WAR IN UKRAINE: March 17, 2022
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS: Day 22
With the glimmer of peace talks on the horizon, western experts voiced fears of Russia using older, deadlier weapons against civilians in Ukraine. This morning on CNN, I said the approach is straight out of the Russian playbook. Scorched earth policies were used in populated centres in eastern Ukraine. But despite the growing threat, leaders in western capitals show little spine to chance a direct confrontation with Mr. Putin - either through the enforcement of a no-fly-zone or by providing Soviet-era MIG jets via Poland. The lack of political will, despite urgent and emphatic please from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, has many people here feeling that they’re being left alone to defend NATO’s eastern flank.
We are getting reports from Ukrainians and from Russians that they are making progress in talks, reports Lyse Doucet of BBC. But there's still many, many differences. The loudest words we're getting about this war is the words of war unfolding on the ground.
In the besieged city of Mariupol, Russia has attacked a theatre where civilians have been sheltering, the city's deputy mayor tells the BBC. Between 1,000 and 1,200 people may have been inside, Serhiy Orlov says. The number of casualties is currently unknown
Melitopol Mayor was exchanged for 9 Russian conscripts. The soldiers were 18-19 years old, according to Dasha Zarivna, a spokesperson for the presidential chief of staff. Melitopol Mayor Ivan Fedorov was abducted and held captive by the Russian forces for five days (Ukrainska Pravda)
Russia’s military has in three weeks lost more than 7,000 soldiers, roughly the same as the number of American Marines killed during the monthlong battle for Iwo Jima, and greater than the number of American troops killed over 20 years in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to American intelligence estimates cited by the New York Times. Ukraine cited figures which tend to be high, with the latest at 13,500, and Russia cites figures which tend to be low, with the latest at 498.
Russian men could be forced to turn to domestic suppliers or alternative treatments to satisfy their erectile dysfunction problems and sagging facial features as western pharmaceutical firms pull out of the Russian market. ED treatments such as Cialis and cosmetic treatment Botox are ending up on firms’ non-essential drug list. According to the Daily Beast, U.S. drugmaker AbbVie, which owns the cosmetic medicine, announced that it is halting operations inside Russia as a result of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. The Russian leader is said to be an enthusiastic user of Botox. Meanwhile, Reuters reports that Eli Lilly & Co has included Cialis, a branded erectile dysfunction treatment available from other sellers as a generic drug, as a non-essential drug for the Russian market.
Lu Yuguang of Chinese news outlet Phoenix TV appears to have gained exclusive access to Moscow’s side of the invasion of Ukraine. The veteran Chinese journalist is perhaps the only foreign correspondent embedded with Russian troops as they continue the brutal invasion of Ukraine. His reports from Ukraine have included Russian disinformation such as claims of more than 1,000 people held hostage as human shields by Ukrainian militants. Read the Guardian article here.
'I'm on the frontline in Mariupol': the Chinese reporter embedded within Russian troops