Thread by @fredwalton216

1) Russia-Ukraine war latest: Russia says it has used hypersonic missile; Zelenskiy urges ‘honest’ peace talks – live theguardian.com/world/live/202…

2) Pres Biden warned Pres Xi Jinping Friday there will be “implications & consequences”, if Beijing provides material support to🇷🇺as it attacks🇺🇦cities, the White House said.

Biden didn’t directly requests Xi to persuade Putin to end the attack during a 2 hour call on Friday;

3)(A) In a video address Zelenskiy said “meaningful, fair” peace talks were needed urgently.

He warned Moscow that Russian losses will otherwise be so huge, it will take generations to recover;

3)(B) “Negotiations on peace, on security for us, for Ukraine - meaningful, fair and without delay - are the only chance for Russia to reduce the damage from its own mistakes,” he said;

4) On Friday, fighting reached the center of Mariupol, where 350K civilians have been stranded w/little food or water.

Russian Defence Ministry said its forces were “tightening the noose”, and that “fighting against nationalists” was taking place in the city center;

5) Ukraine’s Defence Ministry said it had “temporarily” lost access to the Azov Sea, which opens to the Black Sea and would be a major blow for Ukraine;

6) 130+ people rescued following an alleged 🇷🇺 airstrike on a Mariupol theatre sheltering civilians. Speaking early Saturday, Zelenskiy said there’s no new info regarding casualties;

7) There were also reports of mass casualties after a missile attack on a Ukrainian army barracks in the southern city of Mykolaiv;

8) Six & 1/2M people are currently displaced w/i 🇺🇦, as per
to the UN. The World Food Programme has warned 🇺🇦 food supply chains are breaking down, with many grocery stores and warehouses now empty;

9) There have been 816 confirmed civilian deaths, as per UN. Kyiv officials said 222 people had been killed in city, including 60 civilians and four children;

10) Russian forces are “holding captive” a Ukrainian journalist, Victoria Roshchyna, as per Ukrainian media outlet Hromadske.

In a statement, Hromadske said they believe Roshchyna was detained by the Russian FSB around March 15;

11) President Putin praised 🇷🇺“unity” for Kremlin’s is special op in 🇺🇦 during a speech at the nat’l stadium in Moscow.

As he finished speech, broadcast suddenly cut off & state TV showed patriotic songs. Kremlin Spox Dmitry Peskov blamed
a “technical failure” for disruption;

12) Pres Zelenskiy said 🇺🇦 expects progress on membership bid (EU) w/i months, following a call with the head of EU Executive Ursula von der Leyen.

He said he’d continue to appeal to world leaders to call for peace in🇺🇦, w/plans to address Switzerland, Italy, Israel & Japan;

13) At least 40 Ukrainian soldiers were killed following a Russian air strike on an army barracks in the southern city of Mykolaiv on Friday, according to local media reports cited by AFP;

14) 🇯🇵 Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will push for a unified
int’l response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

PM Kishida meets 🇮🇳 Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi Saturday;

15) Governor Serhiy Gaiday of Ukraine’s Luhansk region, has said a humanitarian corridor for evac will be open on Saturday.

He said a “regime of silence” has been agreed from 9am Kyiv time, according to Reuters;

16) UK Ministry of Defense update on March 19.

https://twitter.com/DefenceHQ/status/1505064029232025600

17) Russia said it had used hypersonic weapons, which travel so fast they can evade detection by missile defence systems, to destory an underground military depot in western Ukraine. The claim has not been verified;

18) Ukraine’s General Staff of the Armed Forces has said that Russian Lieutenant General Andrei Mordvichev (Commander of the 8th Combined Arms Army of the Southern Military District of the Russian Armed Forces), was “KIA”.

The claim has not been verified;

19) City of Zaporizhzhia to be under 38 hour curfew
beginning at 2pm GMT on Saturday (4pm local time).

This occurred after Ukrainia🇺🇦 military ordered people to
stay home until early Monday, the Deputy Mayor Anatoliy Kurtiev said in a statement reported by Reuters;

20) Poland has proposed that EU implement a total ban on trade w/🇷🇺, 🇵🇱 PM Mateusz Morawiecki said in a statement reported by Reuters;

21) “The Bonds That Came in from the Cold”, envisioning
John le Carré writing on possible credit defaults.

https://twitter.com/SalehaMohsin/status/1504965889875230725

22) Luxembourg PM 📞 with President Putin today.

https://twitter.com/annmarie/status/1505164734802370567

23) Fwiw…..

https://twitter.com/KyivIndependent/status/1505227327873208321

24) Ukraine has evacuated 190,000 civilians from frontline areas via humanitarian corridors since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Reuters reports;

25) From Sky News :
🇨🇳has described sanctions on🇷🇺 as "getting more & more outrageous".

Speaking in Beijing, Vice F.M. Le Yucheng said: "The sanctions against🇷🇺are getting more and more outrageous."

He added that🇷🇺citizens were being deprived of overseas assets "for no reason";

26) From Sky News :
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on🇨🇭to crack down on🇷🇺oligarchs who he claims are helping to wage war on his country from the safety of "beautiful Swiss towns";

27) An adviser to President Zelenskyy warned that Ukraine may not be able to produce enough crops to meet export quotas this year.

Oleh Ustenko said this would be the case if Ukraine's sowing campaigns are disrupted by the Russian invasion, which has entered a 24th day;

28) From Sky News :
127 pro-Russian saboteurs have been detained in the Kyiv since the start of the war, according to sources cited by the Unian news agency.

This includes 14 infiltration groups, the head of Kyiv's Military Administration Mykola Zhyrnov said;

29) Military personnel and rescue workers clear debris after a barracks was attacked in Mykolaiv.

Up to 100 feared dead, after Russia strikes Ukrainian base.

https://twitter.com/tepizep/status/1505264092247957515

30) Here is our latest from the city of Mariupol, where more than 4,000 civilians were able to escape today.

They were among more than 6,000 civilians who managed to get out of Ukraine's cities through humanitarian corridors on Saturday;

31) Sugar, cooking oil, grains, flour all subject to this panic buying.

https://twitter.com/DrAlakbarov/status/1505223385374236680