Ukraine War Latest: Live Updates as 500 civilians attempt to flee Azot plant

Ukraine War Latest is brought to you by CityNews Nigeria ….follow our live updates as 500 civilians attempt to flee Azot plant…

Here is a comprehensive run-down of where things stand in Ukraine as of 3am.

• Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said the intense battle for Sievierodonetsk is taking a “terrifying” toll on Ukraine, describing the fighting as “one of the most violent battles in Europe”. The human cost of this battle is very high for us. It is simply terrifying. The battle for the Donbas will without doubt be remembered in military history as one of the most violent battles in Europe,” he said in an address to the nation late on Monday.

• All three bridges to the embattled eastern city of Sievierodonetsk have been destroyed, according to the governor of the Luhansk region, Serhiy Haidai. In a video update, Haidai said Russia had not “completely captured” the city and “a part of the city” was under Ukrainian control. Russian artillery is hitting an industrial zone where 500 civilians are sheltering in the eastern Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk, Haidai added. Ukrainian troops in the city must “surrender or die”, a Russian-backed separatist leader in the self-proclaimed republic in Donetsk warned.

• Ukrainian authorities said they have discovered a new mass grave of civilians near the Bucha in the Kyiv region. Investigators exhumed seven bodies from makeshift graves in a forest outside the village of Vorzel, less than 10km from Bucha, the scene of previous alleged Russian atrocities. Kyiv region’s police chief Andriy Nyebytov said: “This is another sadistic crime of the Russian army”. One man, he said, “has two injuries. He was shot in the knee with a gun. The second shot was into his temple”.

• Ukraine has called on the west to supply 300 rocket launchers, 500 tanks and 1,000 howitzers before a key meeting on Wednesday. The maximalist request was made publicly by Mykhailo Podolyak, a key presidential adviser, amid concern in some quarters it is pushing its demands for Nato-standard weapons to the limit.

• Zelenskiy accused German Chancellor Olaf Scholz with being too concerned about the repercussions his support for Ukraine would have for Berlin’s ties with Moscow.“We need from Chancellor Scholz the certainty that Germany supports Ukraine,” he said in an interview with German public broadcaster ZDF. “He and his government must decide: there can’t be a trade-off between Ukraine and relations with Russia.” Local media reports have speculated that Scholz could make his first trip to Kyiv since the start of the war on Thursday.
• The mayor of Mariupol, Vadym Boychenko, has accused “traitors” of passing on vital information to Russian forces during the bombardment of the southern port city at the beginning of its invasion of Ukraine. Boychenko said the destruction of the city’s critical infrastructure, including power supplies, was well-coordinated because these “traitors” had provided Russia with the co-ordinates.

• About 1,200 bodies, including those found in mass graves, have not yet been identified, according to the head of the national police in Ukraine, Ihor Klymenko. Criminal proceedings have been opened over the deaths of more than 12,000 Ukrainians, Klymenko said. About 75% of the dead are men, about 2% are children and the rest are women, he said.

• Russia earned €93bn in revenue from fossil fuel exports in the first 100 days of the war, according to research by Finland’s Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (Crea). With 61% of these exports, worth €56bn (£48bn), going to the member states of the European Union, the bloc of countries remains Russia’s largest export market.

• Ukraine has lost a quarter of its arable land since the Russian invasion, notably in the south and east, deputy agriculture minister Taras Vysotskiy said. At a news conference on Monday, Vysotskiy insisted food security for the country’s population was not under immediate threat: “Despite the loss of 25% of arable land, crop planting this year is more than sufficient [and] the current situation of crop planting areas… does not pose a threat to Ukraine’s food security”.

• The UN’s rights chief, Michelle Bachelet, described the “arbitrary arrests” of a “large number” of anti-war protesters in Russia as “worrying”. Speaking at the UN’s human rights council in Geneva, Bachelet also expressed concern about the “increase of censorship and restrictions on independent media” in Russia.

• Mikhail Kasyanov, Russia’s prime minister from 2000 to 2004, has said he expects the war in Ukraine could last up to two years. Kasyanov, who championed close ties with the west while prime minister, said he felt that Vladimir Putin was already not thinking properly and that he was convinced Russia could return to a democratic path.

• More than 15,000 millionaires are expected to flee Russia this year, as wealthy citizens turn their back on Vladmir Putin’s regime after the invasion of Ukraine, according to an analysis of migration data by London-based firm Henley & Partners.

• The Wikimedia Foundation, which owns Wikipedia, has filed an appeal against a Moscow court decision demanding that it remove information related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, arguing that people have a right to know the facts of the war and that removing information is a violation of human rights.