11:27 a.m.: Several hospitals hit by shelling in Mykolaiv
The port city of Mykolaiv, in southern Ukraine, near Odessa, was ruthlessly bombed Friday night through Saturday, with gunfire hitting a cancer care center and an eye hospital. There were no patients or caregivers at the cancer center, but there were patients in the eye hospital.
The windows of the newly renovated cancer center, where patients are receiving chemotherapy during the day, have exploded. The impacts of the projectiles were visible on the doors. “They fired at these civilian areas without any military target. Here is a hospital, an orphanage, an ophthalmology center,” said Dmytro Lagotchev, the hospital’s chief.
In this neighborhood, the residents no longer have heating and many are now forced to leave.
1,582 civilians
This is the number of victims announced by the Ukrainian authorities in the city of Mariupol, following the Russian bombing and the blockade that has lasted for almost two weeks.
10:20 a.m.: Italy freezes another Russian oligarch’s yacht for €530 million
Italian authorities announced on Saturday that they had frozen a 530 million euro yacht belonging to Russian oligarch Andrei Melnichenko, which is subject to European Union sanctions. The ship, over 142 meters long, called the “SY A” (sailing yacht A, a sailing yacht), is one of the largest superyachts in the world, according to its manufacturer Nobiskrug.
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10am: A mosque housing 80 civilians bombed in Mariupol
A mosque housing more than 80 civilians, including children and Turks, has been bombed in Mariupol, Ukraine’s foreign ministry said.
“The mockery of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent and his wife Roxolana in Mariupol was bombed by Russian invaders,” the ministry said in a tweet. “More than 80 adults and children are being housed there, including Turkish nationals,” he said, noting when the bombing took place.
9:52 a.m.: Parents of students at the French Lycée in Moscow demand the return of teachers
More than 200 parents of students at the French Lycée in Moscow have challenged the French authorities, judging that the recall of all teachers, a consequence of the conflict in Ukraine, “jeopardizes” the existence of the school and the education of their children.
“We understand that the political situation (…) is particularly critical. However, since there is no security danger for people residing in Moscow, we ask you to reverse your decision to interrupt the teaching process,” the 261 signatories of the text write.
8:58 a.m.: U.S. imposes new sanctions on Putin’s relatives
Washington, ratcheting up pressure on Russian oligarchs and those close to Vladimir Putin, on Friday extended the list of personalities targeted by individual sanctions, that is to say whose property in the United States will be frozen, and who will be prohibited from any transaction with an American person or entity.
The US Treasury Department will thus sanction, among others, the wife and two adult children of Dmitri Peskov, vladimir Putin’s loyal spokesman, himself already targeted. “All of them have a luxurious lifestyle that is hardly compatible with Peskov’s salary as a senior civil servant and certainly based on the ill-gotten wealth from the relationship between Peskov and Putin,” the US administration notes.
The United States has also put on its list businessmen as well as members of the Duma, the Russian Parliament.
How France is preparing to welcome up to “100,000 Ukrainian refugees”
The flow of Ukrainian refugees to France will intensify in the coming weeks. The government anticipates a massive wave of 50,000 to 100,000 people fleeing the war in Ukraine. A scenario that requires resizing the planned docking device. How is this organized? More information in this article.
2.5 million
2.5 million people have fled Ukraine, 116,000 of whom are third-country nationals, since the launch of the Russian invasion on February 24, according to figures released Friday by the United Nations. The majority of refugees are heading to Poland, which estimates, according to its border guards, that 1.5 million people have crossed the border since 24 February.
In addition, there are about two million internally displaced people, said the head of the UN refugee agency, Filippo Grandi.
Visactu Infographic
8:10 a.m.: Russia says sanctions could cause the fall of the International Space Station
Western sanctions against Russia could cause the fall of the International Space Station, Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Russia’s Roscosmos space agency, said on Saturday, calling for their lifting.
According to him, the operation of Russian spacecraft refueling the ISS will be disrupted by the sanctions, affecting accordingly the Russian segment of the station, which serves in particular to correct the orbit of the orbital structure. As a result, this could cause “the ‘landing’ or ‘landing’ of the 500-ton ISS.”
Photo Xavier FRERE
8:06 a.m.: Technicians begin repairing Chernobyl power lines
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), technicians are currently working to repair the power lines bombed by the Russians and which supply the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. It has been dependent on diesel generators for its emergency power supply since the beginning of the week. More than 200 employees supervised by Russian soldiers work there in difficult conditions.
7:52 a.m.: The mayor of Melitopol abducted by Russian soldiers
In the south occupied by Moscow troops, the mayor of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov, was abducted on Friday by “a group of ten occupants,” according to the Rada, the Ukrainian Parliament, twitter account. He “refused to cooperate with the enemy,” and was abducted friday by Russian soldiers. “This is clearly a sign of the weakness of the invaders (…) They have moved to a new stage of terror in which they are trying to physically eliminate representatives of legitimate local Ukrainian authorities,” Zelensky stressed.
The deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential administration, Kirillo Tymoshenko, posted on Telegram a video showing soldiers leaving a building from a distance holding a man dressed in black, his head apparently covered with a black bag. According to him, more than 2,000 residents of Melitopol gathered near the city’s administrative building on Saturday, March 12, to show their support.
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7:20 a.m.: Russian troops surround Kiev, which is preparing for a “fierce defense”
The Russians continue their maneuver to encircle Kiev. This morning, explosions were heard in the capital. After reaching its outskirts, the soldiers sought to eliminate defenses in several localities west and north of the capital to “block” it, the Ukrainian General Staff explained.
“Kiev is a symbol of resistance” that is preparing for a “fierce defense,” Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, proclaimed in a video. Nearly 20,000 people have already been evacuated on Wednesday and Thursday from the capital and its surroundings.
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7:11 a.m.: Zelensky appeals to the mothers of Russian soldiers
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday called on the mothers of Russian soldiers to prevent their sons from being sent to war in Ukraine. “I want to say this once again to Russian mothers. Especially to the mothers of conscripts. Don’t send your children to war in a foreign country,” Zelensky said in a new video address broadcast on Telegram.
“Check where your son is. And if you have the slightest suspicion that your son could be sent to war against Ukraine, act immediately to prevent him from being killed or captured, he said. Yesterday, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry claimed that Ukrainian forces killed more than 12,000 Russian soldiers.
Facebook allows violent speech against Putin and the Russian military
Facebook said Thursday it is making exceptions to its rules on violent and hateful content, by not removing messages hostile to the Russian military and leaders. “Due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we are showing leniency for forms of political expression that would normally violate our rules on violent speech such as ‘death to Russian invaders,'” a Meta communications official said. For more info, read this article.
7:03 a.m.: 8 to 13 million people at risk of undernutrition by the war in Ukraine
Eight to 13 million more people could suffer from undernutrition worldwide if food exports from Ukraine and Russia were permanently prevented by the war, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) warns.
Egypt, Turkey, Bangladesh and Iran buy more than 60% of their wheat from Ukraine and Russia. Lebanon, Tunisia, Yemen, Libya and Pakistan “are also heavily dependent on these two countries for their wheat supply.”
In France, already 30,000 housing units proposed to accommodate refugees
Tens of thousands of Ukrainian refugees have already arrived in France. The State received 30,000 accommodation proposals, two-thirds of which were from private individuals. Our full article here.
6:53 am: 2500 Ukrainian refugees in Moldova will be welcomed in France, Darmanin announces
Gérald Darmanin announced Friday the transfer to France of 2500 Ukrainian refugees in Moldova, as part of an operation that the European Commission coordinates “to the voluntary countries”. The Minister of the Interior said in a tweet that this welcome had been decided by President Emmanuel Macron. “This is the first major operation of its kind,” the ministry commented.
6:48 a.m.: Biden announces new sanctions, Europe “ready” to do the same
Joe Biden announced friday that the United States and its allies have decided to exclude Russia from the normal reciprocity regime governing world trade, paving the way for the imposition of harsh tariffs. The US president also wants to ban imports of vodka, diamonds and Russian seafood. In addition, Emmanuel Macron warned, at the end of the EU summit in Versailles, that the Europeans were ready to take “massive sanctions” against Russia if the war continued.
Ukraine is at war, not Europe
The European summit in Versailles on Friday reiterated its support for Ukraine and threatened Russia with “massive” sanctions, without granting the promise of rapid accession that the Ukrainian president demanded. Our full article on this summit here.
6:47 am: The Russians target Dnipro, “tragedy” in sight in Mariupol
The Russian military on Friday extended its offensive to the large city of Dnipro, an industrial city on the Dnieper River, a river that marks the separation between the partly pro-Russian east and the rest of the country. “There were three airstrikes on the city, on a kindergarten, an apartment building and a shoe factory … where a fire then broke out,” Ukrainian emergency services said.
At the same time, the Russians continue their attempt to encircle Kiev, the capital. To the south, Mariupol, a strategic port on the Sea of Azov, is surrounded and constantly bombed. MSF is calling for action to avoid “an unimaginable tragedy” in the city.
Advance of Russian troops on Friday night. Visactu Infographic
What to remember from Friday
- The Russian army is expanding its offensive in Ukraine: it targeted two military airports in the west of the country and hit, for the first time, the city of Dnipro.
- A facility for people with disabilities was hit by Russian strikes near Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine, but did not cause any casualties, according to an initial assessment by emergency services.
- “If things continued militarily, (…) we will take new sanctions, including massive ones,” Macron said at the conclusion of the Versailles EUROPEAN summit.
- Joe Biden has announced Russia’s exclusion from the system of reciprocity in trade, paving the way for the imposition of punitive tariffs.
- France will take in 2500 refugees currently in Moldova. About 30,000 housing units have been offered in France to accommodate exiles.
- Brussels has offered an additional €500 million to finance weapons for Ukraine. Washington has allocated a billion dollars.
6:45 am: Hello everyone, welcome to this live where we will follow the situation around the conflict in Ukraine, this Saturday, March 12, on the seventeenth day of the Russian invasion.