“The main task today is Mariupol,” Ukraine’s president said, adding that the humanitarian supply convoy is now only 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the besieged port city, where more than 400,000 people are stranded.
Earlier today, a Russian missile attack on a large Ukrainian military facility near the border with NATO member Poland killed 35 people and injured 134 others.
‘Significant escalation of conflict’
Britain said the incident just 15 miles (25 km) from the Polish border marked a “significant escalation” of the conflict.
US President Joe Biden has said that NATO will defend every inch of its territory if Russia’s invasion of Ukraine spreads to member states of the Western Defense Alliance.
Ukraine said foreign military trainers had previously worked at the Yavoryev International Center for Peacekeeping and Security, but a NATO official said there were no coalition personnel there. It was not immediately clear whether representatives of any non-NATO states could be there.
Regional governor Maxim Kozitsky said Russian planes fired about 30 rockets at the facility, adding that some were intercepted before being hit. He said at least 35 people were killed and 134 were injured. Reuters could not confirm his statement.
The 360 km (140 sq mi) facility is Ukraine’s largest and the largest in the western part of the country.
The Kremlin did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the alleged missile strike so close to the border with NATO, and made no mention of such an attack in a brief video briefing by a spokesman for Russia’s defense ministry on Sunday.
Nineteen ambulances with sirens were seen by Reuters driving from the direction of the Yaroviv facility after an alleged strike and black smoke billowed from the area.
“Russia has attacked the International Center for Peacekeeping and Security near Lviv. Foreign trainers work here. Information about the victims is being clarified,” Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksey Reznikov said in an online post.
A representative of Ukraine’s defense ministry told Reuters that the ministry was still trying to determine whether there was a foreign trainer at the center at the time of the attack.
Ukraine, whose aspirations to join NATO is a major bottleneck for Russian President Vladimir Putin, conducted most of its exercises with countries in the Western Defense Coalition prior to the invasion. The last major exercises were in September.
In the weeks before Russia’s invasion of February 24, Ukrainian forces trained there, but according to Ukrainian media, all foreign trainers left the training ground in mid-February, leaving behind all equipment.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, launched by Putin on February 24, has sent more than 2.5 million people fleeing across borders and trapped thousands in besieged cities.
While Western countries have sought to isolate Putin by imposing harsh sanctions, the United States and its allies are concerned with protecting NATO from becoming involved in the conflict. “There are no NATO personnel in Ukraine,” the NATO official said, when asked if any NATO personnel were at the base.
Asked how far the attack had escalated, UK Cabinet Minister Michael Gove told a BBC interviewer: “It’s important.” He said Putin is pushing the boundaries militarily.
Airport hits in the west
The mayor of another city in western Ukraine, Ivano-Frankivsk, said Russian troops also continued to attack its airport, with no preliminary reports of casualties.
Britain’s Defense Ministry said on Sunday that in eastern Ukraine, Russian troops are trying to encircle Ukrainian forces advancing from the port of Mariupol in the south and Kharkiv in the north.
Kharkiv has suffered some of the heaviest bombing. Videos of one resident, Taimur Alive, helping residents bring aid, show streets bombed, cars pelted with shrapnel holes and rubble scattered all around.
Aliyev, 23, said, “We will sew up the wounds and pains of our country and our city. We are ready to build it and we are ready to renew it when the war is over. We are not going anywhere.” ” -The old musician says of his food delivery network, which now has dozens of volunteers.
British intelligence also said that Russian forces advancing from Crimea, which Russia had annexed from Ukraine in 2014, were trying to stop Mykolaiv as they wanted to drive west towards Odessa. Nine people were killed on Sunday in an airstrike on Mykolaiv, regional governor Vitaly Kim said in an online statement.
Airstrike sirens woke residents in Kyiv on Sunday morning, hours after Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky warned the Russian military that they would face a fight to the death if they tried to capture the capital.
Ukraine on Saturday accused the Russian military of killing seven civilians, including a child, in an attack on women and children trying to fight near Kyiv.
Reuters was unable to immediately verify the report and Russia did not immediately comment.
Moscow has denied targeting civilians. It blames Ukraine for unsuccessful attempts to evacuate civilians from besieged cities, a charge strongly rejected by Ukraine and its Western allies.
More weapons for Ukraine
The US said it would deliver an additional $200 million in small arms, anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons to Ukraine, where officials have called for more military aid.
The Kremlin describes its actions as a “special operation” to demilitarize and “denazify” Ukraine. Ukraine and Western allies see this as a baseless excuse for the war of choice.
Polish President Andrzej Duda warned in an interview broadcast on Sunday that Russia’s use of chemical weapons in Ukraine would be a game changer and that NATO would have to think seriously about how to respond.
Russian news agencies on Sunday quoted Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov as saying that Russian troops had so far destroyed 3,687 Ukrainian military infrastructure. It was not possible to independently confirm his statement.
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