Russia-Ukraine war latest: strike on children’s hospital ‘ultimate evidence that genocide is happening’ – Zelenskiy

• 11.59pm GMT 23:59 US warns Russia may use biological weapons in Ukraine
• 11.30pm GMT 23:30 Catch up
• 11.16pm GMT 23:16 Analysis: Russia’s ‘warning’ of Ukraine’s biological weapons sounds just like Syria
• 11.08pm GMT 23:08 Children under rubble after Russian airstrike on maternity hospital, says Zelenskiy
• 10.45pm GMT 22:45 Russian strike on maternity hospital is 'ultimate evidence of genocide' – Zelenskiy
• 7.00pm GMT 19:00 Summary
• 6.23pm GMT 18:23 Russia admits using thermobaric weapon system in Ukraine, UK says

22:45

Updated at 10.56pm GMT

The United States has warned that Russia could soon use biological weapons in Ukraine, rejecting Moscow’s claims that the US supports a bioweapons program.

US state department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement:

The Kremlin is intentionally spreading outright lies that the United States and Ukraine are conducting chemical and biological weapons activities in Ukraine.

We have also seen PRC officials echo these conspiracy theories. This Russian disinformation is total nonsense and not the first time Russia has invented such false claims against another country. Also, these claims have been debunked conclusively and repeatedly over many years.

As we have said all along, Russia is inventing false pretexts in an attempt to justify its own horrific actions in Ukraine.

Russia has a track record of accusing the West of the very crimes that Russia itself is perpetrating. These tactics are an obvious ploy by Russia to try to justify further premeditated, unprovoked, and unjustified attacks on Ukraine. We fully expect Russia to continue to double down on these sorts of claims with further unfounded allegations.”

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the claims were “preposterous” and noted that “we’ve also seen Chinese officials echo these conspiracy theories.”

Taking to Twitter, she said:

This is preposterous. It’s the kind of disinformation operation we’ve seen repeatedly from the Russians over the years in Ukraine and in other countries, which have been debunked, and an example of the types of false pretexts we have been warning the Russians would invent.

Now that Russia has made these false claims... we should all be on the lookout for Russia to possibly use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine, or to create a false flag operation using them.”

On 6 March, Moscow’s foreign ministry tweeted that Russian forces found evidence that Kyiv was erasing traces of the military-biological program in Ukraine, allegedly financed by the United States.

The United States said Tuesday however it was working with Ukraine to prevent invading Russian forces from seizing biological research material in the country.

The International Monetary Fund has approved $1.4 billion in emergency financing for Ukraine to help meet urgent spending needs and mitigate the economic impact of Russia’s military invasion.

The global lender said Ukrainian authorities had cancelled an existing stand-by lending arrangement with the IMF, but would work with the fund to design an appropriate economic program focused on rehabilitation and growth when conditions permit, Reuters reports.

“The Russian military invasion of Ukraine has been responsible for a massive humanitarian and economic crisis,” IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said in a statement after the meeting, predicting a deep recession in Ukraine this year.

“Financing needs are large, urgent, and could rise significantly as the war continues,” she said. Once the war was over, Ukraine was likely to need additional “large support.”

• Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy called the Russian strike on a maternity hospital “the ultimate evidence of genocide”. The children’s hospital and maternity ward in the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol was been destroyed by a Russian airstrike this afternoon, Ukrainian officials said. Zelenskiy said children are buried under rubble and the regional governor said 17 people have been wounded.

• Russia’s foreign ministry has confirmed the use of the TOS-1A weapon system in Ukraine, Britain said. The UK’s ministry of defence said the system uses thermobaric rockets, creating incendiary and blast effects.

• The United States has seen indications that Russia is dropping “dumb bombs” – unguided munitions with no precise target – on Ukraine, a senior US defence official said. They added that the US was observing “increasing damage to civilian infrastructure and civilian casualties”.

• Ukraine has accused Russian forces of “holding 400,000 people hostage” in Mariupol. The Ukrainian foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said the city, where conditions are described as “apocalyptic”, was still being shelled by Russian troops despite an agreement to establish a safe evacuation corridor for civilians.

• Ukrainian authorities have said the power supply has been cut to the defunct Chernobyl power plant. The UN’s atomic watchdog said the spent nuclear fuel stored there had cooled down sufficiently for it not to be an imminent concern. Still, the news is raising concerns that a lack of external power to the site could compromise nuclear safety.

• More than 40,000 civilians were evacuated from all over Ukraine today but authorities struggled to get people away from conflict zones around the cities of Kyiv, Kharkiv and Mariupol, a Ukrainian negotiator said. Ukrainian authorities said earlier that the corridors should allow residents of the heavily bombarded cities of Mariupol, Enerhodar, Sumy, Izyum and Volnovakha, as well as towns around Kyiv including Bucha, Irpin and Hostomel, to leave, calling on Russian forces to respect an “official public commitment” to cease fire.

• Western officials warned of their “serious concern” that Vladimir Putin could use chemical weapons on Kyiv. In an assessment, they said an “utterly horrific” attack on the Ukrainian capital could be unleashed as Russian forces attempt to overcome the logistical issues that have apparently plagued troops headed towards Kyiv.

– Léonie Chao-Fong, Gloria Oladipo, Maanvi Singh

Martin Chulov

When a Russian spokesperson took to a podium in Moscow on Wednesday and warned of a “biological weapons programme” in Ukraine, fighters on another battlefield – Syria – understood what she meant.

The anti-Assad opposition groups that still held northern Syria had heard it all before. From 2015, when Russia took a prominent stake in the conflict, and throughout the gruesome years that followed, claims that they, instead of the Assad regime, had used chemical weapons were a ready-made slur that put them on notice of an imminent assault. The allegations were made by Moscow, whenever ground forces it was supporting wanted to clear a town or city. Brutal, indiscriminate bombardment followed. So did impunity.

Even in its infancy, the Russian war in Ukraine has many parallels with the conflict in Syria: barely restrained savagery, the mass flight of terrified civilians, and wanton destruction. Now the use of foreboding pretexts can be added to a growing list, which was born amid the ruins of Grozny, Crimea and Donbas and fine-tuned on the civilian population of Syria’s beleaguered north.

The Pentagon and Ukraine’s leadership both disdainfully denied the Russian claim, which had been accompanied by a call for answers, and there seemed little likelihood of it cutting through an international discourse that has run heavily against the Kremlin and its disinformation programmes.

It was a very different story in Syria, where each claim of chemical weapons use by rebels was received with credulity in parts of the UK and Europe and there was little interest in exposing Moscow’s lies. Winning the war of misinformation was a Russian success in Syria, in a theatre that wasn’t short of wins for a military with no one apart from outgunned rebels and jihadists willing to stand in its way.

“Ukraine today is part of a much longer continuum than Syria,” a former senior Nato officer told the Guardian. “It goes back further than Chechnya – politically, in terms of foreign policy, in terms of Russia’s internal dynamics and in terms of the tactics of the Russian war machine. The only surprise over the past fortnight is quite how useless the Russian armed forces have been – thankfully. They have been utterly dire in every respect, which is very good news all round.

Read more:

Luke Harding in Lviv, Julian Borger in Washington, and Jon Henley:

Russian bombs have “completely destroyed” a children’s and maternity hospital in Mariupol, Ukrainian authorities have said, as shelling again halted mass evacuations from several cities, including the devastated southern port where conditions are described as “apocalyptic”.

As Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmitryo Kuleba, accused Russia of “holding 400,000 people hostage” in Mariupol, much of whose population has been without power, heat, water or phone signal for over a week, the president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, denounced an atrocity.

“Mariupol. Direct strike of Russian troops at the maternity hospital,” Zelenskiy tweeted. “People, children are under the wreckage. Atrocity! How much longer will the world be an accomplice ignoring terror? Stop the killings! You have the power but you seem to be losing humanity.”

Amid western warnings that Moscow’s invasion was about to become even more brutal as the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, seeks to regain stalled momentum, local authorities described the damage to the hospital – a combined 600-bed complex with children’s and maternity wards – as “colossal” and said at least 17 people had been wounded, including women in labour.

The deputy mayor, Sergei Orlov, said the city was being shelled continuously and 1,170 residents had died, 47 of whom were buried in a mass grave on Wednesday. “It’s medieval,” he said. “It’s pure genocide. The attack isn’t simply treacherous. It’s a war crime. They are attacking us with aviation, shells, multiple rocket launchers.”

The Guardian was unable to fully verify the Ukrainian officials’ accounts, but video published by the Associated Press showed multiple injured people at the site of the hospital attack.

Read more:

Boris Johnson committed to tightening sanctions “in order to impose the maximum economic cost on Russia”, in a call with Zelenskiy.

Per a statement from Downing Street, the two discussed the strike on a maternity hospital in Mariupol

Both leaders condemned the horrifying attack on a maternity hospital in Mariupol and the failure by Russian forces to respect ceasefire agreements in humanitarian corridors. The Prime Minister noted that this was yet further evidence that Putin was acting with careless disregard for International Humanitarian Law.

Johnson also “outlined the work the UK is doing to provide the military equipment Ukraine needed to defend itself,” according to the statement.

In his latest address, Zelenskiy thanked Johnson for his support and urged western nations to help Ukraine “to finally secure our sky”. NATO has rejected Ukraine’s calls for a no-fly zone.

“Either close the Ukrainian sky from Russian bombs, or give us fighter jets so that we did it ourselves. The pause of indecision has become murderous,” Zelenskiy said.

Speaking in Russian, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy decried the bombing of a children’s hospital and maternity ward in Mariupol.

In an apparent appeal to Russians, Zelenskiy said:

A children’s hospital, a maternity ward. How did they threaten the Russian Federation? What is this country, the Russian Federation, that is afraid of hospitals, maternity wards and is destroying them? Were there little Banderovites? Were pregnant women going to shoot on Rostov? Did anyone in the maternity ward humiliate Russian speakers? Or was it de-Nazification of a hospital?

Switching back to Ukrainian, Zelenskiy called the bombing “beyond atrocity”, in an address posted on Telegram.

“Europeans, Ukrainians, Mariupol residents, we have to stand united in condemning Russia for this crime that reflects all evil that the invaders have brought on us, on all destroyed cities: Volnovakha, Izyum, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Okhtyrka, Borodyanka, Hostomel, Zhytomyr and tens of our Ukrainian cities that never posed any threat to Russia,” he said. ‘Hospitals and schools are destroyed. Churches and ordinary buildings are destroyed. People are killed. Children are killed. Air bombing on a children’s hospital is the ultimate evidence that genocide of Ukrainians is happening.”

The United Nations Population Fund condemned the strike on the hospital. Footage of the attack shared online by Zelenskiy shows the hospital’s windows being blown out, and parts of the structure collapsing.

Ukraine confirmed that the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant has been disconnected from the electricity grid, raising concerns that a lack of external power to the site could compromise nuclear safety.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) issued a statement:

The IAEA agreed with the Ukrainian regulator that its disconnection from the grid would not have a critical impact on essential safety functions at the site, where various radioactive waste management facilities are located. Specifically, regarding the site’s spent fuel storage facility, the volume of cooling water in the pool is sufficient to maintain effective heat removal from the spent fuel without a supply of electricity. The site also has reserve emergency power supplies with diesel generators and batteries.

Nevertheless, the lack of power is likely to lead to a further deterioration of operational radiation safety at the site and create additional stress for around 210 technical experts and guards who have not been able to rotate for the past two weeks, in effect living there around the clock.

“From day to day, we are seeing a worsening situation at the Chornobyl NPP, especially for radiation safety, and for the staff managing the facility under extremely difficult and challenging circumstances,” Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said. “I repeat my urgent appeal to the forces in effective control of the plant to respect internal radiation protection procedures, to facilitate the safe rotation of staff and to take other important steps to ensure safety.”

IAEA said it had also lost remote data transmission from its safeguards systems at the Chornobyl and Zaporizhzhya, another Ukrainian nuclear power plant overtaken Russia

More than 1 million children have left Ukraine and fled to neighboring countries in the less than two weeks since Russia began its war on Ukraine, reported Reuters:

More than 1 million children have fled Ukraine to neighboring countries in the less than two weeks since Russia started its invasion of Ukraine, the head of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Wednesday.

At least 37 children had been killed and 50 injured, Executive Director Catherine Russell said in a statement.

Russell said that she was “horrified” by the reported attack on a children’s hospital in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, where officials said a Russian air strike buried patients under rubble despite an agreed ceasefire.

“This attack, if confirmed, underscores the horrific toll this war is exacting on Ukraine*s children and families,” Russell said.

The bombing, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called an “atrocity,” took place despite an agreed ceasefire to enable thousands of civilians trapped in the city to escape.

Mariupol city council said the hospital had been hit several times by an air strike, causing “colossal” destruction. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “Russian forces do not fire on civilian targets.”

More than 2 million people have fled Ukraine since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion on Feb. 24. Moscow calls its action a “special military operation” to disarm its neighbor and dislodge leaders it calls “neo-Nazis.”

Most of those who fled are women and children, as able-bodied men have been ordered by the Kyiv government to stay home to fight.

Ukrainian explosive ordnance disposal specialists (EODs) reportedly defuse a Russian bomb with their two hands a bottle of water.

FromCharles Lister, senior fellow and the Director of the Syria and Countering Terrorism & Extremism programs at the Middle East Institute:

More photos coming out of civilians on the ground in Ukraine as Russia’s invasion continues:

Industrial conglomerate 3M announced that it is suspending its business in Russia, the latest Western company to do so following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

From Reuters:

“After re-assessing our business in Russia, we have decided to suspend all business operations there,” the company told Reuters in an email, adding that its focus continues to be on the safety of its employees and their families.

Rival industrial conglomerate Honeywell International Inc had also announced the suspension of its business in Russia, as the West continues to pressure Kremlin with severe economic sanctions.

Today, Nestle as well as tobacco brands Philip Morris and Imperial Brands temporarily stopped business in Russia, with McDonald’s, Starbucks, Coca-Cola, and PepsiCo making similar announcements yesterday.

Russian’s delegation at peace talks with Ukraine “will not concede a single negotiating point,” reported a RIA news agency today.

From Reuters:

Russia’s delegation at peace talks with Ukraine “will not concede a single negotiating point,” RIA news agency cited negotiator Leonid Slutsky as telling a television station on Wednesday.

The two sides have carried out three rounds of talks since the start of the Russian invasion. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is scheduled to have talks in Turkey on Thursday with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba.

Julian Borger

John Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman, has been talking about the plan to deliver Polish MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine. In short, the plan is off.

He said the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin had being talking to his Polish counterpart, and had “stressed that we do not support the transfer of additional fighter aircraft to the Ukrainian Air Force at this time, and therefore had no desire to see them in our custody either.”

Kirby went through the reasons, the US was against the transfer of combat aircraft.

“First, we believe the best way to support Ukrainian defense is by providing them the weapons and the systems that they need most to defeat Russian aggression, in particular, anti-armor and air-defense. We, along with other nations, continue to send them these weapons and we know that they’re being used with great effect. The slow Russian advance in the north and the contested airspace over Ukraine is evidence alone of that.”

“Although Russian air capabilities are significant, their effectiveness has been limited due to Ukrainian strategic operational and tactical ground-based air-defense systems surface to air missiles, and Manpads [shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missiles]. Secondly, the Ukrainian Air Force currently has several squadrons of fully mission capable aircraft. We assess that adding aircraft to the Ukrainian inventory is not likely to significantly change the effectiveness of the Ukrainian Air Force relative to Russian capabilities. Therefore, we believe that the gain from transferring those MIG-29s is low.”

“Finally, the intelligence community has assessed the transfer of MiG-29s to Ukraine may be mistaken as escalatory and could result in a significant Russian reaction that might increase the prospects of a military escalation with Nato. Therefore, we also assess the transfer of the MiG 29 to Ukraine to be high risk. We also believe that there are alternative options that are much better suited to support the Ukrainian military in their fight against Russia. We will continue to pursue those options.”

Systems of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that were monitoring nuclear material at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine have stopped transmitting data, said the agency today, reported Reuters.

Yesterday, the same interruption of data was reported at the Chernobyl power plant amid an urgent request by Ukraine to the IAEA, the UN’s nuclear watchdog, about rotating the 210 technical personnel and guards working at the plant.

IAEA chief Rafael Grossi “said he was concerned about the sudden interruption of such data flows to the IAEA’s Vienna headquarters from the two sites, where large amounts of nuclear material are present in the form of spent or fresh nuclear fuel and other types of nuclear material,” said the IAEA in a statement.

The US is reportedly considering sanctions against Russian nuclear power supplier Rosatom.

From Bloomberg’s Ari Natter:

SCOOP: The Biden administration is considering sanctioning Russian uranium supplier Rosatom. Huge implications for domestic uranium mining and nuclear power operators. No decision has been made yet.

Ukraine is preparing to potentially move its sensitive data and servers to another country if Russia’s invasion continues deeper into the country, said a senior cybersecurity official to Reuters.

Victor Zhora, the deputy chief of Ukraine’s State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection, emphasized his department was planning for a contingency, but that it is being considered at all suggests Ukrainians want to be ready for any Russian threat to seize sensitive government documents.

“We are preparing the ground,” Zhora said. Plan A was to protect IT infrastructure within Ukraine. Removing it to a another country would only be a “Plan B or C”.

The move could only happen after regulatory changes approved by Ukrainian lawmakers, Zhora said.

Government officials have already been shipping equipment and backups to more secure areas of Ukraine beyond the reach of Russian forces, who invaded on Feb. 24 and are laying siege to several cities.

Last month Zhora told Politico there were plans to move critical data out of the capital Kyiv should it be threatened, but preparations for potentially moving data abroad go a step further.

Ukraine has received offers to host data from a variety of countries, Zhora said, declining to identify them. For reasons of proximity “a European location will be preferred,” he said.

“There are a lot options,” he said. “All the proposals are highly welcome and worth considering.”

Zhora gave few details of how such a move might be executed, but he said past efforts to keep government data out of Russia’s grasp involved either the physical transport of servers and removable storage devices or the digital migration of data from one service or server to another.