At least five people are wounded in two barrages of strikes that damage infrastructure including a fuel storage facility in a rare attack by Russia on the western Ukrainian city of Lviv.
Russian forces also took control of a town where staff working at the Chernobyl nuclear site live and briefly detain the mayor, sparking protests, Ukrainian officials said.
Meanwhile, U.S. President Joe Biden calls his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin a “butcher” who “cannot remain in power” after meeting top Ukrainian ministers for the first time since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The conflict began escalating on February 21, 2022, after Russian President Vladimir Putin recognised separatist regions in eastern Ukraine and deployed troops in a peacekeeping role.
Here are the latest updates:
Ukraine
Russia occupies Chernobyl staff town, Kyiv says
Russian forces took control of a town where staff working at the Chernobyl nuclear site live and briefly detained the mayor, sparking protests, Ukrainian officials said Saturday.
“I have been released. Everything is fine, as far as it is possible under occupation,” Yuri Fomichev, mayor of Slavutych, told AFP by phone, after officials in the Ukraine capital Kyiv announced earlier he had been detained.
Earlier, the military administration of the Kyiv region, which covers Slavutych, announced that Russian troops had entered the town and occupied the municipal hospital.
They also said that the mayor had been detained.- AFP
Ukraine
Kyiv says US has ‘no objections’ to Poland supplying war planes
– Ukraine said Saturday that the United States does not object to the transfer of war planes to Kyiv to help it fend off the Russian invasion, after the Pentagon previously rejected an offer from Poland.
Officials in Washington “have no objections to the transfer of aircrafts. As far as we can conclude, the ball is now on the Polish side. We will look further into this matter in our conversations with Polish colleagues”, Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in written comments to AFP
Ukraine
Ukraine says 5,208 people were evacuated from cities on Saturday
A total of 5,208 people were evacuated from Ukrainian cities through humanitarian corridors on Saturday, a senior official said, fewer than the 7,331 who managed to escape the previous day.
Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the president’s office, said in an online post that 4,331 people had left the besieged city of Mariupol.- Reuters
Lviv, Ukraine
Man detained at site of Lviv rocket attacks
The governor of the Lviv region says a man was detained on suspicion of espionage at the site of one of the two rocket attacks that rattled the city on Saturday.
Maksym Kozytskyy said police found the man had recorded a rocket flying toward the target and striking it. Police also found on his telephone photos of checkpoints in the region, which Mr. Kozytskyy said had been sent to two Russian telephone numbers.
Lviv, Ukraine
Rocket attacks hit Ukraine’s Lviv as Biden visits Poland
Russian rockets struck the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on Saturday while President Joe Biden visited neighboring Poland, a reminder that Moscow is willing to strike anywhere in Ukraine despite its claim to be focusing its offensive on the country’s east.
The back-to-back airstrikes shook the city that has become a haven for an estimated 2,00,000 people who have had to flee their hometowns. Lviv had been largely spared since the invasion began, although missiles struck an aircraft repair facility near the main airport a week ago.
U.S.A.
Biden on Putin: ‘This man cannot remain in power’
U.S. President Joe Biden said Saturday that Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power,” dramatically escalating the rhetoric against the Russian leader after his brutal invasion of Ukraine.
Even as Mr. Biden’s words rocketed around the world, the White House attempted to clarify soon after Mr. Biden finished speaking in Poland that he was not calling for a new government in Russia.