Russia-Ukraine struggle: Key issues to know concerning the battle

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia on Saturday of kidnapping the mayor of a metropolis, calling it “a new stage of terror.” Russian forces expanded their offensive in Ukraine, hitting new areas within the nation’s west.

The West ramped up financial stress on Russia, because the U.S. and its allies downgraded Russian’s commerce standing — the newest in efforts to additional isolate Russia for the invasion.

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The struggle has pressured greater than 2.5 million folks to flee Ukraine, whereas others search refuge in basements, subway stations and underground shelters.

Here are some key issues to know concerning the struggle:

What’s occurring on the bottom in Ukraine?

Zelenskyy mentioned the mayor of the southern port metropolis of Melitopol was kidnapped, equating it to the actions of “ISIS terrorists.”

“They have transitioned into a new stage of terror, in which they try to physically liquidate representatives of Ukraine’s lawful local authorities,” Zelenskyy mentioned in a video handle Friday night.

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Kirill Timoshenko, the deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential workplace, posted a video which he mentioned exhibits armed males carrying Mayor Ivan Fedorov throughout a sq.. Russian forces captured Melitopol, with a inhabitants of 150,000, on Feb. 26.

The prosecutor’s workplace of the Luhansk People’s Republic, a Moscow-backed insurgent area in japanese Ukraine, accused Fedorov on its web site of “terrorist activities.”

The Biden administration, citing undisclosed American intelligence, had warned that Russia deliberate to detain and kill focused folks in Ukraine.

Relatives and pals mourn the physique of senior police sergeant Roman Rushchyshyn within the village of Soposhyn, outskirts of Lviv, western Ukraine. (AP)

New areas in western Ukraine got here below assault Friday, as Ukrainian authorities mentioned Russian airstrikes hit within the western cities of Ivano-Frankiivsk and Lutsk — removed from Russia’s fundamental targets elsewhere within the nation.

Russia mentioned it used long-range weapons to place army airfields within the two cities “out of action.” Lutsk Mayor Ihor Polishchuk mentioned 4 servicemen have been killed and one other six have been wounded.

New industrial satellite tv for pc pictures appeared to indicate Russian artillery firing on residential areas that lie between Russian forces and the capital. The pictures from Maxar Technologies present muzzle flashes in addition to affect craters and burning houses within the city of Moschun, exterior Kyiv, the corporate mentioned.

Ukrainian officers accused Russia of damaging a most cancers hospital and a number of other residential buildings within the southern metropolis of Mykolaiv with heavy artillery.

The hospital’s chief physician, Maksim Beznosenko, mentioned a number of hundred sufferers have been within the hospital when home windows have been blown out however that nobody had been killed.

Russia’s Defense Ministry additionally mentioned Friday that an offensive, led by fighters from the separatist-held Donetsk area, was additional squeezing the southern port metropolis of Mariupol. The Mariupol mayor’s workplace mentioned Friday that the variety of folks killed throughout the 12-day siege has risen to 1,582.

The lifeless our bodies of individuals killed by Russian shelling lay coated on the street within the city of Irpin. (AP)

Three extra Russian airstrikes hit the economic metropolis of Dnipro in japanese Ukraine on Friday, killing a minimum of one particular person, based on the Ukrainian inside ministry.

Thousands of civilians and troopers on either side are believed to have been killed within the invasion.

What has the AP immediately witnessed?

More shelling and airstrikes pummeled Mariupol on Friday, leaving residence complexes on hearth as temperatures hovered round freezing. The metropolis of 430,000 has been with out meals, working water and electrical energy for 10 days.

A new child woman nestled towards her mom after Russian airstrikes hit the Mariupol maternity hospital the place the lady was to provide beginning. Mariana Vishegirskaya had her child, Veronika, through cesarean part in one other hospital on town’s outskirts a day after the Wednesday assault at hospital shocked the world.

In Baryshivka, a village east of Kyiv, folks surveyed injury and boarded up home windows after a Russian bombing lowered a restaurant and a cinema to hanging metallic, mud, glass and different particles. Ivan Merzyk, a 62-year-old resident, mentioned: “Putin created this mess, thinking he will be in charge here. Ukrainians are a free nation. We are not going away from here and we don’t want to see any Russian here.”

Who are the ‘volunteer’ fighters for Russia and Ukraine?

Putin accepted bringing “volunteer” fighters from Syria and different international locations to hitch Russia’s offensive. Russia’s protection minister mentioned there had been “more than 16,000 applications” from the Middle East. He mentioned many have been from individuals who fought alongside Russia towards the Islamic State group.

Family members accompany evacuated Ukrainian disabled kids by medical doctors of the Central Clinical Hospital (MSWIA) from Warsaw in a particular practice heading for Gdansk, close to the border crossing in Medyka, Poland. (AP)

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed the recruits embrace fighters from Syria, the place Russia intervened within the civil struggle in 2015 on the facet of President Bashar Assad.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian authorities says about 20,000 foreigners have joined the so-called International Legion for the Territorial Defense of Ukraine to struggle the Russians.

The pro-Ukrainian fighters are given weapons once they arrive. About 100 Americans are among the many fighters. The U.Ok. has warned veterans to not journey to Ukraine to struggle there, saying those that do can be court-martialed.

Are folks being safely evacuated from Ukraine?

Ukrainian authorities mentioned there are plans for a number of evacuation and humanitarian support supply routes. The prime precedence stays liberating folks from town of Mariupol and getting support to its determined inhabitants.

Buses have been being despatched Friday to a number of Kyiv suburbs to convey folks to the capital, the place authorities say half of the metropolitan space’s inhabitants, or round 2 million, has already fled.

There have been additionally efforts to create new humanitarian corridors across the cities of Kherson within the south, Chernihiv within the north and Kharkiv within the east. Russian forces have been blockading Kharkiv and pushing their offensive within the south round three cities and cities, together with the hometown of Ukraine’s president, Kryvyi Rih.

Pryazovskyi State Technical University constructing is seen broken by shelling in Mariupol, Ukraine. (AP)

What about Russia’s claims that bio-weapons are being developed in Ukraine?

Russia requested a gathering of the U.N. Security Council to debate its baseless claims that the U.S. was conducting “biological activities” in Ukraine — an allegation that has been denied by each Washington and Kyiv.

At Friday’s assembly, the United States accused Russia of “lying and spreading disinformation” as a part of a possible false-flag operation — a state of affairs that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned final month might occur as Putin seeks to justify his violent assault on Ukraine. U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield mentioned Friday that the U.S. believes Russia might use chemical or organic brokers.

The Pentagon mentioned Friday it helps labs in Ukraine which might be dedicated to figuring out and responding to organic threats. The labs are owned and operated by Ukraine. The work of the labs just isn’t secret, and specialists say they don’t seem to be getting used for bioweapons.

China, in the meantime, is amplifying the unsubstantiated and inflammatory claims.

What’s the view from inside Russia?

Moscow is making extra strikes to limit entry to international social media platforms. On Friday, Russian’s communications and media regulator mentioned it’s blocking entry to Instagram as a result of it’s getting used to name for violence towards Russian troopers.

That comes after Facebook proprietor, Meta Platforms, which additionally owns Instagram, mentioned it had “made allowances for forms of political expression that would normally violate our rules on violent speech, such as ‘death to the Russian invaders’.” Meta’s assertion harassed it could not enable credible requires violence towards Russian civilians.

Russia has already blocked entry to Facebook and restricted entry to Twitter, however Twitter has launched a privacy-protected model of its web site to bypass surveillance and censorship.

Ukrainian troopers assist a fleeing household crossing the Irpin river on the outskirts of Kyiv. (AP)

Meanwhile, YouTube began blocking world entry to channels related to Russian state-funded media, and mentioned it’s eradicating content material about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that violates its coverage about minimizing or trivializing “well-documented violent events.”

Meta has barred Russian state media from Instagram and Facebook.

Are extra sanctions towards Russia occurring?

U.S. President Joe Biden introduced an settlement Friday with different nations to revoke Russia’s “most favored nation” commerce standing, which might enable for larger tariffs to be imposed on Russian imports.

The U.S. additionally banned imports of Russian seafood, alcohol and diamonds.

Western nations have been largely united in punishing Russia economically.

French President Emmanuel Macron mentioned Friday the European Union will proceed making use of stress to Moscow and contemplate all choices for extra sanctions if Putin intensifies bombing and lays siege to Kyiv.