LIVE Russia-Ukraine crisis: 30,000 civilians flee Mariupol

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky invoked 9/11 during an urgent appeal Wednesday to the US Congress for more weapons to stem the Russian assault. US President Joe Biden announced an additional $800 million for Ukraine’s military and said Russian President Vladimir Putin is a “war criminal.”

In the encircled city of Mariupol, a Russian airstrike destroyed a theatre where hundreds of people were sheltering. Many people were buried in the rubble, Ukraine’s foreign ministry said in a statement, though the number of casualties wasn’t clear.

ALSO READ:

• Russia-Ukraine crisis: In Kharkiv, critical Covid patients at the mercy of Russian bombardment

• Russia-Ukraine crisis: Glimmers of hope seen at talks as Moscow’s onslaught goes on

• Oil rises above $100 as supply concerns balance Ukraine talks

Missiles and artillery slammed into high-rise apartment towers in Kyiv, setting buildings ablaze and sending smoke over the capital and its suburbs.

Here's the latest of all top developments on March 17:

---

11pm: Blinken says Russia making no meaningful efforts in Ukraine peace talks

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday that Russia was not making serious efforts in negotiations with Ukraine to end the three-week war.

“On the one hand, we commend Ukraine for being at the table despite being under bombardment every minute of the day,” Blinken said.

---

10:50pm: Biden will warn Xi of retaliation if Beijing provides military aid to Russia

US President Joe Biden will warn Beijing away from providing military aid to Russia for its war in Ukraine when he speaks with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping Friday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.

“President Biden will be speaking to President Xi tomorrow, and will make clear that China will bear responsibility for any actions it takes to support Russia’s aggression. And we will not hesitate to impose costs,” Blinken said.

---

10:47pm: American among civilians killed in Russian attack in Ukraine

The State Department confirmed Thursday that an American citizen was killed in a Russian attack on the Ukrainian city of Chernihiv.

The department did not immediately confirm the identity of the American, who was at least the second U.S. citizen to be killed in the conflict, after the killing of journalist and filmmaker Brent Renaud last week.

Chernihiv police said on Facebook there was a heavy artillery attack on the city and a U.S. citizen was among the civilians killed.

---

10:45pm: Blinken says agrees that war crimes have been committed

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday said he agrees with President Joe Biden that war crimes have been committed in Ukraine, adding that U.S. experts are in the process of documenting and evaluating potential war crimes in Ukraine.

“Intentionally targeting civilians is a war crime,” Blinken told reporters, adding that he finds it “difficult to conclude that the Russians are doing otherwise” after the destruction over the past few weeks.

---

10:08pm: Schwarzenegger tells Russian people their leaders are lying to them

Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday told the Russian people that they are being fed misinformation about their country's assault on Ukraine and appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop the attack.

The Hollywood star said in the nine-minute video on Twitter that the Kremlin was intentionally lying to Russians by saying the attack was intended to "denazify" Ukraine. Russia describes its actions as a "special operation."

---

10pm: 30,000 civilians flee Ukraine’s Mariupol

Around 30,000 civilians have fled Ukraine’s besieged port city of Mariupol, officials said Thursday, as they scrambled to learn the fate of hundreds of people sheltering in a theatre hit earlier by Russian shelling.

Mariupol’s city hall said on Telegram that “around 30,000 people have left on their transport”, adding that “80 percent of residential housing was destroyed”.

---

9:15pm: Germany’s Scholz under fire after Zelensky’s fierce appeal

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday called on Germany to help destroy a new “Wall” Russia was erecting in Europe, as he appealed directly to Chancellor Olaf Scholz to bolster his tentative response to the attack.

In a speech combining an appeal for fresh aid for his besieged country with criticism of Berlin’s long accommodating stance toward Moscow, Zelensky recalled Germany’s own triumph over its Cold War division.

Zelensky coupled his flattery with a strong rebuke of Berlin’s years-long reluctance to stand up to Moscow and sever its strong energy and business ties with Russia.

More details here

---

9pm: Scant progress in peace talks

Rescue workers on Thursday dug survivors out of the rubble of a theatre in the besieged city of Mariupol which Ukraine said had been hit by a Russian air strike as people sheltered there from bombardments.

Russia denied striking the theatre. But its forces have blasted cities and killed many civilians in its assault on Ukraine, now entering its fourth week.

Officials from both sides met again on Thursday for peace talks, but they said their positions remained far apart.

---

8:45pm: Russia’s Putin does not want peace, Italian prime minister says

Russian President Vladimir Putin does not want peace and it is possible that further sanctions might be needed against Moscow to try to end the conflict in Ukraine, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said on Thursday.

“On Putin’s part there is no willingness for peace. There is a willingness for war,” Draghi told reporters.

---

8:30pm: Kosovo seeks Biden’s help in joining NATO

Kosovo’s president on Thursday asked U.S. President Joe Biden to help Kosovo become a NATO member at a time that Russia is making efforts to destabilize the Balkans.

President Vjosa Osmani sent a letter to Biden saying that “Kosovo’s membership in NATO has become an imperative.”

Kosovo, “the most pro-American and pro-NATO country in the world,” is excluded from NATO enlargement processes, she said in a letter made available to The Associated Press.

---

7:56pm: Very big gap remains in peace talks between Russia and Ukraine -Western officials

Ukraine and Russia are taking peace talks seriously but a very big gap remains between the two sides, Western officials said on Thursday, adding Russian President Vladimir Putin did not seem in the mood to compromise.

Although both sides have pointed to limited progress in peace talks this week, Putin showed little sign of relenting during a televised speech in which he inveighed against “traitors and scum” at home who helped the West, and said the Russian people would spit them out like gnats.

“Both sides are taking (the talks) seriously but there is a very, very big gap between the positions in question,” one Western official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“Those ... who saw President Putin addressing the nation yesterday would be forgiven for thinking that Russia was not in compromising mood,” another official said.

---

6:25pm: At least 21 dead after Russian shelling of east Ukraine town

At least 21 people were killed and 25 were injured on Thursday when Russian forces shelled a town in eastern Ukraine, local prosecutors said.

Artillery fire early Thursday hit a school and a cultural centre in the town of Merefa outside the city of Kharkiv, regional prosecutors said in a post on Facebook. Of the wounded, 10 people are in serious condition.

---

6:15pm: Ukraine wants security guarantees from Turkey

Ukraine wants Turkey to be among countries offering security guarantees to Ukraine as part of any deal with Russia to end the war, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Thursday after meeting Turkey’s foreign minister.

Speaking at a briefing after the talks in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, Kuleba said Turkey was also helping to set up direct talks between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

---

5:45pm: Ukraine warns of new ‘Wall’ in Europe as theatre hit

Ukraine’s leader on Thursday said Russia was building a new Cold War wall across Europe “between freedom and bondage”, after his government accused attacking forces of bombing a theatre sheltering many civilians and marked with the word “children”.

Kyiv emerged from a 35-hour curfew to new destruction, as Russian troops try to encircle the Ukrainian capital as part of their slow-moving offensive.

Russia’s defence ministry denied it had targeted the Drama Theatre in the besieged port city of Mariupol, where local officials say more than 2,000 people have died so far in indiscriminate Chechnya-style shelling.

The ministry said the building had been mined and blown up by members of Ukraine’s far-right Azov Battalion, a claim dismissed in the West as Russian disinformation.

---

4:44pm: Mariupol searches for survivors amid rubble of theatre

Rescue workers were searching for survivors in the rubble of a theatre in the beseiged city of Mariupol on Thursday, after Ukraine said a powerful Russian air strike had hit the building where hundreds of people had been sheltering from the war.

The port city is encircled by Russian forces and has seen some of the fiercest bombardment of the conflict.

“The heart is breaking from what Russia does to our people, our Mariupol, and our Donetsk region,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a late night address on Wednesday, after referring to the theatre attack.

More details here:

---

6:41pm: In call with Putin, Erdogan offers to host him and Zelensky for talks

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan offered in a phone call with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Thursday to host him and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky for talks, according to his office.

The statement said Erdogan told Putin that agreement on certain issues could require a meeting between the leaders. Erdogan also said a lasting ceasefire could lead the way to a long-term solution, it said.

---

4:16pm: Biden to speak with Xi about Ukraine war: WHouse

US President Joe Biden will speak Friday with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping about issues including Russia’s war in Ukraine, the White House said.

Beijing has refused to condemn its close ally Russia over its attack on Ukraine, while blaming the United States and NATO’s eastward expansion for worsening tensions.

More details here

---

4:05pm: Putin says sanctions are creating problems

Putin says sanctions are creating problems but also opening up new possibilities.

---

4pm: ‘No death reports’ yet from Mariupol theater

A Ukrainian lawmaker says there are reports of injuries but not deaths in a strike on a theater in Mariupol where hundreds of civilians had been taking shelter.

Lesia Vasylenko said between 1,000 and 1,500 people were sheltering at the theater when it was hit by an airstrike, and called the attack the deliberate “destruction of a refuge.”

Vayslenko, an opposition lawmaker who is part of a delegation visiting the British Parliament, said local officials report that 80-90% of all structures in Mariupol have been damaged in the relentless Russian assault.

---

2.17pm: Many people in Russia are showing themselves to be traitors, says Kremlin

The Kremlin said on Thursday that many people in Russia were showing themselves to be traitors and pointed to those who were resigning from their jobs and leaving the country.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov made the comments a day after President Vladimir Putin delivered a stark warning to Russian “traitors” who he said the West wanted to use as a “fifth column” to destroy the country.

---