Here are the latest developments in the war in Ukraine:
Turkey says Russia, Ukraine ‘close to agreement’ –
Turkey, which has tried to position itself as a mediator, says Russia and Ukraine have made progress on their negotiations to halt the invasion and the two warring sides are close to an agreement.
Turkey said it was also ready to host a meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
– ‘Time to meet’, says Zelensky –
Zelensky calls for urgent talks with Russia, saying in a Facebook video they are the “only chance for Russia to minimise the damage done with their own mistakes”.
Zelensky has been pushing for direct talks with Putin.
Moscow claims that several rounds of negotiations have made progress on one of its key demands — that Ukraine becomes a neutral state. Kyiv, which is demanding international security guarantees, denies its position has changed.
– Hypersonic weapons –
Russia says for a second day in a row it has fired its newest hypersonic missiles in Ukraine, destroying a fuel storage site in the country’s south.
Hypersonic missiles travel faster than the speed of sound and can manoeuvre mid-flight, making them hard to track and intercept.
Russia’s defence ministry says it used the technology to destroy a large storage site for fuels and lubricants for the Ukrainian armed forces near Kostyantynivka in the Mykolaiv region.
– Mariupol art school bombed –
Ukrainian authorities accuse Russian forces of bombing an art school in the besieged city of Mariupol where some 400 people, including women and children, had been sheltering.
They also accuse the forces of deporting around 1,000 residents to Russia and stripping them of their Ukrainian passports.
– Zelensky says Mariupol siege war crime –
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says the siege of Mariupol will go down in history as a war crime.
“To do such a thing to a peaceful city, what the occupiers have done, this is a terror that will be remembered even in the next century,” he says. He adds Russian shelling is blocking efforts to deliver humanitarian supplies to Ukrainian cities.
– Chernigiv hospital hit –
In the encircled northern city of Chernigiv, the mayor says dozens of civilians have been killed by “indiscriminate artillery shelling”, and that a hospital has been hit.
“The city is suffering from an absolute humanitarian catastrophe,” he adds.
– Azovstal steel works damaged –
Ukrainian officials say one of Europe’s biggest iron and steel works, Azovstal, has been badly damaged by Russian forces.
“We will return to the city, rebuild the enterprise and revive it,” Azovstal’s director general Enver Tskitishvili writes on messaging app Telegram, without specifying the extent of the damage.
– Ukraine calls on China to condemn ‘Russian barbarism’ –
Ukraine calls on China to join the West in condemning “Russian barbarism”, after the US warned Beijing of consequences if it backed Moscow’s attack on the country.
“China can be the global security system’s important element if it makes a right decision to support the civilised countries’ coalition and condemn Russian barbarism,” presidential aide Mikhailo Podolyak writes on Twitter.
– Australia bans alumina, bauxite exports –
Australia bans all exports of alumina and bauxite to Russia while pledging more weapons and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine.
The export ban aims to impact aluminium production in Russia, which relies on Australia for 20 percent of its alumina.
– Air raids on Mykolaiv –
Russian air raids on Mykolaiv took place in quick succession Saturday, Vitaly Kim, head of the regional administration, says, a day after a deadly strike on a military barracks in the southern Ukrainian city.
Dozens of soldiers are thought to have been killed after Friday’s strike on the barracks, witnesses tell AFP as rescue operations continue. An official toll has not yet been given.
– 10 million have fled their homes in Ukraine
Ten million people — more than a quarter of the population — have now fled their homes in Ukraine due to Russia’s “devastating” war, the United Nations refugees chief said Sunday. More than 3.3 million of them have escaped the country.
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