Ukraine: As the Russia-Ukraine war entered day 11, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a “desperate plea” to US senators on Saturday to send more planes to help the country battle the Moscow invasion. In Ukraine, what looked like a breakthrough cease-fire to evacuate residents from Mariupol and Volnovakha quickly fell apart Saturday as Ukrainian officials said shelling had halted the work. Vladimir Putin said Moscow would consider any third-party declaration of a no-fly zone over Ukraine as “participation in the armed conflict.”
Meanwhile, the US and the UK have issued travel advisories and recommended their citizens to leave Russia. Meanwhile, the head of the Chernihiv region said Russia has dropped powerful bombs on residential areas of the city of the same name, which has a population of 290,000. Vyacheslav Chaus said it was an undetonated FAB-500, a 1,100-pound (500-kilogram) bomb. “Usually this weapon is used against military-industrial facilities and fortified structures,” Chaus said. “But in Chernihiv, against residential areas.”
On an intervening night between Saturday and Sunday, airstrikes hit Ukraine’s Kharkiv and several buildings caught fire. Since Russia invaded Ukraine, the Russian forces have destroyed more than 2,100 military installations of Ukraine, the official representative of the Russian Defence Ministry Major General Igor Konashenkov said. “On March 5th alone, five radar stations and two Buk M-1 anti-aircraft missile systems were destroyed,” Konashenkov told reporters. “In total, 2,119 military infrastructure facilities of Ukraine were hit during the operation.
Among them 74 control points and communication centres of the Ukrainian armed forces; 108 S-300, Buk M-1 and Osa anti-aircraft missile systems, as well as 68 radar stations, 69 aircraft on the ground and 21 aircraft in the air, 748 tanks and other armoured combat vehicles. Russia’s financial system suffered yet another blow as Mastercard and Visa announced they were suspending operations in the country. Ukrainian officials said Russian artillery fire and airstrikes had prevented residents from leaving before the agreed-to evacuations got underway. Putin accused Ukraine of sabotaging the effort.