- Russian missile attack on a large Ukrainian military facility near the border with Nato member Poland on Sunday killed 35 people and wounded 134, a Ukrainian official said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russian forces would face a fight to the death if they try to occupy Kyiv.
- Russia said it had attacked the Yavoriv training facility, killing "up to 180 foreign mercenaries".
- Residents of Kyiv woke again to the sound of air raid sirens and city authorities said they were stockpiling two weeks worth of essential food items for the two million people who have not yet fled the capital.
- Pope Francis issued his toughest condemnation yet of the invasion of Ukraine, saying the "unacceptable armed aggression" must stop.
- Ukraine reported renewed air strikes on an airport in the west, heavy shelling on Chernihiv northeast of the capital and attacks on the southern town of Mykolayiv, where officials said nine people were killed.
- Ukraine's foreign minister said on Saturday his government was willing to negotiate but would not surrender or accept ultimatums.
- Ukraine said Russia was planning to take full and permanent control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe's biggest, but Russia denied this, according to the U.N. nuclear watchdog on Saturday. Repairs to damaged power lines at the Chernobyl plant continued and diesel generators were providing back-up power to systems relevant for safety.
- Russian and Ukrainian officials gave their most upbeat assessments yet of progress in their talks on the war, suggesting there could be positive results within days. The Kremlin said the two sides would hold talks on Monday by video link.
21:05: China's priority is to prevent the tense situation in Ukraine from getting out of control, its embassy in the United States said on Sunday, responding to media reports Moscow had asked Beijing for military equipment since launching its invasion.
"The current situation in Ukraine is indeed disconcerting," spokesperson Liu Pengyu said in a statement.
"The high priority now is to prevent the tense situation from escalating or even getting out of control."
Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a "special operation."
20:20: Ukraine was able to evacuate more than 5,550 people from front-line cities on Sunday via nine humanitarian corridors, deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk said in a video statement.
She said 3,950 were evacuated from towns and cities in the Kyiv region.
19:05: Waves of Russian missiles pounded a military training base in western Ukraine on Sunday, killing 35 people in an attack on a facility that served as a crucial hub for co-operation between Ukraine and the Nato countries supporting it in its defence against Moscow’s grinding assault.
More than 30 Russian cruise missiles targeted the sprawling facility, which lies not far from the border with Nato member Poland and that has long been used to train Ukrainian military personnel, often with instructors from the US and other countries in the western alliance.
Poland is also a transit route for western military aid to Ukraine, and the strikes followed Moscow’s threats to target these shipments.
18:20: Tens of thousands of people held rallies in cities across Europe on Sunday to protest against Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine, with small vigils taking place in Russia as well despite a crackdown by authorities against such demonstrations.
German trade unions called a protest in Berlin, where sunny weather boosted the turnout. The march led from the city’s Alexanderplatz — a large square named after Russian tsar Alexander I — to a site near the Brandenburg Gate.
Many participants carried flags in the blue and yellow colours of Ukraine, while others held banners which read “stop the war” and “peace and solidarity for the people in Ukraine”.
17:00: Ukraine was at the forefront of St Patrick’s Day festivities in London, as the Taoiseach expressed solidarity with the country’s people who he said are victims of a “barbaric and immoral” war.
The tricolour was joined by the flag of Ukraine, carried by London-based Ukrainian Natalia Lesyuk, at the head of the parade on Sunday led by Taoiseach Micheál Martin.
Hundreds of people applauded and cheered in Trafalgar Square as Mr Martin told Ms Lesyuk that it was an honour to have her at the event.
16:00: US president Joe Biden is sending his national security adviser for talks with a senior Chinese official in Rome as concerns grow that China is amplifying Russian disinformation in the Ukraine war and may help Russia evade punishment from economic sanctions.
The talks on Monday between national security adviser Jake Sullivan and senior Chinese foreign policy adviser Yang Jiechi will centre on “efforts to manage the competition between our two countries and discuss the impact of Russia’s war against Ukraine on regional and global security,” Emily Horne, speaking for the White House national security council, said.
The White House has accused Beijing of spreading false Russian claims that Ukraine was running chemical and biological weapons labs with US support.
15:00: An American journalist was shot and killed by Russian forces in the town of Irpin in Ukraine's Kyiv region and another journalist was wounded, Kyiv regional police chief Andriy Nyebytov said on Sunday.
Mr Nyebytov initially said the dead journalist worked for the New York Times. However, the Times said that the journalist had previously worked for the paper but was not currently working for it. The Times named the journalist as Brent Renaud.
"We are deeply saddened to hear of Brent Renaud's death. Brent was a talented photographer and filmmaker who had contributed to The New York Times over the years," The Times said in a statement posted on Twitter by its spokesperson.
"Though he had contributed to The Times in the past (most recently in 2015), he was not on assignment for any desk at The Times in Ukraine," it said.
13:01: Ukraine’s human rights ombudswoman accused Russia on Sunday of using banned phosphorus munitions in an overnight attack on the town of Popasna in Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region. Reuters was not immediately able to verify her statement.
The ombudswoman, Liudmila Denisova, shared a photograph purporting to show the alleged attack, but did not say if Ukraine had concrete evidence.
"The bombing of a civilian city by the Russian attackers with these weapons is a war crime and a crime against humanity according to the Rome convention,” she said in an online statement.
10:34: At least 35 people were killed and 134 wounded in a Russian air strike on a large Ukrainian military training ground near the Polish border on Sunday, regional governor Maksym Kozytskyy said in a statement.
Russian forces launched a missile attack on a large Ukrainian military facility near the Polish border on Sunday, Ukrainian officials said, in what appeared to be the westernmost attack of the war.
"The occupiers launched an air strike on the International Center for Peacekeeping and Security" in Yavoriv, the Lviv regional military administration said in a statement. "According to preliminary data, they fired eight missiles."
Reuters was unable immediately to verify the report and Russia offered no immediate comment.
Air raid sirens again woke residents in Kyiv on Sunday morning, hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned Russian forces they face a fight to the death if they try to occupy the capital.
Initial reports indicated "there are no dead, but information about the injured and wounded is being clarified," said Anton Mironovich, spokesman for the Academy of Land Forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, according to Interfax Ukraine news agency.
Continued dialogue with 🇮🇱 PM @naftalibennett. We talked about Russian aggression and the prospects for peace talks. We must stop repressions against civilians: asked to assist in the release of captive mayor of Melitopol and local public figures #StopRussia
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) March 12, 2022
Nineteen ambulances with sirens on were seen by Reuters driving from the direction of the Yaroviv facility after the strike.
The 360 square-km (140 square-mile) facility less than 25 km (15 miles) from the Polish border, is one Ukraine's biggest and the largest in the western part of the country.
Ukraine held most of its drills with NATO countries there before the invasion. The last major exercises were in September.
The mayor of another city in western Ukraine, Ivano-Frankivsk, said Russian troops also continued to hit its airport, with no initial reports of casualties.
In eastern Ukraine, Russian troops are trying to surround Ukrainian forces as they advance from Kharkiv in the north and Mariupol in the south, the UK Defence Ministry said on Sunday.
"Russian forces advancing from Crimea are attempting to circumvent Mykolaiv as they look to drive west towards Odessa," the ministry said in an intelligence update posted on Twitter.
"If they decide to carpet bomb and simply erase the history of this region ... and destroy all of us, then they will enter Kyiv. If that's their goal, let them come in, but they will have to live on this land by themselves," Zelenskiy said on Saturday.
Russian shelling has trapped thousands of people in besieged cities and sent 2.5 million Ukrainians fleeing to neighbouring countries.
Make peace
Ukraine accused Russian forces on Saturday of killing seven civilians in an attack on women and children trying to flee fighting near Kyiv. France said Russian President Vladimir Putin had shown no readiness to make peace.
The Ukrainian intelligence service said the seven, including one child, were killed as they fled the village of Peremoha and that "the occupiers forced the remnants of the column to turn back."
Moscow denies targeting civilians since invading Ukraine on Feburary 24th. It blames Ukraine for failed attempts to evacuate civilians from encircled cities, an accusation Ukraine and its Western allies strongly reject.
"We still need to hold on. We still have to fight," Zelenskiy said in a video address late on Saturday, his second of the day.
The United States said it would rush up to $200 million in additional small arms, anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons to Ukraine, where officials have pleaded for more military aid.
The Kremlin describes its actions as a "special operation" to demilitarise and "deNazify" Ukraine. Ukraine and Western allies call this a baseless pretext for a war of choice that has raised fears of wider conflict in Europe.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov accused the United States of escalating tensions and said the situation had been complicated by convoys of Western arms shipments to Ukraine that Russian forces considered "legitimate targets".
In comments reported by the Tass news agency, Ryabkov made no specific threat. Any attack on such convoys before they reached Ukraine would risk widening the war.
Crisis talks between Moscow and Kyiv have been continuing by video link, said Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, according to Russia's RIA news agency. He gave no details, but Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Kyiv would not surrender or accept any ultimatums.
