Day 18 of war in Ukraine: Russians attacked with 30 missiles a military base close to the border with Poland. At least 35 killed, over 130 injured

U.S. journalist killed by Russians near Kyiv.

Latest news: At least 35 people have been killed and 134 injured in Sunday’s Russian airstrike on a Western military base in Yavoriv, ​​western Ukraine, near the Polish border, the governor of Lviv region told Reuters. According to the governor, Russia has launched 30 missiles at the military base. It seems the most western attack of the war started by Russia in Ukraine.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Olekssi Reznikov said foreign military instructors were working at the Yavoriv military base, but it was unclear if any of them were present at the time of the attack.

An American journalist was killed near Kyiv on Sunday, reports The Guardian, quoting the regional police chief. It is about Brent Renaud (51 years old), killed after the Russian military opened fire on the car he was in, in the area of ​​Irpin.

The management of the American newspaper The New York Times confirms his death in Ukraine and announces that he worked in the past for the American publication, but was not in Ukraine for The New York Times Another journalist in the same car was injured and taken to hospital for treatment. The surviving journalist briefly recounted how their car was attacked near a bridge while filming refugees leaving Kyiv.

.@nytimes is deeply saddened to learn of the death of an American journalist in Ukraine, Brent Renaud.
Brent was a talented photographer and filmmaker, but he was not on assignment for @nytimes in Ukraine.
Full statement is here. pic.twitter.com/bRcrnNDacQ

— Cliff Levy (@cliffordlevy) March 13, 2022

Zelensky: Main mission is food and medicines reach Mariupol

President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday’s main mission was to get the humanitarian convoy of food, water and medicine to Mariupol, CNN reports. In a short message on Instagram, the Ukrainian president said: “Our humanitarian convoy is two hours away from Mariupol, only 80 kilometers away. We are doing everything we can to overcome the resistance of the occupiers, who are blocking even the Orthodox Church priests who are the convoy with food, water, medicine. Ukraine provided 100 tons, basic necessities for citizens. ”

The convoy left on Saturday for Mariupol, a city that has been under siege for more than a week. Zelensky said that after 18 days of conflict, “Russia has lost thousands of military vehicles, 74 planes and 86 helicopters.” CNN points out that it cannot independently verify the claims of loss of any of the parties to the conflict.

 

Russian forces also bombed Lviv and Kherson this morning. There are also explosions in Ivano-Frankivsk. The airport in the western Ukrainian city of Ivano-Frankivsk has an infrastructure almost completely destroyed by a Russian air strike, said the mayor of the city, Ruslan Martsinkiv, while speaking on the television station “Rada”, CNN reports. According to initial reports, there are no casualties. This is the third attack on the airport, Martsinkiv said.

On Saturday night to Sunday the air alarms were activated in Uman, Kharkiv, Kramatorsk, Sloviansk, Vinnytsia, Kyiv, Poltava, Zhytomyr, Khmelnytskyi, Lviv, Odessa, Volyn, Zaporozhye, Berezivka, Izmail, Kiliya, Yuzhka, Chernivtsi and Avdiivka, as well as in the provinces of Kyiv, Rivne, Chernihiv, Ternopil, Dnipro, Cherkasy and Sumi.

The Ukrainian Defense Ministry said the seven civilians, women and a child, who were reported to have lost their lives on Saturday after Russian forces attacked a convoy near a village in the Kyiv region, were not in a corridor. approved Sunday, Reuters reports on Sunday. The Ukrainian intelligence service had initially announced that the seven people who died near the town of Peremoha were on a “green lane” for evacuation, agreed with the Russian side. According to the defense ministry, the dead were part of a convoy of civilians who tried to escape on their own and fled outside the Russian-approved corridor.

While Ukrainian military said that more than 12,000 soldiers killed in Putin’s army, Russian troops claimed they had so far destroyed 3,687 Ukrainian military infrastructure facilities, as Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies on Sunday.

According to the latest assessment of the British Ministry of Defense, the Russians are trying to encircle the Ukrainian forces in the east of the country.

At the same time, NATO expects the fighting and the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine to intensify in the coming days, more than two weeks after the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, informs DPA.

“We are horrified by the growing number of civilian casualties and the reckless destruction of Russian forces. The Ukrainian people are resisting with courage and determination, but the next few days are likely to bring even greater suffering,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told an interview with the German publication Welt am Sonntag.

NATO Secretary-General has again called on President Vladimir Putin to “stop the war, withdraw all troops and accept diplomacy.”

Volodymir Zelensky said on Saturday night in a new video message, saying that the Russians do not have the power to conquer Ukraine. He voiced confidence that Russia’s chances of successfully invading his country are small, while making new calls on the Western allies, urging them to help Ukraine more.

“If they decide to drop a bomb and simply erase the history of this region … and destroy us all, then they will enter Kyiv. If that is their goal, let them come, but they will have to live alone in this territory “.

Mayors of two occupied cities, abducted

The mayor of the occupied city of Dniprorudne has been abducted by Russian troops, Kyiv Independent reports. Evhen Matviiv is the second mayor, after the mayor of Melitopol, abducted by Russian soldiers since the outbreak of war. “War crimes are becoming systemic,” Zaporozhye Governor Olexandr Starukh said.

Meanwhile, the Russian army has installed a new mayor in the occupied city of Melitopol, after the elected mayor, Ivan Fedorov, was picked up by Moscow troops on Friday afternoon and charged with terrorism.

Galina Danilchenko, a former member of the City Council, appeared on local television, where she stated that her main task is to build “basic mechanisms in the new reality.”

Danilchenko said he was preparing to set up a “people’s elected committee” to run the city and urged residents not to take part in “extremist actions”.

On Friday, Melitopol Mayor Ivan Fedorov was seen in a video while being taken out of the government building by armed men. Shortly afterwards, the Russian-backed Luhansk regional prosecutor claimed that Fedorov was a terrorist and was under investigation. According to a message on the Luhansk prosecutor’s website, Fedorov is accused of assisting and financing terrorist activities and belonging to a criminal community.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called for his immediate release, saying it was a “crime against democracy” and that Russia had “entered a new stage of terror” in its invasion, “trying to physically eliminate legitimate local government officials.” Ukrainians “. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry described Fedorov’s detention as a “kidnapping” and a “war crime”.

Thousands protested Fedorov’s abduction in front of Melitopol City Hall, with the crowd chanting “Freedom for the mayor”.

UN: 1,600 lives claimed in Ukraine war so far

The war in Ukraine has claimed nearly 1,600 lives, according to the United Nations. 579 dead and 1,000 wounded is the UN-verified tally. Among those who lost their lives are 42 children and 54 were injured. Ukraine has repeatedly accused Russian troops of continuing to fire during evacuations.

Mayor of Nikolaev thanks Romanians for sending aid to Ukraine

The mayor of Nikolaev sent a message of gratitude to the Brasov community, which sent two trucks full of food and other necessary products to Ukraine.

Ukrainian Mayor Oleksandr Syenkevych posted the message on social media: “Thank you for the humanitarian aid you sent to Nikolaev during these difficult days. We will never forget this and we will always appreciate your kindness. Today we are defending our city and the whole of Ukraine from a great and powerful enemy that has only one goal: to bring pain to our families and to destroy our homes. But I am sure that with your support and that of the whole democratic world, we will win this horrible war! “

The city of Nikolaev has been severely affected by Russian bombing in recent days and is under siege.