UKRAINE WRAP | Ukraine appeals to Russia over Mariupol as humanitarian concerns grow

March 22 2022 - 16:22

Ukraine appeals to Russia over Mariupol as humanitarian concerns grow

Ukraine appealed to Russia on Tuesday to allow humanitarian supplies into Mariupol and let desperate civilians out of the besieged city, which President Volodymr Zelenskyy says has been devastated by Russian bombardment.

Officials in Mariupol said the port city on the Sea of Azov, which has a peacetime population of 400,000, has no food, medicine, power and running water.

Mariupol’s plight highlights what an international aid official in Ukraine said was a breakdown in the country’s humanitarian system.

March 22 2022 - 13:48

Ten Ukrainian hospitals destroyed since start of war, minister says

Ukrainian Health Minister Viktor Lyashko said on Tuesday that 10 hospitals had been completely destroyed since Russia invaded Ukraine, and others could not be restocked with medicines and supplies because of fighting nearby.

Speaking on national television, he said COVID-19 testing was being carried out only in areas where there was no fighting, and this was complicating efforts to track the disease. Reuters could not independently verify his comments.

-Reuters

March 22 2022 - 12:00

More than 3.5-million people have fled Ukraine -UNHCR

The number of Ukrainians fleeing abroad is now 3,556,924, the United Nations' Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said on Tuesday, with more than 2-million crossing the border into Poland.

"This is another tragic milestone for the people of Ukraine and it has been achieved in just under one month," UNHCR spokesperson Matthew Saltmarsh told a briefing, adding that 6.5 million people had been internally displaced within Ukraine.

"You are looking at almost one quarter of the entire population. The speed and the scale of this outflow and this displacement crisis is unprecedented in recent times."

-Reuters

March 22 2022 - 07:00

EXPLAINER: How could Russia's Putin be prosecuted for war crimes in Ukraine?

US President Joe Biden has publicly called Russian President Vladimir Putin a war criminal, but legal experts said a prosecution of Putin or other Russian leaders would face high hurdles and could take years, as outlined below:

HOW IS A WAR CRIME DEFINED?

The International Criminal Court in The Hague defines war crimes as "grave breaches" of the post-World War Two Geneva Conventions, agreements which lay out the international humanitarian laws to be followed in war time. Breaches include deliberately targeting civilians and attacking legitimate military targets where civilian casualties would be “excessive,” legal experts said.

March 22 2022 - 07:00

WWII Holocaust survivor killed in Ukraine's Kharkiv

He survived the Nazi Buchenwald concentration camp during World War II. He survived the Dora-Mittelbau concentration camp in the same war. And the Bergen-Belsen camp.

Last week, Boris Romanchenko, a 96-year-old Holocaust survivor, was killed when shelling hit his ordinary flat in the war-ravaged Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.

"It is with horror that we report the violent death of Boris Romanchenko in the war in Ukraine," the memorial for the Buchenwald survivors said on Monday in a statement.

March 22 2022 - 06:17

Biden says Russia is considering using chemical, biological weapons in Ukraine

Ukraine's military said on Tuesday residents should brace for more indiscriminate Russian shelling of critical infrastructure, as US President Joe Biden issued one of his strongest warnings yet that Moscow is considering using chemical weapons.

Russian troops have failed to capture any major Ukrainian city more than four weeks into their invasion, and increasingly are resorting to causing massive destruction to residential areas using air strikes, long-range missiles and artillery.

The southern port of Mariupol has become a focal point of Russia's assault and lies largely in ruins with bodies lying on the streets, but attacks were also reported to have intensified on the second city Kharkiv on Monday.

Ukraine's armed forces said in a statement issued on Tuesday that Russian forces were expected to continue to attack critical infrastructure using "high-precision weapons and indiscriminate munitions”.

Without citing evidence, Biden said Russia's false accusations that Kyiv had biological and chemical weapons illustrated that President Vladimir Putin was considering using them himself.

Putin's "back is against the wall and now he's talking about new false flags he's setting up including, asserting that we in America have biological as well as chemical weapons in Europe, simply not true," Biden said at a Business Roundtable event.

-Reuters