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[DaffyVina]

Charity worker tells of Mariupol 'hell and horror'
A man walks near a block of flats in Mariupol, destroyed by shelling -Copyright: Reuters

A charity worker who managed to escape Mariupol yesterday has been describing the "hell" and "horror" of the besieged port city.

The Halo Trust de-miner was working to disarm explosives before he was forced to flee.
He says elderly residents are dying in their homes, with nobody able to reach them because of constant shelling.

"From the news and other videos we can only understand part of what is happening on the ground. We went through hell.
"I can't remember a day or even a couple of hours when they weren’t shelling or conducting air strikes.
"I saw many people I knew die."

He says the city is unrecognisable, with high-rise buildings destroyed, others on fire, and huge craters in the roads from aerial bombardments.
There is no electricity, heating or water, and even the well was hit, he says.
"I can't find the words to describe the horror, the atmosphere, the darkness that reigned over the city of Mariupol - or, to be more precise, the ruins that are left of the city."




WHO urges immediate ceasefire in Ukraine
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus -Copyright: Getty Images
The head of the World Health Organization is pleading with the United Nations Security Council to work toward an urgent ceasefire in Ukraine.

"As if Covid is not enough, to have a devastating war like this is dangerous for the world," Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the 15-member body on Thursday.

The WHO has now verified 43 attacks on health care inside the war-torn country, with at least 12 people - including health workers - killed and 34 injured.
"In any conflict, attacks on health-care are a violation of international humanitarian law," Dr Tedros said.
"They deprive people of urgently-needed care and break already-strained health systems."
He said the attacks had already led to a severe disruption to health services and access to basic commodities in Ukraine, warning its consequences "will reverberate for years or decades to come".

[DaffyVina]

Competing humanitarian resolutions at UN Security Council briefing
Nada Tawfik -BBC News, New York

Ukraine's UN Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya gestures (hand up to face/ eyes; looking down, expression of distress) during Thursday's UN Security Council briefing -Copyright: Getty Images

Humanitarian briefings are always sobering but an important reminder of the magnitude of suffering in Ukraine.

According to UN officials, there have been 1,900 civilian casualties over the last three weeks of this war, with 726 people killed, 52 of them children. The WHO has verified 43 attacks on healthcare facilities as fighting escalates.

This latest meeting comes as Western nations and Russia have proposed competing humanitarian resolutions. Moscow's draft, among other things, calls for the protection of women and children and condemns indiscriminate shelling in Ukraine.

The move was denounced during the council meeting by western leaders, including the UK Ambassador to the UN Dame Barbara Woodward who called it "cynical game playing" by Russia, the aggressor, in "the face of human suffering". She pointed to their actions in Mariupol, targeting a theatre where more than 1,000 civilians were sheltering despite the word children written on the ground in Russian.
The US representative Linda Thomas Greenfield said Russia would be held accountable for its atrocities, telling President Putin, "stop the killings".

Western nations have used these briefings from top UN officials to authoritatively refute Russia’s disinformation. Once again, Moscow’s Ambassador to the UN, Vasily Nebenzia repeated numerous unsupported claims during the meeting, including that Ukraine was using its citizens as human shields.
The ambassador also accused the United States of pressuring nations not to support its draft, and announced Russia would no longer ask for a vote on its resolution. Diplomats do not believe Moscow would have received the nine votes necessary for passage.

France and Mexico have proposed their own humanitarian draft, which they plan to take right to the 193-member UN General Assembly for a vote.

[DaffyVina]

Ex-refugee donates maize crop to Ukraine
Felin Gakwaya -BBC News, Burundi

Photo of Adrien Nimpagaritse -Copyright: A Nimpagaritse
Image caption: Adrien Nimpagaritse grew up and went to school in a refugee camp in Tanzania

A subsistence farmer in Burundi, who used to be a refugee, is donating 100kg (220lb) of his maize crop to those fleeing violence in Ukraine.

“As a former refugee myself, I thought of offering some help. I am a peasant farmer, I don’t have much to give but I have a loving heart,” Adrien Nimpagaritse told the BBC.
“Looking at the pictures, I saw women and children dying. I don’t have a voice to contribute in bringing solution to the conflict, but I can donate some of what I have cultivated as a token of love.”

Nimpagaritse, 30, was a four-year-old orphan when he fled to Tanzania during a wave of ethnic violence in 1996.
He grew up in the Mutenderi refugee camp, where he attended school, only returning home to Burundi 11 years later in 2007, aged about 15.
“I saw what being a refugee is like - we could hardly find anything to eat,” he said.
“If somebody, a neighbour, offered you just a cassava leaf and water you’d greatly appreciate it.”

Photo of Adrien Nimpagaritse with a hoe on his farm -Copyright: A Nimpagaritse
Image caption: He is now back in Burundi, where he has married and has three children

[DaffyVina]

Ukraine conflict: Putin lays out his demands in Turkish phone call
By John Simpson - World Affairs editor
Published1 hour ago

Turkey has positioned itself with great care to be the go-between with Russia and Ukraine - and this seems to be paying off.
On Thursday afternoon, President Vladimir Putin rang the Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and told him what Russia's precise demands were for a peace deal with Ukraine.
Within half an hour of the ending of the phone call, I interviewed Mr Erdogan's leading adviser and spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin. Mr Kalin was part of the small group of officials who had listened in on the call.

The Russian demands fall into two categories.
The first four demands are, according to Mr Kalin, not too difficult for Ukraine to meet.
Chief among them is an acceptance by Ukraine that it should be neutral and should not apply to join Nato. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has already conceded this.

There are other demands in this category which mostly seem to be face-saving elements for the Russian side.
Ukraine would have to undergo a disarmament process to ensure it wasn't a threat to Russia. There would have to be protection for the Russian language in Ukraine. And there is something called de-Nazification.
This is deeply offensive to Mr Zelensky, who is himself Jewish and some of whose relatives died in the Holocaust, but the Turkish side believes it will be easy enough for Mr Zelensky to accept. Perhaps it will be enough for Ukraine to condemn all forms of neo-Nazism and promise to clamp down on them.

The second category is where the difficulty will lie, and in his phone call, Mr Putin said that it would need face-to-face negotiations between him and President Zelensky before agreement could be reached on these points. Mr Zelensky has already said he's prepared to meet the Russian president and negotiate with him one-to-one.

Mr Kalin was much less specific about these issues, saying simply that they involved the status of Donbas, in eastern Ukraine, parts of which have already broken away from Ukraine and stressed their Russianness, and the status of Crimea.
Although Mr Kalin didn't go into detail, the assumption is that Russia will demand that the Ukrainian government should give up territory in eastern Ukraine. That will be deeply contentious.

The other assumption is that Russia will demand that Ukraine should formally accept that Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014, does indeed now belong to Russia. If this is the case, it will be a bitter pill for Ukraine to swallow.
Nevertheless, it is a fait accompli, even though Russia has no legal right to own Crimea and actually signed an international treaty, after the fall of Communism but before Vladimir Putin came to power, accepting that Crimea was part of Ukraine.

Photo: John Simpson and Ibrahim Kalin
Image caption, Ibrahim Kalin was one of the few people to listen in on the phone call between Russia and Turkey's leaders

Still, President Putin's demands are not as harsh as some people feared and they scarcely seem to be worth all the violence, bloodshed and destruction which Russia has visited on Ukraine.
Given his heavy-handed control over the Russian media, it shouldn't be too hard for him and his acolytes to present all this as a major victory.

For Ukraine, though, there are going to be serious anxieties.
If the fine details of any agreement aren't sorted out with immense care, President Putin or his successors could always use them as an excuse to invade Ukraine again.
A peace deal could take a long time to sort out, even if a ceasefire stops the bloodshed in the meantime.
Ukraine has suffered appallingly over the past few weeks, and rebuilding the towns and cities which Russia has damaged and destroyed will take a long time. So will rehousing the millions of refugees who have fled their homes.

What about Vladimir Putin himself? There have been suggestions that he is ill, or possibly even mentally unbalanced. Did Mr Kalin detect anything strange about him in the phone call? Not at all, he said. Mr Putin had apparently been clear and concise in everything he said.

Yet even if he does manage to present an agreement with Ukraine as a glorious victory over neo-Nazism, his position at home must be weakened.
More and more people will realise that he overreached himself badly, and stories of the soldiers who have been killed or captured are already spreading fast.

[DaffyVina]

I Have a Message for My Russian Friends
Arnold Schwarzenegger 1 day ago - in the Atlantic

I have a message for my Russian friends, and for the Russian soldiers serving in Ukraine: There are things going on in the world that have been kept from you, terrible things that you should know about. But before I tell you about the harsh realities, let me tell you about the Russian who became my hero.

In 1961, when I was 14 years old, I had the chance to attend the World Weightlifting Championships in Vienna. Yury Petrovich Vlasov won the world-championship title, becoming the first human being to lift 200 kilograms over his head. Somehow, a friend of mine got me backstage. All of a sudden a 14-year-old boy was standing in front of the strongest man in the world. I couldn’t believe it. He reached out to shake my hand. I still had a boy’s hand. He had this powerful man’s hand that swallowed mine, but he was kind. And he smiled at me.

I never forgot that day. I went home and put his photo above my bed. It inspired me when I started lifting weights, but it angered my father. He didn’t like Russians, because of his experience in the Second World War, when he was injured in Leningrad. (The Nazi army that he was part of did vicious harm to that great city and to its brave people.) My father told me to take Petrovich’s picture down, and to find a German or Austrian hero. But I did not take the photograph down, because it didn’t matter to me what flag he carried.

Years later, I was in Moscow to film Red Heat, the first American movie allowed to film in Red Square. Yury and I spent the whole day together. He was so thoughtful, so kind, so smart, and very giving. He gave me a blue coffee cup that I still use every morning.

I love the Russian people. That is why I have to tell you the truth. Please watch and share. pic.twitter.com/6gyVRhgpFV
— Arnold (@Schwarzenegger) March 17, 2022

The reason I’m telling you all of this is that ever since I was 14 years old, I’ve had nothing but affection and respect for the people of Russia. The strength and the heart of the Russian people have always inspired me. That is why I hope that you will let me tell you the truth about the war in Ukraine. No one likes to hear something critical of their government. I understand that. But as a longtime friend of the Russian people, I hope that you will hear what I have to say.

I spoke to the American people this way last year on January 6, when a wild crowd was storming the U.S. Capitol trying to overthrow our government. There are moments that are so wrong that we have to speak up.

I know that your government has told you this is a war to de-Nazify Ukraine. This is not true. De-Nazify Ukraine? It is a country with a Jewish president—a Jewish president, I might add, whose grandfather’s three brothers were all murdered by the Nazis. Ukraine did not start this war. Neither did nationalists or Nazis. Those in power in the Kremlin started this war; this is not the Russian people’s war.

Let me tell you what you should know. One hundred forty-one nations at the United Nations voted that Russia was the aggressor and called for it to remove its troops immediately. Only four countries in the entire world voted with Russia. That is a fact. The world has turned against Russia because of its actions in Ukraine. Whole city blocks have been flattened by Russian artillery and bombs, including a children’s hospital and a maternity hospital. Three million Ukrainian refugees, mainly women, children, and the elderly, have already fled the country, and many more now seek to get out. It is a humanitarian crisis. Russia, because of its brutality, is now isolated from the society of nations.

You’re also not being told the truth about the consequences of this war for Russia itself. I regret to tell you that thousands of Russian soldiers have been killed. They’ve been caught between Ukrainians fighting for their homeland and the Russian leadership fighting for conquest. Massive amounts of Russian equipment have been destroyed or abandoned. The destruction that Russian bombs are raining down upon innocent civilians has so outraged the world that the strongest global economic sanctions ever enacted have been imposed on the country. Those who don’t deserve it on both sides of the war will suffer.

The Russian government has lied not only to its citizens, but also to its soldiers. Some of the soldiers were told they were going to fight the Nazis. Some were told that the Ukrainian people would greet them like heroes. Some were told that they were simply going on exercises—they didn’t even know that they were going into war. And some were told that they were there to protect ethnic Russians in Ukraine. None of this was true. Russian soldiers have faced fierce resistance from the Ukrainians who want to protect their families.

When I see babies being pulled out of ruins, I feel like I’m watching a documentary about the horrors of the Second World War, not the news of today. When my father arrived in Leningrad, he was all pumped up on the lies of his government. When he left Leningrad, he was broken physically and mentally. He spent the rest of his life in pain: pain from a broken back, pain from the shrapnel that always reminded him of those terrible years, pain from the guilt that he felt.

Russian soldiers already know much of this truth. You’ve seen it with your own eyes. I don’t want you to be broken like my father. This is not a war to defend Russia like your grandfathers and your great-grandfathers fought. This is an illegal war. Your lives, your limbs, and your futures are being sacrificed for a senseless war, condemned by the entire world. Remember that 11 million Russians have family connections to Ukraine. With every bullet that you shoot, you shoot a brother or a sister. Every bomb and every shell that falls is falling not on an enemy, but on a school or a hospital or a home.

I don’t think the Russian people are aware that such things are happening. So I urge the Russian people and the Russian soldiers in Ukraine to understand the propaganda and the disinformation that you are being told. I ask you to help me spread the truth so that your fellow Russians will know the human catastrophe that is happening in Ukraine. To President Putin, I say: You started this war. You’re leading this war. You can stop this war now.

And to the Russians who have been protesting on the streets against the invasion of Ukraine: The world has seen your bravery. We know that you have suffered the consequences of your courage. You have been arrested. You have been jailed and you’ve been beaten. You are my new heroes. You have the strength of Yury Petrovich Vlasov. You have the true heart of Russia.

[DaffyVina]

8:06 -[b]What do we know so far about Lviv attacks?[/b]

Photo: Explosion at airport aftermath -Copyright: Getty Images
Image caption: Strikes reportedly hit buildings near Lviv's airport

We've been bringing you updates about explosions near Lviv - the first time the western city has come under attack since Russia launched its invasion.
Residents and BBC reporters in Lviv reported hearing a series of explosions early this morning, before seeing a thick plume of black smoke rising in the sky from outside the city.

Lviv's mayor then said Russian missiles had struck the area near the airport, hitting an aircraft repair plant building but not the airport itself. The plant had stopped working an no-one was hurt, he said.

Ukraine's air force says six cruise missiles were fired from the Black Sea. Two of them were destroyed by anti-aircraft missiles.
It said the type of missile was a Kh-555 - an air missile launched from heavy strategic bombers.

Photo: Smoke over Lviv


8:09 BREAKING
One killed after downed rocket hits Kyiv flats
Photo: Firefighters battle blaze -Copyright: State Emergency Service/Telegram
One person has been killed and four wounded after debris from a downed Russian missile fell on a residential building in a northern part of Kyiv, emergency services say.
Services say 12 people were rescued and 98 were evacuated from the five-storey building in the Podilskyi district.
Photos shared by emergency services show firefighters battling to control a blaze, amid badly damaged buildings, burnt-out vehicles and a large crater. Rescue efforts are ongoing, they say.


8:14 BREAKING
Ofcom revokes Russia Today's licence in UK
More now on news that Ofcom has revoked Russian-backed television channel Russia Today's licence to broadcast in the UK.
It comes after the UK's media regulator launched an investigation into the impartiality of the channel's coverage of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

A statement released by the regulator says: "We consider the volume and potentially serious nature of the issues raised within such a short period to be of great concern - especially given RT's compliance history, which has seen the channel fined £200,000 for previous due impartiality breaches.
"In this context, we launched a separate investigation to determine whether ANO TV Novosti is fit and proper to retain its licence to broadcast."

Ofcom chief executive Dame Melanie Dawes says: "Freedom of expression is something we guard fiercely in this country, and the bar for action on broadcasters is rightly set very high."


8:57 BREAKING
Two million refugees have fled to Poland from Ukraine
Adam Easton -Warsaw Correspondent

Two million people have fled Ukraine to Poland since the war began, the Polish Border Guard agency says.
The number was reached on Friday at 08:00 GMT, the agency wrote on Twitter.
They are predominately women and children, it said.

More than half a million people have already left Poland, according to Warsaw University migration research professor Maciej Duszczyk.
Most have gone to stay in large cities including Warsaw and Krakow, whose officials are complaining that they have reached their capacity to accommodate them.



9:43 Two reported killed in airstrike on Kramatorsk
Photo: Damage to building -Copyright: Pavlo Kyrylenko/Telegram
We're hearing reports two people have been killed in shelling in the eastern Ukrainian city Kramatorsk.
Regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko says six people were also wounded in the attack on a residential block and an administrative building.
He has shared unverified footage showing a huge fireball exploding in the city as a rocket strikes, followed by a large plume of black smoke.
Photo of Explosion



9:51 One killed in shelling on Kharkiv flats and education site
Photo: Emergency services work through rubble -Copyright: State Emergency Service
One person has been killed and 11 injured after shelling hit a higher education institution and residential buildings in Kharkiv, emergency services say.
The attack severely damaged the six-storey "educational building", along with two neighbouring apartment blocks, the services say.
Emergency workers have managed to put out a fire, and are working through the rubble to free one person who is still trapped inside.
Photo: Damage at apartment block -Copyright: State Emergency Service
The shelling hit two neighbouring residential buildings, authorities say

[DaffyVina]

11:24 130 rescued so far from attacked Mariupol theatre, official says
One hundred and thirty people have been rescued so far from the rubble of a theatre hit by an airstrike in Mariupol, Ukraine's human rights commissioner says.
Hundreds of people were sheltering underground when the theatre was bombed by Russia, ripping the building apart, according to the Ukrainian authorities.
In a televised address, human rights commissioner Lyudmyla Denisova said rescue work is ongoing at the site and there are still 1,300 people in the basement.


11:51 Humanitarian crisis increasing exponentially - UN
Photo: People gather near a destroyed block of flats in besieged Mariupol -Copyright: Reuters
The humanitarian needs in Ukraine are "increasing exponentially", the United Nations refugee agency has warned.
Matthew Saltmarsh, from the agency, says the situation will continue to worsen if there is no end to the fighting.

Many people remain trapped in areas of escalating conflict, unable to meet their basic needs, including food, water and medicines because of disruption to essential services.

He says the situation is particularly dire in southern Ukrainian cities besieged by Russian troops, with "horrifying" reports emerging from these areas.
"The humanitarian situation in cities such as Mariupol and Sumy is extremely dire, with residents facing critical and potentially fatal shortages of food, water and medicine," he says.

Saltmarsh says the UN is closely tracking negotiations for safe passage and is ready to send critical supplies to Sumy "as soon as conditions allow".
He adds that in Odessa authorities have appealed for food and medicine for some 450,000 people who remain in the city.



12:46 Strollers symbolise the war's child victims
Hugo Bachega -BBC News, Lviv

Photo: Strollers in Lviv symbolising children killed in the war -Copyright: BBC


In the historic centre of Lviv, 109 strollers have been placed in front of the city hall on Rynok Square, to represent the children who have been killed during the war in Ukraine.

The prosecutor general’s office says more than 130 others have been wounded. It says the number could be higher because of the inability to reach areas where fighting is taking place.
The office also says 439 schools have been hit by shelling and bombing, of which 63 are completely destroyed.

Russia denies attacking civilian buildings, although a number of non-military facilities have been hit across the country, including countless apartment blocks.

[DaffyVina]

At least 816 civilians killed in war so far, UN says
The UN has been unable to collect data from some of the worst-hit cities, including MariupolImage caption: The UN has been unable to collect data from some of the worst-hit cities, including Mariupol
The UN says that at least 816 civilians have been killed and 1,333 wounded in Ukraine through to 17 March.

Most of the casualties were from explosive weapons such as shelling from heavy artillery and multiple-launch rocket systems, and missile and air strikes, according to the UN rights office (OHCHR).
It said the real toll is likely a lot higher as the OHCHR has been unable to collect information from some of the worst-hit cities, including Mariupol.


15:26- Reports of mass casualties from missile strike in Mykolaiv
We're hearing reports of mass casualties following a missile attack on a Ukrainian army barracks in the southern city of Mykolaiv.
One report says at least 45 people have died.
Our correspondent Andrew Harding, in Odesa, says at least two missiles are reported to have hit army barracks in the northern suburbs of the city.
Rescue efforts are under way.

Harding says the barracks were being used to train local soldiers in the city that has been holding back a major Russian offensive along the Black Sea coast.
"Mykolaiv has experienced weeks of intense bombardments, after Russian troops were pushed back from the city," he says.
"Russian forces then tried to bypass the city to the north but were again thwarted by the Ukrainians.
"Many civilians have already fled west."



16:15 -BREAKING
Fighting reaches centre of Mariupol - mayor

Hugo Bachega -BBC News, Lviv

Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boichenko tells me fighting has reached the city centre, confirming earlier Russian reports.

"Yes, they were really active today. Tanks and machine gun battles continue," he says. "Everybody is hiding in bunkers"

He says more than 80% of residential buildings are either damaged or destroyed, and 30% of them cannot be restored.

"There’s no city centre left. There isn’t a small piece of land in the city that doesn’t have signs of war," he says.

The operation to rescue people from the basement of a theatre that was bombed continues, he adds, without giving any estimate on casualties.

[DaffyVina]

'Dozens have been killed' - Ukrainian MP on Mykolaiv attack
Many have reportedly been killed in a Russian missile attack on Ukrainian army barracks in the strategic southern city of Mykolaiv.

A Ukrainian MP in Odesa, Oleksiy Honcharenko, returned from Mykolaiv in the last 24 hours and has been speaking to the BBC.
"Unfortunately we had a big attack, missile attack on Mykolaiv. Dozens of people have been killed," he said.
"Dozens are wounded and we're speaking about missiles, ballistic missiles."

Ukrainians are reportedly continuing to defend the city, with Russian forces grouped outside, to the northeast.
The city of Mykolaiv, which is crucial to Russia's plans to take Ukraine's third city, Odesa, has been holding back a Russian offensive along the Black Sea coast.

"Mykolaiv is fighting fiercely on the ground and holding the ground and Russia just couldn't take it so they started terror against local people, civilians," Honcharenko added.



21:11 Downed power line at Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant restored
An update now on the status of the Zaporizhzhia power station.
The nuclear plant, the largest of its kind in Europe, was captured by Russian forces two weeks ago after a heavy aerial assault that sparked concern and condemnation.

Three of the plant's five power lines were reportedly damaged or disconnected sometime around the Russian takeover.
The Interfax Ukraine news agency now says that Ukrainian specialists have repaired one of the damaged lines.



21:37 Satellite images show destruction across Ukraine
New satellite imagery, collected by the US-based Maxar Technologies, shows the damage caused by Russian airstrikes and artillery in various Ukrainian cities.

Photo: Smoke billows from a grocery store on fire in a damaged residential neighbourhood of Hostomel, in the Kyiv region
Satellite image ©2022 Maxar TechnologiesCopyright: Satellite image ©2022 Maxar Technologies

Photo: A Russian artillery strike makes impact on a burning field in south Chernihiv, in northern Ukraine
Satellite image ©2022 Maxar TechnologiesCopyright: Satellite image ©2022 Maxar Technologies

Photo: Homes destroyed by artillery shelling in the small town of Moschun
Satellite image ©2022 Maxar TechnologiesCopyright: Satellite image ©2022 Maxar Technologies

Photo: A long line of cars evacuating the besieged port city of Mariupol in the south; some 350,000 people are said to be trapped in the city
Satellite image ©2022 Maxar TechnologiesCopyright: Satellite image ©2022 Maxar Technologies

[DaffyVina]

9,000 evacuated through humanitarian corridors on Friday, Ukraine says

More than three million people have fled Ukraine over the past three weeksImage caption: More than three million people have fled Ukraine over the past three weeks
Ukrainian authorities say they evacuated 9,145 people from its major cities through humanitarian corridors on Friday, the 23rd day of Russia's invasion.

According to a post on Telegram by Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the president's office, the numbers include nearly 5,000 residents of the southern port city of Mariupol, which has been under constant assault by Russian forces.

The senior official added more than 4,000 people fled Sumy, in the northeast, while some 500 others were bused out of Zaporizhzhia, where Europe's largest nuclear plant is located.

The BBC has not independently verified these claims.
The figures presented by Tymoshenko far exceed the less than 4,000 people that his office said managed to escape on Thursday.



UN delivers first convoy of emergency aid to Sumy
Photo: Offloading the United Nations convoy of emergency aid in Sumy -Copyright: United Nations
Offloading the United Nations convoy of emergency aid in SumyImage caption: Offloading the United Nations convoy of emergency aid in Sumy
The United Nations says it has just delivered its first package of humanitarian supplies to Sumy.

Thousands of civilians have been fleeing the besieged north-eastern city in recent days, but many more remain.
"We are here to help the most vulnerable civilians caught in the fighting, wherever they are in Ukraine," said the UN Crisis Coordinator for Ukraine Amin Awad.

The convoy in Sumy contains 130 metric tonnes of essential aid, including bottled water, canned food and medical supplies. The items are expected to directly impact some 35,000 residents.

The UN has said it will be the first of many shipments into the war-torn country, calling on "all parties" to allow "unhindered and sustained humanitarian access" for its volunteers and partners.