Ukraine war: Kyiv under fire – Zelenskyj names conditions for negotiations

Created: 03/01/2022, 23:37

By: Johannes Nuß, Tim Vincent Dicke, Daniel Dillmann, Nail Akkoyun, Andreas Schmid, Delia Friess

War is raging in Ukraine.

Russia's main targets are Kyiv and Kharkiv.

Ukrainian President Zelenskyy condemned the attacks as "war crimes".

• The attack from Russia* meets with heavy resistance in Ukraine.

• Russia should already expect a significantly higher number of victims in the Ukraine conflict*.

  NATO* also assumes “problems”.

• The situation in Ukraine* in the news ticker.

>>> Update news ticker <<<

+++ 11:10 p.m .:

Russia is said to have carried out bomb attacks on several districts in Kiev and places just outside the Ukrainian capital.

This is reported by The Kyiv Independent.

The area around Zhuliany International Airport is also affected.

UNIAN news agency reports that a loud explosion was heard in Bila Tserkva village.

A fuel depot was attacked there.

+++ 10.40 p.m .:

One

Ceasefire in the cities is a condition for Ukraine's negotiations with Russia.

According to Tagesschau, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia must stop bombing Ukrainian cities before meaningful talks on a ceasefire could begin.

The first round of negotiations this week brought little progress.

According to a report by the Russian news agency Tass, there will be a second round of talks this Wednesday.

"It is necessary to at least stop bombing people, just stop bombing and then sit down at the negotiating table," Zelenskyy said.

In a joint interview with Reuters and CNN, he called on NATO members to impose a no-fly zone.

This should stop the Russian Air Force.

This is a preventive measure and not intended to drag the western military alliance into a war with Russia.

Ukraine War: Russia holds maneuvers with nuclear submarines

+++ 9.35 p.m .:

Russian nuclear submarines left on Tuesday for maneuvers in the Barents Sea in the Arctic, reports the RND.

This comes just two days after President Vladimir Putin ordered increased alert for nuclear forces.

In Siberia, the Strategic Rocket Forces practiced using mobile rocket launchers.

The Russian Northern Fleet said several of its nuclear submarines are involved in exercises designed to test how they behave in storm conditions.

Ukraine War: Russian troops in Cherson

+++ 8:37 p.m .:

According to the Ukrainian Ministry of the Interior, Russian troops are said to have advanced into the southern city of Cherson.

This is reported by the daily news.

However, Ukraine still controls the city administration building, according to ministry adviser Wadym Denysenk.

Ukraine War: Attack on TV Tower in Kyiv – Five dead and five injured

+++ 19:38:

According to Ukrainian information, five people were killed in the Russian attack on the Kiev television tower.

Civil protection said five other people were injured in the attack on Tuesday.

The attack disrupted the broadcast of television programs.

The tower stands near the Babyn Yar Gorge and the memorial to a massacre of Jewish Ukrainians committed there by the Wehrmacht during World War II.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, himself a Jew, denounced that the world is silent while bombs fall on Babyn Yar.

"Once again these barbarians are murdering the victims of the Holocaust," he wrote on Twitter.

A woman photographs a destroyed shelter near a checkpoint.

Russia has confirmed the continuation of the attack on Ukraine.

© Efrem Lukatsky/dpa

According to Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko, the attack on the television tower damaged the substation that supplies it with electricity and some of the technical equipment.

The structure of the tower remained intact and back-up systems would be put into operation to restore broadcasting, the Interior Ministry said.

Most Ukrainian broadcasters appeared to be working normally again about an hour after the attack.

Putin reaffirms terms for end of attack on Ukraine

+++ 18:58:

Russian President Vladimir Putin has confirmed his conditions for ending the "military operation" in Ukraine, according to the Kremlin.

The government in Kyiv must recognize the "people's republics" of Luhansk and Donetsk and Russia's sovereignty over the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, the Kremlin said.

In addition, Ukraine must be demilitarized and given a neutral status. 

It was the first statement of this kind after representatives of Ukraine and Russia in Belarus on Monday negotiated an end to the war.

Results were not initially communicated after the meeting.

According to the Kremlin, Ukraine must also undertake to continue to do without nuclear weapons in the future.

Ukraine war: Attack on TV tower in Kyiv – Selenskyj speaks of five dead

+++ 6:03 p.m .:

 The Ukrainian Ministry of the Interior confirmed the Russian shelling of the TV tower in Kiev via Facebook.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke of five fatalities.

TV stations would also not work "for some time". 

The Unian agency released a video showing a dark plume of smoke right next to the tower.

The tower itself remained standing, as a commentator said in the recording, according to RND.

Two rockets are said to have hit the site.

According to Unian, there were problems with the television broadcast afterwards.

In the afternoon, the air alarm was triggered again in the metropolis. 

A Russian missile hits the TV tower in Kyiv, capital of Ukraine.

© AFP PHOTO / FACEBOOK ACCOUNT OF THE UKRAINIAN INTERIOR MINISTRY

Ukraine War: Eight people killed in Kharkiv attack

+++ 17:12:

Ukraine announced on Tuesday that eight people were killed in a Russian airstrike on a residential building in the eastern city of Kharkiv, where an administrative building had previously been destroyed by Russian missiles.

"As a result of an airstrike in Kharkiv, eight people were killed and six injured," the Ukrainian rescue service said.

It was also said that two people were rescued alive from the rubble by rescue workers.

Rescue workers in Kharkiv assess the damage after a Russian attack on Tuesday (03/01/2022).

© dpa/Ukrainian Emergency Service

War in Ukraine: TV tower in Kyiv is attacked

+++ 4.35 p.m .:

As a journalist from the Kyiv Independent writes on Twitter, the television tower in Kiev is currently being attacked.

“The Russians are about to destroy the Kiev TV tower.

They are trying to cut us off from communication.”

+++ 3:21 p.m .:

The Russian Ministry of Defense has announced an impending attack on the center of Kiev and has asked residents to leave the area.

"In order to thwart information attacks against Russia, [Russian forces] will attack technological objects of the SBU and the 72nd PSO main center in Kyiv," the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.

"We call on Ukrainian citizens involved in provocations against Russia by Ukrainian nationalists, as well as Kiev residents living near relay stations, to leave their homes."

Ukraine War: Russia bombs Kharkiv - several dead

+++ 2:00 p.m .:

According to rescue workers, at least ten people were killed and 20 others injured in the bombing of the center of the city of Kharkiv.

Rescue workers said ten people were rescued alive from the rubble.

Oleg Sinegubov, the governor of the Kharkiv region, had released a video with images of an explosion.

"Today our enemy insidiously started bombing Kharkiv city center and residential areas," he said in the video (see update from 11:00 a.m.).

+++ 12.30 p.m .:

The EU foreign policy representative Josep Borrell has sharply condemned the Russian attack on the center of the second largest Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.

"Russian bombing of civilian facilities in Kharkiv violates martial law," Borrell wrote on Twitter on Tuesday.

The EU stands by Ukraine “in these dramatic moments”.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the Russian shelling as a "war crime".

"This is state terrorism on the part of Russia," he said in a video message on Telegram.

The Russian army is advancing on Kharkiv as well as the capital Kyiv, he added.

The defense of Kiev has "top priority today".

+++ 12.00 p.m .:

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has accused Ukraine of threatening international security.

The government in Kyiv wants its own nuclear weapons, Lavrov said on Tuesday via video link before the Permanent Disarmament Conference in Geneva.

Soviet nuclear technology and the means to shoot down such weapons are still on Ukrainian territory, Lavrov said, according to the English UN translation.

"We must react to this real danger." Lavrov demanded that US nuclear weapons be withdrawn from NATO partner territory.

He also emphasized: "We continue to believe that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be waged." The Standing Conference on Disarmament is the only multilateral disarmament forum in the world.

Ukraine war: Russia wants to wage war until "goals are achieved".

+++ 11.25 a.m .:

Russia has confirmed the continuation of the attack against Ukraine.

"The grouping of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation will continue to conduct a special military operation until the set goals are achieved," Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in Moscow on Tuesday, according to the Interfax agency.

The most important thing is to protect Russia "from the military threat from Western countries trying to use the Ukrainian people in the fight against our country," Shoigu said.

He accused Ukraine of placing several missile systems, guns and mortars "in the yards of residential buildings, near schools and kindergartens."

"During military clashes, the Ukrainian side does not hesitate to use civilians as human shields," said a confidant of President Vladimir Putin, who ordered the attack on neighboring Ukraine last Thursday.

Ukraine war: Kharkiv center bombed – 20,000 city largely “destroyed”

+++ 11:00 a.m .:

The shelling of Kharkiv continues.

This was stated by the governor of the region, Oleg Sinegubov, on Tuesday in a video on the Telegram messenger service.

He released footage of an explosion and added: "Russian occupiers continue to use heavy weapons against the civilian population." he wears a helmet and a bulletproof vest.

At least 70 Ukrainian soldiers are said to have been killed in Monday's bombing raids in the northeastern city of Ochyrka in the Sumy region, according to the head of the regional administration.

However, the army did not want to confirm the number to the AFP news agency.

Meanwhile, the power supply in the eastern Ukrainian port of Mariupol was interrupted after a Russian offensive.

"The power line was cut in Mariupol, the city is without electricity," Donetsk region governor Pavlo Kirilenko said on Facebook on Tuesday.

Mariupol and Volnovakha are "under pressure from the enemy, but they are holding out," the governor said.

However, Wolnowacha, which has around 20,000 inhabitants, is largely “destroyed”.

Ukraine War: Kharkiv center bombed

+++ 9.45 a.m .:

The center of Kharkiv, the second largest city in Ukraine, has been bombed by the Russian army.

"This morning the central square of our city and the seat of the Kharkiv administration was attacked," said the governor of the region, Oleg Sinegubov, in a video on Tuesday on Telegram.

He released footage of the blast, adding: "The Russian occupiers continue to use heavy weapons against the civilian population."

+++ 8.30 a.m .:

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban does not want to allow arms deliveries from the West to Ukraine to be carried out through Hungarian sovereign territory.

"We have decided that we will not let any such deliveries through," he said in a statement published by the Hungarian state news agency MTI on Monday evening (02/28/2022).

The EU and NATO country Hungary borders Ukraine in the east and has a common border that is around 140 kilometers long.

Orban justified the decision not to allow arms deliveries through Hungary with the fact that more than 100,000 ethnic Hungarians live in the western Ukrainian region of Transcarpathia.

Their safety would be endangered by such deliveries, it said.

War in Ukraine: Russia probably blows up substations in Kharkiv - 87 houses destroyed

+++ 07.30 a.m .:

Kharkiv, the second largest city in Ukraine, was also the target of Russian attacks on Tuesday night.

According to the Ukrinform agency, Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said the Russian military was blowing up substations there.

This leads to problems with the electricity and water supply.

The Unian news agency reported that the upper floors of two skyscrapers had been destroyed.

According to earlier information, at least eleven people were killed and dozens injured in attacks in Kharkiv on Monday, and 87 houses were destroyed.

Videos showed impacts and smoke in the city.

Russia denies accusations that it is attacking civilian facilities.

Ukraine war: USA apparently fears second wave of Russian troops

+++ 5:25 a.m .:

According to its own statements, the Ukrainian army shot down several Russian fighter planes.

A total of five Russian warplanes and a helicopter were shot down in air raids on Monday, the online newspaper Ukrainska Pravda wrote on Tuesday, citing the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense.

The Ukrainian Air Force also reported these numbers.

However, the information could not be independently verified.

The shooting down of the fighter planes took place during the air raids on Vasylkiv and Brovary in the Kiev region, it said.

A cruise missile and a helicopter were also shot down near Kyiv.

In addition, Ukrainian warplanes are said to have fired rockets and bombs at Russian tanks and troops near Kyiv and near the city of Zhytomyr on Monday.

Bombs were also dropped in the northern region of Chernihiv and near the southern Ukrainian city of Berdyansk, which is now under Russian control.

Ukraine War: Mariupol apparently under Ukrainian control

+++ 3:51 a.m .:

The Ukraine war also recently took place in Mariupol.

Now the southern Ukrainian city is apparently under the control of the Ukrainian army.

This is reported by the State Information Service of Ukraine.

However, due to an air raid, the city in the Donetsk region is almost without electricity.

There are also internet and cell phone outages.

Ukraine war: 6,440 arrests at demonstrations in Russia

+++ 2.45 a.m

.: There have been demonstrations in Russia since the outbreak of the Ukraine war.

So far, 6440 people have been arrested, as the civil rights portal Owd-Info announced on Tuesday night.

Around half of the arrests - 3126 - took place in Moscow.

2,084 people were arrested in St. Petersburg.

In Yekaterinburg, Krasnodar and Nizhny Novgorod there were more than 100 each.

In total, there have been protests in 103 Russian cities since Russia began attacking Ukraine.

According to Owd-Info, 413 people in 13 cities were arrested during the protests on Monday alone.

The Russian security forces are apparently extremely brutal against demonstrators.

Ukraine war: sanctions from Canada - no crude oil imports from Russia

+++ 11:20 p.m .:

The Ukraine war entails further sanctions against Russia.

Canada is temporarily suspending all crude oil imports from Russia.

"We announce our intention to ban imports of crude oil from Russia - an industry that has greatly benefited President Putin and his oligarchs," Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said.

In addition, Canada wants to send more anti-tank weapons and ammunition to Ukraine.

The country's broadcasting authority should also check whether the Russian state broadcaster RT (formerly "Russia Today") can be taken offline.

Recently there had already been sanctions against RT – for example from YouTube.

Ukraine war: Russian jets are said to fire from the sky over Chernobyl nuclear power plants

+++ 9:35 p.m .:

According to the Ukrainian military, Russian fighter jets fire projectiles at enemy targets over the Chernobyl exclusion zone.

They would fire from there to prevent enemy troops from firing back.

This was stated by a spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force to the LB.ua portal.

A plane shot down over the Chernobyl nuclear power plant could lead to an environmental catastrophe.

"They are shooting at us and we should have shot them down, but because the risks of an accident at a nuclear power plant are too great, we cannot," the spokesman said.

That is why it is important for the member states of the International Atomic Energy Agency and NATO to "urgently think about closing the skies over Ukraine and establishing a no-fly zone here," said the army representative.

Ukraine War: Russia with casualties

+++ 12.45 p.m .:

According to Ukrainian information, Russia has to complain about further losses.

According to the latest information from the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Russia lost 816 armored vehicles, 291 motor vehicles, 191 tanks, 60 fuel tanks, 29 airplanes, 29 helicopters, 74 artillery pieces, 21 rocket launchers, 5 anti-aircraft missiles, 2 ships, 3 drones and 1 Buk missile system.

This information has not been independently confirmed.

Since the beginning of the war with Ukraine, the Russian side has reported a “loss” of around 4,500 soldiers, the Ukrainian General Staff reported on Sunday (February 27, 2022).

Ukraine-Russia War: Belarus could join the war today

Update from Monday, February 28th, 2022, 6.45 a.m .:

According to speculation on Monday morning, Belarus could officially join soldiers in the war between Russia and Ukraine.

Belarusian paratroopers are said to have been ordered to fly to Ukraine at 5 a.m., writes the Ukrainian agency Unian.

She relies on information from Andrej Strischak from the non-governmental organization Bysol (Belarus Solidarity Foundation), which works for those affected by political repression in Belarus.

This information could not be independently verified.

First report:

The Ukraine conflict continues to escalate.

The decisive factor for Russia could be the intervention of Belarus.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian military is concentrating on defending the capital Kyiv.

(jn/dil/df/tvd/as/nak with dpa/AFP/rtr/KNA/epd) *