hit a Ukrainian military training base near Lviv
  • Ukrainian officials said there was an increase in civilian evacuations
  • Russian troops cracked down on protesters in the Russian-controlled southern city of Kherson
  • A US journalist was killed by Russian troops near Kyiv

Here is a round-up of all the key military developments from Sunday – day 18 of the Russian invasion.

Russian default no longer ‘improbable’

Russia may default on its debts in the wake of unprecedented sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine, but that would not trigger a global financial crisis, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva has said.

Georgieva told CBS’s “Face the Nation” programme that sanctions imposed by the United States and other democracies were already having a “severe” impact on the Russian economy and would trigger a deep recession there this year.

The sanctions were limiting Russia’s ability to access its resources and service its debts, which meant a default was no longer viewed as “improbable,” the IMF official said.

Asked if such a default could trigger a financial crisis around the world, she said, “For now, no.”

Zelenskyy urges software giants to stop supporting their products in Russia

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called on US software firms Microsoft and Oracle and German business software group SAP to halt support services for their products in Russia.

“Stop supporting your products in Russia, stop the war!,” he wrote on Twitter.

‘Never heard of that’: China responds to reports Russia sought military help

The spokesperson for China’s embassy in Washington has responded to media reports that Moscow had asked Beijing for military equipment since launching its invasion of Ukraine by saying, “I’ve never heard of that.”

The spokesperson, Liu Pengyu, said China’s priority was to prevent the tense situation in Ukraine from getting out of control.

“The current situation in Ukraine is indeed disconcerting,” he said in an emailed response to an inquiry from the news agency Reuters.

“The high priority now is to prevent the tense situation from escalating or even getting out of control.”

Ukraine, Russia to resume talks

Ukraine and Russia will hold a new round of talks on Monday, officials have said.

Talks would resume by video-conference, Mykhailo Podoliak, an adviser to Zelenskyy and part of the negotiating team, has said.

His statement on Twitter confirmed an earlier statement by Dmitry Peskov, the spokesman for the Russian presidency.

Ukraine says thousands evacuated from front-line cities

Ukraine was able to evacuate more than 5,550 people from front-line cities on Sunday via nine humanitarian corridors, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk has said.

She said 3,950 people were evacuated from towns and cities in the Kyiv region.

Fatigued staff ‘stop safety-related repairs’ at Chernobyl

Staff operating radioactive waste facilities at the Chernobyl nuclear plant have stopped carrying out safety-related repairs due to exhaustion, as they have not been relieved since Russia seized the site last month, Ukraine has told the UN nuclear watchdog.

“The Ukrainian regulator informed the IAEA that staff at [Chernobyl] were no longer carrying out repair and maintenance of safety-related equipment, in part due to their physical and psychological fatigue after working non-stop for nearly three weeks,” the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a statement.

A general view shows the New Safe Confinement (NSC) structure over the old sarcophagus covering the damaged fourth reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, in Chernobyl, Ukraine
Russian forces seized control of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in late February [File: Gleb Garanich/Reuters]

ICRC issues stark Mariupol warning

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has warned that residents of the besieged port city of Mariupol face a “a worst-case scenario”, unless Russia and Ukraine reach an agreement to ensure their immediate safety and access to humanitarian aid.

Ukrainian authorities say the city has been subject to relentless bombardment since Russian troops surrounded it on March 2. Read the full story here.

 

Welcome to Al Jazeera’s continuing coverage of the Ukraine-Russia crisis.

Read all the updates from Sunday, March 13 here.



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