WAR IN UKRAINE: March 2, 2022
MAJOR DEVELOPMENTS
Russian forces continue bombardment of major cities, including Kyiv and Kharkiv. The key city of Kherson in the south has reportedly fallen into Russian control. Maps showings areas of the country in the south seized by Russia suggest a strategy at play to create a land corridor between the Russian mainland and Crimea, I told National Public Radio early this morning.
Media: Putin wants to reinstate ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych as president of Ukraine. Yanukovych is allegedly currently in Minsk, and the Kremlin is said to be preparing a special operation to replace Zelensky with the ex-president ousted by the EuroMaidan Revolution in 2014, according to Ukrainska Pravda’s sources in Ukrainian intelligence.
Ukraine and Poland opened two new pedestrian refugee crossings overnight, reducing the long queues of people fleeing on foot, according to Deputy Interior Minister Mary Akopyan. “There are still a lot of cars,” she told the Kyiv Independent. “But the pedestrian queues are no longer so extreme.”
A spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Poland says that in just the first six days of the war, more than 836,000 migrants have crossed into neighbouring countries. Calls numbers unprecedented; expects number to surge to 1-2 million (others say upwards of 5-million).
In response to media reports that foreign students were facing segregation and racism at Ukraine’s borders, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement saying: “There is no discrimination based on the race or nationality, including when it comes to the crossing of the state border by foreign citizens. The first come first served approach applied to all nationalities.”
Russia bans leading opposition media 'TV Rain' and 'Echo of Moscow.' Russia’s prosecutor general has blocked access to two independent Russian media outlets due to alleged “violations” over their reporting of Russia’s war against Ukraine. Russia claims that Rain and Echo of Moscow had posted information calling for “extremist, violence against citizens of Russia.” Echo of Moscow had run uninterrupted since 1990. At a London Frontline Online panel Tuesday evening, Russian security expert Andrei Soldatov said: “The response of this crisis domestically is just complete censorship.” He said the last time Echo of Moscow was switched off was in 1991 during a KGB coup d’etat in Moscow.
“We are looking at what could become Europe’s largest refugee crisis this century. While we have seen tremendous solidarity and hospitality from neighbouring countries in receiving refugees, including from local communities and private citizens, much more support will be needed to assist and protect new arrivals”
From March 1, 2022, the sale of alcohol is completely banned in shops, bars and restaurants in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said. “Given the tensions at the front, the sale of alcoholic beverages is completely banned in Lviv today. The martial law does not provide for any discussion in making such decisions. All those who violate this order will be held accountable before the law,” Sadovyi wrote in a Facebook post. “Our army is at war with the occupier, air strikes are falling in our cities. We will celebrate after the victory.”
Other jurisdictions in Ukraine are said to have introduced similar alcohol bans.
A Ukrainian passport reportedly saved the life of a 16-year-old boy in Mariupol. Medics found shrapnel embedded in the document, according to a post on Instagram.
Click above for our London Frontline Online panel yesterday evening on the Ukraine crisis, featuring experts and journalists. I reported live from Lviv.
In Warsaw on Tuesday, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson received an unexpected, passionate lecture from Ukrainian journalist Daria Kaleniuk about failing Ukraine and being a coward. In a Tweet afterwards, Keleniuk wrote: “NATO doesn't want to hit russian missiles, which are destroying Ukrainian hospitals. NATO is afraid to irritate Putin. Ok, we have alternative - how about @BorisJohnson & @POTUS coming to Ukraine now & protect our sky at least for a few days so that children could be evacuated?”
Watch the video below.
MEDIA HITS FOR WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2, 2022
National Public Radio (NPR): 22:30 ET / 06:30 Lviv
CBC Radio The Current: 08:30 in all Canadian time zones