UKRAINE WRAP | Ukrainian civilian death toll reaches 1,119

March 27 2022 — 22:20

Ukraine deputy PM says 1,100 people evacuated on Sunday

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said 1,100 people were evacuated from frontline areas on Sunday

-Reuters

March 27 2022 — 21:20

Azerbaijan denies troops pullout from peacekeepers' zone in Nagorno-Karabakh

Azerbaijan on Sunday denied pulling out its forces from a zone policed by Russian peacekeepers in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, contradicting a statement by Moscow which had accused Baku of violating a peace agreement by entering the area.

"There has been no change in the positions of the Azeri army in the village of Farrukh, which is part of the sovereign territories of our country," the Azeri defence ministry said.

Moscow on Saturday accused Azerbaijan of violating a 2020 peace agreement by entering the zone and striking positions of Nagorno-Karabakh army with drones, although Azerbaijan refuted Russia's version of events.

On Sunday, the Russian defence ministry said that after negotiations Azerbaijan had withdrawn its forces from the area.

"The information about the withdrawal of units of the Azerbaijani Army from those positions does not reflect the truth. Our army is in full control of the operational situation," Azerbaijan's defence ministry said in a statement. 

-Reuters

March 27 2022 — 20:54

Ukrainian mourners ignore missile risks to attend military funerals

The clouds of black smoke hanging over Lviv's skyline had scarcely cleared overnight when mourners began gathering in Lviv on Sunday to bury Ukrainian soldiers killed in the war against Russia.

Even as firefighters hosed down an oil depot struck by rockets the day before, a crowd assembled at Saints Peter and Paul Garrison Church in Ukraine's western capital, just 60km from the border with Poland.

“I knew that the churches would be very crowded today. I was so worried about today,” said 70-year old retiree Liubov Odnorih.She was one of many crammed into the ornate Ukrainian Greek Catholic church for the funeral of two soldiers killed in other parts of the country.

It was the youth of those dying in battle that struck the priest, Roman Vysochanskii,“I came and looked at the burial plots for so many of them, I saw that the children for whom I cry are younger than my own.”

-Reuters

March 27 2022 — 20:25

Ukraine prepared to discuss neutrality status, Zelenskiy tells Russian journalists

Ukraine is prepared to discuss adopting a neutral status as part of a peace deal with Russia but it would have to be guaranteed by third parties and put to a referendum, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an interview aired on Sunday.

Speaking to a group of Russian journalists via video call, Zelenskyy said Russia's invasion had caused the destruction of Russian-speaking cities in Ukraine, and said the damage was worse than the Russian wars in Chechnya.

-Reuters

March 27 2022 — 20:15

In call with Putin, Turkey's Erdogan stresses need for ceasefire

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan told Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in a telephone call on Sunday that a ceasefire and better humanitarian conditions were needed following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, his office said in a statement.

"Erdogan noted the importance of a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, the implementation of peace and the improvement of humanitarian conditions in the region," his office said in a readout of the call.

It added they agreed the next round of peace committee talks between Ukraine and Russia would be held in Istanbul.

Earlier on Sunday, Ukrainian negotiator David Arakhamia said the next round of face to face talks between Ukraine and Russia will take place in Turkey on March 28-30.

-Reuters

March 27 2022 — 19:30

Russia says Azerbaijan pulls out from peacekeepers' zone in Nagorno-Karabakh

Azerbaijan has withdrawn its forces from a zone policed by Russian peacekeepers in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, Russia's defence ministry said on Sunday.

Moscow on Saturday accused Azerbaijan of violating a 2020 peace agreement by entering the zone and striking positions of Nagorno-Karabakh army with drones, although Azerbaijan refuted Russia's version of events.

"As a result of negotiations the Azeri side has carried out a withdrawal of its units from the area of the Farukh village," Russia's defence ministry said in a statement.

The Azeri defence ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

-Reuters

March 27 2022 — 19:05

Russia warns media: don't report interview with Ukrainian president

Russia's communications watchdog told Russian media on Sunday to refrain from reporting an interview done with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and said it had started a probe into the outlets which had interviewed the Ukrainian leader.

In a short statement distributed by the watchdog on social media and posted on its website, it said a host of Russian outlets had done an interview with Zelenskyy.

"Roskomnadzor warns the Russian media about the necessity of refraining from publishing this interview," it said. It did not give a reason for its warning.

-Reuters

March 27 2022 — 18:30

U.S. diplomats say no American policy of regime change in Russia

Top American officials clarified on Sunday that the United States does not have a policy of regime change in Russia, as supporters and critics of President Joe Biden played down his declaration that Russian President Vladimir Putin "cannot remain in power."

Julianne Smith, the U.S. ambassador to NATO, sought to contextualize Biden's remarks, saying they followed a day of speaking with Ukrainian refugees in Warsaw. Russia's month-old invasion has driven a quarter of Ukraine's population of 44 million from their homes.

"In the moment, I think that was a principled human reaction to the stories that he had heard that day," Smith told CNN's State of the Union program before adding: "The U.S. does not have a policy of regime change in Russia. Full stop."

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a news conference in Jerusalem that Biden was making the point that Putin couldn't be empowered to wage war. But Blinken said any decision on Russia's future leadership would be "up to the Russian people."

Republicans flatly said Biden's remarks amounted to an unfortunate blunder. Senator James Risch, the top Republican on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called Biden's remarks a "horrendous gaffe" and said he wished the president would have stayed on script.

"Most people who don't deal in the lane of foreign relations don't realize those nine words that he uttered would cause the kind of eruption that they did," he told CNN."It's going to cause a huge problem."

Senator Rob Portman, who is also on the committee, lamented the public misstep in wartime."It plays into the hands of the Russian propagandists and plays into the hands of Vladimir Putin. So it was a mistake," Portman told NBC's Meet the Press program.

-Reuters

March 27 2022 — 17:25

Next round of Ukraine-Russia talks will take place in Turkey, Ukrainian negotiator says

 The next round of face to face talks between Ukraine and Russia will take place in Turkey on March 28-30, Ukrainian negotiator David Arakhamia said on social media on Sunday.

Ukraine described previous talks with Russia, launched after Russia unleashed an invasion last month, as "very difficult".

-Reuters

March 27 2022 — 17:10

Russia's Deripaska says on Biden remarks: 'hellish mobilisation' is underway

Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska said on Sunday that U.S. President Joe Biden's speech in Warsaw indicated that some sort of "hellish ideological mobilisation" was underway that may usher in a much longer conflict in Ukraine.

Deripaska said he had thought the conflict in Ukraine was "mad" and that it could be stopped three weeks ago through talks. "But now some sort of hellish ideological mobilisation is underway from all sides," Deripaska said. "That's it: these people are preparing to fight for a few years more."

-Reuters

March 27 2022 — 16:45

Russia trying to encircle Ukrainian forces in east, Ukrainian adviser says

The French foreign minister said on Sunday there would be "collective guilt" if nothing was done to help civilians in Mariupol, the Ukrainian city besieged by Russian forces.

Jean-Yves Le Drian was speaking at the Doha Forum international conference.

-Reuters

March 27 2022 — 16:15

Ukrainian civilian death toll reaches 1,119 - U.N.

The United Nations human rights office said on Sunday that 1,119 civilians had so far been killed and 1,790 wounded since Russia began its attack on Ukraine.

Some 15 girls and 32 boys, as well 52 children whose sex is as yet unknown, were among the dead, the United Nations said in a statement which covered the period between when the war began on Feb. 24 and midnight on March 26.

The true casualty figures are expected to be considerably higher, the world body said, with reports delayed in some regions where intense hostilities are going on, while many reports still require corroboration.

This was particularly the case around the besieged southern port of Mariupol, as well as Volnovakha in the Donetsk region, Izium in the Kharkiv region, Popasna and Rubizhne in the Luhansk region, and Trostianets in the Sumy region, the United Nations said.

Most of the civilian casualties recorded were caused by explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including shelling from heavy artillery and multiple-launch rocket systems, and missile and air strikes, the United Nations said.

-Reuters

March 27 2022 — 15:49

Russia trying to encircle Ukrainian forces in east, Ukrainian adviser says

Ukraine is mounting small counter-offensive actions as Russia's military tries to encircle its forces in eastern Ukraine, Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said on Sunday. 

-Reuters

March 27 2022 — 15:20

Turkey backs unity and sovereignty of Ukraine, Jazeera TV reports

Turkey supports the unity and sovereignty of Ukraine, Turkish presidency spokesman Ibrahim Kalin told Al Jazeera TV on Sunday.

Kalin told the Qatari TV channel that war in Ukraine was not justified but channels of communication with Russia must be kept open.

"Turkey is trying to end the war in Ukraine through dialogue with Moscow and Kyiv," he said.

-Reuters

March 27 2022 — 14:50

Macron Warns on Escalating ‘Words or Actions’

French President Emmanuel Macron warned against an escalation of “words or actions,” a day after President Joe Biden said Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power.”

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. doesn’t have a strategy of regime change but is focused on putting “unprecedented” pressure on Moscow while strongly supporting Ukraine.

Biden’s comments capped an emotional address in Warsaw Saturday. He earlier called Russia’s leader a “butcher.”

The insults “narrow the window of opportunity for normalizing dialogue, so much needed now, with the current U.S. administration,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in response.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is scheduled to address a pro-Ukraine rally in Washington D.C. on Sunday.

-Reuters

March 27 2022 — 14:25

Pope evokes spectre of Ukraine war sparking global conflict

The threat of a global conflict spawned by Russia's invasion of Ukraine should convince everyone that the time has come for humanity to abolish war before it abolishes humanity, Pope Francis said on Sunday.

“More than a month has passed since the invasion of Ukraine, since the start of this cruel and senseless war which, like every war, is a defeat for everyone, for all of us,” he said to thousands of people in St Peter's Square for his Sunday blessing.

“We must repudiate war, a place of death where fathers and mothers bury their children, where men kill their brothers without even seeing them, where the powerful decide and the poor die,” he said.

The war in Ukraine was destroying the country's future, he said, citing a statistic that half of the country's children had to flee the country.

-Reuters

March 27 2022 — 14:00

Ukraine says Russia wants to split nation, calls for more arms

Russia wants to split Ukraine into two, as happened with North and South Korea, Ukraine's military intelligence chief said on Sunday, vowing "total" guerrilla warfare to prevent a carve up of the country.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged the West to give Ukraine tanks, planes and missiles to help fend off the Russian forces, which the Kyiv government said were increasingly targeting fuel and food depots.

Meanwhile, U.S. officials continued efforts to soften comments on Saturday from U.S. President Joe Biden, who said in a fiery speech in Poland that Russian leader Vladimir Putin "cannot remain in power".

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington had no strategy of regime change in Moscow, telling reporters in Jerusalem that Biden had simply meant Putin could not be "empowered to wage war" against Ukraine or anyone else.

After more than four weeks of conflict, Russia has failed to seize any major Ukrainian city and Moscow signalled on Friday it was scaling back its ambitions to focus on securing the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine, where Russian-backed separatists have been fighting the Ukrainian army for the past eight years.

-Reuters

March 27 2022 — 10:29

Some 30,000 Ukrainian refugees reach France

Some 30,000 Ukrainian refugees have arrived in France, with half of them travelling through the country to other places such as Spain, French housing minister Emmanuelle Wargon said Sunday.

Wargon told Franceinfo radio the government was preparing to welcome 100,000 people fleeing the war in Ukraine.

France has been granting temporary European Union stay permits to Ukrainian refugees, which allows them to have access to schools and to work in the country.Before the war, the Ukrainian community in France numbered 40,000.

-Reuters

March 27 2022 — 09:32

Russia struck Ukraine's Lviv with cruise missiles, defence ministry says

Russia struck military targets in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv with high-precision cruise missiles, the Russian defence ministry said on Sunday.

Russia struck a fuel depot being used by Ukrainian forces near Lviv with long-range missiles and used cruise missiles to strike a plant in the city being used to repair anti-aircraft systems, radar stations and sights for tanks, the ministry said.

"The armed forces of the Russian Federation continue offensive actions as part of the special military operation," the ministry said in a statement.

-Reuters

March 27 2022 — 08:08

Russia has started destroying Ukrainian fuel and food storage depots, interior ministry adviser says

Russia has started destroying Ukrainian fuel and food storage depots, meaning the government will have to disperse the stocks of both in the near future, Ukrainian Interior Ministry adviser Vadym Denysenko said on Sunday.

Speaking on local television, Denysenko also said Russia was bringing forces to the Ukrainian border on rotation, and could make new attempts to advance in its invasion of Ukraine. Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a "special operation".

-Reuters

March 27 2022 — 06:00

Rockets strike Ukraine's Lviv as Biden says Putin 'cannot remain in power'

US President Joe Biden described Russian leader Vladimir Putin as a butcher who “cannot remain in power” after meeting Ukrainian refugees in Poland, as Kremlin forces stepped up attacks across Ukraine, including the western city of Lviv.

Biden's comments, an escalation of US rhetoric towards Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine, were not a call for regime change in Russia, a White House official said later, but meant to prepare the world's democracies for an extended conflict.

Just before he spoke outside Warsaw's castle on Saturday, four missiles hit the outskirts of Lviv, just 60km from the Polish border, local officials said.

-Reuters