Russia-Ukraine Crisis: China says priority is to stop Ukraine crisis getting out of control

Thirty-five people died and more than 130 were injured when Russian troops launched airstrikes on a military training ground outside Ukraine's western city of Lviv, near the border with Poland, on Sunday. Meanwhile, Polish President Andrzej Duda said that the use of chemical weapons by Moscow in its invasion of Ukraine would be "game-changing" and require a rethink of the conflict by NATO. Stay tuned for live updates.

China says priority is to stop Ukraine crisis getting out of control

China's priority is to prevent the tense situation in Ukraine from getting out of control, its embassy in the United States said on Sunday, responding to media reports Moscow had asked Beijing for military equipment since launching its invasion.

"The current situation in Ukraine is indeed disconcerting," spokesperson Liu Pengyu said in a statement.

"The high priority now is to prevent the tense situation from escalating or even getting out of control."

Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a "special operation." - Reuters.

Kremlin says next Russia-Ukraine talks to take place Monday

Talks between Russia and Ukraine are not taking place right now but will continue on Monday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying on Sunday by the RIA news agency.

Peskov made the comments after Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said Ukraine and Russia were actively conducting talks on Sunday, with the situation around the besieged city of Mariupol a particular focus. - Reuters.

Ukraine’sarmed forces are launching counter-attacks against Russian troops inUkraine’ssouthern Mykolaiv region and eastern Kharkiv region, Interior Ministry official Vadym Denysenko said in an interview on national television on Sunday. (Reuters)

Russia said on Sunday it had attacked the Yavoriv training facility in western Ukraine, adding the strike had killed "up to 180 foreign mercenaries" and destroyed a large amount of weapons supplied by outside nations. (Reuters)

China will face consequences if it helps Russia evade sanctions: US National Security Adviser

USNational Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, who is due to meet withChina's top diplomat Yang Jiechi in Rome on Monday, warned Beijing that it would "absolutely" face consequences if it helped Moscow evade sweeping sanctions over the war in Ukraine. (Reuters)

The city council of Ukraine’s besieged port city of Mariupol said in a statement on Sunday that 2,187 city residents had been killed since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24. (Reuters)

US communicating directly with Russia to warn against use of chemical weapon: White House National Security Adviser Sullivan

Ukraine's Mariupol says city's last reserves of food and water running out

Ukraine's besieged port city of Mariupol is running out of its last reserves of food and water, the city council said on Sunday, adding that Russian forces blockading the city continued to shell non-military targets. (Reuters)

City Council of Ukraine's Mariupol says Russian forces continue to shell city

A Russian delegate to talks with Ukraine was quoted on Sunday as saying they had made significant progress and it was possible the delegations could soon arrive at a "joint position". (Reuters)

Russia said on Sunday that it was counting on China to help it withstand the blow to its economy from Western sanctions, which it said had frozen nearly half of its gold and foreign currency reserves. (Reuters)

Nearly 125,000 people have been evacuated via humanitarian corridors from conflict zones in Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a video address on Sunday. (Reuters)

Foreign sanctions have frozen around $300 billion out of $640 billion that Russia had in its gold and forex reserves, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said in an interview with state TV aired on Sunday. (Reuters)

Pope Francis says 'massacre' in Ukraine must stop

Kyiv's city administration on Sunday said it had set aside a two-week reserve of essential food items in case the city is blockaded by Russian forces. (Reuters)

Supplies and a smile: Kharkiv resident delivers aid to besieged city

The 23-year-old musician is in Kharkiv, a city in northeastern Ukraine that has suffered some of the heaviest bombardment from Russian forces and where dozens of civilians have been killed.

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Supplies and a smile: Kharkiv resident delivers aid to besieged city

The 23-year-old musician is in Kharkiv, a city in northeastern Ukraine that has suffered some of the heaviest bombardment from Russian forces and where dozens of civilians have been killed.

Russians strike closer to Polish border, port city reels

Russian forces struck a military training base in western Ukraine on Sunday morning, bringing their offensive closer to the border with Poland.

Eight rockets were fired at the Yaroviv military range, located 30 kilometers (19 miles) northwest of Lviv, the regional administration said, without offering any details about possible casualties. The range is 35 kilometers (22 miles) from Ukraine's border with Poland.

Since 2015, the US has regularly sent instructors to the military range, also known as the Yaroviv International Peacekeeping and Security Center, to train Ukraine's military and the facility has also hosted international NATO drills.

PM directs to bring mortal remains of Naveen killed in Ukraine

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday directed the authorities to make all possible efforts to bring back the mortal remains of Naveen Shekharappa, who died in Kharkiv, Ukraine during Russian shelling on March 1.

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Governor of Ukraine's Lviv region said nine have been killed and 57 wounded in the air strike on its western military facility, adding that Russia fired 30 rockets at the military facility.

(Reuters)

Bus carrying dozens of Ukrainians overturns in Italy, one dead, several injured

A bus carrying around 50 Ukrainians went off the road in Italy, leaving one dead and several injured, fire fighters said on Sunday.

The accident occurred on the highway between Cesena and Rimini, on the north eastern coast. Pictures posted by the fire fighters on Twitter show the bus had overturned.

Ukraine has said thatforeign instructors present at Lviv military base were attacked by Russia. (AFP)

Russia pounds military range in Ukraine's west

Russian forces carried out an air strike on a military range near Lviv in western Ukraine, expanding its offensive closer to the border with Poland.

The Russian military on Sunday morning fired eight rockets at the Yaroviv military range 30 kilometers northwest of Lviv, the Lviv regional administration said, without offering any details about possible casualties.

The Yaroviv military range, also known as the Yaroviv International Peacekeeping and Security Center, is located 35 kilometers from Ukraine's border with Poland.

Ukraine's President Zelenskyy has said that he isopen for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Israel, if the ceasefire stays in place. (CNBC-TV18)

Ukraine border town sees refugee influx, Hungarian exodus

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has led to an influx of refugees into the border town of Berehove in the Transcarpathia region, and an exodus of its ethnic-Hungarian population fleeing conscription.

Around half of Berehove's population of 22,000 is ethnic-Hungarian, the bilingual street signs, architecture and historical plaques testifying to its Magyar heritage.

But despite its location beside the Hungarian border and far from the fighting, the war has upended life in the town.

Air strike launched on Ukraine military base near Polish border - Lviv authorities

An air strike was launched on a Ukrainian military base Yavoriv in the west of the country near the Polish border, the Lviv regional military administration said on Sunday.

"The occupiers launched an air strike on the International Center for Peacekeeping and Security. According to preliminary data, they fired eight missiles," the administration said in a statement.

UK to offer households $456 if they host Ukrainian refugees

The UK government announced that it will offer 350 pounds ($456) per month to households if they host refugees fleeing from the war-torn Ukraine, a media report said on Sunday.

Under its 'Homes for Ukraine' scheme, the government called on people to "offer a spare room or an empty property to a refugee for a period of at least six months", the BBC report said.

According to Micheal Gove, the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities, the government will launch the new scheme on Monday, and "will initially enable someone - a sponsor - to nominate a named Ukrainian individual or family to stay with them in their home, or in a separate property, for six months".

Ukraine says people who died in Russia attack on convoy were not in agreed evacuation corridor

The seven women and children who Ukraine says died when Russian forces attacked a convoy escaping a village in the Kyiv region on Saturday were not as previously stated in an agreed evacuation corridor, the defence ministry said.

Zelenskyy warns against 'pseudo-republics

Russia is trying to create new “pseudo-republics” in Ukraine to break his country apart, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address to the nation Saturday.

Zelenskyy called on Ukraine's regions, including Kherson, which was captured by Russian forces, not to repeat the experience of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Pro-Russian separatists began fighting Ukrainian forces in those eastern regions in 2014.

“The occupiers on the territory of the Kherson region are trying to repeat the sad experience of the formation of pseudo-republics,” Zelenskyy said.

“They are blackmailing local leaders, putting pressure on deputies, looking for someone to bribe.”

NATO chief says Russia may use chemical weapons - German paper

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Sunday that Russia might use chemical weapons following its invasion of Ukraine and that such a move would be a war crime, according to an interview in German newspaper Welt am Sonntag.

"In recent days, we have heard absurd claims about chemical and biological weapons laboratories," Stoltenberg was quoted by Welt am Sonntag as saying, adding that the Kremlin was inventing false pretexts to justify what could not be justified.

Russians strike near Kyiv, block aid convoy; port city reels

Russian forces pounded the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, shelling its downtown as residents hid in an iconic mosque and elsewhere to avoid the explosions. Fighting also raged in the outskirts of the capital, Kyiv, as Russia kept up its bombardment of other cities throughout the country.

Mariupol has endured some of Ukraine's worst punishment since Russia invaded. Unceasing barrages have thwarted repeated attempts to bring food, water and medicine into the city of 430,000 and to evacuate its trapped civilians. More than 1,500 people have died in Mariupol during the siege, according to the mayor's office, and the shelling has even interrupted efforts to bury the dead in mass graves.

Ukraine says seven killed, including a child, after Russia fired at evacuation convoy

Ukraine's intelligence service accused Russia on Saturday of firing at a convoy that was evacuating women and children from the village of Peremoha in the Kyiv region, killing seven people including one child.

The service - part of the defence ministry - initially said the convoy left the village in a "green corridor" which had previously been agreed with Russia.

But in a statement released late on Saturday, the service said this was not in fact the case and the convoy had left the village independently.

"This is very dangerous, because the occupying forces are ruthlessly destroying the civilian population," it said. "We urge all citizens who are in danger to follow the official information on evacuation routes and use only safe routes."

Ukraine-Russia crisis: What we know so far

Here are some of the latest developments:

— Outside the capital, Kyiv, Russia renewed its attack with fierce fighting in the suburbs as it tried to tighten a cordon around the city. In the suburb of Irpin, Ukrainian and Russian soldiers were fighting a street-by-street battle Saturday. Some residents wept as they lugged belongings across the debris of a destroyed bridge.

— Hundreds of people protested in the streets of Melitopol in southern Ukraine on Saturday over the detention of the city’s mayor, who had refused to cooperate with occupying Russian forces. The Ukrainian government called the detention a kidnapping and a war crime.

— Attacks in two western Ukrainian cities pierced the sense of security in the region, which has been a safe haven for refugees, businessmen, journalists and diplomats. The region’s role as a corridor for weapons being delivered from Europe and the United States may also make it a target.

— For two weeks, Russian forces have failed to take the strategic southern city of Mykolaiv and, in turn, have stepped up their bombardment of civilian targets there, causing damage to a cancer hospital and sending residents fleeing into bomb shelters. Once again Saturday, residents awoke to the sounds of artillery fire and explosions, forcing them to seek shelter.

— The United Nations' disarmament chief said the agency had no evidence of any biological weapons program in Ukraine. Russia had accused the U.S. of a plot involving biological weapons laboratories in Ukraine and migratory birds, bats and insects.

Putin, Macron, Scholz discuss Ukraine crisis over phone

Russian President Vladimir Putin had a telephone conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Saturday, and urged them to influence the Kiev authorities to stop "criminal acts" of Ukrainian "nationalist battalions," according to the Kremlin.

Macron and Scholz urged an immediate ceasefire and a diplomatic solution to the conflict in Ukraine, the German government said in a statement, noting the 75-minute talk as part of the ongoing international efforts to end the conflict, Xinhua reported.