LIVE – War in Ukraine: a huge Russian military convoy 60 kilometers long approaches Kiev

Satellite images taken Monday in Ukraine show a huge Russian military convoy stretching more than 60 kilometers northwest of the capital Kiev, a key military objective for Russia in its offensive in Ukraine. On Monday, the Ukrainian and Russian delegations held talks, before returning to their respective capitals for consultations. Negotiators agreed to a “second round” of talks.

LIVE ON THE WAR IN UKRAINE:

06:45 – Russian army at the gates of the Ukrainian city of Kherson (mayor)

The Russian army has arrived at the gates of the Ukrainian city of Kherson, in the south of the country, north of Crimea, the mayor of the city said on Monday night. “At the entrances to Kherson, the Russian army has set up checkpoints. It is difficult to say how the situation will develop,” wrote on his Facebook page Igor Kolikhaïev, mayor of Kherson, adding that “Kherson is and remains Ukrainian ( …) Kherson resists!”.

05h40 – “Mariupol firmly in the hands of the Ukrainian army”

The Ukrainian army has taken control of the port city of Mariupol in southern Ukraine since Tuesday morning, reports the Ukrainian news agency Unian citing the government. The city in the Donetsk region had been the scene of fighting between Russian and Ukrainian soldiers for several days.

03:00 – A huge Russian military convoy near Kiev

Satellite images taken Monday in Ukraine show a huge Russian military convoy stretching more than 60 kilometers northwest of the capital Kiev, a key military objective for Russia in its offensive in Ukraine. The convoy “extends from the area around Antonov airport (regarding 25 km from the center of Kiev) in the south to around Prybirsk” in the north, the American satellite imagery company Maxar said in an email on Monday evening. This airport is, since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia on February 24, the scene of violent clashes, the army of Vladimir Putin trying to seize this strategic infrastructure for the capture of the capital.

In the convoy captured by satellite image, regarding 64 kilometers long, “some vehicles are sometimes very distant from each other and, on other portions, military equipment is positioned two or three abreast”, Maxar added. Images of the convoy show several dozen vehicles lined up one behind the other on roads in the Ukrainian countryside, with occasional smoke nearby, traces of building fires according to the company. The American company also released images showing new deployments of troops – attack helicopters and ground vehicles – in Belarus, less than thirty kilometers from the border with Ukraine.

Ukrainian forces have so far managed to prevent access to the center of Kiev to Russian forces, whose advance remains “slowed” on the fifth day of the invasion and which gather around the capital. Ukraine’s army headquarters said on Facebook on Tuesday that Russian forces had regrouped over the past 24 hours, accumulating armored vehicles and artillery weapons “primarily to encircle and take control of Kiev and the other major cities of Ukraine”.

According to two sources interviewed by AFP on Monday, one diplomat and the other security, Moscow is preparing to launch a new military push imminently. The main Russian column advancing on the Ukrainian capital “advanced regarding five kilometers” on Monday and was “regarding 25 km” from the city, a senior U.S. defense official said earlier in the day.

2:05 am – Dozens of deaths reported in Kharkiv and Sumy

Casualties are reported in the Ukrainian cities of Kharkiv (east) and Sumy (north-east), caused by attacks carried out by the Russian army. In a video message posted on Facebook, the mayor of the city of Kharkiv, Ihor Terekhov, assures that nine people were killed and 37 injured. In addition, 87 residential buildings were destroyed in Russian bombardments. The fighting in the city of Sumy also caused multiple victims, both in the Ukrainian and Russian ranks, according to the Antikor portal, which mentions around 70 Ukrainians killed and many Russians killed as well. The Unian news agency also reports that around 100 Russian military vehicles were destroyed. Not far from the capital Kiev on Monday evening, many buildings were also destroyed by Russian rocket attacks, reports the dpa agency which indicates that this information and the previous ones might not be verified independently.

02:15 – Disney suspends the release of its films in Russia

American entertainment giant Disney announced on Monday that it was suspending the release of its films in theaters in Russia following the attack on Ukraine, following the example of several companies which chose to opt out, temporarily. or not, of the country.

01:10 a.m. – Tech giants attack media close to Russian power

Facebook blocks them, Twitter makes them less visible, Microsoft removes them from its app store; Tech giants took a new step on Monday to limit the influence of media close to Russian power, accused of disinformation since the invasion of Ukraine.

00:35 – Ukraine accuses Russia of war crimes, with hundreds of civilian victims

Kiev has accused Moscow of committing war crimes amid heavy civilian casualties following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “Russia attacks hospitals, mobile brigades and ambulances. (…) This is the action of a state determined to kill civilians. There is no debate. These are war crimes “, said the Ukrainian ambassador to the Security Council during an emergency meeting. According to Ukraine, 350 civilians were killed in the fighting, but Russia assures that civilians are not targeted. The United Nations for its part communicated Monday evening that more than a hundred civilians have been killed and 300 injured since the attack in Ukraine, according to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. “Most of the victims were mowed down by explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including heavy artillery fire, rocket launchers and airstrikes”, details this body.

00:00 – Ukrainian President calls on Russia “not to waste time” in Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on Russia on Tuesday not to “waste its time” in Ukraine, saying Russian bombing will not get Kiev to accept Moscow’s terms for a truce. The first round of Russian-Ukrainian talks took place on Monday ” once morest the background of shelling and shooting aimed at our territory”, Zelensky said in a video posted on Facebook. “I think Russia is trying in this simple way to put pressure” on Kiev, he said, adding: “Don’t waste your time”. The Ukrainian president further called on Tuesday to ban Russia from “all ports” and “airports in the world” in retaliation for the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “The entry for such a state must be closed to all ports, all channels and all airports in the world,” Mr. Zelensky said in a video address posted on Facebook, also calling on the international community to “consider a total closure of the sky for Russian missiles, planes and helicopters”.

11:30 p.m. – Ukrainian and Russian troops report heavy casualties in enemy ranks

Both Ukrainian and Russian troops report massive casualties in enemy ranks. The Ukrainian army in Kiev reports that more than 5,000 Russian soldiers have been killed and 191 tanks destroyed since the start of the war. Still according to Ukrainian sources, 29 Russian helicopters and 29 Russian planes were destroyed. Russian troops have advanced 16 kilometers further into Ukraine in the Lugansk region, for his part advanced the Russian Minister of Defense. Since the beginning of the “special operation”, according to Russian terms to describe the aggression in Ukraine, more than 1,000 military elements have been destroyed, including more than 300 tanks. This data reported on either side of the front lines has not been independently verified. While Russia has admitted that there were deaths in its ranks during the fighting in Ukraine, Moscow did not, however, quantify these losses.