By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
A building burned at a base in western Ukraine near the Polish border. Officials said the complex had been targeted by Russian missiles.
Village school outside Mykolaiv demolished in Russian military strike
A school in the village of Zelenogai, about 10 miles or 16 kilometers east of Mykolaiv, has been demolished by a Russian military strike, Mykolaiv regional administrator Vitali Kim said.
Video and photos from the scene, which have been geolocated and their authenticity verified, show much of the school has been reduced to rubble. Kim confirmed that a school in the Mykolaiv region was hit and posted the video and photos online.
“Some people got under the rubble and we are evacuating them,” Kim said.
Firefighters and rescue services are seen in the video.
Later on Saturday evening, Kim said that the military strike left several people either dead or in critical condition.
UK’s Johnson speaks to Zelensky, says UK will continue to pursue options to bolster Ukraine’s self-defense
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson held a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday in which he condemned “Putin’s barbaric actions” and said that Britain will continue to pursue options for bolstering Ukraine’s self-defense, according to the Downing Street readout.
“The Prime Minister said Putin’s barbaric actions were testing not just Ukraine but all of humanity,” according to the readout.
The readout added that Johnson and Zelensky condemned the deaths of American journalist Brent Renaud and “countless innocent Ukrainians.”
“The Prime Minister outlined the support the UK continues to deliver to Ukraine. He said the UK would continue to pursue more options for bolstering Ukraine’s self-defense, working with partners including at Tuesday’s meeting of the Joint Expeditionary Force in London,” according to Downing Street. “The Prime Minister said the UK would continue to stand behind Ukraine in all their efforts to bring an end to this disastrous conflict.”
About 5,500 Ukrainian refugees have arrived in Ireland, Prime Minister says
About 5,500 Ukrainian refugees have arrived in Ireland since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the country’s Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Micheál Martin said on Sunday.
“We’ve had about five and a half thousand into Ireland at this stage,” Martin told the BBC’s Sophie Raworth in an interview. “Our primary impulse is to assist those fleeing war… there is huge human empathy there obviously to help the women and children.”
“If Ukrainians come into Ireland, they will get access to our social protection. Access to our health services, access to our education, the right to work immediately. And we believe that is the correct thing to do in the context of the worst displacement of people and refugee crisis since World War II,” Martin said.
“Speed is important in a situation like this,” he added.
Humanitarian aid convoy fails to reach the city of Mariupol
Mariupol’s city administration confirmed Sunday night that a large convoy of humanitarian aid destined for the besieged city had not arrived, and was still stuck in Berdyansk, some 50 miles to the west.
Berdyansk is held by the Russians as are the approaches to Mariupol.
In a Telegram post, the Mariupol city administration said: “A little more left. The humanitarian caravan almost reached Mariupol.”
“According to drivers, the road is very difficult, the convoy is slow, but continues to move. You can go only during the day, this is due to safety rules. In almost two days, the caravan traveled more than 200 km along the previously agreed route. There is about 80 km to the destination.”
“With all the agreements in place, a green corridor is to open tomorrow morning and the humanitarian caravan will continue to Mariupol, where 400,000 people are waiting for help,” they said.
35 dead in air strike on Ukraine military base near Poland
At least 35 people died and more than 130 were injured when Russian troops launched air strikes on a military training ground outside Ukraine’s western city of Lviv, near the border with Poland, local officials said on Sunday.
Russia “launched an air strike on the International Centre for Peacekeeping and Security”, the head of the Lviv regional administration, Maksym Kozytsky, said on his verified Facebook page.
“I have to [announce] that, unfortunately, we have lost more heroes: 35 people died as a result of the shelling of the International Peacekeeping and Security Centre,” Kozytsky later wrote on Telegram, updating an initial toll of nine.
“134 more with injuries of varying severity are in a military hospital,” he added, saying the information on the toll was still being updated. Fires at the base have been almost fully extinguished and pyrotechnics experts were examining the debris, the governor said.
The military base in Yavoriv, located some 40km northwest of the city, was a training centre for Ukrainian forces with foreign instructors, including from the United States and Canada.
It was also a hub for joint exercises involving Ukrainian soldiers and NATO allies.
Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said “foreign instructors work here”, although it was unclear whether any were present during the attacks.
UK wants to explore using homes of sanctioned Russians for humanitarian purposes
UK Cabinet minister Michael Gove said on Sunday that Britain wants to explore the option of using the homes and properties of sanctioned Russian individuals for humanitarian and other purposes.
When asked in an interview with the BBC if the homes of sanctioned oligarchs could be used to house Ukrainian refugees, Gove said, “There’s quite a high legal bar to cross and we are not talking about permanent confiscation, but we are saying ‘You’re sanctioned. You’re supporting Putin. This home is here, you have no right to use or profit from it and, more than that, while you are not using or profiting from it, if we can use it in order to help others let’s do that.'”
“In my view, it is the case that if your wealth and your influence is being deployed in order to support or provide comfort to Putin given what he is doing, then I’m afraid you have to bear the consequences,” Gove said.
“The sanctions process involves us going through a rigorous analysis of just who should be subject to the sanctions,” he said. “We’ve moved as rapidly as we possibly can but it seems to me that if we can use those assets for as long as someone is sanctioned in an appropriate way then we should.”
Britain has sanctioned 800 of Russia’s most “significant and high-value individuals, entities and subsidiaries,” including banks, Putin’s inner circle, and oligarchs, according to the foreign office.
Putin using weapons of mass destruction would be a “game-changer,” Polish President says
Polish President Andrzej Duda said on Sunday that if Russian President Vladimir Putin uses any weapons of mass destruction, it would be a “game-changer” and NATO would have to think seriously about what to do.
Speaking in an interview with the BBC, Duda said: “Of course, everybody hopes that he will not dare do that, that he will not use weapons of mass destruction, neither chemical weapons nor biological weapons, nor any form of nuclear weapons. Everybody is hoping that this is not going to happen.”
He added: “But, as we say in Poland, using a little bit of an English expression, if he uses any weapons of mass destruction then this will be a game-changer in the whole thing.”
When asked whether Putin using chemical weapons would be a “red line for NATO,” Duda responded that “the North Atlantic alliance and its leaders, led by the United States, would have to sit at the table and they will really have to think seriously what to do — because then it starts to be dangerous not only for Europe, not only for our part of Europe or our region, for central Europe, but for the whole world.”
Turkey’s foreign minister says he asked for Russia’s support to evacuate Turks from mosque in Mariupol
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said he asked Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for support to help evacuate Turkish citizens from a mosque in Mariupol on Sunday, adding that he hoped for progress soon.
“I asked Lavrov’s support to evacuate our citizens,” Cavusoglu said during a Sunday news conference in Antalya. “Phones are not working and clashes continue. We are hoping for a development today.”
Cavusoglu said that the mosque was undamaged by a bomb that landed nearby and that buses were waiting to evacuate Turkish citizens from the mosque, adding that the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs is in indirect touch with its citizens through contacts on the ground.
“The war turned into a street-by-street fight. It is too risky to evacuate people. A humanitarian corridor is needed,” he added.
Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry claimed on Saturday in a tweet that Russian shelling targeted the mosque of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent and his wife Roxolana in Mariupol, where more than 80 adults and children were sheltering, including Turkish citizens.
On Sunday, Turkey’s foreign minister said that, despite reports the mosque was bombed, the mosque remained undamaged and the imam of the mosque denied reports that it was shelled.
Fresh Russia-Ukraine talks may take place next week
Further talks between Russia and Ukraine could take place next week, according to Mykhailo Podoliak, a senior adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“As soon as mutual counter legal formats are worked out, a meeting will be scheduled — the fourth round of negotiations. It could be tomorrow, the day after tomorrow,” Podoliak told Belta, the Belarus state news agency, on Sunday.
“There are various proposals on the negotiating table now, there are many of them, there are a dozen proposals, including on a political settlement and, most importantly, on a military settlement. I mean a ceasefire, a formula for a ceasefire and the withdrawal of troops,” he said.
“It’s probably not necessary to go further and just have conversations. We discussed all the issues, now we are trying to pack these issues into some legal formats,” Podoliak said.
On Saturday, Podoliak posted an update on talks on Twitter.
“Negotiations with the RF [Russian Federation] delegation are now ongoing in a continuous video format. Special working subgroups have been created,” he wrote. “Ukraine’s positions are determined by the previous directives.”