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Thousands of Ukrainians Killed, Three EU Leaders in Kyiv, China Watched for its Position on the War

March 15, 2022

A Kyiv building on fire after a Russian attack, March 15, 2022

 

Ukrainian Tochka-U rocket shot down over Donetsk: 20 killed

Pravda, March 14, 2022

Twenty people were killed when fragments of the rocket fired from Tochka-U tactical missile system crashed in Donetsk, representatives of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) said.

Originally, it was reported that the number of victims was smaller — three killed and 10 inured.

Civilians were killed in their cars, in the streets, in passenger buses.

Earlier, the head of Donetsk, Aleksei Kulemzin, said that a Tochka-U rocket fired by the Armed Forces of Ukraine was shot down near the House of the Government.

Eyewitnesses said that they heard a powerful explosion in the center of Donetsk, reminiscent of an artillery shell hit. The streets around were covered with smoke afterwards.

The rocket itself was shot down, but the crash of its fragments led to horrendous consequences.

"The worst thing is the death of the civilian population: 20 were killed, according to preliminary data, and nine were wounded. If it had flown to its destination and worked, the destruction range would have been 500 meters — nothing alive would have been left at all," the head of the DPR said.

The downed Tochka-U was a cassette type rocket, the official added.

People's Militia of the DPR says that the Tochka-U attack on Donetsk was a terrorist act. The Ukrainian troops used the rocket to commit an act of genocide against civilians, militia representatives said.

UPDATE: The number of victims has increased to 23, including one child.

Tochka-U rocket fragments kills 20 in Donetsk (pravda.ru)

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Ukraine war: Infection and hunger as hundreds hide in Mariupol cellar

By Hugo Bachega, Lviv, Ukraine

BBC News, March 15, 2022

Hundreds of people are crammed into the basement of a large public building in the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, but are running out of food, with many also in need of urgent medical help.

"Some have developed sepsis from shrapnel in the body," said Anastasiya Ponomareva, a 39-year-old teacher who fled the city at the start of the war but was still in contact with friends there. "Things are very serious."

The city is encircled by Russian troops and remains under constant bombardment with almost 400,000 people still trapped without running water, and food and medical supplies quickly running out. The local authorities say the war there has left at least 2,400 civilians dead, but even they acknowledge that this is an underestimate.

Ms Ponomareva's friends are with other families in the basement of the building. They have all left homes that are no longer safe or no longer standing.

"People who managed to hide in underground shelters basically live there permanently," Ms Ponomareva said from the western city of Drohobych, where she was living. "They practically cannot leave at all."

Most of their day is spent hiding in the basement. From time to time they go upstairs for some sunlight, but rarely outside. Conditions, she was told, were quickly deteriorating, as some people had a fever and nothing could be done to treat them. "There is no medical help, no antibiotics."

Some streets are so dangerous that few go out to pick up the dead. Many are being buried in mass graves. The almost non-stop Russian attacks have turned their old neighbourhoods into wasteland. New drone footage (pictured above) showed the vast extent of the damage, with fire and smoke billowing out of apartment blocks and blackened streets in ruins.

"On the left bank, there's no residential building intact, it's all burned to the ground," Ms Ponomareva said. "The city centre is unrecognisable."

Sheltering in the same building, a family of four has been in touch with Serhii Kozyrkov, a 40-year-old pastor who left Mariupol two weeks ago. "It's very crowded and there isn't enough food," Mr Kozyrkov, who is now in Lviv, said. "People get ill because it's very cold and everyone is lying next to each other."

The family are desperate to flee. On Monday, about 160 cars managed to leave Mariupol, in what seemed to be the first successful evacuation of residents after multiple failed attempts, with Ukrainian authorities accusing Russia of attacking the city and even routes to be used by civilians, despite agreeing to ceasefires.

But no humanitarian aid was allowed into the city. Sergei Orlov, the deputy mayor of Mariupol, said things were "getting more difficult by the hour". Monday's convoy of vehicles had been organised by civilians who decided to leave, he said, and was not part of an official corridor.

"The situation is horrible," he said. "There isn't enough food, water, medicine, insulin, baby food. Everyone has specific needs." According to Mr Orlov, cars with supplies have been waiting for four days but the Russians have not let it in. "We get a lot of calls. For example, a mother who says 'I have a child in my hands [who] is dying from hunger.' Or we get a call 'Here's our address. We're blocked in the basement. What should we do?'," Mr Orlov said.

"Unfortunately," he said, "we can't do anything."

Back in the basement, the family told Mr Kozyrkov they could hear the sound of explosions nearby but that their building remained intact. There is one generator which they use to recharge their phones and, from time to time, they venture outside to make some calls.

"The shelling doesn't stop," he said. "They're very frightened."

Ms Ponomareva said the situation was "very difficult, to put it mildly." People need a humanitarian corridor, she said. "Otherwise, it's a slow death from hunger and thirst."

Ukraine war: Infection and hunger as hundreds hide in Mariupol cellar - BBC News

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Three EU leaders to visit Kyiv to show Ukraine support

By Pavel Polityuk , Natalia Zinets  and Omer Berberoglu

Reuters, March 15, 2022

Summary

Updates with colour from Kyiv, Kremlin briefing Czech, Polish, Slovenian leaders head to Kyiv Zelenskiy aide says war over by May Apartment in capital hit by shells 19 said killed in attack on TV tower in west

LVIV, Ukraine/KYIV, March 15 (Reuters) -

Three European prime ministers rode a train for Kyiv on Tuesday, the first visit by foreign leaders to the Ukrainian capital since Russia launched its invasion, and a striking symbol of Ukraine's success so far in fending off Russia's assault.

"It is our duty to be where history is forged. Because it's not about us, but about the future of our children who deserve to live in a world free from tyranny," said Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who set off across the border with Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala and Janez Jansa of Slovenia.

Fiala said the aim was "to confirm the unequivocal support of the entire European Union for the sovereignty and independence of Ukraine."

They will arrive in a city still under bombardment, where around half of the 3.4 million population has fled and many are spending nights sheltering in underground stations.

Two powerful explosions rocked the capital before dawn on Tuesday and tracer fire lit up the night sky. A high-rise apartment building was in flames after being struck by artillery. 

Firefighters tried to douse the blaze and rescue workers helped evacuate residents trapped inside using mobile ladders. A dead body lay on the ground in a bag.

Sitting on the ground outside, resident Igor Krupa said he survived because he had slept under a makeshift shelter of furniture and metal weights: "All the windows went out and all the debris went into the apartment."

But despite shelling that has reduced some cities to rubble, Europe's biggest invasion force since World War Two has been halted at the gates of Kyiv, nearly three weeks into a war which Western countries say Moscow believed it would win within days.

Major road and train routes from the capital are still open and Russia has failed to capture any of Ukraine's 10 biggest cities.

Hosting foreign dignitaries in his own capital would be a remarkable achievement for President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who rejected offers to evacuate early in the war, staying under bombardment to rally his nation.

In his most confident public statement yet, Zelenskiy called on Russian troops to surrender, saying they and their officers already knew that the war was hopeless.

"You will not take anything from Ukraine. You will take lives. There are a lot of you. But your life will also be taken. But why should you die? What for? I know that you want to survive,” he said.

AT CROSSROADS

One of Zelenskiy's top aides said the war would be over by May - and could even end within weeks - as Russia had effectively run out of fresh troops to keep fighting.

"We are at a fork in the road now: there will either be a peace deal struck very quickly, within a week or two, with troop withdrawal and everything, or there will be an attempt to scrape together some, say, Syrians for a round two and, when we grind them too, an agreement by mid-April or late April," Oleksiy Arestovich said in a video.

"I think that no later than in May, early May, we should have a peace agreement, maybe much earlier: we will see," Arestovich said.

The remarks projected a new-found confidence that Ukraine's heavily outnumbered forces have thwarted what Western countries believe was Moscow's aim - to topple Zelenskiy and install pro-Russian leaders in Kyiv.

Russia says it is not targeting civilians and is carrying out a "special operation" to disarm and "denazify" Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said it was too early to predict progress at talks peace talks, due to resume later on Tuesday by video link.

"The work is difficult and in the current situation the very fact that they are continuing is probably positive," he told reporters.

In the city of Rivne in western Ukraine, hundreds of miles from the combat zone, Ukrainian officials said 19 people had been killed in a Russian air strike on a television tower. If confirmed, that would be the worst attack so far on a civilian target in Ukraine's northwest.

Peace talks have focused so far on local ceasefires to let civilians evacuate and bring aid to surrounded cities.

Worst-hit is the southeastern port of Mariupol, where hundreds have been killed since Russia laid siege in the war's first week. Russian troops let a first column of cars leave Mariupol on Monday but attempts to bring in aid convoys have failed for 10 straight days. Ukrainian officials said they would try again on Tuesday.

While Russia has failed to seize any big cities in the north and east, its forces have had more success in the south, where Moscow said on Tuesday it was now in control of the entire region of Kherson.

In an intelligence update on Tuesday, Britain's ministry of defence reported demonstrations against Russian occupation in the southern cities of Kherson, Berdyansk and Melitopol, with troops firing warning shots to disperse crowds in Kherson. Russian forces were reported to have abducted the mayors of Melitopol and Dniprorudne, it said.

'NO WAR'

The war has brought economic isolation upon Russia never before visited on such a large economy. In Russia itself, it has led to a near total crackdown on free speech, with all major independent media shut down and Western social media apps switched off.

Late on Monday, an employee of the main state TV channel stood behind an anchor during a news broadcast and held up a sign in English and Russian that said: "NO WAR. Stop the war. Don't believe propaganda. They are lying to you here." read more

She was quickly arrested. Kremlin spokesperson Peskov called her protest "hooliganism".

The United Nations says nearly 3 million people have fled Ukraine since the start of the war.

"I am fleeing with my child because I want my child to stay alive," said Tanya who fled the southern frontline town of Mykolaiv across the Danube river to Romania. "Because the people that are there now are Russians, Russian soldiers, and they kill children."

Reporting by Reuters bureaus; Writing by Peter Graff; Editing by Tomasz Janowski

Three EU leaders to visit Kyiv to show Ukraine support | Reuters

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China has a choice to make on Ukraine, and the world is watching

Beijing’s support could tilt the balance in Putin’s war and it will also be consequential for its global standing Its hedging strategy has become increasingly untenable as it comes under growing pressure from the West

By Shi Jiangtao

SCMP, March 15, 2022

Weeks before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin declared their nations’ partnership had “no limits”. Photo: Reuters

It is a pivotal moment for China, as the world waits to see if it will try to halt Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Beijing has been cautious so far, refusing to condemn Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aggression. But suspicion is growing in the West amid reports that Russia has asked China for military and economic aid.

China’s support could tilt the balance in Putin’s war, which is now in its third week and intensifying, as the human toll mounts. Its decision will also be consequential for Beijing’s global standing, and its relations with Moscow, Washington and Brussels.

Against this backdrop, China’s top diplomat Yang Jiechi met US national security adviser Jake Sullivan in Rome on Monday – a meeting that ran for seven hours and was described by both sides as “intense” and “candid”.

Few details were given, though Sullivan was said to have been “direct” about Beijing’s perceived tacit support for Putin, warning China would face severe “consequences” if it helped Russia evade Western sanctions. Yang was also blunt about what he called the White House’s efforts to “distort” or “smear” China’s position.

While hot-button issues like Taiwan, Xinjiang, Hong Kong and North Korea were discussed at the meeting – which had been planned for weeks – Ukraine was the focus. Given the parlous state of US-China ties, however, there was little expectation they would agree on much beyond keeping the lines of communication open.

But this was an important encounter at a time when Beijing’s hedging strategy has become increasingly untenable, as the West stands united against Russia and piles pressure on China to intervene.

From Beijing’s perspective, aligning with Moscow could offset some of the pressure from their common adversary Washington. China may also benefit from the US preoccupation with Putin’s war in the short term – a distraction from its focus on the Indo-Pacific.

However, the transatlantic unity against Russia also gives an indication of how the US and Europe could confront China in the future. And perhaps more importantly, with Russia likely to be significantly weakened by the Ukraine conflict, Moscow may not be a reliable buffer for Beijing in a new cold war.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Putin may have declared their nations’ partnership has “no limits” but it would make little sense for Beijing to go out of its way to bail out Moscow. It may just be a matter of time before it moves away from Russia – after all, as the maxim goes, nations have no permanent friends or enemies, only interests.

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A former diplomat, Shi Jiangtao has worked as a China reporter at the Post for more than a decade. He's interested in political, social and environmental development in China.

China has a choice to make on Ukraine, and the world is watching | South China Morning Post (scmp.com)

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