Ukraine: What happened today, Wednesday, March 9?
Groups of Ukrainian refugees walk along the road between Lviv and Shehyni, in Volytsya, Ukraine. Picture: AP Photo/Marc Sanye
In the two weeks since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, more than two million Ukrainians have fled the country, according to United Nations (UN) officials.
The exodus is the biggest seen in Europe since the Second World War.
Thousands are thought to have been killed, though exact death tolls are difficult to verify.
On Tuesday, the UN said it had verified the deaths of 516 civilians, and the injuries sustained by more than 900 more.
The current figures are likely to be much higher.
Amid widespread fighting across Ukraine’s major population centres, both sides have accused the other of violating ceasefires that would allow civilians to evacuate.
On Wednesday afternoon, a Russian airstrike hit a maternity and children's hospital in the besieged southern port city of Mariupol during a supposed ceasefire, injuring dozens.
The city council said the hospital had been hit several times, resulting in “colossal destruction.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the bombing an “atrocity” and said that children had been trapped under rubble from the strike.
Video footage shared by Mr Zelenskyy showed cheerfully painted hallways strewn with twisted metal and room after room with blown-out windows.
Mariupol. Direct strike of Russian troops at the maternity hospital. People, children are under the wreckage. Atrocity! How much longer will the world be an accomplice ignoring terror? Close the sky right now! Stop the killings! You have power but you seem to be losing humanity. pic.twitter.com/FoaNdbKH5k
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) March 9, 2022
Floors were covered in wreckage. Outside, small fires burned and debris covered the ground.
Authorities say they are in the process of trying to establish how many people had been in the vicinity of the hospital when the strike took place.
- The EU has agreed on further sanctions over Russia's invasion of Ukraine that will hit Russian officials and oligarchs, the maritime sector and three Belarusian banks, France has said.
- Ukrainian forces were bolstering defences in key cities on Wednesday as Russia’s advance faltered amid fierce resistance in some areas, the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said.
- Russia warned the West on Wednesday that it was working on a broad response to sanctions that would be swift and felt in the West's most sensitive areas.
- Ukraine appealed to Russia for a temporary ceasefire on Wednesday to allow repairs to be made to a power line to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, warning that there could be a radiation leak if the electricity outage continued.
- Western officials warned of their “serious concern” that Vladimir Putin could use chemical weapons in Ukraine to commit further atrocities during the invasion.
Authorities announced new cease-fires on Wednesday morning to allow thousands of civilians to escape from towns around Kyiv as well as the southern cities of Mariupol, Enerhodar and Volnovakha, Izyum in the east and Sumy in the northeast.
Previous attempts to establish safe evacuation corridors largely failed because of what the Ukrainians said were Russian attacks.
However, Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a telephone call with German’s chancellor, accused militant Ukrainian nationalists of hampering the evacuations.
It was not immediately clear whether anyone was able to leave other cities on Wednesday, but people streamed out of Kyiv’s suburbs, many headed for the city centre, even as explosions were heard in the capital and air raid sirens sounded repeatedly. From there, the evacuees planned to board trains bound for western Ukrainian regions not under attack.
Civilians trying to escape the Kyiv suburb of Irpin were forced to make their way across the slippery wooden planks of a makeshift bridge after the Ukrainians blew up the concrete span days ago to slow the Russian advance.
“We have a short window of time at the moment,” said Yevhen Nyshchuk, a member of Ukraine’s territorial defence forces. “Even if there is a cease-fire right now, there is a high risk of shells falling at any moment.”
The crisis in Ukraine is likely to get worse as Russian forces step up their bombardment of cities in response to stronger than expected resistance. Russian losses have been “far in excess” of what Mr Putin and his generals expected, CIA director William Burns said on Tuesday.
An intensified push by Russian forces could mean “an ugly next few weeks”, Mr Burns told a congressional committee, warning that Mr Putin is likely to “grind down the Ukrainian military with no regard for civilian casualties”.
Russian forces are placing military equipment on farms and amid residential buildings in the northern city of Chernihiv, Ukraine’s military said.
In the south, Russians in civilian clothes are advancing on the city of Mykolaiv, a Black Sea shipbuilding centre of 500,000 people, it said.
The Ukrainian military, meanwhile, is building up defences in cities in the north, south and east, and forces around Kyiv are “holding the line” against the Russian offensive, authorities said.
Over 2,500 Ukrainian refugees have arrived in Ireland so far, a third of whom are children. However, Justice Minister Helen McEntee said that there is "no cap" on the number that will be accommodated.
Irish student Racheal Diyaolu has finally made it to the EU border amid her third day on her journey out of Ukraine following a dramatic rescue and a number of hurdles along the way.
Simon Coveney says he does not envisage Ireland joining Nato any time soon.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs says that although there must be a “fundamental rethink” about Ireland’s defence capabilities, Ireland’s military neutrality does not look set to change.
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