On Sunday, Russian forces carried out an airstrike on a military range near Lviv in western Ukraine, expanding its offensive closer to the border with Poland.
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The Russian military said it killed up to 180 "foreign mercenaries" in strikes on Sunday against the Yavoriv military range, a number that could not be independently confirmed.
Russian forces fired more than 30 rockets at the range 30 kilometres northwest of Lviv in western Ukraine, expanding its offensive closer to the border with Poland.
Video journalist Brent Renauld was killed in the Kyiv suburb of Irpin, while another journalist was injured, the Ukrainian authorities confirmed.
Moscow is trying to create new puppet republics in Ukraine similar to the two in Donbas to break his country apart, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address to the nation Saturday.
In another ceasefire violation, seven Ukrainian civilians, including a child, died when the Russian army shelled a humanitarian convoy of refugees near Kyiv and forced them to turn back, Ukrainian authorities claim.
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Sunday's main developments:
- Russian forces carried a missile attack on the Yavoriv military range near Lviv, expanding the offensive to western Ukraine. Russian defence ministry claims it killed 'up to 180 foreign mercenaries' in the strikes.
- Overnight, significant fighting continued in Irpin and Makariv near Kyiv, while Chernihiv came under heavy bombardment. At least one residential building was destroyed in the Russian attack, with one person dead and seven reported injured.
- In Luhansk, the cities of Severodonetsk, Rubizhne, Lysychansk and Popasna are under constant fire. In the Donetsk region, Mariupol remains under siege.
- The humanitarian crisis worsens as gas, water and electricity shortages continue to affect the residents of many cities, including the besieged southern port of Mariupol.
- Ukrainian authorities again accused Russia of violating the ceasefire agreement and opening fire on "humanitarian corridors". Just nine of 14 agreed-upon corridors were open on Saturday, with 13,000 people evacuated on them around the country.
- At least 2.5 million people have fled Ukraine in the two weeks since Russia invaded it, UNHCR said.
- Read an overview of the main events on Saturday here.
ICRC: Mariupol endures 'life-and-death nightmare'
The Red Cross is warning of a “worst-case scenario” for hundreds of thousands of civilians in the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol unless the parties agree to ensure their safety and access to humanitarian aid.
The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Peter Maurer, said in a statement said Sunday that residents of Mariupol “have endured a weeks-long life-and-death nightmare”.
The Geneva-based humanitarian agency said hundreds of thousands of people in the city are “facing extreme or total shortages of basic necessities like food, water and medicine”.
“Dead bodies, of civilians and combatants, remain trapped under the rubble or lying in the open where they fell,” the ICRC added. “Life-changing injuries and chronic, debilitating conditions cannot be treated. The human suffering is simply immense.”
The Red Cross called on the parties to agree on the terms of a ceasefire, routes for safe passage, and to ensure the deal was respected. It offered to act as a neutral intermediary in negotiations.
Ukrainian energy minister: Power to Chernobyl restored
Ukraine says it has fixed a broken power line to the Chernobyl power plant, the scene of a nuclear meltdown in 1986, which is held by Russian troops.
Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said that “heroes” from the national power grid company managed to restore the connection. The power is used to run pumps that keep spent nuclear fuel cool to prevent radiation leaks.
Ukraine said Wednesday that power had been cut to the site and that there was enough diesel fuel to run on-site generators for 48 hours. The International Atomic Energy Agency played down concerns, saying it saw little risk of the pools containing the spent fuel overheating even without electricity.
Belarus said Thursday it had set up an emergency power line to Chernobyl from its nearby border.
Russian air strikes in Mykolayiv kill at least 11, local authorities say
At least 11 people were killed Sunday in Russian strikes on the southern Ukrainian port city of Mykolayiv, near Odessa, according to Ukrainian authorities.
In the morning, the region's governor, Vitali Kim, had said that "nine people died in Russian shelling" without giving further details.
In the afternoon, Ukrainian emergency services and the governor reported another strike, this time against a school, posting pictures of the destroyed building on Telegram.
"According to the first assessment, two people are dead and two wounded," the emergency services said.
Mykolayiv, located about 130 km east of Odessa, has been under intense shelling for several days.
Serbian national air carrier reduces number of flights to Russia after sharp criticism
Protests against war in Ukraine draw tens of thousands to streets across Europe
Tens of thousands of people rallied Sunday in cities across Europe to protest against Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine, with small vigils taking place in Russia as well despite a crackdown by authorities against such demonstrations.
German trade unions called a protest in Berlin, where sunny weather boosted the turnout. The march led from the city's Alexanderplatz — a large square named after Russian Tsar Alexander I — to a site near the Brandenburg Gate.
Protests were also staged in Warsaw, London and the German cities of Frankfurt, Hamburg and Stuttgart.
In Russia, where demonstrations against the war in Ukraine have been typically met with heavy police response, rights group OVD-Info said more than 668 people had been detained in 36 cities as of late afternoon Moscow time.
Russian defence ministry: 'Up to 180 foreign mercenaries' killed in Yavoriv strikes
The Russian military said it killed "foreign mercenaries" in strikes on Sunday against "the locality of Starychi and the Yavoriv military base" in western Ukraine, near the Polish border.
"As a result of the strike, up to 180 foreign mercenaries and a large number of foreign weapons were eliminated," Russian defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said at a briefing, although the figure could not be independently confirmed.
More than 30 Russian cruise missiles targeted the sprawling facility less than 25 kilometres from the closest border point with Poland, according to the governor of Ukraine's western Lviv region.
The training base near Yavoriv appears to be the westernmost target struck during Russia's 18-day invasion.
The facility, also known as the International Peacekeeping and Security Centre, has long been used to train Ukrainian military personnel, often with instructors from NATO countries.
US journalist killed, another injured after Russian troops opened fire on their vehicle
Kyiv Region police said a US video journalist died and another journalist was injured when they were attacked by Russian forces in Ukraine.
The police force said on its official website on Sunday that Russian troops opened fire on the car of Brent Renaud and another journalist in Irpin near the capital.
It said the injured journalist was being taken to a hospital in Kyiv.
A New York Times spokesperson said Renaud, 50, was a “talented filmmaker who had contributed to The New York Times over the years.”
It said he was not working for the publication or had an assignment in Kyiv from them at the time of his death.
White House adviser: NATO will respond to any Russian attack on its members
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan says Russia will face a response from NATO should any of its attacks in Ukraine cross borders and hit members of the security alliance.
Russian missiles on Sunday struck a military training base close to Ukraine’s western border with NATO member Poland and killed 35 people.
Sullivan told CBS News that President Joe Biden “has been clear repeatedly that the US will work with our allies to defend every inch of NATO territory and that means every inch.”
Sullivan says a military attack on NATO territory would cause the invocation of Article 5. That requires other countries in NATO to come to the defence of the attacked nation. “We will bring the full force of the NATO alliance to bear in responding,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan says NATO would respond even if a shot by Russia that hit NATO territory was accidental.
Aid convoy hours away from Mariupol, Zelenskyy says
Ukraine’s president says nearly 125,000 civilians have been evacuated through safe-passage corridors so far, and a convoy with humanitarian aid is headed to the besieged city of Mariupol.
“We have already evacuated almost 125,000 people to the safe territory through humanitarian corridors," Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address released on Sunday.
"The main task today is Mariupol. Our convoy with humanitarian aid is two hours away from Mariupol. Only 80km [left].”
“We’re doing everything to counter occupiers who are even blocking Orthodox priests accompanying this aid, food, water and medicine. There are 100 tons of the most necessary things that Ukraine sent to its citizens,” Zelenskyy said.
Pope Francis: 'In the name of God, I ask, stop this massacre'
Pope Francis has decried the “barbarianism” of killing children and other defenceless civilians in Ukraine and pleaded to stop the attacks “before cities are reduced to cemeteries”.
In some of his most vigorous denunciations yet of the war in Ukraine, and in an apparent reference to Russia, which invaded Ukraine on 24 February, the pontiff said that “there are no strategic reasons that hold up” in the face of such armed aggression.
Francis told about 25,000 people gathered in St. Peter’s Square for his customary Sunday noon appearance that Mariupol, the southern Ukrainian city that “bears the name” of the Virgin Mary, has “become a city martyred by the heartbreaking war that is devastating Ukraine.”
“In the name of God, I ask: ‘Stop this massacre,’” Francis said, sparking applause from the pilgrims, tourists and Romans, some of whom held Ukrainian flags, in the square.
Francis prayed for an end to the bombings and other attacks and for ensuring that humanitarian corridors “are safe and secure.”
Soviet drone that crashed near Zagreb contained explosives, Croatian minister of defence says
The large military drone that crashed on the outskirts of the Croatian capital Zagreb on Thursday night had "airplane bomb" parts, Minister of Defence Mario Banožić said on Sunday.
"Traces of explosives were found, as well as other traces that indicate that this was not a scouting aircraft," he told the gathered press in Zagreb.
"We found airplane bomb parts and have concluded that it was also Soviet-made."
The 1970s-made missile-like drone Tu-141 is currently in use by Ukrainian forces, but Banožić said that the Russian military could have launched the aircraft.
"There are elements indicating it could have come from either side," he stated.
A black box has been retrieved, and its contents are being analysed. Banožić also stated that Croatia will work together with NATO -- who are conducting a parallel investigation -- to try and retrace the drone's point of origin.
Ukrainian defence minister calls for closed skies once again
Minister of Defence Oleksii Reznikov has called on NATO to immediately implement a no-fly zone after a Russian missile attack on the Yavoriv training facility near Lviv in western Ukraine.
"Russia has attacked the International Centre for Peacekeeping and Security near Lviv. Foreign instructors work here," Reznikov said on Twitter. "This is new terrorist attack on peace & security near the EU-NATO border. Action must be taken to stop this. Close the sky!"
Israeli FM openly condemns Kremlin's actions
Israel's foreign minister condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine, calling on Moscow to halt its attacks and end the conflict.
Yair Lapid's criticism Sunday is among the strongest that has come from Israeli officials since the war began. His remarks set him apart from Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who has stopped short of condemning Russia.
Israel has walked a fine line in its response to the crisis. Bennett has voiced support for the Ukrainian people, and the country has sent humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
But Israel relies on Russia for security coordination in Syria, where Moscow has a military presence and where Israeli aircraft have frequently struck enemy targets over recent years.
Bennett has been attempting to mediate between the Kremlin and Kyiv.
Lapid made his remarks in Bucharest, Romania, where he met his Romanian counterpart.
Nine killed, 57 wounded in Yavoriv missile strike
At least nine people were killed and 57 wounded when a Russian airstrike hit a military training base in western Ukraine close to the Polish border, a local official said Sunday.
The governor of the Lviv region, Maksym Kozytskyi, said Russian forces fired more than 30 cruise missiles at the Yavoriv military range, located 30 kilometres northwest of the city of Lviv and 35 kilometres from Ukraine’s border with Poland.
The United States and NATO have regularly sent instructors to the range, also known as the International Peacekeeping and Security Center, to train Ukrainian military personnel.
Russian fighters also fired at the airport in Ivano-Frankivsk, a city in western Ukraine located 250 kilometres from Ukraine’s border with Slovakia and Hungary.
One Ukrainian refugee died, several injured in bus accident in Italy
Italian state radio says a bus carrying about 50 refugees from Ukraine has overturned on a major highway in northern Italy, killing a passenger and injuring several others, none of them seriously.
RAI radio said one woman died, and the rest of those aboard the bus were safely evacuated after the accident early Sunday near Forli’. It wasn’t immediately clear where the bus was headed.
Some 35,000 Ukrainian refugees who fled the war have entered Italy, most of them through its northeastern border with Slovenia.
Forli’ is in the region of Emilia-Romagna, which borders the Adriatic Sea and has taken in some 7,000 refugees.
The accident is under investigation.
Zelenskyy: Moscow wants to set up new puppet states in Ukraine
Russia is trying to create new “pseudo-republics” in Ukraine to break his country apart, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address to the nation Saturday.
Zelenskyy called on Ukraine’s regions, including Kherson, which was captured by Russian forces, not to repeat the experience of Donetsk and Luhansk. Pro-Russian separatists began fighting Ukrainian forces in those eastern regions in 2014.
“The occupiers on the territory of the Kherson region are trying to repeat the sad experience of the formation of pseudo-republics,” Zelenskyy said. “They are blackmailing local leaders, putting pressure on deputies, looking for someone to bribe.”
City council members in Kherson, a southern city of 290,000, on Saturday rejected plans for a new pseudo-republic, Zelenskyy said.
Russia fired on civilian convoys again, Ukrainian authorities claim
Seven Ukrainian civilians, including a child, died when the Russian army shelled a humanitarian convoy of refugees and forced them to turn back, Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense said.
The seven were among hundreds of people who tried to flee the village of Peremoha, 20 kilometres northeast of Kyiv. An unknown number of people were wounded in the shelling, the report added.
Moscow has said it would establish humanitarian corridors out of conflict zones, but Ukrainian officials have accused Russia of disrupting those paths and firing on civilians.
On Saturday, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said just nine of 14 agreed-upon corridors were open on Saturday, and that about 13,000 people were evacuated on them around the country.