On the 18th day of the invasion of Ukraine launched by Vladimir Putin, Moscow maintains pressure on the Ukrainian army. This Saturday, Russian forces are still positioned around the capital Kiev and the port of Mariupol, where thousands of Ukrainians find themselves besieged today.
9:23 p.m.
A session of negotiations by videoconference between Russia and Ukraine will be held on Monday, confirmed Sunday evening Mykhaïlo Podoliak, a negotiator and adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“A negotiation session will take place on Monday to summarize the preliminary results” of the talks, he wrote on his Twitter account. Earlier in the evening, the spokesperson for the Russian presidency, Dmitry Peskov had announced the holding of this exchange Monday by videoconference.
7:39 p.m.
The Kremlin said Sunday that talks between Kiev and Moscow would continue Monday by videoconference, in the midst of the conflict in Ukraine, at a time when diplomatic contacts are increasing despite the fighting.
Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov, quoted by the state-run TASS news agency, denied talks were underway on Sunday, saying they would resume on March 14.
Earlier in the day, a Russian negotiator had estimated that the talks were progressing.
“If we compare the position of the two delegations between the start of the negotiations and now, then we see significant progress,” said Leonid Slutsky, an MP who was part of the Russian delegation who recently met with Ukrainian negotiators in Belarus.
6:11 p.m.
More than 800 people demonstrating on Sunday against the Russian military operation in Ukraine were arrested across 37 cities in Russia, according to the NGO OVD-Info, which specializes in monitoring demonstrations.
AFP journalists saw several demonstrators being brutally arrested in Moscow and Saint Petersburg (north-west), the country’s second largest city.
In the capital, a few dozen people had defied the ban on demonstrations by gathering on Manège Square, near the Kremlin. At least 100 demonstrators and a journalist were taken away by police, according to an AFP correspondent on the spot.
5:05 p.m.
The Russian army claimed to have killed “foreign mercenaries” during strikes on Sunday against “the locality of Staritchi and the military base of Yavoriv” in western Ukraine, near the Polish border.
“As a result of this strike, up to 180 foreign mercenaries and a significant amount of foreign weapons have been eliminated,” Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov told a briefing. figure cannot be independently confirmed by AFP.
4:00 p.m.
More than 2,100 residents of Mariupol, a besieged port city in southeastern Ukraine, have been killed since the start of the Russian offensive, the city hall announced on Sunday.
“Occupiers cynically and deliberately strike residential buildings, densely populated areas, destroy children’s hospitals and urban infrastructure (…). To date, 2,187 residents of Mariupol have died in Russian attacks,” Mariupol City Hall said on Telegram.
3:02 p.m.
The journalist’s comrade Brent Renaud tells the story of the attack which cost the life of his American colleague, in Irpin, this Sunday.
Account of the attack that killed the US documentary filmmaker Brent Renaud in Irpin by his comrade. pic.twitter.com/lwW7dgVnhu
— Maurin Picard (@MaurinPicard) March 13, 2022
2:35 p.m.
Kiev region police chief Andrei Nebitov announced the death of American journalist Brent Renaud. The 51-year-old man was shot dead in Irpin, about fifteen kilometers from the capital Kiev.
According to documents they had with him, and posted on Twitter, Brent Renaud said he worked for The New York Times.
“A world-renowned 51-year-old news correspondent was shot dead today in Irpin,” Andrei Nebitov wrote on Facebook.
“Of course, the profession of journalist is risky, but the American citizen Brent Renaud paid with his life for trying to highlight the cruelty of the aggressor,” added the Ukrainian police chief.
2:20 p.m.
An American journalist was killed and another wounded by bullets on Sunday in Irpin, on the northwestern edge of Kiev, where Ukrainian forces are fighting Russian forces, we learned from concordant sources.
The two men were hit while driving with a Ukrainian civilian, also injured, told AFP Danylo Shapovalov, a doctor engaged with the Ukrainian forces who took care of the victims. An AFP journalist saw the body of the killed journalist.
It would be the American photographer Brent Renaud.
1:07 p.m.
Strikes on a large monastery in the Donetsk region left around 30 people injured overnight from Saturday to Sunday, while phosphorus bombs hit a locality in the Lugansk region, Ukrainian officials from these regions said. eastern ukraine
According to Oleksi Bilochytsky, chief of police of Popasna, located about a hundred kilometers west of Lugansk, the Russians used phosphorus bombs on his locality.
12:59
Some 100,000 people in 24 hours have joined the ranks of refugees who fled the fighting in Ukraine, more than two weeks after the invasion ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to the latest UN count published on Sunday.
The High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) listed exactly 2,698,280 refugees from Ukraine on its dedicated website around 11:00 GMT. These are 100,733 more than during the previous score. Europe had not seen such a rapid influx of refugees since the Second World War, according to the High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi.
12:58
Polish President Andrzej Duda warned of the danger of Moscow using chemical weapons in its “game-changing” invasion of Ukraine, in a BBC interview broadcast by the Presidency on Sunday Polish.
“When you ask me if (Russian President Vladimir) Putin could use chemical weapons, I think Putin is capable of using anything, especially in such a difficult situation” for him, estimated the head of the Polish state. According to him, the Russian president “has already lost this war politically, and militarily speaking he is in no condition to win it”.
12:46 p.m.
Pope Francis called on Sunday for an end to the “massacre” and the “unacceptable armed attack” in Ukraine, which has been invaded by Russian troops since February 24.
Speaking after his Sunday Angelus, the pope condemned the “barbarity” of killing children and civilians, adding: “In the name of God… stop this massacre.”
11:39
Thirty-five people died and 134 were injured in Russian strikes that hit a Ukrainian military base near the Polish border on Sunday, according to a new report provided by the governor of the region, Maxim Kozitsky.
An initial report had reported nine dead and 57 wounded on this base located in Yavoriv, about forty kilometers northwest of Lviv and about twenty kilometers from the border with Poland. It has served in recent years as a training ground for Ukrainian forces under the supervision of foreign instructors, notably American and Canadian.
11:34 am
Turkey has called on Russia for help in evacuating its citizens from the besieged city of Mariupol in Ukraine, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Cavusoglu told reporters on Sunday.
“We called (Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov) yesterday and asked for his help in evacuating our citizens,” he said.
11:13 a.m.
Nine people were killed in Russian strikes on the port city of Mykolaiv, near Odessa, in southern Ukraine, the governor of this region said on Telegram on Sunday.
“Nine people died in the bombardments of these assholes,” wrote Vitali Kim, without further details for the time being.
10:53
Criticized for its slowness and reluctance to take in Ukrainians after the Russian invasion, the United Kingdom on Sunday unveiled a new scheme allowing the British to house refugees fleeing the war at home.
The new program, called “Homes for Ukraine”, will accommodate “tens of thousands” of people who will have access to the labor market, social security and education, even without having family ties with the United Kingdom, announced the British Minister Michael Gove on the Sky News channel.
Michael Gove said the government wanted to ensure that “all available homes” could be made available “to those fleeing persecution”.
People who decide to host Ukrainian refugees in their homes will receive 350 pounds (418 euros) per month and must commit to hosting these refugees for at least six months.
09:59
The strikes that targeted a military base in western Ukraine, near Lviv, on Sunday left nine dead and 57 injured, according to an initial report communicated by the regional military authorities and the mayor of Lviv.
“Unfortunately, 57 people were injured and hospitalized, nine heroes died,” military governor of Lviv region Maxim Kozitsky said on Telegram. Andriy Sadovy, the mayor of Lviv, located about forty kilometers from the base, provided the same assessment, also on Telegram.
09:57
Foreign instructors “work” on the military base bombed overnight from Saturday to Sunday by Russia near Lviv, about twenty kilometers from the Polish border, said Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov.
“Russia has attacked the International Center for the Maintenance of Peace and Security. Foreign instructors are working there. Information about casualties is being clarified,” the minister said in a tweet.
07:58
Ukraine fears an encirclement of Kiev and promises a “relentless defense” of its capital against Russian forces, which, according to local authorities, bombed Sunday morning a military base in the Lviv region, located near the Polish border and hitherto relatively spared.
The military base in question is located about forty kilometers northwest of Lviv, a large city in western Ukraine where many displaced people have flocked. Several countries have also moved their embassies there, deeming this city safer than Kiev.
The Ukrainian army also reported the same thing on this bombardment, but AFP, of which a reporter in Lviv did not hear explosions, could not immediately verify these assertions. The Russian army continues to shell the south of the country where the besieged city of Mariupol hopes for the arrival of a convoy of humanitarian aid.
This convoy remained blocked for more than five hours at a Russian checkpoint on Saturday, and the hope was that it could reach Mariupol this Sunday, coming from Zaporozhye via Berdiansk, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk said on Saturday.
06:46
Russian forces on Sunday bombed a military base located in the Lviv region (western Ukraine), near the Polish border and so far relatively spared from the conflict, local authorities said.
“The occupiers carried out an airstrike on the International Peacekeeping and Security Center. According to preliminary information, they fired eight missiles. Information on (potential) casualties is being gathered “, said the Lviv regional administration in a statement.