WAR IN UKRAINE: March 13, 2022
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS: Day 18
A missile strike on an apartment building in Mariupol - Evgeniy Maloletka
“The deadly strike on a Ukrainian military base near the Polish border on Sunday was one of the most audacious to date by the Russian side - and should be seen as nothing less than a dangerous provocation to NATO. At least 35 people were killed and 145 wounded from 30 missiles fired from warplanes over the Black and Azov seas. The base is where for years NATO forces had trained their Ukrainian counterparts before being evacuated. The blasts were so close to the border that they shook homes on the Polish side.”
Early Sunday, in Yavoriv (Lviv Oblast), 30 missiles fired by the Russian side hit a Ukrainian military base which is also the site of the International Peace and Security Centre, where NATO forces - including Canada’s Operation UNIFIER - had trained with the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Yavoriv is about 50kms west of the oblast capital, Lviv.
The strike was deadly: news reports say at least 35 people were killed and 145 were wounded; Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov said it was not clear if any foreign trainers were present (most had been evacuated). Maksym Kozytsky, head of the Lviv regional military administration, in a statement posted to Facebook, said more than 30 missiles fired from warplanes over the Black and Azov seas towards the military base.
The blasts were so far west that they shook homes on the Polish side of the border. The base is also reported to be the home of Ukraine’s new foreign legion.The strike at Yavoriv was reportedly carried out by LRA Tu-95s, likely with Kh-55s or Kh-101s, according to The Lookout.
On Sunday as churchgoers observed the first Sunday of Lent on the old church calendar, air raid sirens went off intermittently throughout the morning starting from the pre-dawn hours.
Vadym Dynysenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs said the strikes were meant to show Ukrainians that no region of the country is safe.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS (CONTD)
Eyewitnesses have also told BBC Ukrainian that they heard explosions in the western city of Ivano-Frankivsk. The mayor of the regional center said the civilian airport has been totally destroyed.
A 51-year-old New York Times correspondent, US citizen Brent Renaud, was shot dead in Irpin today. Another US journalist who was injured and brought to hospital told Ukraine’s Espreso TV that the shooting occurred at a checkpoint as the journalists moved around in a vehicle; he said Renaud was shot in the neck.
Renaud was described by those who knew him as fearless - not afraid to venture anywhere.Moldova's PM Natalia Gavrilița tells the BBC they "certainly need outside help" to cope with the influx of Ukrainian refugees. One of Europe's poorest nations, Moldova has taken in nearly 100,000 people from Ukraine - a 4% increase of their population
Russia's possible use of chemical weapons on Ukraine could be a ‘game-changer’ for NATO, said Polish President Duda in an interview with BBC. He said that Russia using any weapons of mass destruction could be a “game-changer” and could make NATO think seriously about how to respond.
During the fighting in the city of Svyatogorsk, Donetsk region, on March 12, the premises of the Assumption Svyatogorsk Lavra, where monks and refugees were staying, were damaged, according to UOC website. Almost all the windows were broken, church buildings were destroyed to varying degrees. 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 dates back to as early as the year 1526 and houses relics of St. John the Hermit of Sviatohirsk.
Above: Ukraine's historic Holy Dormition Sviatogirsk Lavra, an Orthodox monastery in the Donetsk Oblast region of eastern Ukraine
The homes of sanctions oligarchs could be used to house refugees from the war in Ukraine, a top UK minister says. Speaking to the BBC’s Sophie Raworth, Secretary of State for Levelling up, Housing, and Communities Michael Gove said: “I want to explore an option which would allow us to use the homes and properties of sanctioned individuals, for as long as they are sanctioned, for humanitarian and other purposes.
“There’s quite a high legal bar to cross and we’re 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... If we can use it in order to help others, let’s do that.’”
A worst-case scenario awaits the hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped by heavy combat in Mariupol unless the parties reach a concrete humanitarian agreement urgently, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) warned today.
“We call on all parties involved in the fighting to place humanitarian imperatives first. People in Mariupol have endured a weeks-long life-and-death nightmare. This needs to stop now. Their safety and their access to food, water and shelter must be guaranteed,” said Peter Maurer, ICRC’s president.
Hundreds of thousands of the city’s residents are now facing extreme or total shortages of basic necessities like food, water and medicine. People of all ages, including our staff, are sheltering in unheated basements, risking their lives to make short runs outside for food and water. Dead bodies, of civilians and combatants, remain trapped under the rubble or lying in the open where they fell. Life-changing injuries and chronic, debilitating conditions cannot be treated. The human suffering is simply immense.”
