WAR IN UKRAINE: March 20, 2022
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS: Day 25
An art school in Mariupol, where about 400 people were sheltering, was attacked, the city council says. Officials say the building has been destroyed and people could be trapped under the rubble. Ukraine's president says Russia's attacks on the southern port city of Mariupol will be remembered for centuries - BBC
“If we were a NATO member, a war wouldn't have started. I'd like to receive security guarantees for my country, for my people,” Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky tells CNN. “If NATO members are ready to see us in the alliance, then do it immediately because people are dying on a daily basis.” Full story here
One third of Ukraine’s economy has shut down. About 30 per cent of companies suspended operations in Ukraine, Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko said during the national TV marathon. He quoted earlier tax return data. Economic losses amount to $500-billion, says Hennadiy Chyzhykov, the president of Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Ukraine comments whether international companies could continue their activity in Russia. Since the start of the war on Feb. 24, the losses include: 400 educational institutions, 36 hospitals, 1600 residential buildings, 3 dozen factories, 1000s of kilometres of roads and railway track and 15 airports and 300 bridges. More than 3-million people left the country. To learn more, watch the clip of Chyzhykov below.
Images on social media show Russian forces arresting people and dispersing crowds in occupied towns. One video allegedly taken in another city, Berdyansk, shows people being detained and beaten by Russian forces. Watch here
Russia's leader Vladimir Putin is trapped in a closed world of his own making, Western spies believe. And that worries them.
"It is extremely hard in a system as well protected as Russia to have good intelligence on what's happening inside the head of the leader especially when so many of his own people do not know what is going on," Sir John Sawers, a former head of Britain's MI6, told the BBC.
Read the full article here
Our thoughts and prayers with Ukrainian journalist Kateryna Malofieieva. She is based in Mariupol.