Russian invasion of Ukraine: tanks and rocket attacks on the cities. Breaking news

In the Izyum direction, the enemy is trying to advance deeper into the village of Dovhen’ke, so far to no avail and with losses. Units from the 106th Guards Airborne Division have been moved from Russian territory to reinforce the grouping forces. The enemy plans to create a strike force and form reserves to resume the offensive against Barvinkove and Sloviansk.

In Kherson, Russian occupation authorities are distributing propaganda leaflets calling for peaceful coexistence with the occupiers. At the same time, intimidation and terror of the civilian population persists, the General Staff reports.

Day 52 of war. Russian servicemen are urging conscripts to sign military enlistment contracts of 3 months to 1 year. The General Staff reported deterioration of mental and psychological state of the units of the 1st army corps operating in the Donetsk direction. This is due to heavy losses of the units, which were replenished at the expense of the mobilized.

President Volodymyr Zelensky believes that there should be two documents when concluding a peace treaty with Russia -- directly with Russia as well as with other countries on security guarantees for Ukraine. However, the Russian Federation wants all in one. Zelensky said this today during a conversation with representatives of Ukrainian media, including LIGA.net.

Another major general of the Russian army was eliminated in Ukraine. The deputy commander of the 8th Army of the Russian Federation and Major General Vladimir Frolov, who participated in the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, was buried in Russia today. This was reported by propaganda Russian media and the local city administration.

Medvedchuk's form of pre-trial restriction has been changed – he has been refused bail and will remain in custody. The decision has been made by the Lychakovsky District Court in Lviv.

Zelenskyy: The killing of Ukrainian servicemen in Mariupol will put an end to negotiations with Russia. President Volodymyr Zelensky said this today during a conversation with representatives of Ukrainian media, including LIGA.net.

Russians took more than 50 residents of Izyum to the territory of the Russian Federation by force. The buses with people crossed the border at the Chugunovka checkpoint and then headed for an unknown destination. The head of Izyum city council department Maksim Strelnik asks residents to report the deportation of their relatives to the police.

In Mariupol, a permanent mobile Internet connection that allows to make video calls has appeared. Such a possibility is available in the area of the demolished Port City shopping mall, the City Council of Mariupol reports.

Air Command East reminds: It ain’t me hitting, the willow (Verba) is.

“Willow” (Verba) – a multiple rocket launcher.

Twenty-one media workers have been killed as a result of Russia's armed aggression. Lists with documented deaths have been published by the Freedom of Speech Committee on the website of the Verkhovna Rada.

Rinat Akhmetov has pledged to help rebuild the besieged city of Mariupol.
"Mariupol is a global tragedy and a world example of heroism. For me, Mariupol has been and will always be a Ukrainian city," Akhmetov said in a written response to a question from Reuters.

93% of the hospitalized children suffered mine or gunshot wounds, according to the Ombudswoman of Ukraine Lyudmila Denisova.

General Staff: Krutivska OTG (amalgamated hromada) in Chernihiv region released photos of the remnants of equipment of the 90th Tank Division (Yekaterinburg), which had been in the Nizhyn district for a month. The photo shows work results of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. "The members of territorial defense forces of Nizhyn, in whose ranks Cossacks from our hromada fought, have also distinguished themselves in the battles," added the representatives of the hromada.

From Sunday on, Italian ports will be closed for Russian ships. The ban will also apply to the ships that changed the flag after February 24. This is reported by the Italian media TGCOM24.

"The deliberate destruction of our guys in Mariupol, which is exactly what the Russians are doing now, could put an end to any negotiation formats," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky notes. He believes that if Russia really wants to negotiate peace, such actions will be a major mistake for Russia.

President Volodymyr Zelensky believes that Mariupol could suffer the same fate as Ilovaysk. The Russian occupiers are demanding that Ukrainian defenders surrender in order to save themselves. Zelensky also named several things that could help save Mariupol: giving Ukraine powerful weapons in time and temporarily ceasing fire in the region.

Maksym Bulhakov, chief director of the Luhansk Regional Theatre of Ukrainian Music and Drama, joined the ranks of the defenders of the region. The video featuring him was published by Serhiy Haidai, the head of regional administration.

The German Minister of Finance announced increasing a military support fund for foreign countries to €2 billion. As the minister points out, the funds are supposed to be of great benefit to Ukraine.

The mayor of Mykolaiv showed the consequences of the morning shelling of the city – a kindergarten was damaged. Fortunately, no one was injured.

The State Emergency Service of Ukraine published photos from the scene of a fire in Kharkiv caused by morning shelling in the city's Osnovianskiy district. Structural elements of a five-storey administrative building, as well as 9 cars, burned on a total area of about 1,500 sq m. According to available data, 1 person was killed and 18 others were injured. 65 people have been evacuated from the damaged and neighboring buildings.

The Russians refuse to stand by the agreements on humanitarian corridors from Mariupol for civilians and the wounded; even mediation by Turkish President Recep Erdogan has not yielded any results. President Volodymyr Zelensky said this today during a conversation with representatives of Ukrainian media, including LIGA.net.

A video of destroyed Mariupol, east part of the city.

In Lviv, decommunization and derussification are in full swing. For example, streets with "Russian" names are to be renamed in May. And today the city is dismantling Communist symbols.

The Russians have disrupted the evacuation from Lysychansk, Luhansk Region (only one person was rescued), 42 people were rescued from Severodonetsk, 11 from Rubizhne, and 14 from Kreminna. Six people managed to get out of Popasna. In total, more than 70 people have been rescued, according to Serhiy Haidai, head of the Luhansk Regional State Administration, who reported on the results of evacuations from the region today.

The occupation authorities of the LDNR are mobilizing children who participated in so-called "patriotic clubs" into the ranks of illegal armed groups, the Ombudswoman of Ukraine Lyudmila Denisova wrote. There have already been casualties among the teenagers. Since 2017, the self-proclaimed republics have been training "graduates" who are ready to take up arms, Denisova reports.

More than 40 apartment buildings and more than 300 private dwellings were destroyed or damaged in Chuhuiv, Kharkiv Region, Oleg Synehubov, head of the Kharkiv Regional Administration, reports. Educational institutions, cultural institutions and bridges were destroyed and the dam at the Pechenizs'ke reservoir was damaged. Nevertheless, people who left Chuhuiv in the first weeks of the war are coming back to town.

The occupiers are repressing commanders who "failed to meet expectations" in the war with Ukraine, the Defence Intelligence of the Ministry of Defence informs. Two battalion commanders of the 3rd OMDBR (Guards Spetsnaz Brigade) were taken into custody in an unknown direction by civilians (probably FSB officers). Eduard Basurin, the "deputy commander" of the "DNR Ministry of Defense" corps, was also taken to an unknown location after being contacted by FSB officers.

The speaker of the Parliament of Georgia, Shalva Papuashvili, has arrived in Kyiv together with a parliamentary delegation. "I arrived in Kyiv together with Georgian MPs to pass on the message of Georgia to Ukraine: we share your grief. Georgia supports Ukraine. Georgians stand with Ukrainians," Papuashvili tweeted.

More than 10,000 people have already joined the ranks of rescue volunteers, the State Emergency Service informs according to the registrations on the Service's website. Currently, volunteers work in Kyiv region, in particular in places where territories are demined. These are mainly exploration works, cleaning the streets of building materials, dismantling debris.

On March 3, Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich was in Kyiv, apparently trying to find possible options to ending the war and removing sanctions, and he did have symptoms of poisoning at the time. The leader of the Crimean Tatar people, Mustafa Dzhemilev, told Krym.Realii about this.

Russia uses Serbian journalist Dragana Trifkovic to commit infother terrorism and spread Russian narratives in the foreign information field, Center for Counteracting Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council informs. Earlier, she was photographed with ORDLO militants. And since the beginning of the full-scale war in Ukraine, Trifkovic has been misinforming the world that Serbia allegedly unanimously supports the occupier's aggression.

Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, 91 educational institutions have been completely destroyed, 923 institutions have been damaged, said Education Minister Serhiy Shkarlet. The preliminary amount of damage caused to educational institutions exceeds $ 5 billion.

The Secret Service of Ukraine reports that the occupiers send computer viruses, allegedly on behalf of the SSU. For communication, they use popular messengers. The messages ask to download a file with what is supposed to be instructions for action during the war. Although in fact, it is a virus program. The main targets of the enemy are, first of all, civil servants, whose phones can be used for collecting confidential information, as supposed by the occupiers.

In the morning the Russians shelled the Lysychansk oil refinery, reports Serhiy Haidai, Chairman of Luhansk Regional State Administration. The oil enterprise was hit in the morning, the fire broke out on the territory of 5,000 square meters, up to now extinguishing continues. This is not the first shelling of this refinery. There is no fuel stored - the remains of oil sludge are burning. At the same time the Russians continue to attack the residential areas of Lysychansk.

Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar had a telephone conversation with Oleksiy Reznikov and discussed the evacuation of civilians and commercial vessels from the war zone, Anadolu reports. Turkey insists on immediate evacuation of civilians, including Turkish citizens, from combat zones by land and sea routes, as well as ensuring the safe exit of Turkish merchant ships from Ukrainian ports, declared Akar.

The bridge in Stoyanka, located on the Zhytomyr highway in Kyiv region, will be opened in the nearest days. The old bridge was blown up at the beginning of the Russian invasion.

The occupation administration in Kherson is trying to convince the local population that Russia's crimes in Ukraine are committed for the benefit of the people, according to Ukrainian intelligence service. The leaflets distributed by the occupiers in Kherson blame the Ukrainians and their elected government for the Russian aggression. Ukrainians are called for collaboration with the Russians and warned of the danger of approaching to the troops of the occupying army.

One of the central districts of Kharkiv was again under occupiers’ rocket attack today, according to Oleh Synehubov, Chairman of Kharkiv Regional State Administration. 18 people were injured and taken to hospital, one person died on the spot.

As a result of the morning shelling of Kyiv, one person died and several others were injured. This was announced on a telemarathon by the Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko

From April 17, Russian ships will not be able to enter Romanian ports. At the same time, Ukrainian-flagged vessels have priority in Romanian ports and are exempt from paying for port services. This was stated by Romanian Transport Minister Sorin Grindeanu.

Mariupol City Council showed what the city station looked like before the Russian invasion and what it looks now:

Emergency and search works continue in Chernihiv. Rescuers are dismantling the ruins of the training and sports center and a nine-story residential building.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Foreign Office Chairman Liz Trass, Defense Secretary Ben Wallace as well as ten other members of the UK government and politicians, have been banned from entering Russia. The relevant statement of the Russian Foreign Ministry is reported by Reuters.

The amount of charity aid to Ukraine from citizens and corporations around the world amounts to almost $ 924 million now. Most funds came from philanthropists from the UK (47%), the Netherlands (almost 18%), the Czech Republic (11%) and the United States (almost 8 %). Also, in 50 days, 270,000 tons of humanitarian aid were delivered to Ukraine.

39 people were injured as a result of shelling in the Mykolaiv area, as reported by Anna Zamazieyeva, the Chairman of the Mykolaiv Regional Council. As of today’s morning, there are in total 302 citizens in the Mykolaiv hospitals, suffering from occupiers’ attacks.

Forbes reports a new trend among Russian billionaires. Many of them do not want to be called citizens of the Russian Federation and emphasize their foreign citizenship. Pavlo Durov, the Bukhman brothers, Mykola Storonsky, Yevhen Shvidler and others asked not to call them Russian citizens, as reported by the Publishing House.

Before the full-scale intrusion of the Russian Federation, the unoccupied territory of Luhansk region was inhabited by around 330,000 people. In 52 days, over 32,000 people were evacuated. More than 200,000 departed on their own. But over 70,000 still remain in the region. This was announced by Serhiy Haidai, the Luhansk Regional State Administration Chairman.

The first modular houses for State Emergency Service officers and volunteers, who are dismantling the ruins after the Russian occupiers fled the city, have been assembled In Borodyanka, Kyiv region.

Vasyl Klat, Director of Transport and Communications Department of Mariupol City Council, reports about the failed evacuation plan for Mariupol, which prevented people from being evacuated in due time: Russians did not provide silence regime, after which evacuation buses were shot at the depot one by one. Mariupol deputies of the OPZZh party (Opposition Party "For Life") are suspected to have helped the occupiers in this. More details in the video briefing