Russia struggles to explain hospital bombing amid outrage; massive convoy outside Kyiv breaks up: March 10 recap
Follow here for the latest updates and news from Friday, March 11, as Russia’s invasion continues.
Russian forces bombarded the Ukrainian city Mariupol again on Thursday amid international outrage over the bombing of a children’s hospital there, while a massive convoy that has been stalled for over a week outside Kyiv appeared to split up into surrounding towns and forests.
Civilians in the port city of Mariupol are facing increasingly dire conditions with scarce food, fuel and electricity. Bodies are being buried in mass graves.
The Kremlin displayed harried confusion in its response to criticism Thursday, at times completely denying the Mariupol hospital bombing and at other moments alleging an elaborate propaganda ploy by the West.
Photos and video of the bombing’s aftermath clearly show severely injuried people – including a pregnant woman – being taken by stretcher from the rubble.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, however, has said the building was a hospital and called the attack an “atrocity.”
The hospital complex in Mariupol bombed Wednesday resulted in at least three deaths, including one child, Ukraine authorities say. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov dismissed the claim Thursday, saying the hospital had been emptied of patients and was being used as an extremist base.
The attack was condemned internationally and branded a “war crime” by Ukrainian and Western leaders. French President Emmanuel Macron called it “a shameful and immoral act of war.” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said it was “horrific” and “barbaric.”
“This is not the first time when we see pathetic cries about so-called atrocities committed by the Russian armed forces,” Lavrov said. “Our delegation presented facts at a meeting of the U.N. Security Council proving that the maternity hospital had long been seized by fighters of the Azov battalion and other radicals. They kicked all patients, all nurses, and all service personnel out.”
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Later, Russia denied responsibility entirely and claimed the attack was staged to make the Kremlin look bad. Russia’s Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov denied the strike. He claimed that the two explosions that ravaged the building were caused by explosive devices planted nearby in what he described as a “staged provocation to incite anti-Russian agitation in the West.”
reiterated the U.S. commitment to NATO and defense of its members is “ironclad.” Harris, during a joint news conference in Warsaw with Polish President Andrzej Duda, said America is deeply appreciative of Poland’s efforts to aid refugees fleeing the carnage in Ukraine.
“This is a moment that requires severe and swift consequences for Russian aggression against Ukraine,” Harris said. “What is at stake, this very moment, are some of the guiding principles around the NATO alliance.”
The meeting came after the Biden administration rejected a plan from Poland that would involve U.S. involvement in providing fighter jets to Ukraine, a decision drawing questions from some Republican senators. U.S. defense officials also have distanced themselves from Ukraine requests for a NATO-backed no-fly zone over the country.
In Turkey, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov met, the most pressing issue the southern port of Mariupol. The city has been rocked by two weeks of unrelenting bombardment leaving inhabitants struggling to obtain, food, water, shelter and other basic necessities. Multiple rounds of talks aimed at protecting Ukraine’s civilians have also failed to make headway toward peace.
Latest developments:
► Congress passed $13.6 billion in humanitarian aid money for Ukraine and allies as part of a larger spending package that received bipartisan support in the Senate on Thursday.
►In addition to the more than 2.3 million people who have fled the war in Ukraine, an estimated 1.9 million people are displaced within the country, according to the U.N.
►Russian President Vladimir Putin shrugged off sanctions from the West, saying they are nothing new for Russians. ″Just as we overcame these difficulties in the previous years, we will overcome them now,” he said at a televised meeting of government officials. He acknowledged the sanctions create “certain challenges.”
►Former Vice President Mike Pence and wife Karen visited Thursday with Ukraine refugees at the Korczowa border crossing in Poland. “The impact of the Russian invasion on these families is heartbreaking and the need for support is great,” Pence said on Twitter.
►The U.N. refugee agency says more than 2.3 million Ukrainians have fled the country, over 1.4 million of them through Poland. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said late Thursday that about 100,000 people have fled over the last two days through evacuation corridors.
►A Ukrainian man learned his family was killed through graphic images circulating on Twitter. Serhiy Perebyinis told The New York Times he first recognized the luggage in the photo where the lifeless bodies of his wife and two children were lying on the ground after being hit by shrapnel from a Russian mortar shelling Sunday.
more aggressive action to punish Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine. The source said Biden looks forward to working with Congress on legislation to revoke Russia’s permanent normal trade relations status.
Biden’s expected announcement would put Moscow’s trade relationship with the U.S. in the same category as North Korea and Cuba. Read more here.
— Courtney Subramanian
Read more here.
all of Arizona’s public universities.
“Obviously we see the invasion of Ukraine as the actions of a mad despot and so we want to do as little as possible to help him in any possible way,” said Michael Crow, president of Arizona State University, one of the largest public institutions in the country.
Similar actions have been taken by the Texas A M University and the University of Colorado systems.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology also recently cut ties to a Russian university it helped launch, and Middlebury College withdrew students that had been studying in the country.
– Chris Quintana, USA TODAY; Alison Steinbach, Arizona Republic
Ukrainian man discovers family was killed after seeing Twitter post
A Ukrainian man waited to hear that his wife and children had safely evacuated to Kyiv amid the Russian invasion. Hours later, he learned his family was killed through graphic images circulating on Twitter.
Serhiy Perebyinis told The New York Times he first recognized the luggage in the photo where the lifeless bodies of his wife, Tetiana Perebyinis, 43, and their two children, Mykyta, 18, and Alisa, 9, and church volunteer Anatoly Berezhnyi, 26, were laying on the ground after being hit by shrapnel from a Russian mortar shelling on Sunday.
They were attempting to cross a bridge to safety when the mortar detonated 12 yards away from the family in the town of Irpin. Serhiy told the outlet he was in eastern Ukraine trying to help his sick mother when Tetiana decided it was time to flee to Kyiv.
“I told her, ‘Forgive me that I couldn’t defend you,’” he said. “I tried to care for one person, and it meant I cannot protect you.”
— Asha C. Gilbert
“atrocities of unimaginable proportion” and said the United Nations has a process to review and investigate to investigate such attacks. The World Health Organization says at least 18 attacks have been conducted on medical facilities since the invasion began Feb. 24.
Harris noted that “the eyes of the world are on this war and what Russia has done in terms of this aggression and these atrocities.”
Ukraine said Russian bombs severely damaged a maternity and children’s hospital complex in the besieged city of Mariupol on Wednesday, killing at least three people including a child and wounding at least 17 more.
“Russians are committing war crimes,” Polish President Duda said. “I hope that also in the future, it will be obvious for a court investigating those issues who bears responsibility for that.”
Kyiv mayor: Half the city has fled
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said Thursday that about 2 million people – half the population of the capital’s metropolitan area – have fled the city amid constant bombings from the Russian military. But he said the spirit of the city remains strong. Fighting is fierce, and the city has become a fortress, he said.
“Everyone says ‘Nothing will happen, we will not surrender our city,'” Klitschko said. “I can repeat these words: The city stood, the people will stand. They won’t give up. And the enemy won’t pass.”
World champion British soccer team, owned by Russian, hit with sanctions
Roman Abramovich’s attempt to sell British soccer team Chelsea has been halted after the Russian oligarch was sanctioned by the U.K. government. Last year, Forbes magazine estimated Chelsea’s value at $3.2 billion. Abramovich put the team up for sale last week, shortly before his assets were frozen.
The team cannot sell game tickets or merchandise. The British government is allowing the team to play its games, including one scheduled for Thursday night. Ticket-holders will be allowed to attend matches and staff will be paid. Abramovich, who made his fortune in oil and aluminum, has not condemned Russia’s invasion.
Suffering increases for Ukrainians
Ukrainian leaders say civilians are increasingly suffering and dying as Russia’s assault on Ukraine enters its third week. Multiple hospitals have been shelled, more than 2.3 million people have fled the country and more are struggling to leave. On the outskirts of Kyiv, hundreds of residents in towns occupied by Russian troops fled Wednesday. Some said they hadn’t eaten in days, while others told harrowing tales of war.
“Occupiers came to our house and they were ready to shoot us,” said Iuliia Bushinska, a Vorzel resident. “They took away our house, our car, they took away our documents. So we need to start our life from the beginning. We survived things that I never experienced in my life.”