Russia-Ukraine war latest news: half of Kyiv population has fled, mayor says; Turkey talks end without progress on ceasefire – The Guardian

Speaking on Ukrainian television, Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said half of the capital’s total population had left the city as Russian forces advance on the city, AFP reports.

From our information, one in two Kyiv residents has left the city.

A little less than 2 million people have currently left. However, Kyiv has been transformed into a fortress. Every street, every building, every checkpoint has been fortified.

Poland has described Wednesday’s strike on a maternity and children’s hospital in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol as an “act of barbarity” that resembled genocide.

Speaking in Warsaw following a bilateral meeting with US vice president Kamala Harris, Polish president Andrzej Duda called for further sanctions against Moscow:

There are pregnant women, there are children, if you kill ordinary people you throw bombs, rockets, at housing estates, this is an act of barbarity bearing the features of genocide.

The UK is “very concerned” about the potential use of chemical weapons by Russia in Ukraine, the foreign secretary, Liz Truss, has said.

In an interview with CNN, Britain’s foreign minister said Russia’s use of chemical weapons would be a “grave mistake”.

We are very concerned about the potential use of chemical weapons. We have seen Russia use these weapons before in fields of conflict, but that would be a grave mistake on the part of Russia, adding to the grave mistakes already being made by Putin.

Truss said the UK “absolutely” believed war crimes have been committed in Ukraine and called for a “tough international response”.

We absolutely believe that war crimes are being committed. We’ve referred the case to the international criminal court, along with 37 other nations.

She added:

This is why we need such a tough international response … We are doubling down on our sanctions, being tough on banks, (we’re) putting in place (an) elimination of oil from Russia into the United Kingdom.

But we need to do more with our allies because Putin has to lose in Ukraine. That is vitally important. And it’s just appalling, the suffering we’re seeing on the streets of Ukraine.

Speaking on Ukrainian television, Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said half of the capital’s total population had left the city as Russian forces advance on the city, AFP reports.

From our information, one in two Kyiv residents has left the city.

A little less than 2 million people have currently left. However, Kyiv has been transformed into a fortress. Every street, every building, every checkpoint has been fortified.

Three people including a child were killed in yesterday’s airstrike on a maternity and children’s hospital in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said.

In a televised address, Zelenskiy said Russia’s claim that the hospital had no patients was not true.

Like always, they lie confidently.

Earlier, the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, claimed there had long been no women or children at the hospital in Mariupol, only armed radicals.

Aftermath of a bombardment on a children’s hospital in Mariupol. Photograph: EyePress News/Rex/Shutterstock

Mariupol city council said the maternity and children’s hospital had been destroyed, describing the destruction as colossal. Photograph: EyePress News/Rex/Shutterstock

Turkey was keen to promote the importance of what it called “tripartite” talks between the Ukrainian foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, the Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and Turkish foreign minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, despite little results, Ruth Michaelson reports.

“It is meaningful that this meeting has taken place,” Çavuşoğlu told a press conference. “Both parties wanted Turkey to be present in this meeting.” Asked about the atmosphere in the room, he said it “took place in a civilised manner. They didn’t raise their voices.”

“I didn’t have any expectation that all demands would be met, certain decisions can only be taken at a leadership level,” he added. “Of course we couldn’t expect a miracle to come out of it, but it was meaningful because political contact took place.”

In an interview with Turkish broadcaster TRT World immediately after the talks, Kuleba said that he was surprised that Lavrov was not empowered by the Kremlin to make agreements on his demands for humanitarian corridors and a potential ceasefire.

“He came to discuss but not decide,” he said. “I would like to commend Çavuşoğlu, who really did his best to facilitate the discussion, but I have the impression that Lavrov came to talk but not decide, so we didn’t find common ground on these issues. I proposed a number of solutions, but unfortunately he was not in a position to accept them, my impression is he had no authority to make decisions during these talks,” he said.

“I was surprised to hear it as my assumption is that foreign ministers have the power to make decisions, the power to make deals. But it seems specifically for the first round of talks, Lavrov was not in this position,” he added.

Turkey boasts deep diplomatic and economic ties to both Russia and Ukraine, and has positioned itself as a neutral partner keen to keep the trust of both countries while maintaining its own international commitments as a member of Nato. The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, is due to speak with the US president, Joe Biden, later today, and the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, is expected in Ankara next week.

Yet Turkey’s efforts for a diplomatic push are in part an effort for self preservation, as war in Ukraine risks further endangering Turkey’s economy and perhaps even domestic politics. The country is currently weathering a prolonged economic crisis that has seen the lira lose half its value just last year, and protests around rising energy costs and spiralling inflation.

As a major buyer of Russian natural gas as well as Russian and Ukrainian wheat, Turkey’s economy is only becoming more vulnerable as the conflict in Ukraine continues. Many in Turkey expected Erdoğan to call a snap election later this year, which now appears in doubt as the country’s economy seems unlikely to recover as the government previously hoped.

“We don’t have to take sides in war; on the contrary, we are a country that can establish an equal dialogue with both sides to end it. We can’t afford to take sides,” Çavuşoğlu told Turkish TV channel Habertürk earlier this month when asked about international sanctions on Russia.

Turkey has worked to affirm its alliances with both Russia and Ukraine even before Russia’s invasion, including a visit by Erdoğan to Kyiv at the beginning of February. Turkish officials have since stressed that they have remained neutral, despite a constant stream of images broadcast by the Ukrainian defence ministry showing Turkish Bayraktar TB2 drones attacking columns of Russian artillery. Ukraine recently received a new batch of the drones just last week, according to Ukrainian officials.

Both Çavuşoğlu and Kuleba stressed that they were open to further talks if the Russian side agreed. “Turkish diplomacy succeeded in what others could not do, bringing us together for the first meeting between the Ukrainian and Russian foreign ministers in years, especially since the beginning of the conflict,” said Kuleba.

Çavuşoğlu also raised the possibility of a direct meeting between Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, and the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, either in Belarus or in Turkey. “Lavrov said Putin in principle is not against such a meeting,” he said.

Dramatic drone footage is circulating this morning of a Ukrainian ambush on a column of Russian tanks just outside Brovary, in a location around 35km direct drive away from the centre of Kyiv, Dan Sabbagh writes.

Bellingcat, the specialist open source investigators, said they had geolocated the video, to a lightly inhabited area on the E95 road heading towards Kyiv – a direct route to the east of the capital where Russian forces are trying to mass.

Bellingcat (@bellingcat)

This video of a Russian military column coming under attack and retreating was geolocated to 50.587111, 30.837889 by @MrWolfih and confirmed by Bellingcat. Filmed in Brovary, northeast of Kyiv. https://t.co/fj8ukOgip0 pic.twitter.com/oc8dV4OOIR

March 10, 2022

The well produced 45-second video circulating is a montage of the fighting on the road, with audio that appears to be a Russian commander reporting the attack to his superiors and the death of a regiment leader. That could also suggest the battle filmed did not take place today.

One Russian military expert who reviewed the video, Rob Lee, a former US marine and PhD student at King’s College London, said he thought this displayed “very poor tactics” on the part of the Russians, with a force clearly positioned “on an obvious avenue of approach”.

Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, sits in front of his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba, during a tripartite meeting chaired by the Turkish foreign minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, in Antalya, Turkey. Photograph: Turkish Foreign Ministry/Depo Photos/Zuma Press Wire/Rex/Shutterstock

The Hermitage museum in St Petersburg has demanded the return of art works loaned to Italy from its collection as the consequences of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and sanctions hit the culture sector, Angela Giuffrida reports.

The Russian state museum, one of the oldest and largest in the world, has asked for pieces currently on display at exhibitions in Milan to be returned by the end of March.

The works include Canova’s Winged Cupid, on show at Milan’s Gallerie d’Italia as part of an exhibition jointly organised with the Hermitage, and Tiziano’s Young Woman with Feather Hat, which is being displayed at Palazzo Reale.

In a letter from Hermitage director, Mikhail Piotrovsy, to both museums, and quoted in the Italian press, Piotrovsy said that the decision, made by Russia’s culture ministry, meant “all outstanding loans must be returned from abroad to Russia”, adding that “the Hermitage is a state museum that depends on the ministry of culture”.

The museum has also asked for Picasso’s Young Woman to be returned from the Fondazione Fendi in Rome, according to Italy’s La Stampa newspaper. The painting had never been shown in Italy before and was due to be on display until 15 May.

The Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, said China hopes the war in Ukraine can stop “as soon as possible” in a conversation with his French counterpart, Jean-Yves Le Drian.

Wang’s comments mark the first time he has described the situation in Ukraine as a “war”. China has so far refrained from describing Russia’s attack on Ukraine as an “invasion” or to condemn it.

Chinese state broadcaster CCTV cited the Chinese foreign minister as calling on all sides to calm down and to take more actions to prevent escalation in Ukraine.

Ukraine is investigating 38 cases of alleged treason against local officials and law enforcement officers accused of aiding Russia, Ukraine’s state bureau of investigation said.

Criminal proceedings have been launched against several police officers in the Ukrainian cities of Mariupol and Kherson.

They have committed treason under conditions of martial law and gone to the side of the enemy.

ДБР (@dbr_gov_ua)

The SBI is investigating 38 criminal proceedings against Ukrainian officials and law enforcement officers, who have assisted to the aggressor, under Article 111 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (treason).

March 10, 2022

Law enforcement officers have identified local officials who “actively support and promote Russian aggression”, the bureau said.

One official was detained in the Donetsk city of Kramatorsk and similar actions were recorded in other occupied territories, it said.

All traitors will be detained and held strictly accountable before the law.

Hello everyone. It’s Léonie Chao-Fong here again as we unpack all the latest developments on the unfolding crisis in Ukraine. Feel free to drop me a message if you have anything to flag, you can reach me on Twitter or via email.

The mayor of Zhytomyr has said a civilian building, a thermal electricity plant and two hospitals were hit in Russian airstrikes in the western Ukrainian city.

Footage shows a military plane flying overhead followed by explosions. The mayor, Serhii Sukhomlyn, said there were no known injuries.

Buildings in Zhytomyr bombed including hospitals, says Ukraine mayor – video

• The British home secretary has pledged to streamline the online visa application system for Ukrainians following heavy criticism of her response to the crisis. Priti Patel said that from Tuesday, Ukrainian refugees will no longer have to go to a visa application centre to provide their biometrics before coming to the UK.
• A humanitarian convoy trying to reach Mariupol today has been forced to turn around due to fighting, Reuters reports the Ukrainian deputy prime minister has said.
• The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said that Russia will try to never again be dependent on the west. In a press conference in Turkey, he also claimed that Russia’s property rights have been stamped on by the west, that they will endure the crisis and that Ukraine seems to want to have meetings for the sake of meetings.
• A meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers, Sergei Lavrov and Dmytro Kuleba, in Turkey ended with little progress appearing to have been made. In a news conference afterwards, Reuters reports that Kuleba said that no progress was made on a ceasefire and that Lavrov did not commit to a humanitarian corridor in Mariupol, where he said the situation was most difficult.
• The US vice-president, Kamala Harris, says she will discuss issues with Poland that will force Russia to pay a price for its invasion on Ukraine, reports Reuters. Speaking today during a visit to Warsaw, she also said that Poland was doing “extraordinary work” to help Ukrainian refugees.
• An airstrike on a hospital in Mariupol yesterday killed three people, including a child, the city council said today, reports the Associated Press. The attack wounded 17 people in the besieged port city, including women waiting to give birth, doctors and children.
• More than 2.3 million people have fled Ukraine so far since the start of the Russian invasion two weeks ago, the UN said today. The UN migration agency said that of those who have been forced to take refuge in neighbouring countries, 112,000 people are third-country nationals.
• The UK has frozen the assets of seven Russian businessmen including Roman Abramovich, Igor Sechin, Oleg Deripaska and Dmitri Lebedev after they were added to the country’s sanctions list, reports Reuters. Abramovich is the owner of Chelsea Football Club, Deripaska has stakes in En+ Group, Sechin is the chief executive of Rosneft and Lebedev is chairman of the board of directors of Bank Rossiya.
• Russia’s foreign ministry has said they will no longer participate in the Council of Europe, the continent’s leading human rights organisation founded in response to the humanitarian outrages of the second world war.
• Ukraine opened seven humanitarian corridors, including one from Mariupol, amid reports that Russian troops have taken over parts of the city. The country’s deputy prime minister said that seven humanitarian corridors had been opened, reports Reuters. The governor of Sumy said that three columns of evacuees were leaving after a ceasefire was agreed.

That’s it from me for now. Handing over to Leonie Chao-Fong. Thanks for reading.

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