Russian forces have seized the town housing Chernobyl nuclear plant workers and kidnapped the mayor, according to Ukrainian officials.
The military administration of Kyiv region said on Saturday morning: “Russian occupiers have invaded Slavutych and occupied the municipal hospital…According to the latest information, the town’s mayor, Yuri Fomichev, has been captured.”
Some 25,000 people live in Slavutych, 99 miles north of the capital, which was built after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster. The staff still maintaining the defunct plant live in the town.
Residents have taken to the streets, waving a large blue and yellow Ukrainian flag, chanting “Glory to Ukraine” and heading towards the hospital, the administration said. It added Russian forces fired into the air and threw stun grenades into the crowd.
The International Atomic Energy Agency expressed “concern” Thursday over shelling of the town putting the radioactive site in danger and affecting staff rotas. The Chernobyl plant itself was taken by the Russian army on February 24.
Follow the latest updates below.
01:04 PM
Watch: Putin says Russia has been ‘cancelled’ like JK Rowling as Harry Potter author hits back
[embedded content]
01:04 PM
Ukraine says 10 humanitarian corridors agreed for front line areas
Agreement has been reached on the establishment of ten humanitarian corridors on Saturday to evacuate civilians from front line hotspots in Ukrainian towns and cities, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.
Speaking on national television, she said civilians trying to leave the besieged southern port of Mariupol would have to leave in private cars as Russian forces were not letting buses through their checkpoints around the southern port city.
Reuters could not independently verify this information. Ukraine and Russia have traded blame when humanitarian corridors have failed to work in recent weeks.
12:53 PM
French forces could be deployed to evacuate 100,000 civilians from Mariupol
French forces could be dispatched to Ukraine as Emmanuel Macron plans an evacuation mission to save up to 100,000 Ukrainians from the besieged port city of Mariupol.
The French President is expected to talk with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to convince the Kremlin to allow the evacuation to take place.
Mr Macron on Friday announced he would be coordinating efforts with Greece and Turkey, in what could be the first operation that puts Western boots on the ground in Ukraine since the start of the conflict.
“We are going to launch a humanitarian operation in conjunction with Turkey and Greece to evacuate all those who wish to leave Mariupol,” Mr Macron told reporters, after a two-day meeting of European Union leaders in Brussels.
12:29 PM
Holocaust memorial damaged by Russian forces
Russian forces have damaged a Holocaust memorial near the city of Kharkiv after firing at it, according to Ukraine’s ministry of defense on Saturday.
Around 15,000 Jews were shot or forced into mass graves at Drobitsky Yar, a ravine outside the eastern city.
Ukraine’s ministry of defense posted a photo of the memorial’s damaged structure, writing: “Russian invaders fired on and damaged Holocaust Memorial in Drobitsky Yar on the outskirts of Kharkiv. The Nazis have returned. Exactly 80 years later.”
Melinda Simmons, the British ambassador to Ukraine, said: “Drobitzky Yar on the outskirts of Kharkiv, where 11,000 Jews were shot by Nazis in a ravine in 1942. Shelled by Russians in 2022.”
12:10 PM
Russian soldier runs over his own commander
If ever there was a sign that the war in Ukraine was not going as well as Vladimir Putin had hoped, it must have been the sight of a Russian soldier running over one of his own commanders with a tank.
The footage of Col Yury Medvedev being carried away in agony on a stretcher, his legs wrapped in a blanket, may be low quality, but its meaning is stark.
The Russian forces appear to have lost control of at least some of their own troops, as the conflict turns from the lightning invasion they were promised into a prolonged war of attrition.
A Western official said the brigade commander had been “killed by his own troops, we believe as a consequence of the scale of losses that had been taken by his brigade”.
11:56 AM
How one soldier’s careless capture sums up Russia’s invasion debacle
For Private Volodymyr of the Russian army, the call of duty was not as strong as the call of nature. Serving with an attack force on the outskirts of Kyiv, he sneaked into some woods in no man’s land to take a quick lavatorial break.
But while it might have been preferable to the cramped cubicle of a Russian armoured vehicle, his al fresco ablutions meant he dropped his guard along with his trousers. He was spotted by a passing Ukrainian defence patrol and taken prisoner, giving a new meaning to the phrase “Missing in Action”.
“He’d wandered about 500 yards from his position and had just unbuckled his trousers to take a sh–,” laughed Pavlo Maksym, a sergeant with a Ukrainian civil defence militia in the village of Stoyanka, on Kyiv’s western flank.
“We crept up on him, pointed our guns at him and told him to keep quiet. It was a gamble because if he’d made a noise he could have given us away to the Russian positions, but he didn’t – he was just a young kid who didn’t know what he was doing.”
11:21 AM
Inside the Wagner Group: ‘Death is our business – and business is good’
One month ago, a Russian military Antonov transport plane took off from the Central African Republic, bound for eastern Ukraine.
It was carrying around 100 mercenaries from the notorious Wagner Group, on their way to join some 200 already there. Almost all of these men had served in elite military units or in the security services.
Some had been in the Spetznaz, the special forces, others in military intelligence, the GRU, or the foreign intelligence service, the SVR, or in the FSO, which guards the Kremlin and Vladimir Putin.
Smaller groups of men arrived from other places where the Wagner Group has a presence. This gathering was a sign that Putin had made the decision to start a war in Ukraine – and of how he would fight it.
11:04 AM
War in Ukraine: latest pictures
10:45 AM
Russian hints at scaling back ‘may not be the truth’
A Government minister warned that Moscow’s claims should be treated sceptically after hints at a possible scaling back of the conflict.
Policing minister Kit Maltouse told BBC Breakfast: “I’m not qualified to say, but what I do know is there’s an awful lot of misinformation and disinformation flying around in this awful conflict.
“And we need to take care that what first appears may not in fact be the truth. Let’s hope there may well be a cessation of hostilities as soon as possible.”
He said refugees have arrived in the UK through the Homes For Ukrainians scheme, but said the number will not be published until “next week”.
He said 20,100 visas have been granted through the extended family route, with another 35,000 “in the process”.
10:37 AM
Shelled city in north Ukraine fears becoming ‘next Mariupol’
Like many residents of Ukraine’s besieged city of Chernihiv, linguistics scholar Ihar Kazmerchak spends his nights in a bomb shelter and starts his day lining up for the little potable water authorities have left to hand out.
Surrounded by Russian forces and under constant bombardment, the northern city known for its eclectic monasteries has no electricity, heating or running water. The lists at pharmacies of the medicines no longer available grow longer by the day.
“In basements at night, everyone is talking about one thing: Chernihiv becoming next Mariupol,” Kazmerchak, 38, said, referring to the southern port city 525 miles away that has suffered some of the worst horrors of the war.
The fear is not misplaced. Russian bombs destroyed Chernihiv’s main bridge over the Desna River on the road leading to Kyiv on Wednesday; on Friday, artillery shells rendered the remaining pedestrian bridge impassable, cutting off the last possible route for people to get out or for food and medical supplies to get in.
10:15 AM
New Kyiv curfew looms
A fresh curfew will be imposed on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv from Saturday evening until Monday morning, mayor Vitali Klitschko announced.
“The military command decided to reinforce the curfew. It will start from 8:00 pm Saturday and last until 7:00 am on Monday,” he said on Telegram.
He said residents could only “go out to seek shelter if sirens go off” and added that “public transport, shops, pharmacies and petrol pumps will be closed.”
Curfew has been imposed several times in Kyiv since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24.
The previous curfew lasted 35 hours between March 21 and 23.
10:11 AM
‘Ukraine could take back Kherson city today’
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has hailed his troops as having delivered “powerful blows” to the invading forces as he urged Moscow to negotiate an end to the month-long war.
Mr Zelensky claimed in his night-time address that more than 16,000 Russian troops had been killed in the conflict.
An adviser to the Ukrainian ministry of defence, Markian Lubkivskyi, predicted troops could on Saturday take back Kherson, the first major city that the Kremlin’s forces seized.
Mr Lubkivskyi told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We cannot believe the statements from Moscow because there’s still a lot of untruth and lies from that side. That’s why we understand the goal of Putin still is the whole of Ukraine.”
Referring to the port city of Kherson, in the south east, Mr Lubkivskyi said: “I believe that today the city will be fully under the control of Ukrainian armed forces.
“We have finished in the last two days the operation in the Kyiv region so other armed forces are now focused on the southern part trying to get free Kherson and some other Ukrainian cities.”
09:58 AM
Putin pulling back from urban warfare
The UK’s Ministry of Defence said Russian forces are increasingly reliant on indiscriminate air and artillery bombardments, as they are “proving reluctant to engage in large scale urban infantry operations”.
Russia continues to besiege a number of major Ukrainian cities including Kharkiv, Chernihiv and Mariupol, the MoD added.
Here’s the latest intelligence briefing.
09:45 AM
New: Russian troops ‘seize Chernobyl worker town’
Russian forces have taken control of the town of Slavutych, where workers at the defunct Chernobyl nuclear plant live, the governor of Kyiv region Oleksandr Pavlyuk said on Saturday.
In an online statement, Pavlyuk said Russian troops had occupied the hospital in Slavutych and kidnapped the mayor. Reuters could not independently verify the reports.
On Friday, Ukraine said its troops had repulsed a first attack by Russian troops closing in on the town.
The UN’s nuclear watchdog also said it was “concerned” by shelling of the area, with staff unable to meet usual shift patterns at the plant, which is still maintained and was the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster.
09:31 AM
Kremlin defence minister seen speaking after long public silence
Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu was seen speaking publicly for the first time in more than two weeks on Saturday, chairing an army meeting and discussing weapons supplies.
In the video, uploaded on social media by his ministry, Shoigu said he had discussed issues related to the military budget and defence orders with the finance ministry.
“We continue ahead-of-schedule delivery of weaponry and equipment by means of credits. The priorities are long-range high-precision weapons, aircraft equipment and maintenance of engagement readiness of strategic nuclear forces,” said Shoigu.
The meeting was attended by a number of top Russian army officials including the chief of the General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, who also had not been seen in public recently.
Shoigu appeared on screen in a video clip of a meeting between President Vladimir Putin and his Security Council on Thursday, but was not shown speaking. Prior to that, he had not been seen in public since March 11.
09:03 AM
UK gives encircled Ukrainian cities 25 truckloads of food
Britain is set to provide £2 million in vital food supplies for Ukrainian cities encircled by Russian forces, the Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has said.
Around 25 truckloads of dried food, tinned goods and water will be transported by road and rail following a request by the Ukrainian government.
Warehouses in Poland and Slovakia are being readied to supply the supplies from early next week, with the window of opportunity to supply civilians trapped in besieged cities such as Mariupol and Chernihiv rapidly closing.
It is estimated over 12 million people are currently in need of humanitarian assistance across Ukraine, with the actual figure likely to be much higher.
Ms Truss said: “We stand firmly with our Ukrainian friends.”
08:51 AM
Russia fuelling nuclear arms race, says Zelensky
Russia’s “bragging” about its nuclear weapons is fuelling a dangerous arms race, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky told the Doha Forum on Saturday.
“They are bragging that they can destroy with nuclear weapons not only a certain country but the entire planet,” Mr Zelensky said in a video message to the forum of political and business leaders.
08:35 AM
Russia signals less ambitious goals in Ukraine war
Russia has signalled it may dial back its war aims to focus on eastern Ukraine after failing to break the nation’s resistance a month on, including up to 300 feared killed in the bombing of a theatre.
The possible shift came ahead of a planned meeting of US president Joe Biden with Ukrainian refugees in Poland and talks with his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda in Warsaw before he gives a speech on the “brutal war”, the White House said.
Russian president Vladimir Putin had ordered the February invasion to destroy Ukraine’s military and topple pro-Western president Volodymyr Zelensky, bringing the country under Russia’s sway.
But Sergei Rudskoi, a senior general, suggested a considerably reduced “main goal” of controlling Donbas, an eastern region already partly held by Russian proxies.
His surprise statement came as a Western official reported that a seventh Russian general, Lieutenant General Yakov Rezanstev, had died in Ukraine and that a colonel had been “deliberately” killed by his demoralised men.
Moscow’s troops are facing a counteroffensive in Kherson, the only major Ukrainian city under Russian control.
08:23 AM
Zelensky calls on energy producers to hike output
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has called on energy producing countries on Saturday to increase output so that Russia cannot use its oil and gas wealth to “blackmail” other nations.
Addressing the Doha Forum international conference via video link, Mr Zelensky said countries such as Qatar could make a contribution to the stabilisation of Europe.
“They can do much to restore justice. The future of Europe depends on your effort. I ask you to increase the output of energy to ensure that everyone in Russia understands that no country can use energy as a weapon and blackmail the world,” he said in translated comments.
The month-long invasion of Ukraine by Russia, Europe’s top gas supplier, has sharpened concerns of disruption to energy supplies and increased scrutiny of European Union countries’ reliance on imported fossil fuels.
Mr Zelensky also said no country is insured against shocks from disruptions to food supply, with Ukraine one of the world’s largest grain producers. “Russian troops are covering fields in Ukraine for miles, they are exploding agrarian equipment,” he said.
06:45 AM
Biden to call on ‘free world’ to stand against Putin in Poland speech
US President Joe Biden will argue in a speech in Poland on Saturday that the “free world” opposes Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and that there is unity among major economies on the need to stop Vladimir Putin, the White House said.
After three days of emergency meetings with allies of the G7, European Council and NATO, and a visit with U.S. troops in Poland, Biden will meet with Polish President Andrzej Duda.
Mr Biden, who took office last year after a violently contested election, vowed to restore democracy at home and unite democracies abroad to confront autocrats including the Russian president and China’s leader Xi Jinping.
Putin’s Feb 24 invasion of Ukraine, which Russia calls a “special operation”, has tested that promise and threatened to inaugurate a new Cold War three decades after the Soviet Union unravelled.
06:09 AM
Six more countries ‘should be denazified’
A Moscow City Duma deputy has suggested that six more countries – Kazakhstan, Moldova, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia – should be ‘denazified’, regional media organisation Nexta is reporting.
06:04 AM
Russia conducts military drills on isles disputed with Japan
Russia was conducting drills on islands claimed by Tokyo, Japanese media said on Saturday, days after Moscow halted peace talks with Japan because of its sanctions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Russia’s Eastern Military District said it was conducting military drills on the Kuril islands with more than 3,000 troops and hundreds of pieces of army equipment, Russia’s Interfax news agency said Friday.
It did not say where on the island chain, connecting Russia’s Kamchatka peninsula and Japan’s northernmost main island of Hokkaido, the drills were taking place. Japanese media said they were on territory the Soviet Union seized at the end of World War Two that is claimed by Tokyo.
Japan’s Foreign Ministry and Prime Minister’s Office could not be reached outside business hours to comment on the exercises.
04:20 AM
Pictured: Flames and smoke rise from a fire following a Russian attack in Kharkiv on Friday
03:33 AM
Russia claims it has completed main goals are false, says US think tank
Russia has falsely claimed it has worn down the Ukrainian army, allowing it to focus on its key objective of capturing Donetsk and Luhansk, said a US Think Tank.
Sergei Rudskoi, first deputy chief of the Russian General Staff, said on Friday in an assessment of the war effort so far that Russian forces have completed “the main tasks of the first stage of the operation.”
The US Institute For The Study of War said the claims were inaccurate and likely aimed at winning public support at home.
“Rudskoi’s comments were likely aimed mainly at a domestic Russian audience and do not accurately or completely capture current Russian war aims and planned operations.
“Russia’s justification for the invasion of Ukraine from the outset was the fictitious threat Moscow claimed Ukrainian forces posed to the people in Russian-occupied Donbas. The Kremlin has reiterated this justification for the war frequently as part of efforts to explain the invasion to its people and build or sustain public support for Putin and the war”
03:12 AM
The UK has sanctioned 65 individuals and entities over the war in Ukraine — Latest from the UK Ministry of Defence
02:47 AM
‘ Kherson remains under total Russian control’, reports CNN
The city of Kherson remains under total Russian control, four residents of the city have told CNN.
The claims contrast with earlier media reports citing the Pentagon as saying Ukrainian forces had retaken control of parts of the city.
“Today [I] saw them with their guns at the market, possibly searching vegetables for buying,” one resident said to CNN on Friday evening. “They lose only couple of villages, not towns.”
CNN said the assessment that Ukrainian forces had started to reclaim the city was based on information from two US defence officials claiming images and media reports showed the Ukrainian flag draped from city hall.
02:38 AM
Ukraine to build temporary housing for displaced citizens
Ukraine will build temporary housing for its displaced citizens, The Kyiv Independent reports.
“Once we achieve peace, we will begin immediate large-scale reconstruction of our country. But now people need a temporary home,” the newspaper quotes President Volodymyr Zelensky as saying.
⚡️Ukraine to build temporary housing for internally displaced people.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a recent address that the government was tasked with constructing temporary housing for Ukrainians evacuated from the hot spots of Russia’s war.
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) March 25, 2022
