Russian tank fire destroys the side of an apartment building in besieged Mariupol in southern Ukraine, March 11, 2022 (Evgeniy Maloletka/AP)

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UPDATE 1615 GMT:

The city council of besieged Mariupol in southern Ukraine says the number of civilians killed by Russian attacks has risen to 2,107.

The council said, “In 24 hours, there were at least 22 bombings of the civilian city. Over 100 bombs have been thrown on Mariupol already.” It added:

People have been in a difficult situation for 12 days. There is no electricity, water or heating in the city. There is almost no mobile communication. The last reserves of food and water are running out.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said an aid convoy is 80 km (50 miles) away, but there is no sign that Russian forces — who have repeatedly broken ceasefires and shelled attempted evacuations — will allow the relief.

UPDATE 1409 GMT:

As Russian forces struggle to establish control of their occupied area in southern Ukraine, detaining mayors (see 1155 GMT), residents of Kherson protest.

UPDATE 1310 GMT:

Video journalist Brent Renaud has been killed by Russian forces near Irpin, northwest of Kyiv.

Renaud, a filmmaker who had worked for the New Times, was hit in the neck when the forces fired on the car in which he was travelling. Another journalist has been taken to hospital with injuries.

UPDATE 1300 GMT:

More than 14,000 people in 112 Russian cities have been arrested over demonstrations against the invasion of Ukraine, according to protest monitor OVD-Info.

UPDATE 1209 GMT:

In a sign of the economic squeeze on Russia, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov says $300 billion of Russia’s $640 billion in gold and foreign exchange reserves have been frozen.

Siluanov also indicated on State TV that Moscow cannot count on China to ease its situation. He said pressure is being put on China to limit its trade with Russia.

UPDATE 1203 GMT:

The Pope has appealed to Russia leader Vladimir Putin and his military:

In the name of God, I ask you, stop this massacre.

In the name of God, let the cry of the suffering people be heard, and let the bombings and attacks stop.

Addressing the crowd in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis said bombings of children’s hospitals and civilian targets are “barbaric” and have “no valid strategic reason”.

The Orthodox Christian leader Bartholomew I called for a ceasefire while praising Ukraine’s “powerful resistance”.

During a mass attended by Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the patriarch said:

We are watching the drama of the Ukrainian people and admire its powerful resistance against the invader. We appeal for an immediate ceasefire….

The war has to end. The United Nations charter explicitly forbids the use of violence in international relations and binds all the organisation’s members to resolve their differences with peaceful means….

An unjust war is happening in the heart of Europe, human blood is being shed, children and women are being killed and towns and villages destroyed. Our thoughts are with our brothers.

Bartholomew praises Mitsotakis for Greece’s aid, including Kalashnikov rifles and other weapons, to Kyiv.

UPDATE 1200 GMT:

Ukraine’s gas provider says about 1 million people are without gas and heating.

In addition to the siege of Mariupol in southern Ukraine, shelling has damaged infrastructure in Donetsk, Luhansk, and Mykolaiv. Engineers were stopped from getting to a gas distribution centre in Bashtanka by ongoing fighting, and a center in Prybuzke was shut down because of damage to equipment.

UPDATE 1155 GMT:

Mosocow’s forces have detained another mayor in Russian-occupied southern Ukraine.

Following the abduction of Melitopol Mayor Ivan Fedorov (see 0808 GMT), Yevhen Matveyev has been arrested by the Russians in Dniprorudne.

Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted:

UPDATE 1150 GMT:

Nine people were killed on Sunday by Russian airstrikes on Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine.

Moscow’s forces have been reguarly bombarding the city, on the Dnieper River north of a corridor along the Black Sea occupied by the Russians.

UPDATE 1145 GMT:

The governor of the Lviv region, Maksym Kozytskyy, has updated the toll frm this morning’s Russian attack, on a military training center near the Polish border, to 35 killed and 134 injured.

UPDATE 1000 GMT:

Polish President Andrzej Duda has stepped back from both transfer of Poland’s MiG-29 jet fighters to Ukraine, vetoed by the US, and a no-fly zone.

Duda told the UK’s BBC that Warsaw faced objections from Washington, NATO, and other European countries::

Due to allied responsibility…we can’t transfer [the planes], because we believe our allies could make a grudge against us and it could place NATO in a difficult situation.

Transferring planes, or trying to defend the skies over the Ukraine against Russian combat aircraft, well this is a decision which is a strictly military one and a serious one, because it means that NATO jets will have to be sent into Ukrainian airspace and there would be a confrontation between NATO aircraft and Russian aircraft, and it means the opening of a third world war.

However, Duda said he believed NATO allies would defend Poland if Russia invaded. He quoted his predecessor Lech Kaczyński: “Today is Georgia, tomorrow it might be Ukraine, then the Baltic states an after that a time may come for Poland.”

The President explained, “We do not want to be in the Russian sphere of influence, we dragged ourselves out of it, and we don’t want to go back there.”

UPDATE 0915 GMT: From more than 500 videos and photos and interviews with witnesses and hospital employees, The Washington Post has verified Russian attacks on nine Ukrainian medical facilities.

Civilians were killed in at least three of the attacks. Three of the facilities specifically served women or children — including a hospital in Mariupol in southern Ukraine where three people, including a child, were killed and at least 14 were wounded.

See also Ukraine War, Day 15: Russia Bombs Children’s Hospital as 1,170 Killed in Mariupol

UPDATE 0850 GMT:

The governor of the Lviv region, Maksym Kozytskyy, said nine Ukrainian personnel were killed and 57 wounded in the Russian attack on the International Peacekeeping and Security Centre military base in Yavoriv near the Polish border.

Another official in Lviv said more than 30 cruise missiles were fired but Russian jets which took off from a base in Saratov, Russia and from warships in the Black Sea.

UPDATE 0808 GMT:

After abducting the mayor of Melitopol in southern Ukraine, the Russian military has installed a replacement.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Mayor Ivan Fedorov was detained by 10 armed members of the Russian forces. He warned of Moscow’s attempt to create “pseudo-republics” similar to their proxy areas in Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine.

Hours later, Galina Danilchenko, a former member of the city council, was introduced as the new mayor. She said on local TV that her “main task is to take all necessary steps to get the city back to normal”.

Responding to protests against the Russian occupation, she claimed people in Melitopol were trying to destabilise “the situation and provoke a reaction of bad behavior”: “I ask you to keep your wits about you and not to give in to these provocations.”

In his statement on Saturday night, Zelenskiy spoke of other areas occupied by the Russians along the Black Sea and Sea of Azov: “The occupiers on the territory of the Kherson region are trying to repeat the sad experience of the formation of pseudo-republics. They are blackmailing local leaders, putting pressure on deputies, looking for someone to bribe.”

He say the city council of Kherson, population 290,000, had resisted the Russian pressure so far.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Expanding its shelling and aerial attacks in western Ukraine, Russia bombs close to the border with Poland.

Eight Russian missiles were fired on the International Peacekeeping and Security Center in the Yavoriv region in northeast Ukraine, about 50 km (31 miles) southwest of Lviv and about 25 km (15.5 miles) from the border.

The IPSC is a large military base with a training centre for soldiers, mainly for peacekeeping missions. US, Canadian, British, Polish, and Lithuanian service members have helped develop the facility, training the Ukrainian military.

Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said information about victims is being established and all details will be announced later. He urged people not to post photos and videos from the site of the attack.

On Friday, Russia carried out its first significant bombing of western Ukraine. It attacked Lutsk and its airfield, killing four soldiers and a civilians, and Ivano-Frankivsk. The latter was also struck on Sunday morning.

The assault comes as Western countries step up military and humanitarian assistance for Ukrainian resistance against the 18-day Russian invasion. Poland has proposed transfer of its MiG-29 jt fighters to Ukraine, a step vetoed by the US Pentagon, and Polish officials have suggested a no-fly zone over western Ukraine if the US and NATO provide support.

Poland also hosts more than 1.5 million Ukrainian refugees who have fled since the Russian invasion on February 24.

On Saturday, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said Russia had ““warned the US that pumping weapons from a number of countries it orchestrates isn’t just a dangerous move, it’s an action that makes those convoys legitimate targets”.

Kyiv “Ready to Fight”

Ukrainian officials said people are “ready to fight” as Russia’s offensive edged towards the capital.

Most Russian forces are about 25 km (15.5 miles) from the center of Kyiv, but they have fanned out to the north, west, and east of the capital to set up artillery positions.

Homes and buildings were on fire in towns northwest of the capital on Saturday. Makariv, a village 30 miles west of the capital, suffered significant damage including to apartment complexes, schools, a kindergarten, a grocery store, a cultural center, and a medical facility.

Ukrainian Presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak declared that “Kyiv will stand until the end”. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned of “humanitarian catastrophe” in the region with disrupted gas, heating, and water, but he spoke of ultimate triumph over the Russian invaders:

It is impossible to say how many days we still have to free Ukrainian land. But we can say we will do it. We are already moving towards our goal, our victory….

The fact that the whole Ukrainian people resist these invaders has already gone down in history, but we do not have the right to let up our defense, no matter how difficult it may be for us….

They will come here only if they kill us all. If that is their goal, let them come.

The Ukrainian military says more than 12,000 Russian personnel have been killed during the invasion, with the destruction of 374 tanks, 1,226 armoured combat machines, and 140 artillery systems.

The report asserted, “The moral and psychological condition of enemy troops that participated in battles with the armed forces of Ukraine continues to deteriorate, desertion and refusal to comply with orders are increasing.”

Putin Rebuffs Macron-Scholz Call for Ceasefire

The latest Western attempt to dissuade Russian leader Vladimir Putin from his invasion failed on Saturday.

French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke with Putin for 90 minutes. The Russian leader spoke about “issues related to agreements under discussion to implement the Russian demands”, rather than a ceasefire and guaranteed evacuation of civilians.

Russian forces continued their 12-day siege of Mariupol in southern Ukraine on the Sea of Azov, where 430,000 residents are without heat, water, or electricity and food is scarce.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs summarized, “There are reports of looting and violent confrontations among civilians over what little basic supplies remain in the city. Medicines for life-threatening illnesses are quickly running out, hospitals are only partially functioning, and the food and water are in short supply.

Médecins Sans Frontières personnel said people were boiling ground water for drinking, using wood to cook food, and burying dead bodies near where they lay.

“We saw people who died because of lack of medication,” an MSF staffer said. “Neighbours just dig a hole in the ground and put the dead bodies inside.”

The city council says the killing of more than 1,600 civilians has been confirmed.

Local officials said another attempt at bringing aid into the city will be made on Sunday.