Russia now considers arms shipments to Ukraine 'legitimate targets' for attacks
An explosion in an apartment building that came under fire from a Russian army tank in Mariupol, Ukraine. Picture: AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka
Moscow now considers arms shipments to Ukraine "legitimate targets" for military attacks, a senior Russian diplomat has warned.Â
The comments were made by Russia's deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov earlier today.Â
Mr Ryabkov said that Russia had made its position clear to the United States and others.
He said that Russia âwarned the US that pumping weapons from a number of countries it orchestrates isnât just a dangerous move, itâs an action that makes those convoys legitimate targetsâ.
Denouncing US sanctions against Moscow, Mr Ryabkov said they were an âunprecedented attempt to deal a serious blow to various sectors of the Russian economyâ.
Meanwhile, as conflict raged near Kyiv on Saturday Ukrainian officials said seven civilians were killed after Russian forces fired at an evacuation convoy near the city.Â
âAfter the attack, the occupiers forced the remnants of the column to turn back to Peremoha and are not letting them out of the village,â the intelligence service said in a statement.
Ukrainian officials had earlier warned that Russian air attacks were endangering attempted evacuations of desperate civilians from encircled towns and cities.
even civilians dead in Kyiv region after Russia fired at evacuation convoy The Ukrainian intelligence service says seven civilians have died after Russian troops fired at an evacuation convoy in the Kyiv region.
Ukraine accused Russia of firing at a convoy of civilian evacuees from the village of Peremoha, reports Reuters.
âAfter the attack, the occupiers forced the remnants of the column to turn back to Peremoha and are not letting them out of the village,â the intelligence service said in a statement.
Russia has denied targeting civilians since the start of the invasion on 24 February.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia was sending in new troops after Ukrainian forces had put 31 of its battalion tactical groups out of action in what he called Russia's largest army losses in decades. He gave no details and it was not possible to verify either statement.
Zelenskyy also said he had spoken to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron about pressuring Russia to release the mayor of the city of Melitopol, who Ukraine says was kidnapped on Friday by Russian forces.
More than 2,000 residents of the southern city, which is now under Russian control, protested outside the city administration building to demand the release of the mayor, Ivan Fedorov, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the president's office, said.
Zelenskyy said his country could not stop fighting but was upholding a ceasefire around an agreed humanitarian corridor out of the southern port of Mariupol, which has been under an almost two-week siege, and called on Russia to do the same.
Moscow has previously blamed Kyiv for failed evacuations.
Vladimir Putin launched the invasion on February 24 in an operation that has been near-universally condemned around the world and that has drawn tough Western sanctions on Russia.
The bombardment has trapped thousands of people in besieged cities and sent 2.5 million Ukrainians fleeing to neighbouring countries.
Ukrainian officials had planned to use humanitarian corridors from Mariupol as well as towns and villages in the regions of Kyiv, Sumy and some other areas on Saturday.
But the governor of the Kyiv region said fighting and threats of Russian air attacks were continuing during evacuation attempts and the Donetsk region's governor said constant shelling was complicating bringing aid into Mariupol.
A spokesperson for the UN's humanitarian office said conditions in Mariupol were deteriorating every hour, with basic supplies now in extremely short supply.
#Ukraine: The humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate at an alarming pace.
— UN Humanitarian (@UNOCHA) March 11, 2022
Civilians, whether they stay or leave, must be respected and protected. Safe passage is needed for humanitarian supplies and personnel. https://t.co/lIp3DcUFzy
An adviser to the Ukrainian presidency said earlier that 79 evacuation buses and two trucks with humanitarian cargo had left for Sumy on Saturday. Buses and trucks also left Zaporizhzhia for Mariupol, a video released by the deputy head of the Ukrainian presidential administration on social media showed.
Elsewhere, the exhausted-looking governor of Chernihiv, around 150 km northeast of Kyiv, gave a video update in front of the ruins of its Ukraine Hotel, which he said had been hit on Saturday.
"There is no such hotel anymore," Viacheslav Chaus said, wiping tears from his eyes.Â
Russian rocket attacks destroyed a Ukrainian airbase and hit an ammunition depot near the town of Vasylkiv in the Kyiv region on Saturday morning, Interfax Ukraine quoted Vasylkiv Mayor Natalia Balasynovych as saying.
Moscow has denied targeting civilians what it calls a special operation to demilitarise Ukraine and unseat leaders it refers to as neo-Nazis. It has not responded to Ukrainian challenges to provide evidence.
Ukraine said it expected a new wave of attacks on the regions around the capital Kyiv, the country's second city Kharkiv and Donbass in the east.
Close Russian ally Belarus said it was sending five battalion tactical groups to its border with Ukraine but had no plans to send troops in to fight with Russian forces.
A top Ukrainian security official on Friday warned Belarus not to send troops to Ukraine, saying Ukraine was showing restraint towards Belarus despite the country being used as a launchpad for Russian planes.
Belarus Chief of General Staff Viktor Gulevich said the battalion tactical groups would replace forces already stationed near the border.
âI want to underline that the transfer of troops is in no way connected with (any) preparation, and especially not with the participation of Belarusian soldiers in the special military operation on the territory of Ukraine,â Gulevich said.
Russia repeatedly denied any plan to invade Ukraine before it invaded by land, air and sea.
Belarus has served as a staging post for Russian troops, missiles and aircraft, but it has not deployed its own forces in active battle.
Ukraine yesterday accused Russian aircraft of firing at Belarusian border villages from Ukrainian air space to provide an excuse for an offensive.
The alleged attacks took place as the Belarusian leader, Alexander Lukashenko, was meeting the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, in Moscow, according to Ukraineâs state centre for strategic communications.
Efforts to isolate Russia economically have stepped up, with the United States imposing new sanctions on senior Kremlin officials and Russian oligarchs on Friday.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU would on Saturday suspend Moscow's privileged trade and economic treatment, crack down on its use of crypto-assets, and ban the import of iron and steel goods from Russia, as well as the export of luxury goods in the other direction. read more Moscow said on Saturday the European Union would end up paying at least three times more for oil, gas and electricity.
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