Ukraine: What happened today, Friday, March 18?

Russian troops have taken heavy losses while blasting residential areas to rubble, sending more than 3 million refugees fleeing

A woman looks at residential buildings damaged by a bomb in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, March 18, 2022. Russian troops have taken heavy losses while blasting residential areas to rubble, sending more than 3 million refugees fleeing. Picture: AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd

With Moscow trying to regain the initiative in a stalled campaign, Russia fired missiles at an airport near Lviv, a city where hundreds of thousands found refuge far from Ukraine's battlefields.

More than three weeks since President Vladimir Putin launched an invasion to subdue what he calls an artificial state undeserving of nationhood, Ukraine's elected government is still standing and Russian forces have not captured a single big city.