A woman takes a photo on a mobile phone while standing amid the debris of a school building destroyed by Russian shelling, Zhytomyr, Ukraine (Viacheslav Ratynskyi/Reuters)

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Friday’s Coverage: Russia’s “Nuclear Terror” With Shelling of Europe’s Largest Plant

UPDATE 1610 GMT:

A UN mission reported that at least 351 civilians have been killed in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with at least 707 wounded.

The mission warned, “The real figures are considerably higher, especially in government-controlled territory and especially in recent days, as the receipt of information from some locations where intensive hostilities have been going on was delayed and many reports were still pending corroboration.”

UPDATE 1410 GMT:

Just over two weeks ago, Oleksandr Abramenko won the silver medal in the men’s aerials in freestyle skiing at the Beijing Winter Olympics.

Now he shelters with his wife Alexndra and their 2-year-old son Dmitry in the parking garage of a Kyiv apartment building.

Oleksandr Abramenko with his wife, Alexandra, and their 2-year-old son, Dmitry, in the parking garage of a Kyiv apartment building

Abramenko hugged by the bronze medalist Ilia Burov of Russia (Cameron Spencer/Getty):

UPDATE 1345 GMT:

The number of Ukrainian refugees has passed 1.3 million.

More than 750,000 are in Poland. Hungary, Slovakia, Moldova, and Romania have also taken in between 60,000 and 160,000 each.

UPDATE 1340 GMT:

Russians crowd an IKEA store after the Swedish company says it is halting business in the country.

UPDATE 1335 GMT:

Ukrainian residents are protesting in port cities in southern Ukraine occupied by Russian troops.

UPDATE 1328 GMT:

Italian authorities have seized yachts and villas, totalling at least €140 million ($153 million) from from four high-profile Russians sanctioned by the European Union after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Yachts belonging to Alexei Mordashov, once the richest man in Russia, and Gennady Timchenko, linked to Vladimir Putin, were impounded overnight in Imperia in northern Italy.

A villa owned by the billionaire Alisher Usmanov on Sardinia has been seized, as has a villa on Lake Como owned by the Russian state TV host Vladimir Soloviev.

On Wednesday, German authorities impounded the $600 million luxury yacht owned by Usmanov. The next day, French customs seized the yacht of Igor Sechin, the head of the Russian oil giant Rosneft.

UPDATE 1324 GMT:

Russia’s leading airline Aeroflot is suspending all flights abroad except to Belarus.

Russia’s aviation agency Rosaviatsiya, recommended that all Russian airlines with foreign-leased planes halt passenger and cargo flights abroad, because of the ris of aircraft being impounded amid international sanctions.

UPDATE 1118 GMT:

A report is circulating of a Russian regiment, with 1600 personnel, “wiped out” in a Ukrainian counter-attack near Ukraine’s second city Kharkiv.

The regiment’s parent division reportedly retreated over the border into Belarus.

UPDATE 1112 GMT:

The evacuation of civilians from Mariupol in southern Ukraine has been postponed after Russian forces broke a ceasefire and shelled the people leaving the port city (see 1010 and 1055 GMT).

Only about 400 people were able to leave the nearby town of Volnovakha before evacuation was halted.

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office, said talks with Russia are “ongoing” to establish safe corridors.

But Al Jazeera English’s Charles Stratford reports panic in Zaporizhzhia, which was to receive evacuees, with shelling only about 10km (6 miles) away: “Many of the villagers are absolutely terrified. They say the situation has deteriorated dramatically since that ceasefire failed.”

UPDATE 1110 GMT:

The Guardian’s Shaun Walker posts video of destruction of a residential area in Bila Tserkva in Kyiv Oblast (Province).

UPDATE 1055 GMT:

The city council of Mariupol in southern Ukraine says Russian forces are not observing the agreed ceasefire along the entire route, ending in the city of Zaporizhzhia, for the evacuation of civilians (see 1010 GMT).

Deputy Mayor Sergei Orlov said, “At first our people said the shelling stops for a little time, but then it continues and they continue to use hard artillery and rockets to bomb Mariupol. People are very scared.”

Orlov spoke of information about fighting “on the road to Zaporizhzhia” and indicated that it is “impossible to evacuate” people:

We understand that [the ceasefire] was not true from the Russian side, and they continue to destroy Mariupol. We decided to move our citizens back because it’s not safe to be on the streets.

Médecins Sans Frontières, who have staff and families in the city, had called for assurances of safe routes.

to allow civilians to flee Mariupol. Multiple MSF staff members are sheltering in the city with their families – one staff member said:

The situation is the same as in recent days. This night the shelling was harder and closer. We collected snow and rain water yesterday to have some utility water. We tried to get free water today but the queue was huge. We also wanted to get “social” bread but it is not clear the schedule and the places of distribution.

According to people, multiple grocery stores were destroyed by missiles and the remaining things were taken by people in desperate need. Still no power, water, heating and mobile connection. No one heard about any evacuation yet. Pharmacies are out of medicine.

UPDATE 1050 GMT:

Video of a Ukrainian missile hitting a low-flying Russia military helicopter:

UPDATE 1010 GMT:

The five-hour window for residents to leave the port city of Mariupol in southern Ukraine is open.

Mayor Vadym Boychenko said the evacuation will be the first of several: “Given that our hometown is constantly under ruthless fire from the occupiers, there is no other solution.”

Officials intend to move 200,000 of 400,000 Mariupol’s population and 15,000 from Volnovakha, where 90% of the town has been damaged.

An advisor to the Ukraine Interior Ministry, Anton Herashchenko, said, “There will definitely be more agreements like this for all other territories.

UPDATE, 0810 GMT:

Russia’s Defense Ministry says forces will pause assaults at 11 a.m. local time on Mariupol and Volnovakha in southern Ukraine, allowing residents to flee.

Russia used similar tactics throughout its destruction of Syrian cities, occasionally pausing and soon renewing sieges, bombing, and shelling to level the area.

On Friday, the mayor of Mariupol, a port on the Sea of Azov, said the city has no water, heat or electricity and food supplies are low amid heavy shelling of civiian sites including hospitals: “They want to wipe Mariupol and Mariupol residents off the face of the earth.”

In Volnovakha, dead bodies lie uncollected because of the intense Russian shelling. Thousands of residents are trapped in basements with dwindling supplies of food and water.

Local MP Dmytro Lubinets says, “In the city there is not any building which has not suffered from direct or collateral damage. So some buildings have major destruction, some minor destruction, some are completely destroyed to the ground.”

UPDATE, 0800 GMT:

Ukrainian analyst and journalist Olga Tokariuk describes the situation in the cities:

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Facing difficulties over his invasion of Ukraine, Vladimir Putin cracks down on independent media in Russia.

The 10-day assault has failed to capture Ukrainian cities outside a southern strip along the Black Sea, and the Russian economy faces crisis with a projected 35% downturn in the second quarter of 2022.

Russian officials have banned leading outlets such as TV Rain and Ekho Moskvy Radio. On Friday, they raised the threat: the Russian Duma’s legislation imposing fines and up to 15 years in prison for adverse reporting about the invasion or even a reference to “war” or sanctions against Russia.

The investigative editor of the prominent site Meduza, barred this week, tweeted after leaving Russia:

Alexey Kovalyov added, “I’m super lucky and privileged to have been spared many hours or even days of waiting on the roadside in the dirt for asylum, to have friends meet me on the other side and take me and my family to a safe place. Unlike millions of Ukrainians right now.”

After the Duma’s threat of prison sentences, many international outlets shut down operations. They includined the UK’s BBC; American channels CNN, Bloomberg, CBS, and ABC; the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation; Italy’s RAI; and Germany’s ARD and ZDF. Sites and newspapers removed the bylines of Russian-based journalists.

Bloomberg’s editor-in-chief John Micklethwait summarized, “The change to the criminal code, which seems designed to turn any independent reporter into a criminal purely by association, makes it impossible to continue any semblance of normal journalism inside the country.”

The Washington Post, Dow Jones and Reuters said they were evaluating the situation.

Russian authorities also shut down leading platforms on Friday. Facebook and Twitter are blocked, and YouTube restricted.

The regulator Roskomnadzor claimed 26 cases of discrimination against Russian media by Facebook since October 2020.

Earlier this week, the European Union agreed on the removal of Russian State outlets from satellite providers because of disinformation. The affected outlets include Russia Today and Sputnik.

Facebook and Instagram also removed RT and Sputnik.