Russia-Ukraine live news: Alarm grows over Mariupol ‘catastrophe’
- The humanitarian situation in Mariupol continues to deteriorate with the United Nations citing reports of “looting and violent confrontations” over resources and satellite pictures showing extensive damage.
- Some 13,000 Ukrainians evacuated from cities on Saturday, Deputy PM says, but no one managed to leave Mariupol.
- Fighting intensified northwest of Kyiv, with the bulk of Russian ground forces 25km (16 miles) from the centre of the Ukrainian capital.
- The United States has said it would rush up to $200m in additional small arms, anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons to Ukraine.
- Russia has said its troops could target supplies of Western weapons in Ukraine.
Here are the latest updates:
18 mins ago (00:25 GMT)
Medical train carries Ukraine children with cancer
About 60 child cancer patients from Ukraine have boarded a medical train in a Polish town, bound for hospitals in Warsaw and elsewhere.
Medical workers carried some young patients in their arms, on stretchers and in a wheelchair at a station in Medyka, near the Ukrainian border.
“Some of them will require oxygen, will require some form of intensive care,” and some have COVID-19 and have to be kept separate from others,” said Dominik Daszuta, an anaesthesiologist from Warsaw Hospital. He said the train has transported 120 children with cancer so far.
The UN refugee agency says at least 2.5 million people have fled Ukraine in the two weeks since Russia invaded it.
2 hours ago (22:34 GMT)
Ukraine says people who died in Russia attack on convoy not in evacuation corridor
The seven women and children who Ukraine says died when Russian forces attacked a convoy escaping a village in the Kyiv region on Saturday were not as previously stated in an agreed evacuation corridor, the defence ministry said.
Ukraine’s intelligence service initially said those who died outside Peremoha had been in a “green corridor” agreed with Russia.
A defence ministry statement later said people had in fact tried to escape by themselves, “so they began evacuating without the ‘green corridor’ agreed by the parties”.
2 hours ago (22:16 GMT)
Inside Story: Is Facebook abandoning its hate speech policy?
Meta Platforms Inc, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram, could soon be banned in Russia as an “extremist organisation”.
The Russian move comes in response to Meta announcing a change in its hate speech policy, allowing violent posts in some instances.
There is now a partial exception when the targets are Russian soldiers in Ukraine. Users are even allowed to call for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s death.
But what are the consequences of this change in policy?
3 hours ago (21:51 GMT)
Ukraine says Russia plans to control Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant: IAEA
The United Nations nuclear watchdog has said it was told by Ukraine that Russia was planning to take full and permanent control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s biggest, but that Russia had later denied this.
“The President of Ukraine’s nuclear power plant operator Energoatom, Petro Kotin, said in a letter to the Director General that around 400 Russian soldiers were ‘being present full time on site’ [at Zaporizhzhia],” the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a statement.
The IAEA said the Ukrainian regulator had also informed it that efforts to repair damaged power lines at the Chernobyl nuclear plant were continuing and that diesel generators were providing back-up power to systems relevant for safety.
3 hours ago (21:44 GMT)
Ukraine president says he spoke to Israeli PM, discussed prospects for peace talks
President Zelenskyy said he has spoken to Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and discussed the prospects for peace talks to end the conflict with Russia.
Zelenskyy made the announcement in a tweet and also said he had asked Bennett for help in freeing the mayor of the city of Melitopol, whom Ukraine says was abducted by Russian forces.
Continued dialogue with 🇮🇱 PM @naftalibennett. We talked about Russian aggression and the prospects for peace talks. We must stop repressions against civilians: asked to assist in the release of captive mayor of Melitopol and local public figures #StopRussia
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) March 12, 2022
3 hours ago (21:18 GMT)
Some 13,000 Ukrainians evacuated from cities on Saturday, deputy PM says
About 13,000 people were evacuated from a number of Ukrainian cities on Saturday, said Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk, almost twice the number who managed to get out the previous day.
Vereshchuk said in an online message that no one had managed to leave the besieged city of Mariupol and blamed obstruction by Russian forces. Moscow had earlier accused Ukrainian forces of intentionally trapping people there.
4 hours ago (21:12 GMT)
Amsterdam’s Orthodox clergy split from Moscow Patriarch
The clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Dutch city of Amsterdam has announced it will split from the Moscow church because of threats to them over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In a statement posted to its website, it said that after a meeting “the clergy unanimously announced that it is no longer possible for them to function within the Moscow Patriarchate and provide a spiritually safe environment for our faithful”.
It was “with a heavy heart” that the four priests of Saint Nicholas of Myra in Amsterdam had reached their decision, they said.
4 hours ago (21:02 GMT)
Sweden official dismisses Russian NATO warning
Sweden’s foreign minister has dismissed fresh warnings from Russia that the Nordic country’s joining NATO would lead to retaliatory measures from Moscow.
Foreign Minister Ann Linde told Swedish news agency TT “Russia has nothing to do with our independent decisions”, referring to Stockholm’s possible move to join NATO.
Russia’s Interfax news agency on Saturday quoted a Russian Foreign Ministry official saying the possible accession of Sweden and neighbouring Finland to NATO would have serious military and political consequences.
4 hours ago (20:52 GMT)
Satellite images show fires, severe damage to residential buildings in Mariupol
Satellite images taken on Saturday morning showed extensive damage to civilian infrastructure and residential buildings throughout the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol, a private US company said.
Maxar Technologies said fires were seen in the western section of the Black Sea port city and dozens of high-rise apartment buildings had been severely damaged. The images could not be independently verified.
Mariupol is facing what Ukraine says is a “humanitarian catastrophe”, with more than 1,500 civilians killed over 12 days.
A top Russian officer described the situation in the country in similarly stark language.
“Unfortunately, the humanitarian situation in Ukraine is continuing to deteriorate rapidly, and in some cities, it has reached catastrophic proportions,” said the head of the Russian National Defence Control Centre, Mikhail Mizintsev.
The UN has cited reports of “looting and violent confrontations” among civilians over the few resources available.
4 hours ago (20:45 GMT)
Russia-Ukraine war military dispatch: March 12, 2022
Kyiv is braced for an all-out Russian assault as fighting intensifies on the outskirts of the Ukrainian capital.
Air raid sirens were sounded in almost all regions of Ukraine on Saturday. The cities of Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Sumy and Mariupol remain surrounded and are under heavy Russian bombardment.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Moscow will treat Western arms shipments to Ukraine as legitimate military targets.
Here were the main military developments on Saturday – the 17th day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
5 hours ago (20:00 GMT)
US rushing $200m worth of weapons for Ukraine
The US has said it would rush up to $200m in additional small arms, anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons to Ukraine, as Ukrainian officials pleaded for more equipment to defend against heavy shelling by Russian forces.
US President Joe Biden on Saturday authorised the additional security assistance, the White House said, paving the way for the “immediate” shipment of fresh military equipment to Ukraine, a senior administration official said.
Biden’s decision brings total US security aid provided to Ukraine to $1.2bn since January 2021, and to $3.2bn since 2014, when Russia annexed the Crimea region of Ukraine, according to senior administration officials.
Welcome to Al Jazeera’s continuing coverage of the Ukraine-Russia crisis.
Read all the updates from Saturday, March 12, here.