War and pics: Key things to know about Russia-Ukraine conflict right now as Russian invasion enters day 26
Over 10 million Ukrainian refugees have so far fled abroad or been displaced inside the country due to the Russian invasion.
Russia on Monday (March 21, 2022) continued to step up their bombardment of Ukraine's port city of Mariupol and bombed an art school where officials say 400 people were sheltering. Russian troops have demanded that Ukrainians in the besieged city lay down their arms in exchange for safe passage out of town. Ukrainian leaders, however, have rejected the offer saying that "there can be no talk about surrender and laying down weapons".
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Vladimir Putin's Russia of war crimes over its siege, describing the attack on the city as "a terror that will be remembered for centuries to come". In his address to the nation, Zelenskyy said that Ukraine is interested in peace and that ongoing talks with Russia are "necessary".
Here are some key things to know about the conflict as the Russian invasion of Ukraine enters day 26:
WHAT'S HAPPENING IN MARIUPOL?
Mariupol, a strategic port on the Azov Sea, has been encircled by Russian troops and cut off from energy, food and water supplies since the early days of Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine launched on February 24. Civilian life has been relegated to bomb shelters, with aid groups saying the city is facing a humanitarian crisis.
In a statement, the Mariupol city council said Russian soldiers have forced several thousand residents, mostly women and children, to leave and be relocated to Russia.
The city council said Sunday that nearly 40,000 people have used their own vehicles to leave the city via a humanitarian corridor over the past week, nearly 10% of its 4,30,000 population. (Photo: Reuters)
WHAT WAS RUSSIA'S OFFER TO MARIUPOL?
Russian forces demanded that the Ukrainian troops defending the strategic port lay down arms and in exchange would be guaranteed a safe exit from the city via humanitarian corridors. Russia said that it will wait until 5 AM on Monday for a written Kyiv's response to the proposal, but didn't say what action Russia will take if its 'humanitarian offer' is rejected.
Leaders, including Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk and Mariupol Mayor Piotr Andryushchenko quickly rejected the notion. (Photo: Reuters)
WHAT'S HAPPENING IN OTHER CITIES IN UKRAINE?
In Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, at least 20 infants carried by Ukrainian surrogate mothers were stuck in a makeshift bomb shelter, waiting for parents to enter the war zone to pick them up. They are being cared for by nurses trapped in the shelter by constant shelling from Russian troops.
Authorities in the eastern city of Kharkiv said at least five civilians were killed in the latest Russian shelling, with the victims including a nine-year-old boy. Kharkiv has been under siege since the start of the Russian invasion and faced relentless Russian artillery.
In the Black Sea port of Mykolaiv, a Russian missile strike on a marine barracks had killed at least 40 Ukrainian troops on Friday. The missiles were said to be fired from the neighboring Kherson region.
Some 70 orphaned babies were evacuated from Sumy, another Ukrainian city under siege, in the northeast. The region's governor said most of the infants require constant medical attention and will be taken to an unspecified foreign country.
Zelenskyy said 7,295 Ukrainians were evacuated from zones of combat on Sunday, including nearly 4,000 from Mariupol. (Photo: Reuters)
ARE THERE NEW MILITARY DEVELOPMENTS IN RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR?
The Russian military reported Sunday that it has carried out a new series of strikes on Ukrainian military facilities with long-range hypersonic and cruise missiles, a day after announcing it had used its latest hypersonic missile for the first time in combat.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman said that the Kinzhal hypersonic missile hit a Ukrainian fuel depot in Kostiantynivka near Mykolaiv. The strike marked the second day in a row that Russia used the Kinzhal, a weapon capable of striking targets 2,000 kilometers away at a speed 10 times the speed of sound. (Photo: Reuters)
HOW MANY CIVILIANS HAVE SO FAR DIED IN UKRAINE?
From the start of the war through Friday, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) recorded 2,246 civilian casualties in the country, including 847 killed and 1,399 injured.
Ukrainian officials say thousands of civilians have been killed.
The office of Ukraine's Prosecutor General reported on Saturday that 112 children have been killed since the fighting started. More than 140 children have also been wounded. (Photo: Reuters)
WHAT ABOUT UKRAINIAN REFUGEES?
Over 10 million Ukrainian refugees have so far fled abroad or been displaced inside the country in the wake of Russia's invasion, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has said.
As of Saturday, the number of Ukrainians who fled abroad had topped 3.38 million, UNHCR said. Additionally, almost two-thirds of the refugees, about 2.05 million, had evacuated to Poland and about 1,80,000 were sheltering in Russia. Hundreds of thousands have also streamed into Hungary, Slovakia, Moldova and Romania. (Photo: Reuters)
