1News' coverage on the latest developments in Ukraine have concluded. For in-depth stories visit 1News.co.nz
Summary
- Russia admits conscripted soldiers have been sent to Ukraine
- Red Cross calls for “broader relocation alternatives” for evacuations
- Russia has attacked western Ukraine for the first time
- Russia has falsely accused Ukraine of developing chemical weapons
Ukraine's president is vowing the city of Kyiv will not surrender. (Source: 1News)
7.25pm: From the Associated Press:
Russian forces carried out an air strike on a military range near Lviv in western Ukraine, expanding its offensive closer to the border with Poland.
The Russian military on Sunday fired eight rockets at the Yaroviv military range 30 kilometers northwest of Lviv, the Lviv regional administration said, without offering any details about possible casualties.
The Yaroviv military range, also known as the Yaroviv International Peacekeeping and Security Centre, is located 35 kilometres from Ukraine’s border with Poland.
5.35pm: From the Associated Press:
Russia is trying to create new “pseudo-republics” in Ukraine to break his country apart, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address to the nation on Saturday local time.
Zelenskyy called on Ukraine’s regions, including Kherson, which was captured by Russian forces, not to repeat the experience of Donetsk and Luhansk. Pro-Russian separatists began fighting Ukrainian forces in those eastern regions in 2014.
“The occupiers on the territory of the Kherson region are trying to repeat the sad experience of the formation of pseudo-republics,” Zelenskyy said. “They are blackmailing local leaders, putting pressure on deputies, looking for someone to bribe.”
City council members in Kherson, a southern city of 290,000, on Saturday rejected plans for a new pseudo-republic, Zelenskyy said.
5.06pm: The Kyiv Independent is reporting that there are air raid alerts in almost every single Ukraine region.
4.30pm: UK Prime Minister met with the prime Minister of Ireland Micheál Martin to discuss enforcing further sanctions on Russia.
4.08pm: The BBC is reporting people in the UK who offer homes to Ukrainian refugees will receive a "thank you" payment of £350 per month, the UK government has announced.
"Under the Homes for Ukraine scheme, people will be able to nominate a named Ukrainian individual or family to stay with them, or offer a separate property for them to use rent-free.
"Those offering accommodation will be vetted, and will need to commit to a minimum of six months," the report said.
3.50pm: From the Associated Press:
Russia is trying to create new “pseudo-republics” in Ukraine to break his country apart, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address to the nation Saturday (local time).
Zelensky called on Ukraine’s regions, including Kherson, which was captured by Russian forces, not to repeat the experience of Donetsk and Luhansk. Pro-Russian separatists began fighting Ukrainian forces in those eastern regions in 2014.
“The occupiers on the territory of the Kherson region are trying to repeat the sad experience of the formation of pseudo-republics,” Zelensky said. “They are blackmailing local leaders, putting pressure on deputies, looking for someone to bribe.”
City council members in Kherson, a southern city of 290,000, on Saturday rejected plans for a new pseudo-republic, Zelensky said.
Russia recognised the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic before invading Ukraine in February. Moscow said it had to protect the separatist regions, and is demanding that Ukraine recognise their independence too.
“Ukraine will stand this test. We need time and strength to break the war machine that has come to our land,” Zelensky said.
3.00pm: More photos are emerging out of the Ukraine on Sunday as day 17 of Russia's attack is underway.
A woman on a Lviv bound train cries while she bids goodbye to a man in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Soldiers walk on a path as smoke billows from the town of Irpin, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine.
Smoke from shelling rises as a wreath of flowers is placed at a cemetery in Vasylkiv south west of Kyiv, Ukraine.
A Ukrainian serviceman walks near the position he was guarding in Mariupol, Ukraine.
2.30pm: The UK Daily Mail is reporting President Zelensky says Putin's forces can only take Kyiv if they "raze it to the ground."
2.00pm: NZ Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta has refused to confirm whether one of the country's richest Russian investors will face sanctions as protest boats arrived at the billionaire's luxury retreat in Northland.
The Foreign Affairs Minister said she was “confident” the Government had a mechanism in place to sanction Russia’s oligarchs. (Source: Q and A)
1.44pm: The Kyiv Independent is reporting Russian troops are no longer Skadovsk, southern Ukraine.
1.25pm: The BBC is reporting Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky has signed a decree to award the title of 'Hero of Ukraine', the highest honour given to individual citizens in the country, to six military defenders.
1.00pm: From the Associated Press:
There are growing concerns over traffickers targeting Ukrainian refugees.
One man was detained in Poland suspected of raping a 19-year-old refugee he'd lured with offers of shelter after she fled war-torn Ukraine. Another was overheard promising work and a room to a 16-year-old girl before authorities intervened.
12.33pm: The BBC is reporting the Russian military has installed a new mayor in the occupied city of Melitopol following the alleged abduction of Mayor Ivan Fedorov by Moscow's troops on Friday afternoon.
According to the BBC, Galina Danilchenko, formerly a deputy on the city council, said on local TV her main task was the construction of "basic mechanisms under the new reality".
Danilchenko said she was preparing to set up a "committee of people's deputies" to run the city, and urged residents not to take part in "extremist actions", the BBC said.
12.10pm: US Consulate building in Erbil, Iraq has reportedly been targeted by missile bombs. It is not yet known if this is connected to Russia's attack on Ukraine.
11.30am: The BBC is reporting protesters are calling for NATO to "close the skies" over Ukraine at a demonstration outside Downing Street, in central London, earlier today.
"The protest, organised by Ukrainian campaign group London Euromaidan, began at 14:00 and finished at around 17:00 on Saturday," the report said.
Protesters could be seen carrying Ukrainian flags, with crowds chanting "close the skies" and "hands off Ukraine, Putin", the BBC said.
One protester said, "We are demanding that they close the skies, we need more sanctions."
11.00am: From the Associated Press:
Thousands of Russian tourists are stranded in Thailand’s beach resorts because of the war in Ukraine, many unable to pay their bills or return home because of sanctions and cancelled flights.
The crisis in Europe also put a crimp in recovery plans for the Southeast Asian nation’s tourism industry, which has hosted more visitors from Russia than any of its neighbours before the pandemic hit.
There are about 6500 Russian tourists stuck in Phuket, Surat Thani, Krabi and Pattaya, four provinces that are popular seaside resort destinations, in addition to 1000 Ukrainians, Yuthasak Supasorn, governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, told The Associated Press on Saturday.
10.36am: Zelensky says he's in constant talks with Naftali Bennett, the Prime Minister of Israel.
9.30am: Russian Times reporter Jake Cordell is reporting Russia’s stock market will be closed for the whole of next week, according to the Central Bank.
8.30am: Russian forces pounding the port city of Mariupol shelled a mosque that was sheltering more than 80 people, including children, the Ukrainian government says.
The encircled city of 446,000 people has endured some of Ukraine's worst misery since Russia invaded, with unceasing barrages thwarting repeated attempts to bring in food, water and medicine, evacuate trapped civilians and even bury the dead.
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