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#AceBreakingNews – Ukraine-Russia War Live Updates: Mariupol theatre’s bomb shelter survived Russian shelling, says Ukrainian MP: An MP from Mariupol says hundreds of women and children survived an attack on a theatre that was being used as a bomb shelter.

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Live updates

Rubble being cleared to reach survivors of Mariupol theatre attack

Rescuers are trying to reach survivors in the bomb shelter of the theatre in Mariupol, an official at the mayor’s office says.

Ukraine has accused Russian forces of dropping a powerful bomb on the theatre, where it says hundreds of civilians, mostly women and children were sheltering during a more than two-week-long siege of the encircled port city.

Russia has denied the attack.

“The bomb shelter held. Now the rubble is being cleared. There are survivors. We don’t know about the [number of] victims yet,” mayoral adviser Petro Andrushchenko told Reuters by phone.

He said rescue work was under way to reach survivors and establish the number of casualties, which was still unknown.

Reporting by Reuters

Hundreds of survivors after Mariupol theatre attack, MP says

 A Ukrainian MP has told the BBC he thinks hundreds of women and children have survived an attack on a theatre which was being used as a shelter in the besieged city of Mariupol.

The theatre was attacked by Russian forces and the number of casualties is unknown, but survivors have begun to emerge.

Dmytro Gurin’s parents are trapped in the city and he told the BBC survivors were safe in the building’s basement.

“The [theatre] building is destroyed, we have more than 1,000 women and children in the bomb shelter, in the basement,” he said.

“Minutes ago we had an information that the bomb shelter survived and people there survived.

“We don’t know yet whether we have wounded people, or killed people. But it looks like most of them have survived and are OK.”

Zelenskyy accuses Germany of putting its economy before Ukraine’s security

(Reuters: Lisi Niesner)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Germany of putting its economy before his country’s security in the run-up to the Russian invasion.

In an address to Germany’s parliament, Mr Zelenskyy criticised the German government’s support for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project meant to bring natural gas from Russia.

Ukraine and other countries had opposed the project, warning that it endangered Ukrainian and European security.

Mr Zelenskyy also noted Germany’s hesitancy when it came to imposing some of the toughest sanctions on Russia for fear it could hurt the German economy.

He called on Germany not to let a “new wall” divide Europe, urging support for his country’s membership of NATO and the European Union.

Reporting by The Associated Press

Zelenskyy is addressing Germany’s lower house

It comes after the Ukrainian President addressed the US Congress via videolink yesterday. (Reuters: Lisi Niesner)

‘I just can’t wipe the smile off my face’

(Supplied: Anastasiya Byesyedina)

University of Sydney PhD student Anastasiya Byesyedina has detailed the gruelling 27-hour journey her mother and grandmother made from Kyiv to freedom in Poland.

Speaking to News Channel’s Karina Carvalho, Ms Byesyedina said words could not describe how relieved she was after a stressful week and a half planning their escape.

“I just can’t wipe the smile off my face,” she said.

“I’ve been having a lot of sleepless nights for over a week trying to organise a route for them to evacuate. That has been quite a challenge. But I stumbled upon a few volunteers in Kyiv who were able to help out my mum and my grandma, as well as my cat, to get them safely on a carriage of a train.”

But she said there were plenty of hiccups along the way.

“Obviously, the trains that depart to Poland, they do not depart on a schedule,” she said.

“I mean, you know, we’re dealing with a crisis here. Nothing functions. So, they have to wait about five hours for the train to actually move.”

They then had to wait for another eight hours on the border and then endured hours of standing still with no ventilation.

Recalling the moment her grandma realised she was safe, Ms Byesyedina said her father met them in Warsaw and brought her favourite cake.

“She was sitting on the bed eating her cake and she looks at my mom and says, “Are we in Poland, are we in safety?” Just this moment of innocence, and also this evidence of disorientation that you know, people like my grandma and a lot of Ukrainians are at the moment experiencing,” she said.

“And the simple gesture of sitting there and eating and enjoying some cake while realising that you’re in safety. I mean, this is a memory forever.”

Photos show first responders battle shelling aftermath

An apartment building in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv has been severely damaged after an airstrike by Russian forces, authorities said.

The Ukraine State Emergency Service has released a series of photos of first responders bringing fires under control and helping those residents who have now lost their homes. (Reuters via Ukraine State Emergency Service)(Reuters via Ukraine State Emergency Service)

(Reuters via Ukraine State Emergency Service)

(Reuters via Ukraine State Emergency Service)

Ukraine to open nine humanitarian corridors

Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk says authorities are hoping to evacuate civilians through nine humanitarian corridors on Thursday, local time.

The encircled port city of Mariupol is among the cities that will have corridors open, she said.

‘There’s real humanity and real courage’

Photo: @johnsweeneyroar

Veteran reporter and writer John Sweeney is on the ground in Kyiv and said Russia’s attacks on civilian targets were not intimidating Ukrainians.

The British investigative journalist, who spent 17 years with the BBC, told PM’s Nick Grimm that fighting was getting closer to where he was in the capital.

But he said he’s been hearing from Ukrainian fighters that the Russians are being pushed back.

Sweeney has reported from warzones in the past.

“The thing I’m always afraid of is feeling incoming artillery through my boots, and I last felt that four days ago,” he said.

“So in terms of the centre of Kyiv, it was really quiet last night so I slept like a log. So I think the war is going badly for Vladimir Putin, [but it] doesn’t mean he’s not killing people, he’s killing a lot of people, but the people he’s killing are civilians, not Ukrainian soldiers.”

He said there were three reasons the war was going badly for Mr Putin, and it was to do with the lack of morale in the Russian army, corruption, and paranoia at the top.

Sweeney also said attacks on civilian targets were not working to defeat the fighting spirit of Ukrainians. But he said the attack on a theatre in Mariupol was a war crime, and it made the idea of the Ukrainians sitting down at a peace table with Vladimir Putin harder by the day.

Sweeney also said people were trying to stay positive despite the war and people were trying to maintain a sense of normality.

“It’s just like England, it’s just like Australia, you crack jokes,” he said.

“There’s real humanity and real courage at the same time.”

Russia’s invasion ‘stalled’, suffering ‘heavy losses’, UK says

The UK Ministry of Defence says Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has largely “stalled on all fronts”.

In their latest update, the Defence Ministry said Russian forces had made “minimal progress on land, sea or air in recent days” and continued to suffer heavy losses.

“Ukrainian resistance remains staunch and well-coordinated. The vast majority of Ukrainian territory, including all major cities, remains in Ukrainian hands.”

The update came after the United States announced an additional $US800 million in security assistance to Ukraine, with the new package including drones, anti-armour, and anti-aircraft systems.

“More will be coming as we source additional stocks of equipment that … we are ready to transfer,” President Joe Biden said.

Hungary expecting more refugees to arrive, PM says

Hungary expects a “bigger wave” of refugees to arrive from Ukraine next week, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on a video posted on his Facebook page.

Visiting a border crossing point near Hungary’s border with Romania and Ukraine, Mr Orban said more border guards would be posted there next week to handle an increased number of refugees.

He did not say why he expected more refugees next week.

Over the past week, the number of Ukrainian refugees arriving in Hungary has fallen substantially.

Reuters

Cathay Pacific joins airlines avoiding Russian airspace

Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways says it is not routing flights through Russia’s airspace, joining a growing number of Asian airlines avoiding the area after the invasion of Ukraine despite longer flight times.

“We regularly review our flight routings internally and also with information provided by external parties,” Cathay said in a statement to Reuters.

“We are currently not flying through Russian airspace.”

Reuters

At least one dead after missile remains hit Kyiv apartment building

At least one person has been killed and three were wounded after the remains of a downed missile hit a residential building in Kyiv, Ukraine’s emergency service says.

The 16-storey building was struck at 5:02am local time, it said in a statement, adding that 30 people have been evacuated so far and a fire has been put out. 

Japan ‘spots four Russian ships’ passing through to the Sea of Japan

Japan’s military says it spotted four large Russian amphibious warfare ships sailing close to its islands as they traveled west, possibly towards Europe.

Pictures of the amphibious transports, typically used for landing expeditionary forces ashore, published by Japan’s defence ministry showed what appeared to be military trucks loaded onto the deck of one of the vessels.

“We don’t know where they are heading, but their heading suggests it is possible,” a Japanese defence ministry spokesman said when asked if they could be bound for Ukraine.

A Japanese Self Defense Force maritime patrol first detected the Russian vessels, which can carry dozens of tanks and hundreds of troops, on Tuesday and monitored them as they passed west from the Pacific Ocean to the Sea of Japan through the narrow Tsuruga Strait.

It is unusual for Russian ships to pass through the strait so close to Japanese territory, the military spokesman said.

Armed with anti-tank weapons supplied by the United States and other countries, Ukrainian fighters have taken a heavy toll on Russian armour and fuel trucks, meaning Moscow, which describes its attack as a “special operation”, may need to reinforce its forces with new equipment.

NATO allies, which have already supplied 20,000 anti-tank and other weapons to Ukraine, on Wednesday said they would keep helping the country resist the Russian attack.

Reuters

Putin issues warning against pro-Western ‘scum and traitors’

AP: Andrei Gorshkov

President Vladimir Putin has delivered a stark warning to Russian “traitors” who he said the West wanted to use as a “fifth column” to destroy the country.

The Kremlin leader assailed Russians who he said were more mentally in tune with the West than Russia and said the Russian people would quickly be able to tell the difference between traitors and patriots.

“Of course, they [the West] will try to bet on the so-called fifth column, on traitors — on those who earn their money here but live over there. Live, not in the geographical sense, but in the sense of their thoughts, their slavish thinking,” he told government ministers, three weeks into Russia’s war with Ukraine.

“Any people, and especially the Russian people, will always be able to distinguish the true patriots from the scum and the traitors and just to spit them out like a midge that accidentally flew into their mouths.

“I am convinced that this natural and necessary self-cleansing of society will only strengthen our country, our solidarity, cohesion, and readiness to meet any challenge.”

The speech appeared to be a warning that his authoritarian rule, which had already grown tighter since the invasion began on February 24, shutting down Russian news outlets and arresting protesters, could grow even more repressive.
  
In a sign of that, Russian law enforcement announced the first known criminal cases under a new law that allows for 15-year prison terms for posting what is deemed to be “false information” about the Ukraine war. Among those charged was Veronika Belotserkovskaya, a Russian-language cookbook author and blogger living abroad.

Reuters

5h ago

By Dannielle Maguire

One of Russia’s top ballerinas quits Bolshoi over war with Ukraine

Prima ballerina Olga Smirnova, one of Russia’s top dancers, has quit the prestigious Bolshoi in Moscow over the war in Ukraine.

Smirnova, who will now join the Dutch National Ballet, had expressed her opposition to the war earlier this month, saying she could not “remain indifferent to this global catastrophe”.

In a post to her online platform, Smirnova had said she was “against war with all the fibres of my soul”:

“It is not only about every other Russian perhaps having relatives or friends living in Ukraine, or about my grandfather being Ukrainian… it is that we continue to live as if this were the 20th century.”

Read the full story

5h ago

By Dannielle Maguire

What’s it like for people who stayed in Kyiv?

Anastasiia Rozumna has lived in Kyiv all her life, and she’s decided to stay in the city and help people in need.

“My brother, he is of military age, so he cannot leave the country. And my parents are pretty old – they are not comfortable at all to travel and to go anywhere,” she said.

The 23-year-old psychologist and her friends have been helping to deliver food, medicines, warm clothes and other essentials to the elderly and to pregnant women with young children.

Ms Rozumna said as a lot of shops in Kyiv are now closed, people often need to travel far and wait in long lines for supplies.

“I remember very clearly four pregnant women who lived in a basement. They had to stay there because of bombs,” she said.

She and other volunteers delivered medications and warm blankets to make them more comfortable underground, as well as to elderly people unable to leave their homes due to their poor health and limited mobility.

“It’s very hard for them, especially for elderly people. They are experiencing anxiety more than young people,” she said, adding many took sedatives to feel calmer.

Ms Rozumna said although many families with young children have left Kyiv, some have stayed behind.

“They usually hide in a shelter … and children sleep on the floor [or] on the mattresses if they are lucky,” she said.

“Young children don’t understand what’s going on. And it’s actually better for them not to understand.”

She said a bomb landed near her apartment recently, and she’s increasingly anxious about loud sounds, confusing them for explosions.

“My body starts being stressed, and my mind starts to expect that something is going on and something will fall again right near my house,” she said.

Despite the distress and fear inflicted by the war, Ms Rozumna said the community is staying strong and united.

“We know that we are right, that the truth is on our side. The world is on our side,” she said, highlighting supporters across the world and people protesting with Ukrainian flags.

“It shows us the world is kind and we are not alone.”

Reporting by Jenny Cai

China is a ‘friendly country’ for Ukraine, ambassador says

China’s ambassador to Ukraine, Fan Xianrong, says Beijing will “act responsibly” and has offered to help to Kyiv economically.

During a meeting with Ukrainian officials in Lviv earlier this week, as reported by Ukrainian state media Ukrinform, Mr Fan said China was a “friendly country” for the Ukrainian people and the two nations were “strategic partners”.

“As an ambassador, I can responsibly say that China will forever be a good force for Ukraine, both economically and politically.”

China’s position in relation to Ukraine and Russia has remained ambiguous since before the start of the invasion.

The US this week claimed that Beijing had signalled its willingness to provide military and economic aid to Moscow to support the war.

However, some observers suggested Mr Fan’s comments, which were not widely reported in mainstream Chinese media, could indicate a shift in China’s attitude.

Mr Fan said during the meeting that China would always respect Ukraine and develop relations “on the basis of equality and mutual benefit”.

“We will respect the path chosen by Ukrainians because this is the sovereign right of every nation.”

He also said that the Chinese embassy had moved from Kyiv to Lviv and remained working there.

“China will never attack Ukraine, we will help, in particular in the economic direction. We are ready to help you develop. In this situation, which you have now, we will act responsibly. We have seen how great the unity of the Ukrainian people is, and that means its strength.”

The head of the Lviv Regional Military Administration, Maksym Kozytskyi, reportedly thanked the Chinese ambassador for his position in supporting Ukraine in its struggle.

The Lviv Regional Military Administration noted that China had already sent two batches of humanitarian aid to the Ukrainian people, while a third was on its way.

Reporting Mietta Adams

6h ago

By Dannielle Maguire

Six Western nations call for a UN Security Council meeting

The UK’s UN Mission tweeted a call for the meeting earlier today.

“Russia is committing war crimes and targeting civilians. Russia’s illegal war on Ukraine is a threat to us all.”

The mission said the meeting was requested by six Security Council members:

• The UK
• The US
• France
• Ireland
• Norway
• Albania

The meeting hasn’t been officially scheduled.

There are only 15 counties on the Security Council. 

The other members are Brazil, China, Gabon, Ghana, India, Kenya, Mexico, Russia and the United Arab Emirates.

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