The Russian invasion of Ukraine began in the fourth week of Thursday, when a Russian contingent was heavily trapped in front of a large city, bombing civilians from afar at huge costs.
A Russian air strike at the besieged southern office in Mariupol destroyed a theater where hundreds of people were taking refuge, the Ukrainian authorities said. The number of victims was unclear because access was blocked by debris.
The attack occurred when Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy recalled the attack on September 11, 2001 and urged the US Congress to send more weapons to combat the Russian attack. US President Joe Biden announced an additional $800 million for the Armed Forces of Ukraine and called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “war criminal”.
Putin warned of attempts by Western and Russian rivals to cause “destruction of Russia” and pointed to even greater persecution of opposition to the war.
The Russians “will always be able to distinguish true patriots from rubbish and traitors, and they will spit out like mosquitoes that accidentally flew into their mouths,” he said. “I am convinced that this natural and necessary social purification will strengthen our country.”
According to UN estimates, more than 3 million people escaped the country due to the battle. Ukraine reported that thousands of civilians died, but the number of deaths is still unknown.
Here are some keys to the crash:
What's happening on the ground?
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleva called the attack on the Mariupol Theater a “terrible war crime”. According to the images distributed by the space technology company Maxar, on the pavement outside the elegant theater, there were large letters that formed the word “CHILDREN” in Russian.
Pavlo Kyrylenko, leader of the local government of Donetsk, wrote in a telegram on Wednesday night that “hundreds” of people took refuge in the building and the entrance was buried under rubble when the attack occurred. The official stated that the air strike struck the Neptune swimming pool complex, burying women and children in its place.
The Russian Ministry of Defense denied bombing theaters or other places in Mariupol on Wednesday.
According to the emergency services, when an apartment building in the center of Kiev was burned down by the wreckage of a crashed Russian rocket, one person was killed and at least three people were injured.
In the suburbs of Kiev, battles continued, depriving people of safe drinking water and heating.
According to an official from the Ukrainian Presidential Office, the Russian military released the mayor of the Ukrainian city of Melitopol in exchange for the nine recruits who were arrested.
Kiev accused Russians of kidnapping Mayor Ivan Fedorov a week ago. A surveillance video showed how he left the city hall surrounded by Russian soldiers.
According to the British Ministry of Defense, the Russian invasion “stopped significantly on all fronts” due to strong resistance from Ukraine.
According to the British authorities, the Russian military has recently made “minimal progress” on land, at sea or in the air and is experiencing huge casualties.
The Ukrainian military uses inexpensive Turkish drones to carry out a catastrophic attack on the invading forces
Have you witnessed it firsthand or have you checked the AP?
In Mariupol, workers fearing their lives constantly faced shelling to keep children's corpses in mass graves. Local authorities counted 2,500 deaths in the siege, but could not count the many bodies that were broken into rubble due to the attack.
There were corpses lying on the street. Workers told their families to leave the dead abroad because it was too dangerous to hold a funeral.
In Kharkiv, while bombs were falling abroad, doctors had trouble caring for COVID-19 patients. Anti-aircraft sirens rang several times a day, forcing patients with difficulty breathing to go down to bomb shelters, wearing some ventilators.
What details came from the negotiations between Russia and Ukraine?
Mikhailo Podolyak, adviser to Zelensky, said Ukraine demanded a ceasefire, the withdrawal of Russian troops, and security guarantees against Ukraine from various countries. Delegations from both sides met again on Wednesday through a video conference.
Another official in the office of Zelenskyy told the Associated Press that the main issue under discussion was whether the Russian military would remain in the separatist region of eastern Ukraine after the war, and where the border would be.
On the eve of the war, Russia recognized the independence of two regions controlled by separatists with the support of Russia since 2014, according to the border, which includes areas controlled by Ukraine, such as Mariupol.
How will the world react to war?
Six countries called for a UN Security Council meeting on Thursday afternoon, and a vote is scheduled on Friday on a resolution calling for the protection of Ukrainian civilians “in vulnerable situations”, not to mention Russia's responsibility in the war.
“Russia is committing war crimes and attacking civilians,” the British mission to the United Nations called for a meeting with the support of the United States, France and other countries. “Russia's illegal war in Ukraine poses a threat to all of us.”
The mission stated that six countries requested the meeting and exhibited flags of the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Ireland, Norway, and Albania. The meeting was not yet officially scheduled.
In his speech to the US Congress, Zelenskyy admitted that the no-fly zone may not be realized. Nevertheless, he said that the United States, in addition to providing military aid to Ukraine, should sanction Russian legislators and block imports.
“We need it right now,” Zelenskyy said in a live message to the U.S. Capitol, highlighting it with an explicit video showing the harsh effects of the invasion.
US President Joe Biden announced that he would send an additional $800 million in military aid to Ukraine, including more anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons, which sent such kind of aid to Kiev, since Biden took office more than a year ago, amounting to 2 billion dollars.
Biden also planned to travel to Europe next week for talks on the invasion of Russia with European leaders and will attend a special NATO summit in Brussels. NATO strengthened its eastern flank with troops and equipment to prevent Russia from invading its member states.