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LAST UPDATE | 1 Mar 2022
RUSSIAN SHELLING ON Ukraine’s second-largest city Kharkiv has killed at least 10 people and left many more injured, emergency services have said, in an attack that targeted the central square and the main administration building.
“At least 10 people were killed and more than 20 were injured,” the regional emergency services said in a statement, adding that 10 people had been discovered alive under rubble as rescue workers cleared debris.
Regional governor Oleg Sinegubov earlier said that the central square of the city and the headquarters of the Kharkiv administration “was criminally attacked” this morning.
“Russian occupiers continue to use heavy weaponry against the civilian population,” he said, adding that the number of victims was not yet known.
He posted footage of the massive blast and debris inside the building.
Kharkiv, a largely Russian-speaking city near the Russian border, has a population of around 1.4 million.
It has been a target for Russian forces since President Vladimir Putin launched an invasion of Ukraine last Thursday.
Kharkiv’s mayor Igor Terekhov, quoted by Ukrainian media, warned that Moscow’s armoured vehicles and tanks are “everywhere around the city”.
Russian forces killed several civilians including children late yesterday, he said.
Separately, an official in the region of Sumy, which lies north of Kharkiv close to Russia’s border, said that some 70 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in Russian shelling on a military facility in the area.
“Many died. Currently, places are being prepared in the cemetery for about 70 dead Ukrainian soldiers,” Dmytro Zhyvytsky, the head of the Sumy region, wrote on Telegram after strikes on the town of Okhtyrka.
He posted images of charred buildings with caved-in walls and rescue workers digging through rubble.
The Ukrainian military, however, has not confirmed the deaths.
Russia has denied targeting civilian areas despite rockets landing in residential neighbourhoods.
Ukraine says more than 350 civilians have been killed since Moscow launched the attack last week.
The Russian army has been regrouping and massing its forces over the past 24 hours “primarily to encircle and take control of Kyiv and other major cities,” the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces wrote on Facebook.
Massive convoy
A huge Russian military convoy is massing on the outskirts of Ukraine’s capital today as fears grew the invading forces were set to launch devastating assaults aimed at taking control of Kyiv and other major cities.
Satellite images showed a long build-up of armoured vehicles and artillery starting 29 kilometres north of the city, as Moscow defied mounting global pressure and a wave of international sanctions that have smashed Russia’s economy.
The column is more than 65 kilometres long and covers the entire road from near Antonov airport outside Kyiv to the town of Prybirsk, US satellite imaging company Maxar said.
“Some vehicles are spaced fairly far apart while in other sections military equipment and units are traveling two or three vehicles abreast on the road,” Maxar said.
The images also showed “additional ground forces deployments and ground attack helicopter units” in southern Belarus near the Ukraine border.
‘Flowers for the grave’
The mayor of Kherson, Igor Kolykhayev, also wrote on Facebook that the Russian army had set up checkpoints at all of the city’s entrances, but said it “remains Ukrainian” and “will be able to resist”.
Explosions were also reported in and around Brovary, a city on the outskirts of the capital.
In Kyiv, many were preparing for a fresh assault with makeshift barricades dotting the streets.
“We will greet them with Molotov cocktails and bullets to the head,” bank employee Viktor Rudnichenko told AFP. “The only flowers they might get from us will be for their grave.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced his demands to bring the war to an end in a phone call with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron on Monday.
They included recognition of Russian sovereignty over Crimea and Ukraine’s demilitarisation.
Instead, Western nations have moved to increasingly isolate Russia, responding with an intensifying diplomatic, economic, cultural and sporting backlash.
The weekend featured a momentous series of announcements from Europe, with Germany unveiling a historic change to its defence policies.
The EU also said it would buy and supply arms to Ukraine, the first such move in its history.
Moscow came under fire at the UN General Assembly and the International Criminal Court (ICC), which opened a war crimes investigation.
“I am satisfied that there is a reasonable basis to believe that both alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity have been committed in Ukraine” since 2014, ICC prosecutor Karim Khan said in a statement.
Russia also faced urgent calls at an extraordinary UN General Assembly debate to end its “unprovoked” and “unjustified” assault.
Inside the General Assembly hall, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres pleaded: “The fighting in Ukraine must stop. Enough is enough.”
The United States expelled 12 members of Moscow’s UN mission from America on Monday for being “intelligence operatives”.
Canada announced a ban on Russian oil imports Monday.
The European Union and its allies were also preparing more sanctions against Russia in the coming days to “raise the cost” of war in Ukraine, an aide to Macron told reporters.
And Turkey said it would implement an international treaty to limit ships passing through the Dardanelles and Bosphorus straits, a move requested by Ukraine to block the transit of Russian warships.
The Russian ruble crashed to a record low as sanctions imposed by the West over the weekend had an immediate impact in Moscow, forcing the central bank to more than double its key interest rate to 20 percent.
Putin also announced emergency measures intended to prop up the ruble, including banning residents from transferring money abroad.
© – AFP, 2022 additional reporting from Press Association
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You left out a really critical piece of language from Russia’s demands: they are demanding recognition of sovereignty in Crimea, the demilitarisation and “denazification” of Ukraine. This word, “denazification”, is the reason no one can even consider capitulating to this facist dictator. He is a sociopath with no moral compass, willing to slander a country with a Jewish president whose relatives died in the Holocaust. Nothing he says can be taken at face value.
@Róisín: So because the President is jewish and had relatives who died in the holocaust Russia should stop? I’m surprised you didn’t go all the way and call the invasion anti-semitic. The invasion is wrong but connecting it to one of the darkest times in humanity is an irrelevance at best. I mean if you want to go down that road it was the USSR who liberated Auchwitz and spilled more blood in WW2 but that has absolutely nothing to do with todays situation.
@Róisín: roisin that’s a bit of a stretch. Putin is referring to the neo nazi azov battalion not the ancestry of the Ukrainian leader
(Thanks pix. Went down a SERIOUS rabbit hole. Got no sleep)
@Anto Harris: it is Putin who is calling for “denazification “ and Putin who is trying to paint the Ukrainian government as nazi, so get off your high horse
@Róisín: Putin is the devil incarnate.An absolutely evil dangerous human being.
I really hope and pray the Russian people start to stand up against him because he will destroy Russia too.
@Anto Harris:
Get with the program, Putin is accusing Ukraine of being NAZIs and the is why he is invading…
There is hundreds dead already and it looks like thousands for what is a feeble lie…
The sick joke is the Ukraine President is Jewish…
@Ann Morris Doolan: The Devil is a friendly figure that deceives people to do the work for Him.
@Colin Conlan: So the Diminutive Dictator commits 150,000 troops, billions in hardware, is levelling cities 100kms away from Donetsk and Luhansk, invaded Crimea, declares Ukraine an invalid nation, tanked his own economy all because of a fringe far right militia aligned with the Ukrainian military. Give your head a wobble there.
@Colin Conlan: That’s odd. I thought the devil would be more likely to be one who arrests/assassinates political rivals, disappears desenters, commits cyber warfare all round the world including crippling our own health service, enriches himself to be the wealthiest in the world as well as his best friends, uses actual WMDs in sovereign nations to target exiles and invades three neighbours unprovoked in a 23 year span.
Thank you for your enlightenment though.
@Colin Conlan: So the interns have taken over the bot duties it seems, standards really slipping. Can probably only afford to pay interns with the plummet in the Rouble to be fair.
@Tom Cullen: All I can read in your reply:
“I’ve ran out of arguments”
@Róisín: The ‘fascist dictator’ being Zelensky. I think you got it backwards there. I didn’t know he was Jewish. Interesting. This war is due to US/Israel meddling,as most wars are.
@Ann Morris Doolan: The 3rd of 10 commandments of war propaganda, a summary[1] of “Falsehood in War-Time”[2] by Arthur Ponsonby, British politician, 1871-1946.
“3. The enemy is the face of the devil.”
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Basic_Principles_of_War_Propaganda#3._Our_adversary’s_leader_is_inherently_evil_and_resembles_the_devil
[2] http://www.vlib.us/wwi/resources/archives/texts/t050824i/ponsonby.pdf
I don’t understand why the convoy isn’t being pummelled from the air 40k is a pretty large target
@DontheDinosaur: I would imagine that the Russians have a pretty strong airborne defence for that tank column, but it’s pure speculation on my part.
What we’re witnessing is the attempted annihilation of an entire country. I am heartbroken.
@DontheDinosaur: They should be using TB2 drones to obliterate the convoy.
@DontheDinosaur: Ukraine should be allowed hire/buy airdrones from the USA or NATO to take out the convoy. A guerilla force with mortars could also do major damage to its progress. Roadside IEDs? There are a lot of people worldwide, even in Ireland, with first hand experience of dealing with an occupying army. Yet not one of them is offering help.
@Neil Neart: they have/had TB2 drones supplied by Turkey. They’ve had some successful strikes with them. With Russian air superiority in the area, they’re less likely to be effective.
@DontheDinosaur: Or even destroy or block the road ahead to slow their approach, if they can’t get close to the convoy with drones etc
@Luke: my guess is that they are waiting for the convoy to reach the best spot for an attack to be successful. Then they’ll release hell on them. Perhaps somewhere with sewers under the street so they can set off bombs under the approaching convoy? Just a thought?
@DontheDinosaur: i don’t believe Ukraine has the assets to mount an airborne attack on the convoy. It would be short work for NATO – but that won’t be in the cards unless a NATO nation is attacked.
@DontheDinosaur: that’s not a convoy. That’s a traffic jam. They’re going nowhere. Why waste munitions on a traffic jam.
I know the risk of nuclear war is there but we are watching a nation being destroyed! We need to do more. Putin needs to be stopped.
A 40 mile military convoy heading towards Kviv. Thats not frightening at all.
@Dave Johnston: Russia using cluster bombs on residential / civilian areas is sickening and amounts to war crimes !
@James Lough: war crimes happen in war and sadly nobody will punished. Lets not forgot the war crimes committed by the coalition of the willing in the middle east over the past twenty odd gears not one of them was punished.
@Dennis Farrelly: Well said
@James Lough: true like the US/UK in Iraq. Any war is just wrong. Should be banned like mines world wide by our leaders.
Bring Putin to face war crimes against humanity #westandwithukraine
@James Lough: or just obliterate the c unt at the first opportunity.
@Dermot Sexton: Now that would be ecumenical matter :-)
@James Lough: true along with Bush and Blare
With all the signs that this war will actually get worse the Russian ambassador is still welcome in Ireland
@Hugh Mc Donnell: He is still here because they cant risk having the Irish embassy’s over there shut down, there are still Irish families/people in Russia and Ukraine that may need to be able to get help, think of it as keeping your friends close but your enemy’s closer
I can’t see how an Irish embassy in Russia is going to help anyone in Ukraine. Give Irish in Russia a week to get out or use UK or French embassy in Russia as a last resort.
Its just another excuse for doing nothing. We don’t need ties with Russia, we can’t trust Russia. The US are throwing out 12 Russians spy’s from the UN. While Ireland enables Russia to make war.
@leartius: We should be banning U.S. military using facilities in Shannon. Not doing so is only enabling their expansionism in the east and middle east.
@Hugh Mc Donnell: with all the protests outside his gates I wouldn’t say he’s exactly welcome in Ireland but he’s a conduit to Putin and he allows the embassy in Moscow to remain open so that’s why he hasn’t been expelled.
The world should hang it head in shame for not intervening with drones and cruise missile strikes in those Russian convoys. As for the cowardice of our FFG bits for not booting out the Fascist ambassador… Shame… Shame… Shame.
@Rerek Tony Dyan: spot on. The fear is nuclear repercussions from Putin ! He is more unhinged than previously thought. Sickening
@Rerek Tony Dyan: The problem is, I would imagine, if the west does more, or does anything militarily, a couple of nukes on say, London or Paris, could be the result. Is the west willing to take that chance? Brave? Let’s talk about brave! De escalation is what we hope for and must be the aim unless there is no other choice. At the minute, both sides are talking, there is still hope. There is no hope with nukes.
@Rerek Tony Dyan: guerilla war on the way. Car bombs in Moscow…. The Ukrainians will sort them out.
@Tony Harris: all we can hope for it he is overthrown by his own people, and I don’t see that happening. Any other scenario than that leads to all out war. They went to peace talks while the conviy was en route… Putin doesn’t give a damn. This has been planned for years… Is it any wonder they wanted to join NATO, they knew they had a crazed bear living next door.
@Dawn Harvey: True. One bullet would stop it.
@Tony Harris: yes agree, if Russia gets desperate financially it could result in them firing the nukes. Scarry times.
Yesterday we were told that Russia were losing the war badly and now there’s a 40 mile convoy of Russian military outside Kiev!? Surely it’s better to be realistic about these things otherwise the impetus for getting support and weapons to the Ukraine is lost.
The 13 soldiers on Snake Island were given posthumous medals and now it turns out they are all alive! It’s on the BBC. And the ghost of Ukraine story was nonsense as well. Of course these stories are great for morale but in the long term Russia will exploit them and it’ll feed their narrative of western propaganda.
@Richie56: No one said that Russia was loosing the war, but that it wasn’t going as well as they hoped and that the Ukrainians were putting up far tougher resistance than expected. The 13 soilders on Snake Island may be alive, the Russians said they captured them but I don’t believe that any proof of this has been given. Not sure how story’s that give Ukrainians a boast will somehow favour Russia? The longer this goes on the worse it will get for Russia as the restrictions will start to bite harder and harder. Also the Russian propaganda machine is struggling to maintain all its lies.
These comments are great. So many experts all in one place.
@James Kerins: Reminds me of an article on home invasions. Everyone in the comment section suddenly had the combined fighting skills of Mike Tyson and Bruce Lee. And an ability to manufacture lethal weaponry out of nothing that hasn’t been seen since McGyver in his prime.
65km long traffic jam if you ask me. Sitting ducks. I’d expect to see a lot of drone strikes footage coming
@Míleata Watch Co: they’ll have enough anti missile to cover them being attacked that way… Ukrainians can only need ttmry to take out the road ahead of them and create a massive blockade but time isn’t on their side. Putin doesn’t just wants crimea recognised or Republics created, he wants to overthrow a sovereign, democratically elected government and control a country. And we are going to watch it happen on our screens
Always interesting to hear another perspective. I just read an interview with people living in the two self proclaimed republics. Most thought Russian recognition would bring peace and security, many now feel Putin’s only motive was to use them as an excuse to attack Ukraine. While most no longer want to be part of Ukraine, many have family and friends living there and are far from happy about the turn of events. Along with this, men of fighting age are literally being snatched off the streets and press ganged into the military to fight Putin’s war.
That said, these people wanted to become Russian citizens so it’s very much a case of be careful what you wish for?
Can’t stop the tears at this stage. Crying yesterday over the inevitable death of Zelenskiy and the death of a 6 year old ukranian child. Crying today reading the final messages of a russian soldier to his parents. Young guy who came to ukraine thinking he’d be welcomed by the ppl needing protection. Shocked and afraid, now dead.
No action or talk so far has helped to stop the suffering.
Monstrous
It’s really interesting, when a country and a military organization destroyed countries, killed thousands its innocent citizens, caused millions refugees…
When claimed “wrong information” killed dozens innocent people, families destroyed, then offered them refugee and some money
When a special force killed innocent people for sickening purpose, then offered compensation, the killers received no punishment at all
…
I don’t see the backlash as Russia invading Ukraine. That is really “interesting”, how?
@Ní neart go cur le chéile.: classic whataboutery comment from a person divorced from the here and now.
@Neil Neart: Lol whataboutery… what’s wrong with that? It’s comparison, Without it, you don’t know what is good or bad, it’s subjective, not objective. When making a judgment, you need jumping out, been a third party to see the fact and compare the reality. if I do same what you do but receiving different responding, ignoring it, that is called “hypocrisy”. By By the way, look into when and where started this “whataboutery”
@Ní neart go cur le chéile.: Are you writing in riddles – it’s very hard to understand?
It’s also absolute nonsense. Good and bad are subjective, will always be subjective … by their very nature they can’t be anything but.
@Neil Neart: “Whataboutery” is precedent. It is a foundation of Irish law and EU law.
https://legalguide.ie/precedent/
@Ní neart go cur le chéile.: the reason that this is getting more backlash is that both countries involved border the EU and therefore this threatenes the EU. Where we live and do most of or trade and have a lot of people living in Ireland from Poland, Romania, etc whose countries border the war zone. Really not hard to understand what their is more back lash if you actually thought about it for 5 seconds.
Next China invades Taiwan!!
send in our “peacekeepers” ASAP as this will end up a slaughter. These Ukranians were living peacefully last week and now they are being attacked with overwhelming force. The West needs to get the drones or whatever going too….
What is the purpose of NATO now?
@FerucaSalt: defend NATO states . As sick as it seems they will only defend NATO countries. If we were attacked we might not get NATO boots on the ground. Weapons etc. But not boots. And we could be in the same boat as Ukraine. I could be wrong .But you never know
The hilarious or is it pathetic thing is that Putin fanboys are blaming NATO and the US for this.
NATO needs to step in NOW.
While the NATO look on .. shame on them
A Nigerian medical student at the Poland/Ukraine border has been waiting 7hours to cross she says border guards are stopping black people and sending them to the back of the queue saying they have to let Ukrainians through first this is who the west want to lay down there lives for
@Christy Mc Carthy: were these Polish border guards?
Been researching how I can help from Ireland. Donated to two charities today having checked the following.
https://www.paypal.com/fundraiser/charity/4086735 and 517942 being the charities registered number for help with Ukrainian people.
have your say