Russian troops advance further into Mariupol after cutting city off from port

Zelenskyy says Mariupol terror a war crime that will be remembered for centuries

In this image from video provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks from Kyiv, Ukraine, early Sunday, March 20, 2022. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)

LVIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the siege of Mariupol will go down in history for what he’s calling war crimes by Russia’s military.

“To do this to a peaceful city, what the occupiers did, is a terror that will be remembered for centuries to come,” he says early Sunday in his nighttime video address to the nation.

Zelenskyy tells Ukrainians the ongoing negotiations with Russia were “not simple or pleasant, but they are necessary.” He says he discussed the course of the talks with French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday.

“Ukraine has always sought a peaceful solution. Moreover, we are interested in peace now,” he said.

Meanwhile, Russia’s military isn’t even recovering the bodies of its soldiers in some places, Zelenskyy says.

“In places where there were especially fierce battles, the bodies of Russian soldiers simply pile up along our line of defense. And no one is collecting these bodies,” he says. He described a battle near Chornobayivka in the south, where Ukrainian forces held their positions and six times beat back the Russians, who just kept “sending their people to slaughter.”

Thousands crash barriers to reach Kanievsky home, Netanyahu briefly trapped at site

People gather outside the home of Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky who passed away, in the city of Bnei Brak, on March 19, 2022. (Avshalom Sassoni/ Flash90)

Thousands of people have breached barriers set up around the home of Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky in Bnei Brak ahead of his funeral.

The Walla news site reports that opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu, who was visiting the home to pay his respects ahead of the funeral, was trapped at the site by the crowd and only managed to leave after two hours.

✡️Benjamin Netanyahu é o último a dar o adeus ao Rabino Chaim Kanievsky em Jerusalém na noite de hoje. pic.twitter.com/rURSvP9VbR

— Tati Cruz (@Taticru79846829) March 20, 2022

The Bnei Brak municipality urges people to leave, saying the home is now closed to visitors.

People at the scene tell Channel 12 that there is dangerous overcrowding and some express fears there could be a repeat of the Merom disaster where dozens of people were crushed to death at a religious ceremony last year.

Officials say Mariupol residents being taken to Russia against their will

People cover from shelling inside an entryway to an apartment building in Mariupol, Ukraine, March 13, 2022. (Evgeniy Maloletka/AP)

Residents of Mariupol are being taken to Russian territory against their will by Russian forces, CNN reports, citing a statement from the Mariupol City Council.

According to the council’s statement, captured residents are being taken to camps where Russian forces check their phones and documents.

They are then being sent to remote Russian cities.

Funeral of Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky delayed until 12 p.m. Sunday

People gather outside the home of Rabbi Haim Kanievsky who passed away, in the city of Bnei Brak, on March 19, 2022.(Avshalom Sassoni/ Flash90)

The funeral procession of Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky is being delayed until 12 p.m. on Sunday.

It was originally scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. Organizers say the hour delay is done in cooperation with the police.

Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to attend the funeral in the Tel Aviv suburb of Bnei Brak, with major highways set to be blocked off and heavy traffic congestion expected throughout central Israel. Police urged the non-attending members of the public to avoid roads if possible.

Russian cosmonauts deny yellow and blue flight suits were a Ukraine symbol

In this frame grab from video provided by Roscosmos, Russian cosmonauts Sergey Korsakov, Oleg Artemyev and Denis Matveyev are seen during a welcome ceremony after arriving at the International Space Station, Friday, March 18, 2022, the first new faces in space since the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine. The crew emerged from the Soyuz capsule wearing yellow flight suits with blue stripes, the colors of the Ukrainian flag. (Roscosmos via AP)

WASHINGTON — When three Russian cosmonauts arrived at the International Space Station wearing yellow flight suits with blue accents, some saw a message in them wearing the colors of the Ukrainian flag. They shot that down today.

Cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev says each crew picks the colors about six months before launch because the suits need to be individually sewn. And since all three graduated from Bauman Moscow State Technical University, they chose the colors of their prestigious alma mater.

“There is no need to look for any hidden signs or symbols in our uniform,” Artemyev says in a statement on the Russian space agency’s Telegram channel. “A color is simply a color. It is not in any way connected to Ukraine. Otherwise, we would have to recognize its rights to the yellow sun in the blue sky.

“These days, even though we are in space, we are together with our president and our people!”

Dmitry Rogozin, the head of the space agency Roscosmos, tweets a picture of the university’s blue and gold coat of arms.

Shortly after their arrival at the orbiting station yesterday, Artemyev had a different answer about the flight suits, saying there was a lot of the yellow material in storage and “that’s why we had to wear yellow.”

Huthis attack Aramco facility in Saudi

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Huthi rebels targetted a facility run by oil company Aramco in Jizan, southern Saudi Arabia, the Saudi-led military coalition fighting the rebels in Yemen says in a statement.

The rebels also target a desalination plant in Al-Shaqeeq, says the coalition statement, quoted by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA).

Thousands of Ukrainian refugees wait in line for hours for Polish ID cards

Ukrainian refugees talk near a special application point for Polish IDs at the National Stadium in Warsaw, Poland, on March 19, 2022. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

Hoping to restore some normalcy after fleeing the war in Ukraine, thousands of refugees wait in long lines in the Polish capital of Warsaw to get identification cards that will allow them to get on with their lives — at least for now.

Refugees started lining up outside Warsaw’s National Stadium overnight to get the coveted PESEL identity cards that will allow them to work, live, go to school, and get medical care or social benefits for the next 18 months. Still, by mid-morning, many were told to come back another day. The demand was too high even though Polish authorities had simplified the process.

“We are looking for a job now,” says 30-year-old Kateryna Lohvyn, who was standing in the line with her mother, adding that it took a bit of time to recover from the shock of the Russian invasion.

“We don’t yet know [what to do],” she adds. “But we are thankful to the Poles. They fantastically welcome us.”

Maryna Liashuk says the warm welcome from Poland has made her feel at home already. If the situation worsens, Liashuk says she would like to stay permanently in Poland with her family.

Canadian mosque worshippers attacked with bear spray

Worshippers at dawn prayer in a suburb of Toronto tackle and subdue a 24-year-old man who allegedly entered their mosque and attacked people with bear spray, according to local police.

Peel Regional Police say the man walked into the Dar Al-Tawheed Islamic Centre in Mississauga, Ontario, and allegedly “discharged bear spray towards people in the mosque while brandishing a hatchet” just before 7 a.m.

Speaking on behalf of the mosque, Nadia Hasan of the National Council of Canadian Muslims says a group of about 20 men were praying when the man sprayed them.

“Some of the men turned around and they very bravely decided that they were not going to let him attack them,” she says. “They tackled him to the ground and apprehended him until the police showed up.”

Mohammad Moiz Omar of Mississauga has been arrested. Police say they’re considering “all possible motivations” for the incident, and charges are pending.

Visiting Poland, US lawmakers call for military aid to Ukraine

Refugees are seen as they wait for further transportation at the raiway station in Przemysl, Poland, on March 17, 2022. (Wojtek Radwanski/AFP)

A bipartisan delegation of US lawmakers visiting Poland says that the most urgent need in Ukraine’s fight against a Russian invasion is to equip and support the country in every way that will help it defend its independence.

The seven-member delegation led by Rep. Stephen Lynch, a Democrat from Massachusetts, has visited reception centers for refugees from Ukraine in eastern Poland.

“We are here to reassure and support the people of Ukraine. We are here to thank the people of Poland for the unbelievable generosity they have shown to the refugees,” says Lynch, who is chairman of the subcommittee on National Security in the Committee on Oversight and Reform.

I’m with a bipartisan group of Reps. in Poland to see what’s being done and what more Congress can do to support our NATO allies and the people of Ukraine #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/UIKb4940Hn

— Congresswoman Chellie Pingree 🇺🇸 🇺🇦 (@chelliepingree) March 19, 2022

During an online meeting with the media, the American lawmakers stress the need to urgently assist Ukraine’s military in their fight against Russian forces. They said there is no room for peace talks as long as there is a “hot war.”

“The most urgent action that we can take is to make sure that the Ukrainian fighters — those valiant patriots who are fighting for their freedom — have every bit of equipment, every bit of supply, every bit of support that we can possibly deliver to them,” Lynch says.

Other members of the delegation included Democratic Reps. Lori Trahan of Massachusetts and Chellie Pingree of Maine, and Republican Reps. Jake LaTurner from Kansas, Mark Green from Tennessee, Pat Fallon from Texas, and Nancy Mace from South Carolina.

Italy rejects Moscow’s accusation of ‘anti-Russian hysteria’ over sanctions

Ukraine nationals living in Italy take photos outside the Colosseum lit with the Ukraine national flag in solidarity with the people of Ukraine in Rome, on February 24, 2022. (Domenico Stinellis/AP)

Italy reacts furiously to “odious and unacceptable” insults and threats by a senior Russian foreign ministry official attacking sanctions applied against Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine.

Alexey Paramonov, head of the Russian foreign ministry’s European department, accused Italy of falling victim to “anti-Russian hysteria,” in comments to the state-run RIA Novosti agency. Italy forgot centuries-long relations and bilateral agreements “in a second,” he said.

Paramonov said Russia had provided “significant assistance” to Italy during the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, at the request of Italy’s defense minister Lorenzo Guerini.

Italy’s foreign ministry says it “firmly rejects the threatening statements” from Moscow.

Rome and its partners will “continue to exert every pressure” to stop the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it adds.

Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi condemns the “comparison between the invasion of Ukraine and the pandemic crisis in Italy” as “particularly odious and unacceptable.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is set to address the Italian parliament on Tuesday.

Mariupol police officer pleads with Biden, Macron for help after city ‘destroyed’

A police officer shows the covered bodies of people killed by shelling at hospital number 3 in Mariupol, Ukraine, on March 15, 2022. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

A Ukrainian police officer in Mariupol warns that the besieged port city has been “wiped off the face of the earth,” and pleads with the presidents of the United States and France to provide his country with a modern air defense system.

In a video post from a rubble-strewn street, Mariupol police officer Michail Vershnin tells US President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron that they had promised assistance, “but what we have received is not quite it,” and urges them to save the civilian population.

“Children, elderly people are dying. The city is destroyed and it has been wiped off the face of the earth,” he says in a video, in which flames can be seen coming from several buildings while others were decimated.

“You have promised that there will be help, give us that help. Biden, Macron, you are great leaders. Be them to the end,” he says.

US State Dept official on delisting IRGC: We’re prepared for ‘difficult decisions’

Revolutionary Guard troops attend a military parade marking the 39th anniversary of the start of the Iran-Iraq war, in front of the shrine of the late revolutionary founder Ayatollah Khomeini, just outside Tehran, Iran, on September 22, 2019. (Iranian Presidency Office via AP)

In response to Israeli concerns over reported US plans to delist Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terror entity, a State Department official tells The Times of Israel that the White House is prepared to make “difficult decisions” to ensure a return to an Iran nuclear deal.

“We are not negotiating in public and are not going to respond to specific claims about what sanctions we would be prepared to lift as part of a mutual return to full implementation of the JCPOA,” the official says. “We are prepared to make difficult decisions to return Iran’s nuclear program to JCPOA limits.”

On Friday, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid issued a joint statement urging the US not to delist the IRGC and “abandon its closest allies in exchange for empty promises from terrorists.”

The State Department official says that Israel and the US “share common interests on confronting dangerous Iran policies beyond their nuclear program, such as their support for terrorism and terrorist proxies. Under any return to the JCPOA, the United States will retain and aggressively use our powerful tools to address these issues, and especially to counter the IRGC, in concert with our allies and partners.”

Bennett set to visit India early next month, meet Modi

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett (left) speaks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland, on November 2, 2021. (Haim Zach/GPO)

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is slated to pay an official visit to India next month, his office says.

He is expected to depart on April 2 for a trip to mark 30 years of ties between the two nations. He will meet with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other Indian officials, as well as members of the local Jewish community.

The pair met on the sidelines of the UN climate conference in Glasgow in November and exchanged remarks.

Modi visited Israel in 2017 and met with then-prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Israel said planning interim caravan housing for Ukrainian immigrants in 3 cities

Ukrainian immigrants to Israel who fled fighting in Ukraine arrive on a rescue flight at Ben Gurion Airport, on March 17, 2022. (Yossi Zeliger/Flash90)

Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman has reportedly come to an agreement with the mayors of three cities to set up approximately 2,500 temporary housing units for new immigrants from Ukraine.

According to Channel 13 news, Liberman and the mayors of Ashdod, Rishon Lezion and Nof Hagalil have agreed to establish around 2,500 caravan units to aid in the absorption of the wave of immigrants fleeing fighting in Ukraine.

The new immigrants are expected to pay a symbolic sum toward water and electricity to stay in the caravans, while most of the cost will be covered by the state at a cost of around NIS 500 million ($155 million), reports Channel 13.

As of Saturday evening, around 3,500 Ukrainian immigrants had arrived in Israel since the outbreak of the war, with another couple thousand arriving from Russia, Belarus, and other countries in the region.

Air raids sound in quick succession in southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv

Ukrainian soldiers and rescue officers search for bodies in the debris at the military school hit by Russian rockets the day before, in Mykolaiv, southern Ukraine, on March 19, 2022. (Bulent Kilic/AFP)

Russian air raids on Mykolaiv are taking place in quick succession, a regional official says, a day after a deadly strike on a military barracks in the southern Ukrainian city.

Vitaly Kim, head of the regional administration, says there isn’t even enough time to raise the alarm over the raids “because, by the time we announce this tornado, it’s already there.”

“The [alert] message and the bombings arrive at the same time,” he says on social media.

He provides no details about the extent of the damage or on any possible victims.

Dozens of soldiers were killed after Russian troops struck the military barracks in Mykolaiv early Friday, witnesses told AFP on Saturday, as a rescue operation was underway. Authorities have not yet released an official death toll.

Bennett reportedly planning visit to Egypt to meet again with Sissi

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett (left) and Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi meet, on September 13, 2021, in Sharm el-Sheikh. (Kobi Gideon/GPO)

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is reportedly planning a trip to Egypt to visit Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.

According to the Walla news site, the expected visit comes in the wake of the further warming of ties between the nations, after on Wednesday Israel announced the inauguration of a new route between Ben Gurion Airport and the Egyptian coastal resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

Bennett met with Sissi in Sharm el-Sheikh in September, the first meeting in a decade between the leaders of Israel and Egypt.

Chinese diplomat says NATO must keep promise not to expand eastward

Protesters hold signs regarding Ukraine as they stand outside the security perimeter during a meeting of NATO defense ministers at NATO headquarters in Brussels, on March 16, 2022. (AP Photo/Sylvain Plazy)

A Chinese diplomat says NATO should stick to what he claimed was a promise not to expand eastward.

In a speech, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng criticizes the far-reaching Western sanctions imposed on Russia after it invaded Ukraine and says the root cause of the war in Ukraine “lies in the Cold War mentality and power politics.”

Echoing a Kremlin talking point, the Chinese envoy says if NATO’s “enlargement goes further, it would be approaching the ‘outskirts of Moscow’ where a missile could hit the Kremlin within seven or eight minutes.”

“Pushing a major country, especially a nuclear power, to the corner would entail repercussions too dreadful to contemplate,” he says.

He expresses an understanding for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s oft-repeated position, saying that NATO should have disintegrated and “been consigned to history alongside the Warsaw Pact.”

“However, rather than breaking up, NATO has kept strengthening and expanding, and intervened militarily in countries like Yugoslavia, Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan,” he says. “One could well anticipate the consequences going down this path. The crisis in Ukraine is a stern warning.”

Israel begins setting up field hospital in Ukraine ahead of Tuesday launch

A shipment of medical equipment in Mostyska, Ukraine, on March 19, 2022, where an Israeli field hospital will be set up. (Health Ministry)

The first shipment of medical equipment to establish an Israeli-run field hospital in Mostyska, Ukraine, has arrived over the weekend, and the setup of the hospital has already begun, says the Health Ministry.

On Monday, a delegation of 60 medical workers from the Sheba Medical Center are slated to head to Ukraine, and the hospital is expected to begin operations on Tuesday.

Pope visits Ukrainian children being treated at Vatican hospital

Pope Francis holds his weekly general audience at the Paul VI hall in the Vatican, on March 2, 2022. (Vincenzo Pinto/AFP)

Pope Francis visits Ukrainian children who have fled the Russian invasion and are being cared for at the Vatican’s pediatric hospital in Rome.

A smiling Francis, 85, reaches out to clasp the hands of children as he walks through a ward at the Bambino Gesu hospital in the capital, which is currently treating 19 Ukrainian children.

The Vatican says around 50 children in all have passed through the hospital since the war broke out.

Some were suffering oncological, neurological, and other problems before the crisis and “fled in the first days of the war,” it says.

Others were girls with “serious blast wounds” sustained in the clashes, it says.

Russian forces push deeper into Mariupol, battle over steel plant

Local residents carry water from the food warehouse, on the territory which is under the Government of the Donetsk People's Republic control, on the outskirts of Mariupol, Ukraine, on March 18, 2022. (AP Photo/Alexei Alexandrov)

Russian forces push deeper into Ukraine’s besieged and battered port city of Mariupol, where heavy fighting shuts down a major steel plant and local authorities plead for more Western help.

The fall of Mariupol, the scene of some of the war’s worst suffering, would mark a major battlefield advance for the Russians, who are largely bogged down outside major cities more than three weeks into the biggest land invasion in Europe since World War II.

“Children, elderly people are dying. The city is destroyed and it is wiped off the face of the earth,” Mariupol police officer Michail Vershnin says from a rubble-strewn street in a video addressed to Western leaders.

Ukrainian and Russian forces battle over the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, says Vadym Denysenko, adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister. “One of the largest metallurgical plants in Europe is actually being destroyed,” Denysenko says in televised remarks.

COVID reproduction figure in Israel rises above 1 for first time since January

Technicians carry out a diagnostic test for COVID-19 in a lab at Leumit Health Care Services branch in Or Yehuda, on January 21, 2022. (Yossi Zeliger/Flash90)

The R number — the reproduction rate of the COVID virus — passed 1 in Israel for the first time since January, according to figures from the Health Ministry.

The R number currently stands at 1.02, and more than 7,000 new COVID cases were confirmed on Friday — the highest one-day figure in more than 10 days.

There are currently 43,454 active COVID cases in Israel, with 326 serious cases, and 133 of them on ventilators.

Zelensky calls on Switzerland to freeze Russian oligarch bank accounts

In this image from video provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks from Kyiv, Ukraine, early Saturday, March 18, 2022. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky calls on the Swiss government to freeze the bank accounts of all Russian oligarchs.

Swiss public broadcaster SRF reports that Zelensky, who spoke via livestream today to thousands of anti-war protesters in the Swiss city of Bern, said: “In your banks are the funds of the people who unleashed this war. Help to fight this. So that their funds are frozen… It would be good to take away those privileges from them.”

Zelensky could be seen on a big screen sitting behind a desk wearing a short-sleeved camouflage T-shirt. His speech was dubbed into German. When he called for the blocking of oligarchs’ accounts, great applause erupted.

SRF also reports that the Ukrainian president criticized the Swiss multinational food conglomerate Nestle, which has decided not to withdraw from Russia for the time being, as opposed to many other international companies.

IDF to test alert system for West Bank settlement infiltrations

The Israel Defense Forces is deploying a new alert system in West Bank settlements for incidents of armed infiltrations.

Tomorrow evening, the military is slated to test the system in several settlements, during which a short siren will sound, along with a loudspeaker announcement blaring “terrorist infiltration” several times.

At the same time, alerts will be received on the military’s Home Front Command mobile application, where alerts for incoming rockets, drones — and more recently, earthquakes — are sent.

The sirens tomorrow will sound at 6:05 p.m. in Psagot and Ofarim; 6:15 p.m. in Masua and Beit HaArava; 6:25 p.m. in Nokdim; 6:35 p.m. in Sansana and Hebron; and 6:45 p.m. in Revava.

In the event of an actual infiltration into a settlement, the siren will sound twice and an alert will be sent via the Home Front Command app.

UK’s Johnson: Russian invasion of Ukraine is ‘turning point for the world’

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson talks to British troops stationed in Poland on a NATO mission of enhancement of the alliance's eastern flank in Wesola, near Warsaw Poland, on February 10, 2022. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a “turning point for the world,” arguing that victory for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces would herald “a new age of intimidation.”

Speaking to a Conservative Party conference, Johnson claim Putin is “terrified” that the example of a free Ukraine would spark a pro-democracy revolution in Russia.

He says “a victorious Putin will not stop in Ukraine, and the end of freedom in Ukraine will mean the extinction of any hope of freedom in Georgia and then Moldova, it will mean the beginning of a new age of intimidation across eastern Europe from the Baltic to the Black Sea.”

Herzog to depart for France tomorrow to take part in Toulouse memorial

President Isaac Herzog speaks to reporters before departing for a visit to Turkey, on March 9, 2022. (Tal Schneider/The Times of Israel)

President Isaac Herzog is scheduled to depart at 6 a.m. tomorrow for Paris.

The president is expected to meet in the French capital with French President Emmanuel Macron, before flying with Macron to Toulouse.

There, both leaders will take part in a memorial marking 10 years since the terrorist attack at a Jewish school in Toulouse which killed four people.

Herzog and Macron will then meet with the parents of one of the children killed in the school, and will be joined by former French presidents Nicolas Sarkozy and Francoise Hollande.

Herzog and his wife will then return to Paris to be hosted at a state dinner by Macron and his wife.

Thousands of cops to police mass funeral for Kanievsky

Israel Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai (unmasked) holds a readiness assessment on March 19, 2022, ahead of the mass funeral of Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky. (Israel Police)

Approximately 3,000 police officers are expected to be deployed at and near the funeral tomorrow for Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky in Bnei Brak.

The funeral, at which hundreds of thousands of mourners are expected to attend, is predicted to stretch for more than 15 hours. Many major roads and highways around the area are expected to be blocked off.

Public Security Minister Omer Barlev says the funeral is “an event the magnitude of which we have not encountered before.”

Kanievsky, who died Friday afternoon at age 94, was considered one of the most influential rabbinical figures in the Haredi world.

More than 13,500 Ukrainian refugees enter Israel since outbreak of war

Immigrants fleeing from Ukraine wait at the Israeli immigration and absorption office at Ben Gurion Airport, on March 15, 2022. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

According to the Population and Immigration Authority, 13,513 Ukrainian refugees have entered Israel since the outbreak of war almost a month ago.

The figure includes approximately 3,500 who are eligible for Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return.

Since the war broke out, 275 Ukrainian citizens were refused entry to Israel, and 1,127 left the country.

Russians push deeper into Mariupol as locals plead for help

Russian forces push deeper into Ukraine’s besieged and battered port city of Mariupol, where heavy fighting has shut down a major steel plant and local authorities plead for more Western help.

The fall of Mariupol, the scene of some of the war’s worst suffering, would mark a major battlefield advance for the Russians, who are largely bogged down outside major cities more than three weeks into the biggest land invasion in Europe since World War II.

“Children, elderly people are dying. The city is destroyed and it is wiped off the face of the earth,” Mariupol police officer Michail Vershnin says from a rubble-strewn street in a video addressed to Western leaders that was authenticated by The Associated Press.

Russian forces have already cut the city off from the Sea of Azov, and its fall would link Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, to territories controlled by Moscow-backed separatists in the east. It would mark a rare advance in the face of fierce Ukrainian resistance that has dashed Russia’s hopes for a quick victory and galvanized the West.

This is@how #Mariupol #Ukraine looke like after weeks of shelling by #russian army #War pic.twitter.com/PZXcLsqkuF

— Crimes Of War (@CrimesOfWarDoc) March 19, 2022

Ukraine calls on China to ‘condemn Russian barbarism’

Ukraine calls on China to join the West in condemning “Russian barbarism,” after the US warned Beijing of consequences if it backs Moscow’s attack on the country.

“China can be the global security system’s important element if it makes a right decision to support the civilized countries’ coalition and condemn Russian barbarism,” presidential aide Mikhailo Podolyak writes on Twitter.

🇨🇳 can be the global security system’s important element if it makes a right decision to support the civilized countries’ coalition & condemn 🇷🇺 barbarism. It is a chance to sit at the table as equals. The West must explain to Beijing how $1.6 trillion differs from $150 billion

— Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M) March 19, 2022

UK warns against post-Ukraine reset with Putin

Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks during the Conservative Party Spring Conference at Blackpool Winter Gardens in Blackpool, northwest England, on March 19, 2022. (Paul Ellis/AFP)

The West must not try to “normalize relations” with Russian President Vladimir Putin after his invasion of Ukraine, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says, calling the crisis a “turning point for the world.”

“There are some around the world… who say that we’re better off making accommodations with tyranny… I believe they are profoundly wrong,” the British leader tells his Conservative Party’s Spring conference in Blackpool, northwest England.

“To try to renormalize relations with Putin after this, as we did in 2014, would be to make exactly the same mistake again, and that is why Putin must fail.”

“This is a turning point for the world and it’s a moment of choice. It’s a choice between freedom and oppression,” he adds.

Egypt unveils five ancient tombs in Saqqara necropolis

Members of the media gather on March 19, 2022, in the area where five ancient Pharaonic tombs were recently discovered at the Saqqara archaeological site, south of the Egyptian capital Cairo (Khaled Desouki/AFP)

Egypt unveils five ancient Pharaonic tombs at the Saqqara archaeological site south of Cairo, the latest in a series of landmark discoveries in the area.

Saqqara is a vast necropolis of the ancient Egyptian capital Memphis, a UNESCO World Heritage Site home to more than a dozen pyramids, animal burial sites, and ancient Coptic Christian monasteries.

Egyptian archaeologists discovered the five tombs northeast of the pyramid of King Merenre I, who ruled Egypt around 2270 BC.

According to Mostafa Waziri, the head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, the five tombs — all of which are in good condition — belonged to senior royal officials.

German TV station hires Ukrainian anchor to host news show for refugees

German broadcaster RTL has hired a Ukrainian presenter to host a daily news show for others who have fled their homeland after the Russian invasion.

The commercial broadcaster says Karolina Ashion will present a 10-minute Ukrainian-language news program Mondays to Fridays addressed to the almost 200,000 people who have already arrived in Germany from Ukraine in the past month.

“We want to reach the people who are fleeing right now, who have to leave their home country, who may not speak English, and that’s why we are making a news offer in Ukrainian,” says Malte Baumberger, the project manager for RTL’s “Ukraine Update” program. “So that these people can find out what is going on in their country right now and what is the political situation.”

Ashion only made it to Germany about a week ago herself, following an arduous journey from Kyiv via Moldova and Romania.

Her male colleagues, who aren’t allowed to leave Ukraine if they are between 18 and 60, are still broadcasting out of a bomb shelter in the country’s capital, she says.

“My life has changed completely,” Ashion says. “But I’m Ukrainian, and I want to be like a voice of freedom for people. For all the people suffering from this [war].”

Ukrainian anchor Karolina Ashion is pictured in the RTL television studio in Cologne, Germany, on Saturday, March 17, 2022. (Stefan Gregorowius/RTL via AP)

Ukraine affirms Russian strike on missile warehouse but no confirmation on hypersonic weapon

LVIV, Ukraine — A Ukrainian military official has confirmed to a local news outlet that Russian forces carried out a missile strike yesterday on a missile and ammunition warehouse in the Delyatyn settlement of the Ivano-Frankivsk region in western Ukraine.

Ukraine’s Air Forces spokesman Yurii Ihnat tells the Ukrainskaya Pravda newspaper, however, that it is yet to be confirmed whether the missile the Russians used was indeed Kinzhal, the county’s latest hypersonic missile, or some other kind.

Earlier today, a spokesman of the Russian Defense Ministry, Igor Konashenkov, said the Russian military hit the underground warehouse in Delyatyn with the hypersonic Kinzhal missile in its first reported combat use.

According to Russian officials, the Kinzhal, carried by MiG-31 fighter jets, has a range of up to 2,000 kilometers (about 1,250 miles) and flies at 10 times the speed of sound.

Dozens of Ukrainian troops killed in military barracks hit by Russia — witnesses

Ukrainian soldiers search for bodies in the debris at the military school hit by Russian rockets the day before, in Mykolaiv, southern Ukraine, on March 19, 2022. (Bulent Kilic/AFP)

KYIV, Ukraine — Dozens of soldiers were killed after Russian troops struck a Ukrainian military barracks in the southern city of Mykolaiv, witnesses tell AFP while a rescue operation is underway.

“No fewer than 200 soldiers were sleeping in the barracks” when Russian troops struck yesterday morning, a Ukrainian serviceman on the ground, 22-year-old Maxim, tells AFP without providing his last name.

“At least 50 bodies have been recovered, but we do not know how many others are in the rubble,” he says.

Another soldier estimates that the bombing could have killed around 100 people. Authorities haven’t yet released an official death toll.

Russian forces strike Kyiv suburbs, eastern Donetsk

LVIV, Ukraine — Over the past 24 hours, Russian forces have fired at eight cities and villages in the eastern Donetsk region, using aviation, rocket and heavy artillery.

Ukraine’s National Police says in a statement today on Telegram that at least 37 residential buildings and infrastructure facilities were damaged; dozens of civilians were killed and injured as a result of the attacks. The Russian military were firing at Mariupol, Avdiivka, Kramatorsk, Pokrovsk, Novoselydivka, Verkhnotoretske, Krymka, and Stepne.

The statement says that “among the civilian objects that Russia destroyed are multistory and private houses, a school, a kindergarten, a museum, a shopping center and administrative buildings.”

Kyiv northwestern suburbs of Bucha, Hostomel, Irpin and Moshchun have also been under fire today. The Kyiv regional administration reports that the city of Slavutich north of the capital was “completely isolated,” and that Russian military equipment was spotted in the region northeast and east of Kyiv.

Ukraine accuses Russian forces of kidnapping journalist

LVIV, Ukraine — The office of the Prosecutor General in Ukraine has accused Russian security and military forces of kidnapping a Ukrainian journalist covering the Russian offensive in the east and the south of Ukraine.

In a Facebook statement today, the Prosecutor General’s office alleges that Russia’s Federal Security Service, or the FSB, and the Russian military abducted the journalist of Ukrainian news outlet Hromadske on Tuesday in Berdyansk, an occupied port city in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region. The statement doesn’t identify the journalist, but went on to say that the reporter’s whereabouts are currently unknown and a criminal investigation has been launched.

Hromadske yesterday tweeted that they lost contact with reporter Victoria Roshchyna last week.

“As we learned from witnesses, at that time the journalist was in the temporarily occupied Berdyansk. On March 16, we learned that the day before (probably March 15), Victoria Roshchyna was detained by the Russian FSB. Currently, we do not know where she is,” the outlet tweeted.

The FSB and the Russian military haven’t yet commented on the allegations.

Our journalist Victoria Roshchyna is held captive by the Russian occupiers. She was reporting from hotspots in Eastern and Southern Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian war. On March 12, we couldn't contact Victoria 1/3 pic.twitter.com/4728hwDs72

— Hromadske Int. (@Hromadske) March 18, 2022

Germany says over 200,000 Ukrainian refugees registered since start of war

Ukrainian refugees line up for food at the welcome area after their arrival at the main train station in Berlin, Germany, March 8, 2022. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn, File)

BERLIN — Germany’s federal police has registered more than 200,000 Ukrainian refugees in the country since the outbreak of the war more than three weeks ago.

The country’s interior ministry says 207,747 Ukrainian refugees had arrived as of today. However, the real number of Ukrainian refugees in Germany is expected to be much higher.

Ukrainians don’t need a visa to come to Germany, and federal police only register refugees entering Germany by train or bus. There are not thorough border controls inside the European Union’s internal borders, so Ukrainians coming to Germany from Poland by car are normally not registered. Those who stay with family and friends in Germany are also not counted unless they apply for financial aid from German authorities.

Hackers release ‘new’ docs allegedly belonging to Mossad chief after old phone said hacked

Photos of Mossad chief David Barnea are seen in a video published on an anonymous Telegram channel, on March 16, 2022. (Screenshot)

The “Open Hands” Telegram channel has released new documents allegedly belonging to Mossad chief David Barnea after publishing a video on Wednesday with his personal documents and photos.

According to Hebrew-language media reports, an old phone belonging to Barnea’s wife was hacked by the group, which has been ostensibly tied to Iran.

But Open Hands has now released what it says are Barnea’s tax papers from 2020.

“It seems that the director of the Mossad’s wage bill can be found in his wife’s ‘OLD PHONE’! Mr. Bernea, are they sending your NEW documents to your wife’s OLD phone?? Are you sure that the leakage is just from your wife’s ‘OLD PHONE?'” the group says in a message on Telegram.

UK warns Putin could use Russia-Ukraine talks as ‘smokescreen’ for ‘extreme actions’

British Foreign Secretary Elizabeth Truss holds a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (not pictured) at the State Department in Washington on March 9, 2022. (Jim Watson/Pool/AFP)

LONDON — Peace talks to end the Ukraine conflict could be a “smokescreen” for more extreme Russian military maneuvers, British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss warns.

“I’m very skeptical,” Truss tells The Times newspaper in an interview. “What we’ve seen is an attempt to create space for the Russians to regroup. Their invasion isn’t going according to plan.

“I fear the negotiation is yet another attempt to create a diversion and create a smokescreen. I don’t think we’re yet at a point for negotiation,” she adds.

Truss echoes comments by British intelligence that Putin could turn to “more and more extreme actions,” adding “we’ve seen appalling atrocities already.”

Truss says that Britain could potentially act as a guarantor if any settlement is reached, and that Putin “didn’t believe” the international community would impose the scale of sanctions that it has.

Britain has recently targeted high-profile oligarchs, including Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich.

Truss suggests it’s “extremely difficult” to envisage these sanctions being lifted, saying “these oligarchs have enabled Vladimir Putin to do what he’s doing.”

NATO ally Bulgaria rules out military aid for Ukraine

US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin (L) shakes hands with Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov speak during a joint press conference in Sofia, Bulgaria, on March 19, 2022. (Nikolay Doychinov/AFP)

SOFIA, Bulgaria – Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov has ruled out providing military aid to Ukraine but says his country, a NATO ally, will continue to provide humanitarian assistance.

“Being so close to the conflict, right now I have to say that currently we will not be able to send military assistance to Ukraine. This will not be possible,” Petkov says today at a news conference in the Bulgarian capital with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

Bulgaria, which does not border Ukraine but has received thousands of refugees, has agreed to host a new contingent of NATO troops as part of the alliance’s push to reinforce its eastern flank. That contingent includes about 150 US Army infantry soldiers.

Ukraine says agreed with Russia on 10 humanitarian corridors, including in Mariupol

Evacuees from Mariupol wait at the Zaporizhzhya State Circus for transportation to other locations in the city of Zaporizhzhia on March 16, 2022. (Emre Caylak/AFP)

LVIV, Ukraine – Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk announces today that 10 humanitarian corridors have been agreed on with the Russians.

They include a corridor from the besieged port city of Mariupol, several in the Kyiv region and several in the Luhansk region.

She also announces plans to deliver humanitarian aid to the city of Kherson, which is currently under control of the Russian forces.

In his nightly video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian forces are blockading the largest cities with the goal of creating such miserable conditions that Ukrainians will cooperate. He said the Russians are preventing supplies from reaching surrounded cities in central and southeastern Ukraine.

Satellite images yesterday from Maxar Technologies showed a long line of cars leaving Mariupol as people tried to evacuate. Zelensky said more than 9,000 people were able to leave the city in the past day.

Norway announces 4 US troops killed in plane crash during NATO exercise

In this file photo taken on May 26, 2015, a MV-22B Osprey aircraft flies during the "Platinum Eagle 15" military exercise at training facilities in Babadag, Romania. (Daniel Mihailescu/AFP)

OSLO, Norway — The prime minister of Norway says four US service members have died in a plane crash during NATO drills.

Jonas Gahr Støre tweets that the service members were participating in the NATO exercise “Cold Response,” which is taking place in northern Norway.

He writes: “Our deepest sympathies go to the soldiers’ families, relatives and fellow soldiers in their unit.”

The annual drills in Norway are unrelated to the war in Ukraine. This year they included around 30,000 troops, 220 aircraft and 50 vessels from 27 countries. Non-NATO members Finland and Sweden are also participating.

The exercises began on March 14 and end on April 1.

According to the Norwegian police, the American V-22B Osprey aircraft that crashed belonged to the US Marine Corps.

The aircraft had a crew of four and was out on a training mission in Nordland County. It was on its way north to Bodø, where it was scheduled to land just before 6 p.m. yesterday.

The plane crashed in Gråtådalen in Beiarn, south of Bodø. Police say a search and rescue mission was launched immediately. At 1:30 a.m. this morning, the police arrived at the scene and confirmed that the crew of four had died.

Ukraine says 112 children killed since Russian invasion began

LVIV, Ukraine — The Prosecutor General’s office in Ukraine says a total of 112 children have been died in the country since the start of the Russian invasion.

The office says more than 140 children have been wounded since February 24.

#RussianWarCrimes pic.twitter.com/qDMr7gEpFR

— Офіс Генерального прокурора (@GP_Ukraine) March 19, 2022

According to the UN children’s agency, more than 1.5 million children had fled Ukraine.

Most families have fled to Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Moldova and Romania.

UNCIEF says women and girls traveling on their own are especially at risk of gender-based violence.

Ukrainian official says large steel plant ‘being destroyed’ in Mariupol fighting

The Azovstal metallurgical plant is seen on the outskirts of the eastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol, February 23, 2022. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

LVIV, Ukraine — In the besieged port city of Mariupol, Ukrainian and Russian forces are fighting for the Azovstal steel plant, one of the biggest in Europe, says Vadym Denysenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister, in televised remarks today.

“Now there is a fight for Azovstal… I can say that we have lost this economic giant. In fact, one of the largest metallurgical plants in Europe is actually being destroyed,” Denysenko says.

In #Mariupol, there are reports this morning that clashes reached the center of the city and the area of the Azovstal plant. Yesterday the plant was hit by shelling (video by AA). pic.twitter.com/Czl0XrDWZj

— Michael A. Horowitz (@michaelh992) March 19, 2022

Israeli man hurt in suspected stabbing attack in Jerusalem; assailant shot

A 35-year-old Israeli man is lightly hurt in a stabbing attack near Jerusalem’s Old City, police and medics say.

The alleged Palestinian assailant, 20, is shot by police officers. According to the Magen David Adom ambulance service, the suspect is in serious condition.

Both men are taken by MDA to Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center.

Ukraine’s interior minister says clearing live ordnance will take years

Ukrainian Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Kyiv, Ukraine, March 18, 2022. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

KYIV, Ukrain — Ukrainian Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky says it will take years to defuse the unexploded ordnance once the Russian invasion is over.

Monastyrsky tells The Associated Press in an interview that the country will need Western assistance to carry out the massive undertaking after the war.

“A huge number of shells and mines have been fired at Ukraine, and a large part haven’t exploded. They remain under the rubble and pose a real threat,” Monastyrsky says in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. “It will take years, not months, to defuse them.”

In addition to the unexploded Russian ordnance, Ukrainian troops have planted land mines at bridges, airports and other key locations to prevent the Russians from using them.

“We won’t be able to remove the mines from all that territory, so I asked our international partners and colleagues from the European Union and the United States to prepare groups of experts to demine the areas of combat and facilities that came under shelling,” Monastyrsky tells the AP.

He notes that his ministry’s demining equipment was left in Mariupol, a besieged port city of 430,000 people that has been subjected to relentless shelling for much of the war.

“We lost 200 pieces of equipment there,” Monastyrsky says.

One of the biggest challenges the Interior Ministry faces is fighting the fires caused by the relentless Russian shelling and airstrikes, Monastyrsky says. The country’s emergency service, which the ministry oversees, is facing desperate shortages of personnel and equipment, he says.

Russia reports using hypersonic missile to strike arms cache in western Ukraine

Illustrative: In this photo made from the footage taken from Russian Defense Ministry official web site on Sunday, March 11, 2018, a Russia's Kinzhal hypersonic missile flies during a test in southern Russia (AP Photo/ Russian Defense Ministry Press Service, File)

MOSCOW — Russia used its newest Kinzhal hypersonic missiles for the first time in Ukraine yesterday to destroy a weapons storage site in the country’s west, the defense ministry says.

“The Kinzhal aviation missile system with hypersonic aeroballistic missiles destroyed a large underground warehouse containing missiles and aviation ammunition” in the village of Deliatyn in the Ivano-Frankivsk region,” the Russian defense ministry says today.

State news agency RIA Novosti says it was the first use of the Kinzhal hypersonic weapons during what Moscow calls a “special military operation” in pro-Western Ukraine.

UK intel: Russia has failed to achieve ‘original objectives’ of Ukraine invasion

A cloud of smoke rises after an explosion in Lviv, western Ukraine, March 18, 2022. (AP Photo, File)

Russia “has so far failed to achieve its original objectives” in its invasion of Ukraine, the UK defense ministry says.

According to ministry’s daily intelligence update, Russia has been “surprised by the scale and ferocity of Ukrainian resistance,” forcing it “to change its operational approach” and move to a strategy of attrition.

“This is likely to involve the indiscriminate use of firepower resulting in increased civilian casualties, destruction of Ukrainian infrastructure, and intensify the humanitarian crisis,” the British defense ministry says.

It also says Russian President Vladimir Putin has tightened his grip over Russian media.

“The Kremlin is attempting to control the narrative, detract from operational problems and obscure high Russian casualty numbers from the Russian people,” the ministry says.

Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine – 19 March 2022

Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/iXd9G8IiA0

🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/6fYJwelqMP

— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) March 19, 2022

Ukraine says evacuation corridor in Luhansk to be opened Saturday morning

An evacuation corridor for citizens in Luhansk will be opened at 9 a.m. local time this morning, the eastern Ukrainian region’s governor announces.

“We will try to evacuate people and bring food today. A ‘regime of silence’ has been agreed,” Serhiy Gaiday says on the Telegram messaging app, according to Reuters.

Ukraine general staff says access lost to Azov Sea amid Russian siege of Mariupol

LVIV, Ukraine — Ukraine lost access to the Azov Sea during Russia’s siege of the southern port city of Mariupol, the Ukrainian General Staff said late last night.

Mariupol is the key commercial port on the Azov Sea, which is connected to the much larger Black Sea by a narrow strait.

The General Staff says the Russian forces are still trying to storm Mariupol and the fighting is ongoing. It’s unclear from its statement whether the Russians have seized the city.

Don Young, longest serving US congressman, dies at 88

In this June 28, 2019, file photo, U.S. Rep. Don Young answers a reporter's question after filing paperwork for re-election at the Alaska Division of Elections in Anchorage, Alaska. Young, the longest-serving member of Alaska’s congressional delegation, died Friday, March 18, 2022. He was 88. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen, File)

JUNEAU, Alaska — Don Young, a blunt-speaking Republican who was the longest-serving current member of Congress, has died. He was 88.

His office announces Young’s death in a statement.

“It’s with heavy hearts and deep sadness that we announce Congressman Don Young (R-AK), the Dean of the House and revered champion for Alaska, passed away today while traveling home to Alaska to be with the state and people that he loved. His beloved wife Anne was by his side,” says the statement from Young’s congressional office.

A cause of death was not provided. Young’s office says details about plans for a celebration of Young’s life were expected in the coming days.

Young, who was first elected to the US House in 1973, was known for his brusque style. In his later years in office, his off-color comments and gaffes sometimes overshadowed his work. During his 2014 reelection bid, he described himself as intense and less-than-perfect but said he wouldn’t stop fighting for Alaska. Alaska has just one House member.

China reports first COVID-19 deaths in more than a year

Workers wearing face shields and masks to help protect from the coronavirus prepare to clear the snow outside a health quarantine hotel Saturday, March 19, 2022, in the Yanqing district of Beijing, as the capital city was hit by a snowstorm. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

BEIJING — China’s national health authorities report two COVID-19 deaths, the first recorded rise in the death toll since January 2021, as the country battles an Omicron-driven surge.

The deaths, both in northeastern Jilin province, bring the country’s coronavirus death toll to 4,638.

China reported 2,157 new COVID-19 cases from community transmission, with the majority in Jilin. The province has instituted a travel ban, with people needing permission from police to travel across borders.

China has continued to impose a successful, if burdensome “zero-COVID” strategy since the initial outbreak in Wuhan. The strategy focuses on mass testing and strict lockdowns with residents banned from leaving their homes until all new cases are either found in quarantine or through contact tracing.

In practice, it meant the country has seen relatively few infections from the virus because clusters are tamped down as quickly as they’re discovered. The strategy has received popular support and prevented the large numbers of deaths seen in other countries, many of which have started to forgo any kind of social distancing measures.

With China now facing its worst outbreak since late 2019, officials have vowed to double down on the zero-tolerance strategy to contain the current surge. However, China’s leader Xi Jinping acknowledges for the first time the burden of the measures, saying that China should seek “maximum effect” with “minimum cost” in controlling the virus.

China had recorded 4,636 deaths since the pandemic began in the central city of Wuhan in late 2019. It revised its death toll once in April 2020, adding in new deaths that were not initially counted as the pandemic overwhelmed the city’s hospitals and other systems.

Mainland China’s COVID-19 data is counted separately from that in Hong Kong, which is a special administrative region in China and is facing a much larger outbreak with a higher death toll.

Zelensky says 9,000 leave besieged Mariupol

Local residents carry water from the food warehouse, on the territory which is under the Government of the Donetsk People's Republic control, on the outskirts of Mariupol, Ukraine, on March 18, 2022. (AP Photo/Alexei Alexandrov)

LVIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says Russian forces are blockading Ukraine’s largest cities to create a “humanitarian catastrophe” with the aim of persuading Ukrainians to cooperate with them.

He says Russians are preventing supplies from reaching surrounded cities in the center and southeast of the country.

“This is a totally deliberate tactic,” Zelenskyy said in his nighttime video address to the nation, filmed outside in Kyiv, with the presidential office in the lamplight behind him.

He said more than 9,000 people were able to leave besieged Mariupol in the past day, and in all more than 180,000 people have been able to flee to safety through humanitarian corridors.

Zelensky to Moscow: ‘This is the time to meet’

In this image from video provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks from Kyiv, Ukraine, on Friday, March 18, 2022. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)

KYIV — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky calls again for talks with Moscow, saying they were the “only chance for Russia to minimize the damage done with their own mistakes” after invading.

The two sides are currently holding negotiations remotely but so far, like previous rounds, they have yielded little progress. None have been at the presidential level.

“This is the time to meet, to talk, time for renewing territorial integrity and fairness for Ukraine,” Zelensky says in a video posted to Facebook.

“Otherwise, Russia’s losses will be such, that several generations will not recover.”

Zelensky also says that Ukrainian authorities had been able to rescue more than 9,000 people from the port city of Mariupol, which is under siege by Russian forces.

There was still no information about the number of people who had died when a theatre in the city sheltering civilians was bombed, he says.

Over 180,000 Ukrainian citizens had been rescued through humanitarian corridors across the country, Zelensky says.

He accuses Russian forces of blocking aid around hotspot areas, saying “they have a strict order to do everything, so the humanitarian catastrophe in Ukrainian cities turned into a reason for Ukrainians to work together with the occupiers”.

“This is a war crime!” he adds.

Several rounds of negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow have taken place both in person and virtually since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began on February 24.

The latest set of talks, the fourth, opened on Monday.

Russia’s top negotiator said Friday that Moscow and Kyiv had brought their positions “as close as possible” on a proposal for Ukraine to become a neutral state.

But Mikhailo Podolyak, an advisor to Zelensky taking part in the negotiations, said his country’s position had not budged.

“Negotiation status. The statements of the Russian side are only their requesting positions,” he wrote on Twitter.

Russian cosmonauts arrive at International Space Station wearing Ukraine colors

In this frame grab from video provided by Roscosmos, Russian cosmonauts Sergey Korsakov, Oleg Artemyev and Denis Matveyev are seen during a welcome ceremony after arriving at the International Space Station, Friday, March 18, 2022, the first new faces in space since the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine. The crew emerged from the Soyuz capsule wearing yellow flight suits with blue stripes, the colors of the Ukrainian flag. (Roscosmos via AP)

NEW YORK — Three Russian cosmonauts arrive at the International Space Station wearing flight suits in yellow and blue colors that match the Ukrainian flag.

The men are the first new arrivals on the space station since the start of the Russian war in Ukraine last month.

Video of one of the cosmonauts taken as the capsule prepared to dock with the space station show him wearing a blue flight suit. It was unclear what, if any, message the yellow uniforms they changed into were intended to send.

Oleg Artemyev is asked about the yellow flight suits when the newly arrived cosmonauts were able to talk to family back on Earth.

He says every crew chooses its own flight suits, so that they are not all the same.

3 russian cosmonauts on the international space station showing their solidarity with ukraine
pic.twitter.com/Gtiym5sMcI

— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) March 19, 2022

“It became our turn to pick a color. But in fact, we had accumulated a lot of yellow material so we needed to use it. So that’s why we had to wear yellow,” he says.

Artemyev, Denis Matveyev and Sergey Korsakov blasted off successfully from the Russia-leased Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan in their Soyuz MS-21 spacecraft at 8:55 p.m. Friday (11:55 a.m. EDT). They smoothly docked at the station just over three hours later, joining two Russians, four Americans and a German on the orbiting outpost.

Bill Clinton and George W. Bush show solidarity with Ukraine

Former US presidents Bill Clinton (l) and George W. Bush show solidarity with Ukraine on March 18, 2022 (Screencapture/Twitter)

WASHINGTON — Two former US presidents, Democrat Bill Clinton and Republican George W. Bush, show their support for Ukraine in the face of Russia’s invasion by visiting a Ukrainian church in Chicago.

The two men, who wore blue and yellow ribbons in the colors of Ukraine’s flag, lay bouquets of sunflowers, the country’s national emblem, in front of the Catholic Church of Saints Volodymyr and Olha before taking a moment to reflect.

The initiative aims to show their “solidarity with the people of Ukraine” after Russia launched a war against its neighbor last month, according to a video of the visit posted on Clinton’s Twitter account.

America stands united with the people of Ukraine in their fight for freedom and against oppression. pic.twitter.com/O7INc9S1tq

— Bill Clinton (@BillClinton) March 18, 2022

“America stands united with the people of Ukraine in their fight for freedom and against oppression,” the tweet says.

That sets the 42nd and 43rd US presidents apart from Donald Trump, the 45th president, who just before the invasion described Vladimir Putin’s strategy of amassing troops on Russia’s border with Ukraine and then recognizing the independence of two pro-Russian separatist territories as a stroke of “genius.”

US military plane with 4 on board crashes in Norway

Illustrative: An MV-22 Osprey participates during a joint military helicopter borne operation drill between Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF) and US Marines at Higashi Fuji range in Gotemba, southwest of Tokyo, Tuesday, March 15, 2022. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

A US military aircraft with four crew on board is thought to have crashed in Norway while taking part in NATO exercises, Norwegian emergency services say.

The US Osprey aircraft “was reported missing at 18:26 (1726 GMT) south of Bodo” in northern Norway in bad weather, the regional emergency services (HRS) says in a statement.

The four-person crew were taking part in the Cold Response military exercises involving 30,000 people from NATO and partner countries.

Rescuers searching from the air later saw signs of the aircraft in the area where it went missing but the weather was too bad for them to land, the statement says.

Rescue teams and police are heading to the area, it adds.

“We are not at the site itself so we know nothing of the four people who were on board. But we know it is a crash site,” HRS spokesman Jan Eskil Severinsen says on the NRK television channel.

Cold Response 2022 aims to test how Norway would manage allied reinforcements on its soil in the event that NATO’s mutual defense clause was triggered.

This week’s exercises came amid high tension between Russia and NATO over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, but they were planned long before that offensive began on February 24.