On the twelfth day of the struggle against Russian occupiers, the Ukrainian Armed and the Territorial Defence Forces continue to inflict damage on the invaders’ manpower and equipment.
Minister for the Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories Iryna Vereshchuk has announced that Russia has taken 2,046 foreign students hostage and is blocking their evacuation.
As of 1 March, Ukraine's international reserves amounted to $27.5 billion. In February, the reserves decreased by 5.3% - as reported by the press service of the National Bank.
Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, Turkey’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, announced that a tripartite meeting of the Foreign Ministries of Turkey, Ukraine, and Russia will take place on Thursday, 10 March in Antalya.
With the help of pro-Kremlin media, the Russian invaders are spreading fake news about incredible discoveries in Ukraine. In a few days, the occupiers claim to have found ‘combat drugs’ in Ukraine and destroyed the pathogens of plague and anthrax. Photo and video evidence of this has not published.
Russian authorities are looking for new ways to justify the country's war in Ukraine. As such, the aggressor country is planning to shell residential neighbourhoods of Russian cities near the Ukrainian border to accuse the Ukrainian Armed Forces of the attacks.
In the Mariupol sector, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have launched a successful counterattack and destroyed three enemy tanks, 4 military armoured personnel carriers, 2 Tigers (Russian 4x4, multipurpose, all-terrain infantry mobility vehicle – ed.), and ca. 30 troops. Two Russian soldiers were captured.
Head of the Kyiv Regional Military Administration Oleksiy Kuleba reported that Kadyrovites (the Chechen paramilitary group supporting the Russian Armed Forces) have seized a psychoneurological hospital which houses more than 600 patients.
The Ukrainian State Security Service has issued a warning regarding another fake generated by the Russian side - a fabricated video that claims that there is a secret prison run by the Security Service and the CIA in Ukraine.
More than 200 Belarusians have joined Ukraine’s Armed Forces to defend Ukraine against the Russian invasion to date. 300 more volunteers from Belarus are currently on standby in Poland.
A member of Russia's Federation Council has said that Russia is sending conscripted soldiers to fight in Ukraine, and that only four members of a 100-unit company survived.
On 3 March, the Ukrainian Parliament passed a law allowing the sale of Russian property held in Ukraine. Preparations are underway for the sale of such assets.
Ukraine has asked the International Committee of the Red Cross to urgently assist in the creation of humanitarian corridors, as agreed by Ukraine and Russia during the second round of negotiations.
Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatiana Moskalkova has appealed to the International Committee of the Red Cross for help in finding Russian prisoners of war in Ukraine and providing assistance to them.
Heads of the G7 countries’ foreign affairs departments will meet on Friday to coordinate their response to Russian aggression and to discuss the situation in Ukraine.
As of the ninth day of the Russian attack on Ukraine, the occupiers have suffered casualties in all directions, Russian soldiers are demotivated and have been surrendering, according to Ukraine's General Staff.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has discussed the humanitarian, economic, and security needs of Ukraine with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba, Evropeyska Pravda reports, quoting a statement from the US State Department.