Ukraine-Russia war: Major developments

Zelenskyy has urged Switzerland to crack down on Russian oligarchs who he said were helping to wage war on his country

Ukrainian President Zelenskyy said Russia's siege of Mariupol was "a terror that will be remembered for centuries to come", while authorities in the strategic port city said thousands of residents there had been taken by force to Russia.

Fighting, diplomacy

Zelenskyy urged Switzerland to crack down on Russian oligarchs who he said were helping to wage war on his country from the safety of "beautiful Swiss towns".

After Biden warned Xi of "consequences" if China provided material support to Russia's war effort, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Beijing has "always stood for maintaining peace and opposing war" and that "time will prove that China's claims are on the right side of history." Meanwhile, Russian President Putin is healthy, sane and "in better shape than ever", close ally Belarus President Lukashenko told Japanese TV.

Russia said it had used hypersonic Kinzhal (Dagger) missiles to destroy a large weapons depot in Ukraine's western Ivano-Frankivsk region, and a Russian mortar attack on Ukrainian town of Makariv in the Kyiv region killed seven people and hospitalised five on Friday, local police said in a statement. Russia denies targeting civilians.

Civilians

The UN human rights office said at least 847 civilians had been killed and 1,399 wounded in Ukraine as of Friday. The Ukrainian prosecutor general's office said that 112 children have been killed.

Pope Francis made a surprise visit to young refugees being treated in a paediatric hospital in Rome.

Russian and Ukrainian ballet dancers rubbed shoulders in London at a charity event uniting some of the world's leading dance performers for humanitarian relief in Ukraine.

Russia's space agency dismissed Western media reports suggesting Russian cosmonauts joining the International Space Station had chosen to wear yellow suits with a blue trim in support of Ukraine. "Sometimes yellow is just yellow," Roscosmos's press service said on its Telegram channel.

Economy, markets

Ukraine may not produce enough crops to export if this year's sowing campaigns are disrupted by the invasion, presidential adviser Oleh Ustenko said.

"To do this to a peaceful city... is a terror that will be remembered for centuries to come," Zelenskyy said of Russia's attacks on Mariupol.

"When the alarm sounded, I covered the windows with blankets so one couldn't hear it. My small ones made up a monster, the siren monster," said Tanya, a refugee in the Polish border town of Przemysl.

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