Russia-Ukraine war latest news: hundreds of thousands in Mariupol without food, water or medical care; half of Kyiv has fled, mayor says – The Guardian

Hundreds of thousands of people in the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol have no food, water, heat, electricity, or medical care amid an “increasingly dire and desperate” humanitarian situation, says the International Red Cross.

In an audio message recorded on Wednesday, the organisation’s delegation deputy head, Sasha Volkov, described the harrowing conditions in the city.

“Many people report having no food for children,” Volkov said.

People started to attack each other for food. People started to ruin someone’s car to take the gasoline out.

All the shops and pharmacies were looted several days ago, he said, and people have been getting sick because of the cold.

We keep the shelter, the basement, only for children and their mother. All other adults and children above twelve they sleep in the office.

He continued:

We will have food for a few days. We have started to get sick, many of us, because of the humidity and cold that we have. We tried to achieve hygiene standards as much as possible but not always actually possible.

China’s president Xi Jinping is “unsettled” by the Russian invasion of Ukraine because “his own intelligence doesn’t appear to have told him what was going to happen”, according to the CIA director, Bill Burns.

Speaking to the US Senate intelligence committee today, Burns said Xi was concerned about the “reputational damage” that China could suffer by association with the “ugliness” of Russia’s aggression in Ukraine.

President Xi is probably a little bit unsettled as he watches the way in which President Putin has driven Americans and Europeans more closely together and strengthened the transatlantic alliance in ways that would have been a little bit hard to imagine before the invasion began.

Russia has banned exports of wheat, meslin, rye, barley and corn to the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) until 31 August, the Russian economy ministry said.

Russia’s decision to suspend exports to EEU member countries – Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan and Russia itself – is to ensure its home market has enough food, the ministry said.

Russia will also ban sugar exports to third countries until 31 August, but some exceptions would be possible for the EEU countries, the ministry added.

РИА Новости (@rianru)

Таможенная подкомиссия приняла решение о запрете на экспорт из России зерна в страны ЕАЭС (до 31 августа, касается пшеницы, меслина, ржи, ячменя и кукурузы)

March 10, 2022

The CIA director, William Burns, was asked by the Senate intelligence committee about the possibility of Russian use of chemical weapons, possibly in a false-flag attack, Julian Borger writes.

This is something, as all of you know very well, that is very much a part of Russia’s playbook.

They’ve used those weapons against their own citizens. They’ve at least encouraged the use in Syria and elsewhere.

So it’s something we take very seriously.

A destroyed tank is seen after battles between Ukrainian and Russian forces on a main road near Brovary, north of Kyiv. Photograph: Felipe Dana/AP

Boris Johnson has voiced fears that Russian president Vladimir Putin may use chemical weapons in Ukraine, Andrew Sparrow writes.

Echoing language used by the White House, Johnson told Sky News that Russian claims about its enemies getting ready to use chemical weapons were “straight out of their playbook”, and similar to what happened before the use of chemical weapons in Syria.

In an interview with Beth Rigby, Johnson said:

I’ll make you one other prediction, by the way, which is that the stuff that you’re hearing about chemical weapons – this is straight out of their playbook.

They start saying that there are chemical weapons that have been stored by their opponents or by the Americans. And so when they themselves deploy chemical weapons, as I fear they may, they have a sort of maskirovka, a fake story, ready to go. And you’ve seen it in Syria. You saw it even in the UK.

Asked if he expected a chemical weapons attack by Russia, Johnson said:

I just note that that is what they’re already doing. It is a cynical, barbaric government, I’m afraid.

Sky News (@SkyNews)

Speaking to Sky’s @BethRigby Boris Johnson has reiterated Western officials’ fears that Putin could use chemical weapons in Ukraine after Moscow accused Kyiv of planning to deploy them in the battlefield#Rigby: https://t.co/tHthJRwYeFpic.twitter.com/3xphDEo3iW

March 10, 2022

The leaders of US intelligence agencies have been briefing the Senate on “worldwide threats”, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine very much dominating the discussion, Julian Borger reports.

The director of national intelligence, Avril Haines, was asked about Russian allegations of a US-backed biological weapons lab in Ukraine. This is what Haines had to say:

Let me be clear. We do not assess that Ukraine is pursuing either biological weapons or nuclear weapons which have been some of the basically the propaganda that Russia is putting out.

She continued:

So as I understand it, Ukraine operates about a little over a dozen bio labs, and what they are involved in is Ukraine’s bio-defense and their public health response.

And I think that the US government provides assistance and or at least has in the past provided assistance, in the context of biosafety, which is something that we’ve done globally with a variety of different countries.

She described bio-defence as

Medical countermeasures for example, things that will help you to address a pandemic if there is an outbreak in your country, .. things that prevent spreading of pandemics and other health issues, ..that you’re taking appropriate precautions, that you’re letting the medical community internationally know.

Many civilians who remain in the Ukrainian capital have signed up to become military reservists, and are busy preparing the city for an expected ground attack by Russian forces.

Student film-maker Volodymyr Yurchenko, 22, says he is documenting the preparations as a historical record. He tells the Guardian about what he thinks the footage he has shot says about his compatriots’ resolve.

Waiting for the enemy: inside Ukraine’s reserve army preparing to defend Kyiv – video

Greece says it will send airplanes and buses to Poland with the purpose of expediting the transfer of refugees to the country, Helena Smith reports.

The Greek migration minister, Notis Mitarachi, said Athens had accepted a request from Warsaw for help as ever more Ukrainians flee their war-stricken homeland.

He told Skai TV:

Poland asked us yesterday for help. We will send airplanes or buses to take people from Poland to Greece because Poland is now hosting more than 1.3 million people.

Seven thousand Ukrainians have already arrived in our country … they almost immediately receive 12-month residence permits.

On Wednesday the Greek education minister said over 1,000 refugee students would be enrolled in local schools.

The majority are from the 120,000-strong ethnic Greek community in the besieged city of Mariupol, many of whom speak Greek. Special language classes will be launched for children who are non Greek speakers.

Prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has vowed to support members of the minority with Greek Russian relations being badly shaken by an invasion that the leader has described as unprovoked and barbaric.

Wednesday’s airstrike on a maternity hospital in Mariupol that reportedly killed three people, including one child, was the third time Ukrainian maternity hospitals had been destroyed since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the UN said.

The UN’s reproductive health agency said two other Ukrainian maternity hospitals had been attacked before Russia’s strike on a facility in the south-eastern city of Mariupol yesterday, Agence France-Presse reports.

The hospital in Mariupol is “not the only one” that has fallen under assault, Jaime Nadal, the Ukraine lead for the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), told reporters today.

In Zhytomyr, the maternity [hospital] was completely destroyed. In Saltivsky, the maternity [hospital] was also destroyed.

Nadal did not specify who launched the other attacks or if there were any victims.

No civilian was able to leave the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol today, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, said.

Speaking on Ukrainian national television, Vereshchuk said evacuations from Mariupol could not proceed because Russian forces had failed to respect a temporary ceasefire.

In Ukraine’s north-eastern Sumy region, more than 12,000 civilians were evacuated by car or bus, state emergency service said in a statement.

A resident evacuates Irpin, north of Kyiv, as Russian forces advance on the north-eastern edge of the Ukrainian capital. Photograph: Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty Images

Residents and service personnel help a woman leave Irpin. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Twitter has taken down a post by the Russian embassy in London which claimed Wednesday’s attack on a maternity hospital in Mariupol had been staged.

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said today that three people, including a child, were killed in yesterday’s airstrike on the hospital.

James Clayton (@JamesClayton5)

NEW: Twitter has removed content from Russian Embassy UK claiming the bombing of a maternity hospital had been staged pic.twitter.com/dV3TvduDj4

March 10, 2022

Russia’s defence ministry has denied responsibility for the strike and accused Ukraine of a “staged provocation” there, claiming Russia carried out no airstrikes on ground targets in that area on Wednesday out of respect for an agreed “silent regime”.

The Russian defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said:

The Russian aviation carried out absolutely no missions to hit targets on the ground in the Mariupol area.

He added:

The airstrike that allegedly took place is a completely staged provocation to maintain anti-Russian hype for a western audience.

More than 60 hospitals in Ukraine have been damaged by Russian forces and five medical workers killed since Russia launched its invasion, Ukraine’s health minister, Viktor Liashko, said.

In a Facebook post published today, Liashko blamed the deaths of five healthcare workers on “Russian terrorist bullets”.

Note: the Guardian has not been able to independently verify these figures.

The monument to Duke of Richelieu in Prymorskyi Boulevard, Odesa, surrounded with sandbags. Photograph: Future Publishing/Getty Images

Anti-tank obstacles, known as Czech hedgehogs, block a street in Odesa. Photograph: Future Publishing/Getty Images

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