The latest developments on the Russia-Ukraine war:
BANJA LUKA, Bosnia — A few dozen Bosnian Serb nationalists demonstrated Saturday in the northwestern Bosnian town of Banja Luka in support of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Participants waved Russian flags and described Russia’s decision to invade its much smaller neighbour as a legitimate "battle to liberate (Ukraine’s) subjugated people."
"Russia is not at war with Ukraine, it is at war with the dark Euro-Atlantic forces that want to dominate the world and destroy it," said Zdravko Mocevic, one of over 100 people, mostly men, who joined the rally.
The gathering was organized by Bosnian Serb members of the Night Wolves, a Russian motorcycle club that staunchly supports President Vladimir Putin and, by extension, also his Balkan protegee, Bosnian Serb secessionist leader Milorad Dodik who was recently slapped with U.S. sanctions for alleged corruption.
Political power in multi-ethnic Bosnia is shared between Bosniak, Croat and Serb ethnic communities. Dodik currently serves as the Serb member of the country’s tripartite presidency. Despite Dodik’s vocal opposition, Bosnia joined a historic vote earlier this month in the UN General Assembly denouncing Russia for invading Ukraine.
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BERLIN — Germany’s economy minister says his country wants to virtually end the import of Russian coal and oil by the end of the year.
Robert Habeck told weekly Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung that Germany aims to end its use of Russian coal in the fall.
In the interview, extracts of which were published Saturday, he said that Germany could also become "almost independent of oil from Russia by the end of the year."
Germany currently gets about half of its coal and oil from Russia.
Habeck said weaning his country off Russian natural gas would be more difficult but the government is working "under heavy pressure" to do so.
The German government last month halted the pipeline Nord Stream 2 project intended to bring additional natural gas from Russia to Germany.
The newspaper quoted Habeck cautioning against an immediate embargo on all energy imports from Russia, saying it could cost hundreds of thousands of jobs and make heating and electricity unaffordable for many.
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LVIV, Ukraine — The UN’s crisis coordinator for Ukraine says the global body is seeking agreement with both sides in the conflict to establish corridors for delivering much-needed aid.
Amin Awad told The Associated Press on Saturday that progress is being made on the corridors and accompanying cease-fires but expressed frustration over resistance to quickly implement them.
He says the most pressing humanitarian needs are in Mariupol, a besieged city on the eastern edge of Ukraine near the Russian border that would be one of the most difficult for aid convoys to reach. Several attempts to establish evacuation routes from Mariupol have failed.
Awad says overall as many as many as 12 million Ukrainians may need aid.
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KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s military says Russian forces have captured the eastern outskirts of the besieged city of Mariupol.
In a Facebook update Saturday, the military said the capture of Mariupol and Severodonetsk in the east were a priority for Russian forces. Mariupol has been under siege for over a week, with no electricity, gas or water.
Repeated efforts to evacuate people from the city of 430,000 have fallen apart as humanitarian convoys come under shelling.
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KYIV, Ukraine — A Ukrainian official says that another Russian general has been killed in fighting.
Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s Interior Ministry, said Saturday that Russian Maj. Gen. Andrei Kolesnikov was killed in action during the fighting over Mariupol. He would be the third Russian general to die in the war, according to Ukrainian officials.
Kolesnikov’s death wasn’t confirmed by the Russian military, which has kept a tight lid on information about its losses.
Previously, unofficial Russian sources confirmed the death of one Russian general.
The death of Maj. Gen. Andrei Sukhovetsky, the commanding general of the Russian 7th Airborne Division, was confirmed by his colleague and the officers’ association in southern Russia. The death of another general, Maj. Gen. Vitaly Gerasimov, wasn’t confirmed by any Russian sources.
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LONDON — The Premier League is banning Roman Abramovich from running Chelsea after the club owner was sanctioned by the British government over Russia’s war on Ukraine.
The league board’s decision Saturday to disqualify the Russian oligarch from being a director ends his 19 years in control of the west London club but does not directly affect the players.
The team is able to continue operating under the terms of a license issued by the British government when it froze Abramovich’s assets on Thursday while imposing sanctions against.
"The board’s decision does not impact on the club’s ability to train and play its fixtures, as set out under the terms of a licence issued by the government which expires on 31 May 2022," the league said.
The Russian oligarch has owned Chelsea since 2003.
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KYIV, Ukraine — The Russia-backed head of the separatist region in eastern Ukraine says he expects thousands of fighters from the Middle East to come to fight the Ukrainian forces.
Denis Pushilin, the head of the separatist government in the Donetsk region, said in remarks broadcast on Russian state television Saturday that "many thousands" of volunteers from the Middle East could shortly join the rebels and fight "shoulder-to-shoulder" against the Ukrainian army.
Pushilin’s remarks follow Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu’s comment on Friday that Russian authorities have received requests from over 16,000 people from the Middle East who are eager to join the Russian military action in Ukraine. He added that many of those people have previously fought together with Russia against the Islamic State group.
Russia has waged a military action in Syria since September 2015, helping President Bashar Assad’s government to reclaim control over most of the country in a devastating civil war. Shoigu’s statement followed Ukraine’s call on volunteers from foreign countries to come to help fight the Russian troops.
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KYIV, Ukraine — The Ukrainian chief prosecutor’s office says at least 79 children have been killed and nearly 100 have been wounded since the start of the Russian invasion.
Prosecutor General’s Office said in Saturday’s statement that most of the victims were in the Kyiv, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Sumy, Kherson and Zhytomyr regions. It noted that the numbers aren’t final because active fighting is continuing.
The prosecutor’s office also said that more than 280 educational institutions have been hit and nine of them have been completely destroyed, depriving large numbers of students of access to education.
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LVIV, Ukraine — Residents on the Ukrainian city of Melitopol are demanding the release of their mayor after surveillance video showed him being marched out of city hall apparently surrounded by Russian soldiers.
Ukrainian President Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accuses Russia of kidnapping the mayor, calling the abduction "a new stage of terror." The Biden administration had warned before the invasion of Russian plans to detain and kill targeted people in Ukraine, with Zelensky himself likely top target.
An aide to Zelensky posted the surveillance footage as well as video of a protest Saturday demanding the mayor’s release which he said drew 2,000 people.
Melitopol is located in the southeast of Ukraine.
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MOSCOW — A senior Russian diplomat is warning that Moscow could target Western shipments of military equipment to Ukraine.
Speaking Saturday, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that Moscow has warned the U.S. it would see the deliveries of Western weapons to Ukraine as targets.
Ryabkov said Russia "warned the U.S. that pumping weapons from a number of countries it orchestrates isn’t just a dangerous move, it’s an action that makes those convoys legitimate targets."
He also denounced the U.S. sanctions against Moscow as an "unprecedented attempt to deal a serious blow to various sectors of the Russian economy," but noted that Moscow will act in a measured way to avoid hurting itself.
Ryabkov said that Russia has no intention to expel Western media and businesses amid the soaring tensions with the West, adding that "we aren’t going to escalate the situation."
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BERLIN — Aid group Doctors Without Borders says some residents of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol are dying for lack of medication, while others killed in the fighting are being buried in makeshift graves by their neighbours.
The group, which is known by its French acronym MSF, says the city has been without drinking water or medicine for more than a week now. It says people are resorting to using water from the ground or tapping heating pipes, then boiling it on wood fires.
MSF says food is scarce and lack of cellphone or internet connectivity in Mariupol means only residents with access to a portable radio have information on what is happening beyond their immediate neighbourhood.
In a voice message Saturday shared with The Associated Press, one MSF staff member described seeing people who have died because of lack of medication adding that "there are a lot of such people inside Mariupol."
The aid worker said that there are "many people who were killed and injured and they’re just lying on the ground. Neighbours (are) just digging a hole in the ground and putting their bodies inside."
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MILAN — Italian financial police has seized a Russian-owned superyacht valued at 530 million euros (US$578 million) in the port of Trieste as part of seizures of oligarch wealth to pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin to halt the war on Ukraine.
The "Sy A" yacht was identified by Italian police as belonging to belonging to billionaire Andrey Igorevich Melnichenko, who made a fortune in fertilizer production and coal energy. It was seized Friday evening.
Video shows police in cars with flashing lights approaching the triple-mast yacht and officers boarding it.
Italian authorities last week seized some 143 million euros (US$156 million) in luxury yachts and villas belonging to Russian billionaires in such picturesque retreats as Sardinia, the Ligurian coast and Lake Como.
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LONDON — Britain’s Defence Ministry says fighting northwest of Kyiv has continued with the bulk of Russian ground forces now around 25 kilometres (15 miles) from the center of the city.
A daily intelligence update says elements of the large Russian military column north of Kyiv have dispersed. It says this is likely to support a Russian attempt to encircle the Ukrainian capital. According to the brief, it could also be an attempt by Russia to reduce its vulnerability to Ukrainian counterattacks, which have taken a significant toll on Russian forces.
The update says that beyond Kyiv, the cities of Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Sumy and Mariupol remain encircled and continue to suffer heavy Russian shelling.
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BERLIN — Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock says Germany is working with allies to airlift people who have fled Ukraine to countries farther away as neighbouring nations struggle to cope with all new arrivals.
Baerbock said Saturday that Moldova, a nation of 2.5 million on the border with Ukraine, has taken in 100,000 people — almost as many as Germany, which has a population over 30 times bigger.
Speaking in Chisinau alongside her Moldovan counterpart, she said Germany had "only taken over a small share of the responsibility" so far and praised the poor Eastern European nation for its efforts to help refugees.
Baerbock said the European Union is setting up a "green corridor" to bring people by bus through Romania to other EU nations, but also working with partners to help fly their citizens who have fled Ukraine back home and "in particular also to fly Ukrainians for example across the Atlantic."
She urged allies to show solidarity toward those affected by the war and accused Russia of spreading "ever more crazy propaganda that now doesn’t even shrink from threats to use weapons of mass destruction."
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The International Maritime Organization, a UN oversight body for international seafaring and the law of the sea, is calling for a safe corridor in the Black and Azov seas to let commercial ships evacuate.
Many of the waters are mined, and Russian navy vessels are off the shores of Ukraine. Explosions have hit at least two cargo ships in the area and dozens of others have been stranded.
The IMO Council held an emergency session and said it deplored the attacks of the Russian Federation aimed at commercial vessels, their seizures, including search and rescue vessels, threatening the safety and welfare of seafarers and the marine environment.
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Russia’s space agency has sent NASA and other international partners a letter demanding an end to sanctions, saying they could threaten the International Space Station.
In a tweet Saturday, the head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, said the letter appealed to the space agencies of the United States, Canada and Europe to keep the space station operational.
He illustrated the appeal with a map showing the flight path of the ISS — and a potential fall zone that straddles much of the world but barely touches upon Russia.
Four NASA astronauts, two Russian cosmonauts and one European astronaut are currently on the space station.
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ISTANBUL — The Ukrainian Embassy in Turkey says a group of 86 Turkish nationals, including 34 children, are among those sheltering in a mosque in the besieged city of Mariupol.
An embassy spokeswoman, citing information from the city mayor, said they had taken shelter in the mosque along with others seeking refuge from the Russian attack on the encircled port on the Sea of Azov.
She says, "There are really big communication problems in Mariupol and there’s no opportunity to reach them."
Hundreds of thousands of civilians have been trapped in Mariupol for more than a week with no food, water, heat or power amid freezing temperatures. Efforts to establish a cease-fire to let them leave have repeatedly broken down.
Turkish officials did not respond to requests for comment. Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Friday that Turkey has evacuated nearly 14,000 of its citizens from Ukraine.
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LVIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian officials accused Russia damaging a cancer hospital and several residential buildings in the southern city of Mykolaiv with shelling from heavy artillery.
The hospital’s head doctor, Maksim Beznosenko, said several hundred patients were in the hospital during the attack but that no one was killed. The assault damaged the building and blew out windows.
Russian forces have stepped up their attacks on Mykolaiv, located 470 kilometres (292 miles) south of Kyiv, in an attempt to encircle the city.
Ukrainian and Western officials earlier accused Russia of shelling a maternity hospital in the southern city of Mariupol on Wednesday. Three people died in that attack.
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LVIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia on Friday of kidnapping the mayor of the city of Melitopol, equating it to the actions of "ISIS terrorists."
"They have transitioned into a new stage of terror, in which they try to physically liquidate representatives of Ukraine’s lawful local authorities," Zelensky said in a video address Friday evening.
Kirill Timoshenko, the deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, posted a video on the social media site Telegram which he said showed a group of armed men carrying the mayor, Ivan Fedorov, across a square.
Russian forces captured the southern port city of Melitopol, with a population of 150,000, on Feb. 26.
The prosecutor’s office of the Luhansk People’s Republic, a Moscow-backed rebel region in eastern Ukraine, said on its website that there was a criminal case against Fedorov. The prosecutor’s office accused Fedorov of "terrorist activities" and of financing the nationalist militia Right Sector to "commit terrorist crimes against Donbass civilians."
The office said it was looking for Fedorov and called for anyone with information about his whereabouts to contact them.
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SAVANNAH, Ga. — U.S. soldiers are continuing to deploy to Europe, joining thousands already sent overseas to support NATO allies amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
About 130 soldiers from the 87th Division Sustainment Support Battalion, 3rd Division Sustainment Brigade gathered Friday at Hunter Airfield in Savannah, Georgia and departed on a chartered flight.
The soldiers are in addition to the estimated 3,800 soldiers from the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division who deployed recently from nearby Fort Stewart.
A division commander said that soldiers are being told to prepare for about six months overseas. The Pentagon has ordered roughly 12,000 total service members from various U.S. bases to Europe.
The soldiers’ mission is to train alongside military units of NATO allies in a display of force aimed at deterring further aggression by Russia. The Pentagon has stressed U.S. forces are not being deployed to fight in Ukraine.
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LVIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian authorities have warned of a humanitarian catastrophe in the port city of Mariupol, which has been encircled by Russian forces and cut off from deliveries of food and medicine.
Mariupol officials said Friday that 1,582 people had been killed in the 12 days since the siege began.
"There is a humanitarian catastrophe in the city and the dead aren’t even being buried," Mariupol’s mayor’s office said in a statement Friday, calling for Russian forces to lift the siege.
Ukrainian authorities have accused Russian forces of shelling evacuation routes and preventing civilians from escaping the city of 430,000 people.
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BERLIN — Ukraine told the International Atomic Energy Agency on Friday that technicians have started repairing damaged power lines at the decommissioned Chernobyl power plant in an effort to restore power supplies, the UN nuclear agency said.
On Wednesday, Ukrainian authorities said that Chernobyl, the site of the 1986 nuclear disaster, was knocked off the power grid, with emergency generators supplying backup power.
The Ukrainian nuclear regulator said Friday that workers repaired one section of the lines, but there still appears to be damage in other places, the IAEA said. Repair efforts would continue despite "the difficult situation" outside the plant, which was taken by Russian forces early in the invasion, it said.
The Ukrainian regulator said additional fuel was delivered for generators, but it remains important to fix the power lines as soon as possible. The IAEA reiterated that the disconnection "will not have a critical impact on essential safety functions at the site."
The Vienna-based UN nuclear watchdog said that it still isn’t receiving data from monitoring systems installed to monitor nuclear material and activities at Chernobyl, but transmission from the Zaporizhzhia plant — Ukraine’s biggest, which Russian forces seized last week — has been restored after being lost earlier this week.
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PARIS — Interpol is restricting Russia’s ability to input information directly into the global police organization’s vast network, deciding that communications must first be checked by the general secretariat in Lyon, France.
The French Foreign Ministry said Friday that the beefed-up surveillance measures follow "multiple suspicions of attempted fraudulent use" of the Interpol system in recent days, but it did not elaborate.
Interpol stressed in a statement Thursday that it is maintaining its pledge of neutrality amid war between two of its members, triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But it said that "heightened supervision and monitoring measures" of Moscow’s National Central Bureau were needed "to prevent any potential misuse of Interpol’s channels" like targeting individuals in or outside Ukraine.
The ministry noted that Interpol’s decision has multiple impacts from communications, to putting out so-called "red notices" for criminals on the loose or even feeding data on lost or stolen documents — all of which must now get compliance checks from Interpol headquarters.
Interpol, which has 195 members, said it had received calls to suspend Russia from the network, along with calls by law enforcement leaders looking for continued cooperation to better fightxjmtzyw crime.
"In addition to the tragic loss of life, conflicts invariably lead to an increase in crime," as organized crime groups try to exploit desperation, Interpol said. Risks include human trafficking, weapons smuggling and trafficking in illicit goods and medicines.
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RELATED IMAGESview larger image
A man walks with a bicycle in a street damaged by shelling in Mariupol, Ukraine, Thursday, March 10, 2022. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
