LAST UPDATE | 13 Mar 2022

RUSSIAN AIR STRIKES killed 35 people at a military base outside Ukraine’s western city of Lviv, the regional governor said Sunday, updating the toll from nine previously.

“I have to announced that, unfortunately, we have lost more heroes: 35 people died as a result of the shelling of the International Peacekeeping and Security Centre,” the governor of Lviv region Maxim Kozitsky wrote on Telegram.

Russia “launched an air strike on the International Centre for Peacekeeping and Security,”, head of the Lviv regional administration, Maxim Kozitsky, said on his verified Facebook page.

The military base is located some 40 kilometres (25 miles) northwest of Lviv.

It was a training centre for Ukrainian forces and also a hub for joint exercises with NATO allies. Ukraine’s defence minister said foreign instructors worked there but did not say whether they were present at the time of the attack.

Kozitsky added that eight missiles were fired.

Many Ukrainians have fled to relative safety in Lviv since the launch of Russia’s invasion.

A short drive from EU member Poland, the city is also a transit hub for those leaving Ukraine.

Ukraine’s capital Kyiv meanwhile prepared for possible encirclement by Russian forces who invaded the country on 24 February.

In a video address posted on social media late Saturday night, President Volodymyr Zelensky was adamant that the Russians would not take Ukraine.

“The Russian invaders cannot conquer us. They do not have such strength. They do not have such spirit. They are holding only on violence. Only on terror,” he said.

After more than two weeks of attacks in eastern and southern Ukraine, Russian forces have in recent days hit targets in the centre and now the west, edging close to the frontier with EU and NATO member Poland.

Meanwhile, efforts continue to get help to the strategic southern port city of Mariupol, which aid agencies say is facing a humanitarian catastrophe.

A convoy of aid headed for Mariupol was blocked at a Russian checkpoint, but hoped to arrive on Sunday, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.

Ukraine says more than 1,500 civilians have died in a nearly two-week siege, which has left the city without water or heat, and running out of food.

Attempts to evacuate hundreds of thousands of people have repeatedly failed.

“Mariupol is still surrounded. That which they cannot have by war, (the Russians) want to have by hunger and despair. Since they cannot bring down the Ukrainian army, they target the population,” a French military source said.

A top Russian officer described the situation in 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.

In his video address, Zelensky appealed for more aid.

“I keep reiterating to our allies and friends abroad; they have to keep doing more for our country, for Ukrainians and Ukraine. Because it is not only for Ukraine, but it is for all of Europe,” he said.

Separately, the mayor of Ivano-Frankivsk in western Ukraine said the city’s airport was targeted in a strike.

“According to preliminary information, this morning’s explosions were from an attack on the airport,” mayor Ruslan Martsinkiv said on Facebook.

Glimmer of hope

Efforts for a diplomatic solution to the conflict continued, with French President Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s Olaf Scholz speaking to Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin again Saturday.

They urged him to end the deadly blockade of Mariupol, the French presidency said.

Facing growing international condemnation, Putin sought to turn the tables, slamming Kyiv for what he described as the “flagrant violation” of international humanitarian law and accusing Ukraine’s army of executing dissenters and using civilians as hostages.

The French presidency denounced his accusations, made during the talks with Macron and Scholz, as “lies”.

But in a small glimmer of hope, Zelensky said Saturday that Russia had adopted a “fundamentally different approach” in the latest talks to end the conflict.

He told reporters it was in contrast to earlier talks at which Moscow only “issued ultimatums” and that he was “happy to have a signal from Russia”.

Putin said last week he saw “some positive shifts” in their near-daily dialogue.

As Russia widens its bombardment, Zelensky’s pleas for help have grown increasingly desperate.

– © AFP 2022