March 13, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

Our live coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has moved here.

Members of the People's Liberation Army Band march away are seen at the closing session of the National People's Congress in Beijing on March 11.

Russia asked China for economic support in addition to their request for military support, a US official familiar with the matter said.

The requests came after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had occurred, the official said.

The official declined to detail the Chinese reaction but indicated that the Chinese had responded. 

Some context: Russia has asked China for military assistance in Ukraine, including drones, a senior US official said Sunday.

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the development is a “concern” and the US has made it clear to Beijing there will “absolutely be consequences” for “large-scale” efforts to give the Kremlin a workaround to US sanctions. Sullivan will meet Chinese counterparts in Rome on Monday for talks.

When asked by CNN about the reporting of Russia’s request for military aid, Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in the US, said in a statement, “I’ve never heard of that.”

Read the full story here.

Australia announced fresh sanctions Monday targeting Russian oligarchs, key businesspeople and their family members, the Foreign Ministry said.

In total, 33 people were hit with sanctions, including Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich, CEO of Gazprom Alexey Miller and Dmitri Lebedev, Chairman of Rossiya, one of Russia’s largest air carriers.

Australia follows the US, UK, Canada, the European Union and New Zealand, in sanctioning key Russian individuals over the invasion of Ukraine.

Newly installed mayor of Russian-occupied Melitopol, Galina Danilchenko,

Ukraine’s prosecutor general has opened a treason investigation into Galina Danilchenko, the newly installed mayor of Russian-occupied Melitopol.

The investigation comes after a group of Melitopol City Council members issued a written address Sunday, requesting the prosecutor general initiate criminal proceedings against Danilchenko, “for the high crime of treason, for attempting to set up an occupying government in Melitopol.”  

In its address, the Council accused Danilchenko, “a city council member from the Opposition Bloc,” of dissolving the city government and transferring its powers to a People’s Deputies Committee.

The prosecutor general’s office announced it had opened an investigation in a statement posted on its website, accusing Danilchenko of, “fulfilling the task set to her by her Russian Federation representatives” when she declared herself Melitopol’s acting mayor.

According to the statement, the investigation and criminal proceedings will be conducted by the Security Service of Ukraine in the Zaporizhzhia region.

On Facebook, Ukraine’s prosecutor general Iryna Venediktova lauded the Melitopol City Council address saying, “I heard you and I’m proud of you.”  

Some context: Danilchenko was installed as Melitopol’s mayor after the elected mayor, Ivan Fedorov, was detained by armed men on Friday. Shortly after he was detained, the prosecutor’s office for the Russian-backed separatist region of Luhansk accused Fedorov of terrorism offenses.

On Sunday, Danilchenko said in a televised video that “Russian TV channels” would begin broadcasting in the region. She claimed, “a great deficit of trustworthy information being circulated,” as reasoning for the broadcasting decision.

Elderly residents cross a destroyed bridge while fleeing Irpin, outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, on Sunday, March 13.

Russia has asked China for military assistance in Ukraine, a senior US official said, and the Ukrainian military has thwarted an attempt by Russian military vehicles to cross the Irpin River.

It comes after a day that saw Russia expanding its offensive to western Ukraine, firing missiles near the city of Lviv and hitting a large military base close to the Polish border, reportedly killing dozens of people as the war draws closer to NATO’s front line.

If you’re just reading in, here are the latest headlines from the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Seeking China’s help: Russia has asked China for military assistance in Ukraine, including drones, a senior US official said Sunday. White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the development is a “concern” and the US has made it clear to Beijing there will “absolutely be consequences” for “large-scale” efforts to give the Kremlin a workaround to US sanctions. Sullivan will meet Chinese counterparts in Rome on Monday for talks.

When asked by CNN about the reporting of Russia’s request for military aid, Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in the US, said in a statement, “I’ve never heard of that.”

Chernobyl staff: Staff at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant are so tired they have stopped carrying out the repair and maintenance of safety-related equipment, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said. The 211 technical personnel and guards have still not been able to rotate from the facility since Russian forces entered the site. Ukraine managed to resume the power supply at Chernobyl on Sunday.

Russian forces thwarted: Ukrainian troops stopped an attempt by Russian military vehicles to cross the Irpin River on a pontoon bridge near Hostomel, new satellite images show. Ukrainian forces in Irpin have so far repelled Russian advances toward the capital Kyiv. With the main bridge crossing the Irpin River having been destroyed, the Irpin River poses a significant obstacle for the Russian military.

Ukraine cut off: Britain’s Ministry of Defense said Russian forces have blockaded Ukraine’s Black Sea coast, cutting the nation off from international maritime trade.

Zelensky warning to NATO: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said it is only a matter of time before Russia’s military assault on Ukraine expands to members of NATO unless the alliance installs a no-fly zone over his country. It comes as Russian forces fired missiles near the city of Lviv and hit a large military base close to the Polish border.

Ukraine and Russia talks to continue Monday: Ukrainian Presidential adviser Mykhailo Podoliak tweeted Sunday talks between Ukrainian and Russian officials will take place Monday through video.

French President Emmanuel Macron and US President Joe Biden agreed to strengthen sanctions already taken against Russia in a call Sunday, the Elysee Palace said.

The two leaders reiterated their support for Ukraine and would join efforts on initiatives to end the fighting, according to a Elysee Palace statement.

Macron also offered his condolences for the death of American journalist Brent Renaud who died while covering the war in Ukraine. 

It is not clear which sanctions the two spoke about.

During a separate call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Macron expressed his support for Ukraine and detailed the content of the additional aid the European Union will provide to the Ukrainian government during the Versailles summit, the Elysee statement said. 

The calls came a day after the French leader spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin as part of efforts to reach a ceasefire.

Galina Danilchenko

Galina Danilchenko, the newly installed mayor in Russian-occupied Melitopol, said in a televised video Sunday that “Russian TV channels” would begin broadcasting in the region.

Danilchenko claimed there was “a great deficit of trustworthy information being circulated,” as reasoning for the broadcasting decision.  

Her televised address was posted on social media afterwards by pro-Russian Telegram channels and by the Ukrainian-controlled Zaporozhye regional administration.

Danilchenko was installed as mayor after elected mayor Ivan Fedorov was detained by armed men on Friday.

After he was detained, the prosecutor’s office for the Russian-backed separatist region of Luhansk accused Fedorov of terrorism offenses. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky demanded his immediate release, saying the “abduction” was a “crime against democracy.”

France's President Emmanuel Macron holds a press conference on March 11.

French President Emmanuel Macron spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Joe Biden in separate calls Sunday, discussing the efforts to reach a ceasefire and ongoing negotiations, according to a French source familiar with the calls.

On the call with Zelensky, Macron, “reviewed the situation with him. He expressed his full support and detailed the additional aid that the European Union decided to provide at the Versailles Summit. They exchanged views on the continuation of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine,” the source said, adding the two leaders will continue to coordinate in the coming days.

President Joe Biden speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House March 8, in Washington, DC.

US President Joe Biden spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron Sunday evening to discuss Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The two men “reviewed recent diplomatic engagements,” according to a White House readout of the call. 

A French source familiar with the call said Macron, “presented his condolences for the death of the journalist Brent Renaud. They agreed to strengthen the sanctions already taken against Russia, to support Ukraine and to take all initiatives to stop the fighting. They will remain in close contact on all this in the days to come.”

The Czech Republic plans to deliver further military aid to Ukraine, worth at least $31.5 million dollars, government spokesman Václav Smolka told CNN Sunday.

Smolka declined to elaborate on the details of the aid package but said the time of delivery depends on when his government will be able to get “the required material.” 

The Czech Republic already committed on Feb. 26 to send a “shipment of weapons to Ukraine” worth over $8.5 million to a “place of Ukrainians choice.”

Prime Minister Petr Fiala said last month his country was sending “machine guns, submachine guns, sniper rifles and pistols and their corresponding ammunition valued at CZK 188 million,” to support the Ukrainian government in its fight against Russia. 

Over 328,000 refugees have arrived in Moldova from Ukraine since Russia’s invasion began on February 24, the country’s Foreign Affairs Minister Nicu Popescu tweeted Sunday.

“About 101K refugees are in shelters or private homes across the country, including 48,254 minors,” Popescu tweeted.

Some of the buildings on Snake Island appear damaged from Russian military strikes, and a Russian Naval ship is seen anchored off the island in the first clear satellite image of the Ukrainian island in the middle of the Black Sea.

The image, taken on Sunday by Maxar Technologies, is the first clear look of the island since it was bombed at the beginning of the Russian invasion.

In the image, some of the red-roofed buildings in the island’s center are shown to have been significantly damaged by the Russian shelling of the island. The ship seen offshore was identified by Maxar as a Ropucha-class landing ship. Although parts of it are snow-covered, there are impact craters dotting parts of the island.

Snake Island, also known as Zmiinyi Island, sits about 30 miles (48 kilometers) off the Ukrainian mainland’s southern tip in the northwestern Black Sea. It’s about 185 miles west of Crimea, the Ukrainian territory that Russia annexed in 2014.

The defiant soldiers who were stationed on the island quickly became lauded as heroes at the start of the Russian invasion into Ukraine.

Initial reports from the Ukrainian government claimed they responded to a warning from a Russian naval ship to lay down their weapons or they would be bombed. Their reported reply was, “Russian warship, go f*** yourself.” The Ukrainian Navy had feared the soldiers on the island were dead, but now believe they are “alive and well” but are prisoners of war.

CNN’s Sebastian Shukla and Lianne Kolirin contributed to this report.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday it is only a matter of time before Russia’s military assault on Ukraine expands to members of NATO unless the alliance installs a no-fly zone over his country.

He added, “We were right … now I repeat again – if you do not close our sky, it is only a matter of time before Russian missiles fall on your territory. NATO territory. On the homes of citizens of NATO countries.”

In addressing NATO countries, Zelensky cited the killing of American journalist Brent Renaud in Irpin, Ukraine, on Sunday.

“An American journalist was killed in the Kyiv region today. Brent Renaud. His colleague was wounded. It was a deliberate attack by the Russian military. They knew what they were doing. But not everyone in the West seems to know what they are doing,” he said.

Zelensky also said his team is continuing diplomatic negotiations with Russia to arrange a meeting between him and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Representatives of our countries’ delegations speak in video format every day. Our delegation has a clear task – to do everything to ensure a meeting of the presidents, the meeting that I am sure people are waiting for,” he said.

The UK Ministry of Defense said Russian forces have blockaded Ukraine’s Black Sea coast, cutting the nation off from international maritime trade.

An intelligence update posted to the Ministry’s Twitter on Sunday said, “Russian naval forces have established a distant blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea coast, effectively isolating Ukraine from international maritime trade.”

According to the World Trade Organization, trade by sea accounts for more than 80% of the world’s trade volume. 

The UK MOD intelligence briefing also said Russian naval forces are “continuing to conduct missile strikes against targets throughout Ukraine” and that Moscow has conducted “one amphibious landing in the Sea of Azov and could look to conduct further such operations in the coming weeks.”

An amphibious landing is a military attack of coordinated land, sea, and air forces.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a joint press conference with Latvian Foreign Minister at the Latvian National Museum of Art in Riga, Latvia, on March 7.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned Russia’s attack near Ukraine’s border with Poland early Sunday, calling for the “brutality” to stop as war inches closer to NATO’s doorstep.

“We condemn the Russian Federation’s missile attack on the International Center for Peacekeeping and Security in Yavoriv, close to Ukraine’s border with Poland,” Blinken tweeted Sunday.

Thirty-five people were killed and 134 injured after more than 30 missiles were fired at a military base early Sunday morning. The International Peacekeeping and Security Center is a huge military base that includes a training center for soldiers, and has housed US and NATO forces in the past.

A photo, published on social media on March 13, shows the pontoon bridge destroyed, in addition to nearby Russian military vehicles.

The Ukrainian military has thwarted an attempt by Russian military vehicles to cross the Irpin River on a pontoon bridge near Hostomel, a new satellite image from Maxar Technologies shows.

The bridge first appeared in satellite imagery from Maxar on Thursday, March 10, and in that photo, it appears to have been destroyed. An additional photo, published on social media on March 13, also shows the pontoon bridge destroyed, in addition to nearby Russian military vehicles.

CNN has geolocated and confirmed the authenticity of the photo posted to social media.

Ukrainian forces in Kyiv’s suburb of Irpin have so far repelled Russian advances toward the Ukrainian capital city. With the main bridge crossing the Irpin River having been destroyed by Ukrainians to thwart a Russian advance, the Irpin River poses a significant obstacle for the Russian military.

The pontoon bridge was located in an open field roughly five miles (eight kilometers) north of the main bridge across the Irpin River.

It’s the second known location where the Russians have built a pontoon bridge to move vehicles. Before the invasion began, Russia constructed a pontoon bridge across the Pripyat River in the greater Chernobyl exclusion zone and later moved dozens of forces across it.

Russia has asked China for military assistance in Ukraine, including drones, a senior US official said Sunday.

CNN has reached out to the Russian embassy in the US for comment but did not receive an immediate response.

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told CNN’s Dana Bash Sunday that China providing Russia with support is a “concern.”

Sullivan said the US has made it clear to Beijing there will “absolutely be consequences” for “large-scale” efforts to give the Kremlin a workaround to US sanctions.

“We will not allow that to go forward and allow there to be a lifeline to Russia from these economic sanctions from any country anywhere in the world,” he said.

Sullivan is set to meet with his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi in Rome Monday.

Chinese embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu told CNN Sunday he had not heard of Russia’s request.

“I’ve never heard of that. China is deeply concerned and grieved on the Ukraine situation. We sincerely hope that the situation will ease and peace will return at an early date,” Pengyu said. “The current situation in Ukraine is indeed disconcerting. Utmost efforts should be made to support Russia and Ukraine in carrying forward negotiations despite the difficult situation to produce a peaceful outcome. We support and encourage all efforts that are conducive to a peaceful settlement of the crisis. The high priority now is to prevent the tense situation from escalating or even getting out of control. There is consensus about this among the international community, including the parties concerned.”

The White House said last week China was “abiding by the requirements that have been put in place” over sanctions.

“Our assessment right now is that (China is) abiding by the requirements that have been put in place, but we would continue to encourage any country to think a lot about what role they want to play in history as we all look back,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said during a Wednesday news conference.

This satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies shows a close view of Chernobyl nuclear facilities, Ukraine, during the Russian invasion, Thursday, March 10.

Staff at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (NPP) are so tired they have stopped carrying out the repair and maintenance of safety-related equipment, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Sunday.

In a statement, the IAEA said the Ukrainian regulator informed the agency that NPP staff were no longer carrying out repairs and maintenance, “in part due to their physical and psychological fatigue after working non-stop for nearly three weeks.” Earlier Sunday, Ukraine’s National Energy Company (NEC) Ukrenergo said it completed repair work and resumed power supply to the Chernobyl NPP.

The IAEA said the staff of 211 technical personnel and guards have still not been able to rotate from the facility since the day before Russian forces entered the site on 24 February, citing the Ukrainian regulatory authority.

“The regulator has no direct communication with the staff but receives information from off-site NPP management,” the IAEA said.

The Director General has proposed a framework that would enable the IAEA to deliver technical and other assistance for the safe and secure operation of all of Ukraine’s nuclear facilities, the statement said. Grossi discussed this last week with the Ukrainian and Russian Foreign Ministers Dmytro Kuleba and Sergei Lavrov, respectively, the statement said.

“We can’t afford to lose more time,” he said. “The IAEA stands ready to act immediately, based on our proposed framework that requires agreement from the parties of the conflict before it can be implemented. We can only provide assistance to Ukraine’s nuclear sites once it has been signed. I’m doing everything I can to make this happen very soon.”

The full IAEA statement can be read here.

Sunday is coming to a close in Ukraine as the Russian invasion is nearing its third week.

Sunday saw Russia expanding its offensive to western Ukraine, firing missiles near the city of Lviv and hitting a large military base close to the Polish border, reportedly killing dozens of people as the war draws closer to NATO’s front line.

If you’re just reading in, here are the latest headlines from the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Ukrainian Presidential adviser Mykhailo Podoliak on Sunday confirmed talks will take place with Russia Monday via video link.

A tweet from Podoliak’s verified Twitter page said, “Again. Negotiations go non-stop in the format of video conferences. Working groups are constantly functioning. A large number of issues require constant attention. On Monday, March 14, a negotiating session will be held to sum up the preliminary results…”

Ukrainian soldiers help civilians cross a makeshift walkway over a destroyed bridge to evacuate out of Irpin, Ukraine, on March 13.

Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said nine of the 14 humanitarian corridors it declared on Sunday had allowed civilians to escape fighting.

Vereshchuk said 3,950 people were rescued in the Kyiv region and 1,600 were able to escape from the Luhansk region in the east of the country.

Police officers detain a man during a protest against Russian military action in Ukraine, in Manezhnaya Square in central Moscow on March 13.

More than 850 people were detained in anti-war protests across 37 Russian cities on Sunday, according to OVD-Info, an independent human rights protest-monitoring group.

Russian security forces are no longer detaining just protesters, but are also trying to identify “unreliable” people among passers-by in places where anti-war protests were announced, the group says.

According to the group, the total number of people detained for disagreeing with Russian aggression since its invasion of Ukraine is approaching 15,000.

Brent Renaud

TIME released a statement Sunday on the death of American journalist Brent Renaud in Ukraine.

The statement added, “In recent weeks, Brent was in the region working on a TIME Studios project focused on the global refugee crisis. Our hearts are with all of Brent’s loved ones. It is essential that journalists are able to safely cover this ongoing invasion and humanitarian crisis in Ukraine.”

Read the full TIME statement here.

Renaud, an award-winning American journalist, was killed by Russian forces in the Ukrainian city of Irpin, police in Kyiv said in social media posts on Sunday. Another American journalist was reported wounded.

A school in the village of Zelenogai, about 10 miles (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.

US Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut, said Sunday that the US should supply Ukraine with military equipment, including planes, as it defends itself against Russia.

“Means of air defense, such as planes, drones, anti-aircraft, batteries and missiles, all means of air defense, should be considered. And my personal feeling is we should provide those planes because they are potentially very important to the Ukrainian defense,” Blumenthal, who sits on the Senate Armed Forces Committee, told CNN’s Fredricka Whitfield on “Newsroom.”

He continued: “Not with American pilots, but with the training that Ukrainians need to fly those planes and make them effective as a deterrent as well as a force to protect the Ukrainian people against the air superiority of the Russian jet fighters.”

The Pentagon said last week the US was opposed to a Polish plan to transfer fighter jets to Ukraine through the US and a German air base “at this time.” CNN previously reported that NATO members have expressed concerns that providing fighter jets to Ukraine – even if done bilaterally – could be perceived by Russia as the alliance becoming directly involved in the war. National security adviser Jake Sullivan told CNN earlier Sunday that the US is focused on providing other anti-air systems that could help Ukrainians make progress.

A Ukrainian serviceman guards his position in Mariupol, Ukraine, on Saturday, March 12.

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.”

“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.

Ihor Kolykhaiev, the mayor of Russian-occupied Kherson, has said that mass protests show that “Kherson is Ukraine” and insisted that he retains administrative control of the city.

Speaking in a video posted on Facebook on Sunday, Kolykhaiev said, “the city is living in a normal mode, the City Council is working, all the deputies are at work, all the utility establishments are up and running. Kherson mayor’s office has a flag waving in the front. Kherson is Ukraine.”

Kherson has been occupied by Russian forces since March 3. In recent days, at least one Kherson regional council official warned that occupation forces were laying the groundwork for the “Kherson People’s Republic.”

Earlier on Sunday, hundreds of demonstrators flocked the streets of the Russian-occupied city to protest against the suspected Russian plans. The mayor said that it was a “peaceful protest to show that citizens’ position is that Kherson is Ukraine.”

In reference to reports of Russian coercion, Kolykhaiev warned that there “seem to be behind the scenes talks held and the people who want to change the political structure of our country and the south of Ukraine are trying to influence this situation.”

The mayor also said that the city had been cut off from humanitarian aid and was running out of resources.

He said that the city “can’t receive a humanitarian cargo here, food is finishing in the stores, we are running out of gas, we only have diesel oil left at the gas stations. We are running out of the medications and insulin.”

“Our main weapon is unity,” he added.

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.”

A resident of the besieged city of Mariupol in southern Ukraine has recorded a video diary of the desperate situation in the city.

The video was recorded Sunday morning on deserted streets and posted to Twitter. It also shows looted shops and people trying to cook outdoors in sub-zero temperatures.

Nearly 2,200 people have been killed in the bombardment of the city. Repeated efforts to get humanitarian aid into the city have so far failed. 

Here is what the resident said:

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.

“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.

A general view shows the structure over the old sarcophagus covering the damaged fourth reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Chernobyl, Ukraine November 22, 2018.

Ukraine’s National Energy Company (NEC) Ukrenergo completed repair work and resumed power supply to the Chernobyl NPP, the company announced on Sunday.

Some more context: The Chernobyl nuclear power plant’s electrical system was damaged during a Russian attack on March 9. Following the attack, the plant was dependent on external diesel generators to keep its reactors operating, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said. Russian officials have also arrived to Ukraine’s largest nuclear power plant, demanding to take control of the facility, according to a statement from Energoatom, Ukraine’s state-operated nuclear energy company.

Ukrainian servicemen cross a makeshift path next to a destroyed bridge in Irpin, Ukraine on March 13.

Russian airstrikes hit a large military base near the western city of Lviv, which is close to the Polish border, killing 35 people and leaving more than 130 in hospital, the Lviv regional administration said. More than 30 missiles fired from warplanes over the Black and Azov seas hit the military base, according to a statement.

If you’re just reading in, here are the latest headlines from the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Ukraine responded to Russia’s claims it has killed up to 180 foreign mercenaries during a strike on Yavoriv military base, calling it “pure Russian propaganda,” Ukrainian Defense Ministry spokesperson Markiyan Lubkivsky told CNN. 

Earlier on Sunday, Russian Ministry of Defense spokesperson Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said in a briefing, “On the morning of March 13, high-precision long-range weapons attacked the training centers of the Ukrainian armed forces in the village of Starichi and at the Yavoriv military base. At these facilities, the Kyiv regime deployed a point for the training and combat coordination of foreign mercenaries before being sent to the areas of hostilities against Russian military personnel, as well as a storage base for weapons and military equipment coming from foreign countries. As a result of the strike, up to 180 foreign mercenaries and a large consignment of foreign weapons were destroyed. The destruction of foreign mercenaries who arrived on the territory of Ukraine will continue.”

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to host the leaders of the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) for a summit on European defense this week.

Representatives from Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Norway will attend meetings “on shoring up European security and increasing defensive military support to Ukraine,” according to a UK government statement released Sunday.  

The statement adds that “leaders are expected to discuss joint military exercises in the High North and Baltic regions.”

“Ensuring we are resilient to Putin’s threats needs to go beyond our military footing - together alongside our North and Baltic Sea partners we must ensure we are insulated from Russia’s interference and impact on our energy supplies, economy and values,” he added.

The group will have dinner at Chequers on Monday, before meeting in London on Tuesday.

Kyiv region police said on Sunday that two other journalists were wounded by Russian troops. One of the wounded journalists is believed to be Colombian-American photographer Juan Arredondo, who is now in the hospital, according to social media video and international media reports. 

In a Facebook post, head of the Kyiv region police Andriy Nebitov said that Russian forces killed American journalist Brent Renaud and that “two more journalists were injured, adding that “the injured have been already saved and moved to a hospital in the capital. What condition they are in is unknown at the moment.”

Social media footage has emerged of a journalist identified as Juan Arredondo at Okhmatdyt hospital in Kyiv, in which he describes being shot at by Russian forces while driving through a checkpoint in Irpin, Ukraine, while on the way to film refugees leaving the city. 

Arredondo, a filmmaker and visual journalist who is also an adjunct professor at Columbia Journalism School, posted photos from Zhytomyr, Ukraine on Saturday, noting in an Instagram post that he is “#onassignment.” 

The Dean of Columbia Journalism School, Steve Coll, told CNN, “We don’t have any independent information about his injuries at this time but are working now to learn more and to see if we can help.”

The Committee to Protect Journalists also noted Arredondo’s injuries in a statement released Sunday, in which the organization also denounced the shooting and called for the perpetrators to be brought to justice. 

Arredondo is a 2019 Harvard Nieman fellow. He has previously had his photography featured in The New York Times, National Geographic, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, ESPN, Vanity Fair, and other media outlets, according to his personal website bio. 

Latvian President Egils Levits stressed Sunday that a permanent NATO military base in Latvia is “absolutely” needed in order to protect the country against any potential Russian aggression there.   

“Absolutely. NATO should strengthen the NATO eastern flank. That’s the Baltics, Poland, Romania, so that this would be a strong signal to Moscow that NATO is ready to defend the member states,” Levits told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union” when asked whether US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s announcement that NATO is establishing a permanent base in Latvia would help protect the country against Russia.

“I welcome also the American troops in Poland and Baltics, and we need a permanent presence of American troops in this area. I think it is a response to Russian ideas on aggression beyond Ukraine,” he added.

Latvia, a NATO member that shares a border with Russia, has in recent days condemned Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. The war has caused the US to help Latvia shore up its defenses, including by sending hundreds of American troops and some fighter jets to the country.

Journalists were among the people arrested during anti-war protests in Russia on Sunday, Russian journalist Andrey Okun told CNN.

Russian journalists Anastasia Romanova from MR7, Angelina Trofimenko from Avtozak Live, Anastasia Rogacheva from SOTA, Andrey Okun from Zaksru and Elena Lukyanova from Novaya Gazeta were detained during the anti-war protests in St. Petersburg.

All of the detained journalists were wearing yellow “Press” vests, had accredited press cards and editorial assignments, Okun told CNN.

“My colleagues and I filed a collective complaint against the police actions and the illegal detentions of journalists, that are becoming larger with each protest action,” Okun said.

Some more context: Russia’s riot police arrested more than 776 people in 37 Russian cities on Sunday, almost half detained in Moscow, according to OVD-Info, an independent human rights protest-monitoring group. According to the group, more than 5,000 people were arrested across Russia for participating in the anti-war protests last weekend and more than 14,763 protesters have been detained in 151 Russian cities since the start of Russia’s invasion on Feb. 24.

As a long-awaited humanitarian convoy remains some distance from Mariupol, officials in the besieged city said, it has suffered 22 bombing attacks in the last 24 hours (to 10 a.m. ET). 

“The situation in Mariupol continues to be very difficult. The city has no electricity, water, heat, almost no mobile communication, is running out of food and water,” officials said.

The council accused Russian forces and the separatist militia supporting them of “deliberately firing on residential neighborhoods.” It said part of Mariupol State University had been shelled Sunday.

Brent Renaud attends the annual Peabody Awards in New York in 2015.

Award-winning American journalist Brent Renaud was killed by Russian forces in Irpin, Ukraine, according to Kyiv region police in social media posts on Sunday. Kyiv police said another American journalist was wounded by Russian troops.

In a tweet, Kyiv region police named the 50-year-old American journalist who was killed as Brent Renaud. Police posted a photo of his body and his American passport as evidence, as well as a photo of an outdated New York Times press badge with Brent Renaud’s name.

An adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister, Anton Gerashchenko, said in a statement that Renaud “paid with his life for attempting to expose the insidiousness, cruelty and ruthlessness of the aggressor,” according to a New York Times report.  

CNN has been unable to verify which media outlet the American journalists were working for in Ukraine.

The New York Times said in a statement on Sunday, “We are deeply saddened to hear of Brent Renaud’s death. Brent was a talented filmmaker who had contributed to The New York Times over the years. Though he had contributed to The Times in the past (most recently in 2015), he was not on assignment for any desk at The Times in Ukraine. Early reports that he worked for Times circulated because he was wearing a Times press badge that had been issued for an assignment many years ago.” 

Some more context: The northern Ukrainian city of Irpin, just outside Kyiv, has been the site of substantial Russian shelling in recent days and has seen extensive destruction, according to the Kyiv regional government on Friday.

Brent Renaud was a Peabody Award-winning documentary filmmaker, producer, and journalist, who lived and worked in New York City and Little Rock, Arkansas, according to his biography on the Renaud Brothers website. 

Brent Renaud, right, with his brother Craig Renaud at the HBO building screening area in New York City on  September 19, 2007.

With his brother Craig, Renaud spent years “telling humanistic verite stories from the World’s hot spots,” including projects in Iraq, Afghanistan, Haiti, Egypt, and Libya, according to his website bio. Brent Renaud was a 2019 Harvard Nieman Fellow. 

Christof Putzel, a friend and colleague of Renaud, told CNN his passing is a “devastating loss to journalism today.”

Putzel said Renaud was working on a documentary about refugees around the world when the crisis in Ukraine hit. He said that “Brent was on the plane the next day” and covered the plight of refugees from Kyiv into Poland. A post on the Renaud Brothers’ Facebook page, dated March 8, urged readers to follow their coverage of the war Ukraine.

Several years ago, Putzel and Renaud won a duPont Award for a story they worked on about guns being smuggled into Mexico from the US. “What I said when we accepted our award was, the only thing bigger than Brent’s balls are his heart. And I stand by that. That’s what kind of journalist he was,” Putzel said.

He said Renaud had a unique ability to make people trust him as he told their stories in places like Iraq and other war zones. “You could sit down and spend a week watching all of Brent’s stories over the years back-to-back and just be flabbergasted. The career that he had, his ability to reach people, his ability to capture the humanity behind people’s suffering is something I have never seen before, and I was just honored to work with him as long as I did,” Putzel said.

The director of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard said on Sunday that the foundation is “heartsick” over the death of American journalist Brent Renaud in Ukraine. 

The Committee to Protect Journalists on Sunday condemned the killing of Renaud and called for the killers to be brought to justice. 

The New York-based organization said in a statement, “U.S. reporter Brent Renaud was shot and killed, and another journalist was injured on Sunday in the city of Irpin, outside of Kyiv, according to a Ukrainian police official and news reports. In denouncing the shooting, the Committee to Protect Journalists called for the killers to be brought to justice.”

“We are shocked and saddened to learn of the death of U.S. journalist Brent Renaud in Ukraine. This kind of attack is totally unacceptable, and is a violation of international law,” added the CPJ’s program director Carlos Martinez de la Serna in the statement. “Russian forces in Ukraine must stop all violence against journalists and other civilians at once, and whoever killed Renaud should be held to account.”

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podoliak said on Sunday that he thinks they will “achieve concrete results” from talks with Russia in the next few days.

In a video posted on Twitter, Podoliak, a senior adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said that Russia “becomes much more sensitive to the Ukrainian position” and has “started to talk constructively.”

“Our proposals are on the table. They are very tough. Among them, the withdrawal of troops, the ceasefire,” Podoliak added. “We shall not give up on any points, out of principle.”

Russian troops continue to slowly move closer to Kyiv, while cities in the southern and western parts of the country sustain ongoing attacks as well.

Here’s a look at where Russian forces have advanced so far. Note: This map was generated using data from The Institute for the Study of War with AEI’s Critical Threats Project and shows where Russian forces have operated in or launched attacks in Ukraine, but do not have control over areas.

For more context, here’s the latest on the Russian invasion of Ukraine:

Residents of Kherson turned out en masse on Sunday, March 13, in the largest protest the city has seen since the invasion began and it came under Russian occupation. 

Armed Russian men visited a local hotel in Kherson twice, once on Saturday and then on Sunday morning, a local resident told CNN.

This comes as protests in Kherson have grown into the largest the area has seen since the invasion began and come under Russian occupation, with protesters demonstrating against suspected Russian plans to turn the southern Ukrainian oblast into a breakaway republic.

Videos shared by locals with CNN and social media footage Sunday show a large gathering at the main square while people are heard chanting, “Fascists!” and “Kherson is Ukraine!” 

The resident noted the men were not soldiers but were dressed in green uniforms and were “polite.”

“They asked each one: who are you, what do you do, why are you here, how did you get here?” the resident said.

“They were polite with us, but not with our neighbors,” the resident said regarding another hotel guest. “They knocked down the doors and lay people face down on the floor.”

The resident, who asked to remain anonymous for safety concerns, is unsure why they wanted all the information.

CNN’s Tamara Qiblawi in Lviv and Paul P. Murphy contributed to this report.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko stands with troops at a checkpoint on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine on March 6.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said Sunday that he’s worried about the possibility of Russia using chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine as it wages an unprovoked invasion of the country.

“Right now, we see the thousand of civilians and also children die,” he said. “This war (is) against all Ukrainian population. It’s this challenge for whole war.”

While the US has so far not presented any evidence that Russia plans to use chemical weapons in Ukraine, the White House – most notably, press secretary Jen Psaki – has warned that the weapons could be used in the conflict.

On Friday, President Joe Biden told CNN that Russia will pay a “severe price” if they use chemical weapons in Ukraine, a warning that came after he announced further economic moves against Russia.

Ohio Sen. Rob Portman speaks with CNN on Sunday.

US Sen. Rob Portman, co-chair of the Ukraine caucus, said Sunday that getting fighter planes to Ukraine, including MiG-29s, is essential as Russia intensifies its attacks on the country.

“What we have heard directly from the Ukrainians is they want them badly. They want the ability to have better control over the skies in order to give them a fighting chance,” Portman, a Republican from Ohio, told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union.”

The Pentagon said last week the US was opposed to a Polish plan to transfer fighter jets to Ukraine through the US and a German air base “at this time.” CNN previously reported that NATO members have expressed concerns that providing fighter jets to Ukraine – even if done bilaterally – could be perceived by Russia as the alliance becoming directly involved in the war. National security adviser Jake Sullivan told Bash on Sunday the US is focused on providing other anti-air systems that could help Ukrainians make progress.

Portman, who is in Poland, said he is not sure why the US is hesitating on sending the fighter aircraft after the US has already sent other military equipment, including Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, to Ukraine and said, “the airplanes are also essential.”

“And to me, you know, Vladimir Putin and the Russians seem to be saying everything is escalatory and yet they are escalating every single day by coming into Ukraine with these weapons,” he said. “So, as they escalate, what the Ukrainian people are asking for is just the ability to defend themselves. Give them the ability to try to stop some of this Russian superiority in terms of air power to be able to save lives and to hopefully end up with a peaceful solution to this.”

Residents of Kherson turned out en masse on Sunday, March 13, in the largest protest the city has seen since the invasion began and it came under Russian occupation.

Hundreds of demonstrators have flocked the streets of Russian-occupied Kherson to protest against suspected Russian plans to turn the southern Ukrainian oblast into a breakaway republic.  

In recent days, at least one Kherson regional council official warned that occupation forces were laying the groundwork for the “Kherson People’s Republic.” If true, the move would mirror Moscow’s establishment of two breakaway states in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region. Ukraine considers those breakaway regions — the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic — to be Russian occupied.  

Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized the independence of those two territories in the days leading up to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine as part of his pretext to launch an assault on the country. 

“A referendum on the creation of the HPR (Kherson People’s Republic) is being prepared in Kherson region,” wrote Kherson region council member Sergey Khlan in a Facebook post on Saturday calling on fellow council members to boycott meetings with Russian occupation forces. 

“Become a part of Ukrainian history as citizens, whose names will be remembered by next generations, not as dispensable traitors,” he added. 

Demonstrators in Kherson on Sunday morning waved Ukrainian flags, chanted anti-Russian slogans and shouted expletives at Putin, videographer Artem Ivanov, who is on the ground in Kherson, told CNN. “Kherson is Ukrainian,” “Putin is a ” “Russian soldiers are fascists,” and “Russian soldiers go home” were some of the slogans chanted at the protest, according to Ivanov. 

Residents of Kherson turned out en masse on Sunday, March 13, in the largest protest the city has seen since the invasion began and it came under Russian occupation. 

US national security adviser Jake Sullivan speaks with CNN on Sunday.

US national security adviser Jake Sullivan told CNN Sunday that while the Biden administration is “concerned about the possibility of escalation,” with respect to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s nuclear posture, “we have not seen anything that would require us to change our nuclear posture at this time.”

“We are watching this extremely closely, and obviously, the escalation risk with a nuclear power is severe, and it is a different kind of conflict than other conflicts the American people have seen over the years,” Sullivan told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union.” “And the American President, Joe Biden, has to take that responsibility extremely seriously, even as we redouble our efforts to support the Ukrainians. As things stand today, the United States has not adjusted our nuclear posture, but it is something that we monitor day by day, hour by hour, because it is a paramount priority to the President.”

He also said that Russian strikes on Lviv, approximately 12 miles from Ukraine’s border with Poland, is a sign Putin “is frustrated by the fact that his forces are not making the kind of progress that he thought that they would make against major cities, including Kyiv, that he is expanding the number of targets, that he is lashing out, and that he is trying to cause damage in every part of the country.”

A series of missile strikes early Sunday that struck the Yavoriv military training ground in the Lviv region of western Ukraine is the third strike by Russian forces in the western part of Ukraine “in the last couple of days,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said on ABC’s This Week Sunday.

There has been “some damage” to the military training facility, Kirby said, but the Pentagon is “still assessing and talking to the Ukrainians” about the extent of the damage from the strikes, Kirby said. 

No American service members were at the training facility; they had all left the training facility weeks prior, Kirby added.

When asked if a no-fly zone would have prevented this attack, Kirby said, “No, I don’t think so.” 

Kirby added that the US establishing a no-fly zone over Ukraine would mean war with Russia.

“The United States getting involved in combat in Ukraine right now, or over the skies of Ukraine right now leads to war with Russia, and there’s very little that you can see that would make sense for this war to be escalated between two nuclear powers,” Kirby said.

Leonid Slutsky, a Russian delegation member for the Ukraine-Russia talks, speaks to the media on March 7 in Belarus.

Leonid Slutsky, a Russian delegation member for the Ukraine-Russia talks, said “significant progress” has been made in negotiations with the Ukrainian delegation since the beginning of talks, Russian state news agency RIA reports.

“If we compare the positions of the Russia and Ukraine in the negotiations at the very beginning and now, we can see significant progress,” Slutsky said.

“I expect the progress may grow into a unified position of both delegations, and into a document for signing,” he said.

Background on talks: Talks between Ukraine’s and Russia’s diplomats last week yielded no discernible progress. Supposedly safe routes out of the country have repeatedly been contested. The civilian death toll continues to rise, and by the end of the week, both sides were trading accusations over the use of chemical weapons.

While Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday there had been “certain positive advances” in negotiations with Ukraine, US and European officials and diplomats who spoke to CNN all expressed deep skepticism about the state of talks. None felt Putin’s actions to date have suggested the Russian leader is ready to find a diplomatic off-ramp to end the war.

Kyiv region police said that an American journalist was killed by Russian forces in Irpin, Ukraine, according to social media posts on Sunday. Kyiv police said another American journalist was wounded by Russian troops. 

CNN has been unable to verify which media outlet the American journalists were working for in Ukraine. CNN has been unable to independently verify the death. 

A witness to the missile strike on the Yavoriv military base in western Ukraine, who was on the base when it happened, told CNN about his experience.

Up until Sunday morning, the Lviv region in western Ukraine was a safe haven in a war-torn country.

It was where families living further east sent their children to keep them safe.

Vasyl Kunets, a driver who lives in Novoyavorivsk, a town about 20 miles from Lviv, said that up until now, when the sirens indicating a potential air raid went off, he wasn’t too worried. He’d go to safety, but perhaps not as fast as he should have.

The war was still far away.

That all changed when Russian strikes hit the Yavoriv military training ground at the edge of Novoyavorivsk and killed 35 people, the Lviv regional administration said Sunday.

More than 30 missiles fired from warplanes over the Black and Azov seas had hit the military base, said Maksym Kozytsky, head of the Lviv regional military administration, in a statement posted to Facebook Sunday.

Suddenly, the war was on Kunets’ doorstep.

The training base is intertwined with the life in the town. Many of its residents are employed there, or in services supporting it. Those who don’t work for it directly know someone who does.

Kunets saw the damage they’ve inflicted first hand.

“I saw when the rocket hit the ground, I’ve seen the explosion and the smoke, a mushroom cloud of smoke and fire,” he told CNN.

“It lasted 30 minutes and I heard maybe eight strikes, maybe some rockets crashing or part of rockets exploding separately, I don’t know.”

Kunets told CNN the attack against the base “changed everything.”

Kunets said he is now thinking about sending his two children away from Ukraine – something he didn’t necessarily consider before.

“It feels less safe and more dangerous. Yesterday and the day before yesterday we were more relaxed and when we heard the alarms we didn’t move so quick, we didn’t take it too seriously. But today we are packing and being ready to leave very fast when we hear the alarm,” he said.

CNN’s Sofiya Harbuziuk contributed reporting to this post.

Pope Francis speaks during the weekly Angelus prayer on March 13 in Vatican City.

Pope Francis made an appeal for peace in Ukraine during his Angelus prayer in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday, calling Russia’s attacks an “unacceptable armed aggression” against Ukraine.

“In the name of God, let the cries of those who suffer be heard and let the bombings and attacks cease,” he said.

The Pope asked the attacks to stop and added that the bombing of children’s hospitals and targeting civilians in Ukraine is “barbaric” and with “no valid strategic reason”.

“In the face of the barbarity of the killing of children, innocent people and defenseless civilians, there are no strategic reasons to be believed,” the Pope said. “All that is needed is to stop the unacceptable armed aggression before it reduces cities to cemeteries.”

Russian attacks continue Sunday morning with a spate of air strikes, with 35 people killed at a military training facility near the northwestern city of Lviv.

Russian offensive expands west: The Lviv region has largely been spared from Russia’s bombardment since the invasion began, but it has come under increasing attacks in the last few days.

Dozens killed at military base: More than 30 missiles hit the Yavoriv military training ground early Sunday, killing 35 people and injuring 134 more. The site lies about 40 kilometers (25 miles) northwest of Lviv and less than 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) from the Polish border. It is home to the International Peacekeeping and Security Center (IPSC), which hosts training exercises with Western military personnel.

Russian air offensive hits heavily populated areas: While some Russian attacks were directed at critical infrastructure, other strikes appear to have hit heavily populated areas. The northern city of Chernihiv was struck for the third night in a row, and nine people were killed in a Russian bombardment near Mykolaiv, southern Ukraine.

Troops move closer to Kyiv: The bulk of Russian ground forces are now only 15.5 miles (25 kilometers) from the center of the Ukrainian capital, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said Saturday.

Massive shelling in eastern Ukraine: On Sunday the head of the Luhansk regional administration, Serhiy Haidai, said there had been “massive shelling” of several towns, including Kreminna and Rubizhne, which had prevented buses from leaving with civilians. And an airstrike damaged Ukraine’s historic Holy Dormition Sviatogirsk Lavra, an Orthodox monastery in Donetsk oblast, on Saturday evening.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has said the key task Sunday is to get the humanitarian convoy that is traveling towards the besieged city of Mariupol to its destination.

In a brief message on Instagram, Zelensky said, “Our humanitarian convoy is two hours away from Mariupol, just 80 kilometers away.”

“We are doing everything to overcome the resistance of the occupiers, who are blocking even the Orthodox Church priests, who are escorting the convoy with food, water, medicines.”

“Ukraine has supplied 100 tons, the basic needs for its citizens,” he said.

The convoy set out Saturday from the city of Zaporizhzia. Mariupol has been under siege for more than a week. Much of the city is without power and water.

Zelensky claimed that after 18 days of conflict, “Russia has lost thousands of military vehicles, 74 aircraft and 86 helicopters.”

CNN cannot independently verify claims of losses by either side in the conflict.

UK Cabinet minister Michael Gove speaks with reporters in London on February 2.

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.’”

“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. 

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.”

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.

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.”

Nine people have been killed in a Russian bombardment near Mykolaiv, southern Ukraine, the city’s regional administration said Sunday.

Mykolaiv is a strategic southern city that has resisted Russian occupation and impeded an apparent Russian drive towards the major port of Odessa to the west. 

Reports from the area say there was heavy shelling north of the city around Bashtanka.

In the city itself, the regional administration said an airstrike had destroyed a workshop but had caused no casualties.

A bus lies on its side after overturning near Forli, Italy, on Sunday, March 13.

A bus carrying around 50 Ukrainian nationals went off the road in Italy and overturned, leaving one dead and several injured, Italian firefighters said via Twitter on Sunday.

The accident took place on the A14 highway between Forli and Cesena, on the north-eastern coast.

Emergency services are currently on the scene, using two mobile cranes to lift the overturned vehicle, the firefighters said.

Russian air strikes on the Yavoriv military training ground killed 35 people, the Lviv regional administration said Sunday.

A further 134 people have been hospitalized due to injuries caused by the early morning missile strikes, it added.

More than 30 missiles fired from warplanes over the Black and Azov seas hit the military base, said Maksym Kozytsky, head of the Lviv regional military administration, in a statement posted to Facebook. 

Authorities had previously reported nine deaths.

Ukraine Defense Ministry spokesperson Markiyan Lubkivsky said officials were still clarifying information, but so far there were no reports of foreign nationals among the casualties. 

The site, which lies about 40 kilometers (25 miles) northwest of Lviv and less than 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) from the Polish border, is home to the International Peacekeeping and Security Center (IPSC). 

The IPSC hosts training exercises with Western military personnel, including from the United States. Last fall, it held the Rapid Trident military exercise, a multinational Ukrainian-American military exercise, according to the official page of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

India is temporarily relocating its embassy in Ukraine to Poland due to the “rapidly deteriorating security situation,” India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a statement Sunday. 

“In view of the rapidly deteriorating security situation in Ukraine, including attacks in the western parts of the country, it has been decided that the Indian Embassy in Ukraine will be temporarily relocated in Poland,” the statement said. 

On March 1, India said it was setting up an embassy in Lviv, Ukraine after all its citizens were evacuated from the capital Kyiv due to the conflict. 

On Sunday, the MEA said the embassy situation “will be reassessed in the light of further developments.”

Russians wait in line outside a McDonald's fast food restaurant in Moscow, 1990. 

When thousands of Russians lined up in Moscow’s busy Pushkin Square on January 31, 1990 to enter the country’s first-ever branch of McDonald’s, the moment represented a seismic cultural shift.

The Iron Curtain, which had divided Eastern and Western Europe for decades, had only just collapsed. Now the fast-food chain beloved by Americans and many others could serve up Big Macs to Russian customers.

Thirty-two years later, McDonald’s decided to suspend its operations in Russia in response to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, like numerous other big Western brands, including IKEA, H&M, Coca-Cola and Starbuck’s.

Of course, Russians can choose to eat elsewhere and buy other goods – many homegrown chains have sprung up across the vast country since the demise of the Soviet Union.

But the decision of these international brands to suspend trading in Russia – following several rounds of punishing Western sanctions and massive public pressure on moral grounds – still represents the end of an era.

Read the full story:

Russians wait in line outside a McDonald's fast food restaurant in Moscow, 1990. (AP Photo)

Related article End of an era in Russia as sanctions bite and Western companies take flight | CNN

Smoke is seen from an apartment building after the shelling of a residential district in Mariupol, Ukraine on March 11.

The Ukrainian government said Sunday that a relief convoy for the besieged port of Mariupol which left the city of Zaporizhzhia Saturday had made progress.

Iryna Vereshchuk, the minister of Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories, said “they are in Berdyansk now, moving in the direction of Mariupol. I sincerely hope to report a positive result in the evening.”

Berdyansk is about 50 miles west of the besieged city of Mariupol, where at least 1,300 civilians have been killed since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began, an adviser to the city’s mayor said Wednesday. CNN cannot independently verify these casualty figures.

Vereshchuk said Ukraine would try to open a number of other evacuation corridors Sunday in areas where fighting has impacted the civilian population.

These include efforts to allow people from the heavily damaged town of Borodyanka, north of Kyiv, on a route west to Zhytomyr. Previous efforts to organize the movement of civilians from Borodyanka to Kyiv have failed.

An attempt will also be made to get people from settlements north-east of the capital to safety. These include Velyka Dymerka and Svitylnia.

As fighting increases in the east, new routes are being opened for civilians living around Slovyansk, Vereshchuk said.

Movement through evacuation corridors in Ukraine has been limited in recent days.

After Ukraine and Russia agreed on several evacuation corridors Wednesday, heavy weapons fire appeared to have disrupted some routes.

And on Thursday, Mariupol authorities accused Russia of bombing the evacuation corridor designated to evacuate the city’s residents.

Air raid sirens sounded across Ukraine in the early hours of Sunday amid a spate of Russian missile attacks.

Some of those attacks were directed at critical infrastructure, such as the military airfield and training center at Yavoriv, near the Polish border, and the airport at Ivano-Frankivsk.

But other strikes appear to have hit heavily populated areas, with the northern city of Chernihiv struck for the third night in a row. 

The head of the Chernihiv region Vyacheslav Chaus said on his Telegram channel early Sunday that “the occupiers launched an air strike on a high-rise building at night.”

“Rescuers are working on the spot. According to preliminary information, one person died, two were rescued.”

Ten fires were recorded in the city during the past 24 hours and three people had died, Chaus said.

South of Chernihiv on the main route to Kyiv, a mother and her son were reported killed in shelling near Brovary.

Football club FC Shakhtar tweeted that Dmytro Yevdochenko, a promising teenage footballer, and his mother, Maryna Yevdochenko, “died as a result of shelling by Russian troops.”

The Ukrainian government is trying to open evacuation routes for civilians in settlements around Brovary, which is across the river Dnieper from the capital.

In the eastern region of Luhansk – much of which is now occupied by Russian forces – the head of the Luhansk regional administration, Serhiy Haidai, said there had been “massive shelling” of several towns, including Kreminna and Rubizhne, which had prevented buses from leaving with civilians.

Ukraine’s Minister of Defence Oleksii Reznikov condemned Russia’s airstrike on the International Peacekeeping and Security Center (IPSC), calling it a “terrorist attack” on peace and security.

The attack occurred near the northwestern city of Lviv early Sunday morning local time, according to the press office of the Lviv regional government.

“This is new terrorist attack on peace&security near the EU-NATO border,” Reznikov tweeted Sunday from his official account, adding that “action must be taken to stop this.”

The IPSC is a large military base that has held training exercises with Western military personnel, including from the United States. Last fall, it held the Rapid Trident military exercise, a multinational Ukrainian-American military exercise, according to the official page of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Ambulances are seen traveling to and from the Yavoriv military facility on March 13 in Novoiavorivsk, Ukraine.

Nine people were killed by missile strikes on the Yavoriv military training ground in the Lviv region early Sunday morning, the Lviv regional administration has said.

It said 57 people were injured and are in hospital.

“Firefighting and dismantling of debris are currently underway,” the administration added.

The Ukrainian state rail network says it will “at the very least double the capacity of the western railway border crossings with EU countries” to help make up for the loss of Ukrainian ports during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which handle most of the country’s agricultural exports.

“This will increase Ukraine’s export capacity, in particular for the transportation of agricultural products, while the enemy blocks our main seaports,” Ukrzaliznytsia said on its Facebook page.

One problem the network has is that Ukrainian railways operate on a different gauge from most European countries, so that cargoes have to be reloaded at the border.

Ukraine exports about 60 million tons of grain cargo annually. Almost 95% of agricultural output was exported through Black Sea ports.

Currently, just two small ports – Izmail and Reni – are able to ship cargo for export, but only in limited quantities.

In the first 11 days of March, 100,000 tons of grain were loaded, 87% less than in the same period last year.

An airstrike damaged Ukraine’s historic Holy Dormition Sviatogirsk Lavra, an Orthodox monastery in the Donetsk Oblast region of eastern Ukraine, the country’s Parliament said on Telegram.

Several people were wounded and taken to a hospital in the eastern town of Sviatogirsk, while others were treated on site. No one was killed, the parliament statement said. 

The blast, which went off around 10 p.m. local time Saturday, hit 50 meters away from a bridge connecting the right and left banks of the Siverskyi Donets River, near an entrance to the monastery. 

The explosion damaged the monastery’s temple windows and smashed windows and doors of a nearby hotel. 

Some 520 refugees were seeking shelter in the monastery, including 200 children. There are around 10,000 refugees and locals in Sviatogirsk town, the statement said. 

The monastery’s bishop, Metropolitan Arseny, said there are no military units in Sviatogirsk and the attack was inflicted on a “peaceful city,” and on one of Ukraine’s holiest sites.

The Holy Dormition Sviatogirsk Lavra is a member of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. It dates back to as early as the year 1526 and houses relics of St. John the Hermit of Sviatohirsk. 

Russian troops are attempting to “envelop” Ukrainian forces in the east of the country and “circumvent” the southern city of Mykolaiv as they advance from Crimea westwards toward Odessa, the Britain’s Ministry of Defense said Sunday in its latest intelligence assessment.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (L) and Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett (R).

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett spoke Saturday evening about ways to stop the fighting in Ukraine and Israeli’s efforts to resolve the conflict, according to a statement by the Israeli Prime Minister’s office.  

The conversation between the two leaders lasted over an hour, Bennett’s office said. 

Following the call, Zelensky tweeted he spoke with Bennett about “Russian aggression and the prospects for peace talks” and asked for assistance in securing the release of the “captive mayor of Melitopol and local public figures.”

Earlier, Israeli and Ukrainian officials denied reports that Bennett pressured Zelensky to accept Russia’s terms to end the war.

An airport in the western Ukrainian city of Ivano-Frankivsk has had its infrastructure almost completely destroyed by a Russian airstrike, the city’s mayor Ruslan Martsinkiv said while speaking to Parliamentary TV channel “Rada.” 

According to preliminary information, there are no casualties. 

This is the third attack on the airport, Martsinkiv said. 

The Russian airstrikes on a military base near the northwestern city of Lviv come as Russian forces have been expanding their offensive in Ukraine to the west.

On Friday, Russian forces attacked airports in the far west of the country, which had previously been spared from the conflict.

There was substantial damage to the airport at Lutsk in northwestern Ukraine, some 70 miles from the Polish border. The Governor of Volyn region said four missiles had been fired from a Russian bomber and two people were killed Friday. Plumes of smoke also rose from the military airfield at Ivano-Frankivsk, western Ukraine, which was struck by missiles. 

Lviv is a cultural hub of Ukraine and the city’s historic center is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is also a waypoint for those displaced by war, with thousands of people pouring into the city to escape bombarded towns and cities across the country or to make their way to the Polish border about 43 miles (70 kilometres) away.

Russian airstrikes hit the International Peacekeeping and Security Center (IPSC) near the northwestern city of Lviv early Sunday morning local time, according to the press office of the Lviv regional government. 

The IPSC is a huge military base that includes a training center for soldiers, predominantly for peacekeeping missions.

According to preliminary data, Russia fired eight missiles near Lviv, the regional government said. Officials are looking into whether there are casualties. 

Multiple explosions were heard shortly before 6 a.m. local time near the city, according to a CNN team on the ground.

Russian troops are moving closer to Kyiv and significant destruction is being seen in cities and towns as Moscow continues with its bombardment of Ukraine. Multiple explosions were heard by CNN teams on the ground shortly before 6 a.m. on the outskirts of the northwestern city Lviv.

Russia could target foreign weapons: Russia has threatened to fire on weapons shipments to Ukraine, saying convoys with foreign weapons could be considered “legitimate targets.” The warning, issued by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, raises the risk of direct confrontation between Moscow and a NATO country.

US rushes through military aid: The warning came as the United States authorized directed $200 million in “immediate” defense aid and services, including military education and training, for Ukraine. A US official said the aid will include “anti-armor, anti-aircraft systems, and small arms in support of Ukraine’s front-line defenders facing down Russia’s unprovoked attack.”

Russian troops inch closer to Kyiv: The bulk of Russian ground forces are about 15.5 miles (25 kilometers) from the center of the Ukrainian capital, the UK’s Ministry of Defense said Saturday in its latest intelligence assessment. Russian strikes continue to hit civilian areas: A large swath of Makariv, a village 30 miles west of Kyiv, has sustained significant damage from apparent Russian airstrikes. Photos posted to social media, geolocated and verified by CNN, show major damage to residential apartment complexes, schools and a medical facility.

Chernobyl running on generators: Repairs to the nuclear power plant’s electrical system, damaged during a Russian attack on March 9, are ongoing, as the plant is now dependent on external diesel generators to keep its reactors operating, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said. Russian officials have also arrived to Ukraine’s largest nuclear power plant, demanding to take control of the facility, according to a statement from Energoatom, Ukraine’s state-operated nuclear energy company.

Significant destruction: The cities of Kharkhiv, Mariupol, Mykolaiv, Dnipro, Chernihiv and Sumy are under a sustained Russian onslaught and Russian forces have been expanding their offensive in Ukraine to the west. In the besieged city of Mariupol, satellite imagery showed damage and fires in apartment buildings and gas stations. An emergency coordinator for Doctors Without Borders told CNN that the city is in “the disaster phase now.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said “a few small towns just don’t exist anymore. … They are just gone.”

Evacuations: Seven civilians, including women and a child were killed by Russian troops while trying to flee the village of Peremoga, in the Kyiv region, according to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry. Zelensky said 12,729 Ukrainians were successfully evacuated Saturday.

Ukraine united: Zelensky said his country is more united than ever as it faces Russian violence but sees a “lack of courage from the members of NATO to come together for Ukraine. it’s a huge problem. A philosophical problem of the alliance.” Zelensky said Ukraine has lost approximately 1,300 troops as of Saturday and that all of the country is “a front line.”

Multiple explosions were heard shortly before 6 a.m. local time Sunday on the outskirts of the northwestern city of Lviv, near Ukraine’s border with Poland.

The explosions were heard by a CNN team on the ground. 

Galina Danilchenko

A new mayor has been installed in the Ukrainian city of Melitopol, which is under Russian military control, after the elected mayor was kidnapped on Friday, according to the Zaporozhye regional administration.

Here’s what we know about the situation in the city:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was grateful for international support and pleaded with allies for more aid in an address Saturday.

“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. “The evil which purposefully targets peaceful cities and ambulance vans and explodes hospitals will not stop with just one country if they have the strength to keep going.”

Zelensky also said evacuation corridors in Ukraine have been “working,” announcing 12,729 people were safely evacuated Saturday.

Zelensky also vowed to bring Russian occupiers and their sympathizers to justice, saying “all the occupiers and all the collaborators will know that Ukraine will not forget. Never, nothing. Ukraine will not forget. Ukraine will find them and will call them to responsibility, each one of them.”

Seven civilians, including women and a child, were killed by Russian troops while trying to flee Ukraine’s Kyiv region, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry confirmed Saturday.

“Russians shot at a column of women and children in Kyiv region, who were trying to evacuate along a previously agreed ‘green’ corridor. The result of this brutal act – seven dead. One of them is a child,” a tweet from the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said.

However, an update from the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine said the civilians were fleeing on a route that was not an agreed-upon “green corridor.” 

The group of women and children were attempting to evacuate near the village of Peremoga in Kyiv on Friday when they were shot at by Russians, according to Ukraine’s intelligence agency.

Russia did not immediately comment on this incident.

Makariv, Ukraine

A large swath of Makariv, a village 30 miles (48 kilometers) west of Kyiv, has sustained significant damage from apparent Russian airstrikes.

CNN geolocated and verified the authenticity of photos posted to social media on Saturday, which show major damage to residential apartment complexes, schools and a medical facility.

A stark image from Makariv shows a large hole in the northern wall of an apartment building. Many of the buildings in the photos have sustained damage on their northern facades, further evidence that points to Russian military strikes on civilian areas.

Several hundred feet east of that apartment building, a kindergarten also sustained significant damage.

Smoke can be observed still billowing up from the building, the roof has completely caved in and the windows have all been blown out. 

The Russian Ministry of Defense has claimed troops are not targeting civilians, despite repeated attacks on residential areas with no military value – such as schools, hospitals and apartment blocks.

At another apartment building just west of the school, another photo shows the roof and a number of upper floor residences destroyed.

Just south of the school, the Adonis-Makariv Medical and Diagnostic Center is seen on fire. The street in front of it is littered with debris and the windows have been blown out of the center.

A photo taken on the street in front of the center showed that the debris in front of it is all that remains of the north-facing front facade of the building.

Immediately west of the school and medical center, near the center of Makariv, a massive crater was observed in the road. The medical center can be seen in the background on fire. Next to that crater, another photo shows a residential building with a grocery store on the ground floor has been hit.

In the center of town, a cultural center that also houses government and police offices has been hit by a strike. A portion of the building was destroyed and a structure on the roof appeared to have been clipped by some sort of munition.

“Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the heroes” was written on a large sign in the front of the building.

South of central Makariv, a preschool also sustained significant damage. The windows have been blown out and portions of the roof appear to be damaged.