On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a ‘special military operation’ against Ukraine in a televised address, as the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine completes a month. Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine with the aim of ‘demilitarisation and denazification’ in the early hours of February 24, sparking the biggest war on a European state since World War II.
A barrage of strikes on cities have wreaked destruction across Ukraine over the past four weeks. More than 10 million people have been displaced, several Ukrainian towns and cities have been besieged and bombarded beyond recognition, and hundreds of civilians have been killed in one month since the invasion.
Here are the top 10 latest developments on the Russia-Ukraine crisis
-Ukrainian President Zelenskyy called for worldwide protest as war marks a grim one-month milestone. "Come from your offices, your homes, your schools and universities, come in the name of peace, come with Ukrainian symbols to support Ukraine, to support freedom, to support life," Zelenskyy said in his appeal for a worldwide March 24 demonstration.
-Some 100,000 civilians are still trapped in Mariupol city without heat, food or clean water, facing relentless Russian bombardment from the sea and skies, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said as per Reuters.
-Russian forces have bombed the ancient city of Chernihiv in northern Ukraine, destroying a bridge that had been critical for evacuations and aid deliveries, the governor said Wednesday.
{{/usCountry}}-Russian forces have bombed the ancient city of Chernihiv in northern Ukraine, destroying a bridge that had been critical for evacuations and aid deliveries, the governor said Wednesday.
{{/usCountry}}-US President Joe Biden is expected to roll out new sanctions against Russia in Brussels and coordinate more military assistance for Ukraine. Biden described the possibility that Russia could use chemical weapons in Ukraine as a “real threat” and said it's an issue that world leaders will discuss at the NATO summit.
-NATO’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, announced plans to double the alliance’s battlegroups on its eastern flank - in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia, as President Biden to be Brussels for a major summit with allies, AP reported.
-NATO estimated Wednesday that 7,000 to 15,000 Russian soldiers have been killed - the alliance’s first public estimate on Russian casualties since the war began.
-A Russian journalist for the investigative news outlet The Insider was killed when Russian troops shelled a residential neighbourhood in the Ukrainian capital, the outlet said Wednesday, the latest reporter to die in war, news agency AFP reported.
-Britain will provide Ukraine with about 6,000 new defensive missiles and almost 30 million pounds ($40 million) to support the fight against Russian aggression. "The United Kingdom will work with our allies to step up military and economic support to Ukraine, strengthening their defences as they turn the tide in this fight," Johnson said. Read more
-India maintained its neutral stance on the Russia-Ukraine situation by abstaining from a resolution brought by Russia on the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine. The resolution was not adopted by the United Nations Security Council as it got 2 yes votes from Russia and China. Read more
-The United Nations said on Wednesday that 3.6 million people have fled Ukraine since the beginning of war on February 24. "Millions more will have their lives upended if the war persists," UN's International Organisation for Migration said.
(With inputs from AFP, AP, Reuters)