A nine-story apartment in Kyiv, Ukraine, damaged by Russian attacks, March 14, 2022

EA on TRT World and China Radio International: Will China Bail Out Putin Over His War on Ukraine?

An Iconic Protest in Russia, Live on State TV: “They’re Lying to You Here”

EA on India’s WION News: Why Russia’s Airstrikes in Ukraine Are A Sign of Weakness

Monday’s Coverage: Talks Resume, But is Russia Serious?

UPDATE 1844 GMT:

The Prime Ministers of the Czech Republic, Poland, and Slovenia are in Kyiv to meet Ukraine President Vlodomyr Zelensky this evening.

Poland’s Mateusz Morawiecki tweets pictures of the three Prime Ministers:

UPDATE 1840 GMT:

The UN High Commission for Refugees says more than 3 million people have fled Ukraine since the Russian invasion.

The UNHCR said the number is now 3,000,381.

UPDATE 1740 GMT:

Mariupol Deputy Mayor Sergei Orlov says Russian forces have occupied a hospital, taking patients and medical staff hostage.

We received information that the Russian army captured our biggest hospital… and they’re using our patients and doctors like hostages.

We can confirm this information and also the governor of Donetsk region has confirmed this confirmation. We received information that there are 400 people there.

UPDATE 1725 GMT:

Fox News cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski was killed on Monday when the car in which he was travelling was struck by incoming fire.

Correspondent Benjamin Hall was injured and is in hospital.

Zakrzewski covered conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria before going to Ukraine.

He is the second journalist killed in recent days. Documentary maker Brent Renaud was shot and killed when Russian forces fired on his car last weekend near Irpin, northwest of Kyiv.

UPDATE 1655 GMT:

In a video address to the Canadian Parliament, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has appealed for Canada and its allies to do more to halt the Russian invasion, including a no-fly zone.

“How many more cruise missiles need to fall on our cities?” Zelenskiy said, noting that 97 children have been killed by Russian attacks.

Addressing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Zelenskiy asked, “Justin, can you imagine your children hearing all of these intense explosions?….Kharkhiv, Mariupol are not protected like your cities are protected.”

UPDATE 1650 GMT:

There have been 3,000 cyberattacks against Ukrainian targets since the start of the Russian invasion, according to Ukraine’s cybersecurity agency.

Victor Zhora, the deputy chairman of the agency, said many attacks have tried to knock out internet service providers, other communications, and government and financial services.

He said the record number of attacks was 275 in 24 hours.

UPDATE 1640 GMT:

More than 100 buses have evacuated civilians from the besieged city of Sumy in northeast Ukraine towards Poltava in the center of the country.

A Red Cross spokesperson said Russia, which has bombarded the city throughout the invasion, allowed the evacuation.

UPDATE 1408 GMT:

Two more yachts belonging to sanctioned Russian businessmen have been seized.

On Tuesday Spanish authorities impounded a yacht owned by Alexander Mikheyev, in the marina of Port Adriano in Mallorca.

A day earlier, Spain seized the 85-meter (279-foot) super-yacht of Sergey Chemezov, a former KGB officer who heads state conglomerate Rostec.

UPDATE 1330 GMT:

The Mariupol city council say about 2,000 cars have left the besieged city and a further 2,000 are waiting to leave.

The evacuation follows the initial movement of more than 160 cars on Monday, with 300 civilians reaching the city of Zaporizhzhia, about 140 miles to the west.

However, Russian forces continue to block any aid reaching more than 400,000 residents still in the city.

Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said a convoy with supplies has been held up at nearby Berdyansk. She added that the Russians had lied about fulfilling agreements to help trapped civilians, and called for buses to be allowed to evacuate residents.

UPDATE 1252 GMT:

Kyiv Mayor Vitaly Klitschko has announced a 36-hour curfew from Tuesday at 8 p.m.:

Today is a difficult and dangerous moment. This is why I ask all Kyivites to get prepared to stay at home for two days, or if the sirens go off, in the shelters.

“Movement around Kyiv without special permits is forbidden. It is only allowed to go outside with the aim to get to the shelters.

The death toll from early-morning Russian shelling of the capital has risen to four.

UPDATE 1243 GMT:

Japan has broadened the list of goods and technologies that cannot be exported to Russia.

The list has expanded from 57 to 300 items. They include semiconductors, equipment for maritime and aviation security, telecommunications equipment, communications equipment, and military products including weapons, explosives, and bulletproof vests.

Restrictions have been placed on the export of equipment and products related to nuclear energy, products of the chemical industry, sensors, and software.

Almost 50 Russian companies and organizations — including state enterprises Rosoboronexport and Rostec, the Federal Security Service, and the Foreign Intelligence Service — are affected.

Measures have also been introduced against the Belarus Defense Ministry and Belarusian techmanufacturer Integral.

UPDATE 1235 GMT:

The US has imposed sanctions against eight Russian Deputy Defense Ministers, National Guard head Viktor Zolotov, the head of military-technical cooperation Dmitry Shugayev, and Alexander Mikheyev, the CEO of Rosoboronexport, the State agency for Russia’s exports and imports of defense-related and dual-use products.

The measures include sanctions against US individuals or entities carrying out business with any of the 11 men.

UPDATE 1155 GMT:

Regional officials have updated the toll from Monday’s Russian bombing of Rivne in northwestern Ukraine to at least 19 killed and 9 injured.

The head of the Rivne regional administration, Vitalii Koval, said the numbers may rise with several more hours to clear the entire area.”

The Russians struck at TV tower at 5:20 a.m. local time. Koval said radio and TV broadcasting has continued through free access to satellite broadcasting and a restored broadcasting signal to the cable network.

Russian forces have targeted towers across Ukraine in an effort, largely unsuccessful so far, to limit communications.

UPDATE 1150 GMT:

Addressing Western leaders, Ukraine President Volodymr Zelenskiy thanked countries who have “taken a moral stance” against Russia, singling out UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson “for his leadership”.

Zelenskiy said of the Russian “war machine”:

We can stop Russia. We can stop the killing of people.

It will be easier to do it together, to stop the destruction of democracy and stop it now on our land. Because else, they will also come to you.

UPDATE 1030 GMT:

Russia’s aviation authorities have fired an official who said last week that China refused to supply Russian airlines with aircraft parts amid international sanctions.

Valery Kudinov, an official at Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency, said Moscow is in talks to source parts from countries including Turkey and India after Beijing’s rejection.

UPDATE 0830 GMT:

The European Union has agreed fourth package of sanctions against Russia over the invasion of Ukraine.

They include a ban on imports of steel products; a halt to new investment across the Russian energy sector, with limited exceptions for civil nuclear energy; an export ban on luxury goods over €300 ($330); and a ban on the rating of Russia and Russian companies by EU agencies, limiting access to financial markets.

The UK Government is imposing new export bans and tariffs on Russian products.

London is denying Russia and Belarus access to most-favoured nation tariffs for hundreds of imports, with an initial list of goods facing additional tariffs of 35%.

Affected products include vodka, while an export ban will block luxury vehicles, high-end fashion, and works of art moving from the UK to Russia.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Even as Russia renews shelling of civilian areas of Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy calls on Vladimir Putin’s troops to surrender.

Seizing on the failure of Russia’s ground offensive to occupy cities outside a corridor in southern Ukraine — and of apparent serious Russian problems with supply, logistics, and frontline troops — Zelenskiy sent the message, “We will treat you as humans have to be treated: with dignity. The way you have not been treated in your army. And the way your army doesn’t treat our people.”

The President said the war is a “nightmare” for the Russians, claiming that more Russian soldiers had died in Ukraine in the past 19 days than in Russia’s two wars in Chechnya in the 1990s: “You will take lives – you are many – but yours will be taken too.”

The Ukrainian military says more than 12,000 Russian troops have been killed. US agencies estimate 5,000 to 6,000.

With most of its ground forces still 25 km (15.6 miles) from Kyiv, the Russians escalated shelling overnight. Two people were killed in an apartment building.

Monday’s targets included a nine-story apartment building, heavily damaged and set ablaze. Most residents were evacuated, but one person was killed.

Strikes are also reported on Ukraine’s second city Kharkiv.

But Zelenskiy said the fourth set of talks with a Russian delegation, on the Belarus border, will continue for a second day on Tuesday after the previous round went “pretty well”.

The discussions are initially on humanitarian issues and a ceasefire; however, Presidential advisor Oleksiy Arestovich projected a wider agreement by May because of Russia’s lack of resources:

We are at a fork in the road now: there will either be a peace deal struck very quickly, within a week or two, with troop withdrawal and everything, or there will be an attempt to scrape together some, say, Syrians for a round two and, when we grind them too, an agreement by mid-April or late April.

There was a small advance on Monday with the first evacuations from besieged Mariupol in southern Ukraine. After Russia blocked several previous attempts by shelling evacuees, 160 private vehicles exited the city of 420,000 residents, heading for the city of Zaporizhzhia to the west.

Mariupol, at the eastern end of the corridor along the Black Sea and Sea of Azov, has been cut off for almost two weeks. More than 2,500 civilians have been killed by the Russians amid bombing of residences and sites such as a children’s hospital. Water, heat, and electricity are cut off and food is scarce.

Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said another attempt to deliver aid will be made on Tuesday.

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said he expects the evacuation of TUrkish citizens from Mariupol on Tuesday or Wednesday, following us phone call with Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov.

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said on Saturday that Russian forces shelled the Sultan Suleiman Mosque where Turks are among more than 80 adults and children who are sheltering.

Çavuşoğlu said 14,800 Turkish citizens have been evacuated from Ukraine since Russia’s invasion on February 24.

“Intense” 7-Hour US-China Talks

The US and Chinese National Security Advisors met in Rome for seven hours on Monday, amid American cautions to Beijing not to provide military or economic assistance for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

American officials said the discussion between Jake Sullivan and Yang Jiechi was “intense”. They explained that the intent was not to negotiate but for the Chinese to deliver a message to Vladimir Putin and his inner circle.

Asked if the session was successful, a US official said, “I suppose it depends on how you define success, but we believe that it is important to keep open lines of communication between the United States and China, especially on areas where we disagree.”

Another official said the hope was not to prevent but to limit Chinese aid to the Russians:

The key here is first to get China to recalculate and re-evaluate their position. We see no sign of that re-evaluation. They’ve already decided that they’re going to provide economic and financial support, and they underscored that today. The question really is whether they will go further.

China’s State outlet Global Times struck a tough pose: “Chinese analysts said the US wants to use the Rome meeting to further pressure China to serve its sanctions against Russia, but China won’t be misguided, and they slammed Washington for its arrogance in bossing other countries to unconditionally follow its strategy while showing no respect to the core interests of others.”

However, the site then echoed the US line of ongoing discussion rather than confrontation:

The differences won’t allow the world’s No.1 and No.2 economies to cut off channels of communication, since there are many issues on which the two sides share common concerns….[The meeting] demonstrated that the China-US high-ranking communication mechanism is stably running and is a positive sign to the world at such a turbulent time.

The outlet shifted its attention to Asia this morning, chiding “US Inconsistency on Taiwan Question”, while jabbing that “US fails to impose its Ukraine stand”.