Front lines: Fears grow for safety of civilians fleeing Ukrainian cities after deadly explosion at checkpoint
Kyiv, UkraineCNN —
Concern was mounting Sunday for the plight of civilians trapped in the besieged southeastern Ukrainian cities of Mariupol and Volnovakha, as well as in the capital, Kyiv, after three people were reported killed Sunday in a blast at an evacuation crossing point.
Two mortar or artillery shells hit the checkpoint in the suburb of Irpin, northwest of Kyiv, Ukrainian authorities said, and two children were among those killed. Social media video showed extensive destruction.
International media filming at the checkpoint reported that a shell landed as a stream of civilians was coming through.
Heavy shelling was reported to the west and northwest of Kyiv on Sunday morning. The impact of explosions was heard by CNN teams in Kyiv and in rural areas to the southwest.
‘They shoot at anyone who tries to leave.’ Ukrainians describe terror of living under Russian occupation
“They (Russian troops) captured Hostomel and Bucha yesterday (Saturday). The Russians entered there,” said Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser in the Ukrainian President’s Office, referring to two suburbs northwest of Kyiv. “They have injured many children and do not allow to evacuate them, despite numerous appeals at the highest state level to provide a ‘green corridor’ from Bucha and Irpin. There are many children in the basements.”
Arestovych described the situation as a “catastrophe,” adding that discussions were going on “at the highest level with international humanitarian institutions, through mediators with the Russians” in order to find a way out for those who are trapped.
Several children have died, according to the Ministry of Health of Ukraine.
In the country’s southeast, some fresh hope was raised Sunday after Ukrainian and Russian officials said a second attempt would be made to open up safe evacuation routes for civilians in Mariupol and Volnovakha, after a first effort failed on Saturday.
People in Mariupol are trapped without power and water and unable to recover their dead, its mayor said Saturday, as he accused Russia of trying to “choke” the city by shutting off agreed evacuation routes.
Ukrainian authorities said a convoy of buses to evacuate Mariupol residents was to leave the central city of Zaporizhzhya on Sunday. The column has assembled in Zaporizhzhya, three hours from Mariupol, and is ready to set out, officials said.
Separately, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned Sunday that Russia was preparing to bomb the Black Sea port city of Odessa in southern Ukraine and said the airport in Vynnytsia, in the west of the country, had been destroyed by a rocket strike.
In an address broadcast on Facebook, Zelensky said: “Russian people always used to come to Odessa and they only knew warmth and generosity and what’s now? Artillery, bombs against Odessa. This will be a war crime. This will be (a) historic crime.”
In a separate message, Zelensky again appealed for a no-fly zone to be imposed over Ukraine, following the destruction of Vynnytsia’s airport.
“They continue to ruin our infrastructure our life, which we have built, and our parents, and grandparents, many generations of Ukrainians. We repeat every day – close the skies over Ukraine,” he added.
Russia agreed to a ceasefire on Saturday to allow civilians to safely leave Mariupol and Volnovakha, but the evacuations were then stopped, with Ukrainian authorities accusing Russia of violating the agreement by resuming its attacks, leaving thousands of civilians trapped in what people on the ground describe as increasingly dire conditions.
On Sunday, Russian state media reported that another attempt to get civilians out would be made. “In the morning, humanitarian corridors will again be opened both in Mariupol and Volnovakha,” Russian state news TASS quoted Eduard Basurin, deputy head of the so-called People’s Militia of the Donetsk People’s Republic, as saying Sunday.
The governor of the Donetsk region, Pavlo Kyrylenko, confirmed on his official Twitter account that another attempt to open up a safe route out for civilians in Mariupol would begin at 12 p.m. local time (5 a.m. ET).
A ceasefire would be in effect from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. local time Sunday, said Kyrylenko, a top regional official. It was not immediately clear whether this was being respected.
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Local residents help clear the rubble of a home that was destroyed by a suspected Russian airstrike which killed at least six people in Markhalivka, Ukraine, on March 5.
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Residents are evacuated across a bridge from Irpin, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, on Saturday, March 5. The bridge was previously destroyed by Ukrainian forces to prevent Russian forces from moving on central Kyiv.
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A woman and child are seen through a bus window as they arrive at a temporary accommodation center, after fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine, in Korczowa, Poland, on March 5.
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Ukrainian civilians undergo basic military training at a volunteer center on March 5, in Odessa, Ukraine.
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A statue is seen covered in Lviv, Ukraine, on March 5. Residents wrapped statues in protective sheets in an effort to safeguard historic monuments across the city.
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Ukrainian soldiers react to the sound of an incoming missile at the Irpin River on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, on March 5.
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Marina Yatsko and her boyfriend Fedor comfort each other after her 18-month-old son Kirill was killed by shelling in a hospital in Mariupol, Ukraine, on Friday, March 4.
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People remove personal belongings from a burning house after shelling in Irpin, Ukraine, on Friday, March 4.
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Oksana and her son Dmytro stand over the open casket of her husband, Volodymyr Nezhenets, during his funeral in Kyiv on March 4. According to the Washington Post, he was a member of Ukraine’s Territorial Defense Forces, which is comprised mostly of volunteers.
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People take shelter on the floor of a hospital during shelling in Mariupol, Ukraine, on March 4.
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People crowd on the platform as they try to board a westbound train in Kyiv, Ukraine, on March 4. As women and children flee to seek refuge across the border, Ukraine’s government has banned men between the ages of 18 and 60 from leaving the country.
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A bullet-ridden bus is seen after an ambush in the capital city of Kyiv on March 4.
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A member of the Ukrainian military gives instructions to civilians in Irpin on March 4. They were about to board an evacuation train headed to Kyiv after heavy fighting overnight forced many residents to leave their homes.
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A Ukrainian child rests on a bed in a temporary refugee center at a local school in Zahony, Hungary, on March 4. More than one million people left Ukraine in the week after the Russian invasion, according to the United Nations.
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Ukrainian servicemen take cover from shelling in the city of Bucha, west of Kyiv, on March 4.
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A man says goodbye to his wife and son at a train station in Kyiv on Thursday, March 3.
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Leos Leonid recovers at a hospital in Kyiv on March 3. The 64-year-old survived being crushed when an armored vehicle drove over his car. Video of the incident was widely shared on social media.
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A Ukrainian soldier carries a baby across a destroyed bridge on the outskirts of Kyiv on March 3.
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Destroyed Russian military vehicles are seen on a street in Borodyanka on March 3.
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A Ukrainian soldier who says he was shot three times in the opening days of the invasion sits on a hospital bed in Kyiv on March 3.
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Residents react in front of a burning building after shelling in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on March 3.
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People form a human chain to transfer supplies into Kyiv on March 3.
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A cemetery worker digs graves for Ukrainian soldiers in Kyiv on March 3.
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Ukrainian soldiers unload weapons from the trunk of a car northeast of Kyiv on March 3.
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A mother cares for her two infant sons in the underground shelter of a maternity hospital in Kyiv on March 3. She gave birth a day earlier, and she and her husband haven’t yet decided on names for the twins.
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A member of Ukraine’s Territorial Defense Forces sits with a weapon in Kyiv on Wednesday, March 2.
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Paramedics treat an elderly woman wounded by shelling before transferring her to a hospital in Mariupol, Ukraine, on March 2.
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Residents of Zhytomyr, Ukraine, work in the remains of a residential building on March 2. The building was destroyed by shelling.
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Displaced Ukrainians take shelter in an auditorium in Lviv, Ukraine, on March 2.
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A woman cries March 2 in the street of a neighborhood that was damaged by airstrikes in Gorenka, Ukraine.
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A member of Ukraine’s Territorial Defense Forces inspects damage in the backyard of a house in Gorenka on March 2.
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A Ukrainian woman takes her children over the border in Siret, Romania, on March 2. Many Ukrainians are fleeing the country at a pace that could turn into “Europe’s largest refugee crisis this century,” the United Nations Refugee Agency said.
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Andrey Goncharuk, a 68-year-old member of Ukraine’s Territorial Defense Forces, clutches a hunting rifle March 2 while coming out of a small basement of a Gorenka house crowded with people seeking shelter from Russian airstrikes and shelling.
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Militia members set up anti-tank barricades in Kyiv on March 2.
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People wait at a train station in Kyiv on March 2.
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People shelter in a subway station in Kyiv on March 2.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky poses for a picture in a Kyiv bunker after an exclusive interview with CNN and Reuters on Tuesday, March 1. Zelensky said that as long as Moscow’s attacks on Ukrainian cities continued, little progress could be made in talks between the two nations. “It’s important to stop bombing people, and then we can move on and sit at the negotiation table,” he said.
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An explosion is seen at a TV tower in Kyiv on March 1. Russian forces fired rockets near the tower and struck a Holocaust memorial site in Kyiv hours after warning of “high-precision” strikes on other facilities linked to Ukrainian security agencies.
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Ukrainian soldiers attend Mass at an Orthodox monastery in Kyiv on March 1.
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Medical workers show a mother her newborn after she gave birth at a maternity hospital in Mariupol on March 1. The hospital is now also used as a medical ward and bomb shelter.
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An administrative building is seen in Kharkiv after Russian shelling on March 1. Russian forces have scaled up their bombardment of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city.
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Ukrainian emergency workers carry a body of a victim following shelling that hit the City Hall building in Kharkiv on March 1.
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A woman named Helen comforts her 8-year-old daughter, Polina, in the bomb shelter of a Kyiv children’s hospital on March 1. The girl was at the hospital being treated for encephalitis, or inflammation of the brain.
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Ukrainian refugees try to stay warm at the Medyka border crossing in Poland on March 1.
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Passengers anxiously board trains in Kyiv before heading to destinations in the western part of the country on Monday, February 28.
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A bridge is destroyed near the town of Bucha, Ukraine, on February 28.
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Volunteers in Kyiv sign up to join Ukraine’s Territorial Defense Forces on February 28.
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A member of the Territorial Defense Forces loads rifle magazines in Kyiv on February 28.
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Delegations from Russia and Ukraine hold talks in Belarus on February 28. Both sides discussed a potential “ceasefire and the end of combat actions on the territory of Ukraine,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Mikhaylo Podolyak told reporters. Without going into detail, Podolyak said that both sides would return to their capitals for consultations over whether to implement a number of “decisions.”
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Ukrainian forces order a man to the ground on February 28 as they increased security measures amid Russian attacks in Kyiv.
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Mothers tend to their babies in the bomb shelter of a children’s hospital in Kyiv on February 28.
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Russian infantry mobility vehicles are destroyed after fighting in Kharkiv on February 28. A residential neighborhood in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, was hit by a rocket attack, according to Ukrainian officials and multiple social media videos geolocated by CNN. A civilian was killed and 31 people were wounded, the city’s council said.
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Ukrainian forces are seen inside a basement being used as a military base in Dnipro, Ukraine, on February 28.
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A displaced Ukrainian cradles her child at a temporary shelter set up inside a gymnasium in Beregsurány, Hungary, on February 28. More than half a million refugees have fled Ukraine to neighboring countries, according to the UN’s refugee agency.
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Smoke billows over the Ukrainian city of Vasylkiv, just outside Kyiv on Sunday, February 27. A fire at an oil storage area was seen raging at the Vasylkiv Air Base.
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A couple embraces at a railway station in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, on February 27. The woman was about to board a train heading west.
Satellite images show significant damage to part of an aircraft hangar at the Hostomel Air Base outside Kyiv on February 27. The world’s largest aircraft, the Antonov AN-225 Mriya, was destroyed by a Russian attack on the airport, according to Ukraine government officials.
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People wait on a platform inside the railway station in Lviv on February 27. Thousands of people at Lviv’s main train station attempted to board trains that would take them out of Ukraine.
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A Russian armored vehicle burns after fighting in Kharkiv on February 27. Street fighting broke out as Russian troops entered Ukraine’s second-largest city, and residents were urged to stay in shelters and not travel.
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Local residents prepare Molotov cocktails in Uzhhorod, Ukraine, on February 27.
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Cars line up on the road outside Mostyska, Ukraine, as people attempt to flee to Poland on February 27.
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Ukrainian troops in Kyiv escort a prisoner February 27 who they suspected of being a Russian agent.
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Ukrainian service members take position at the Vasylkiv Air Base near Kyiv on February 27.
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A woman sleeps on chairs February 27 in the underground parking lot of a Kyiv hotel that has been turned into a bomb shelter.
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An explosion lights up the sky to the south of Kyiv early on February 27. That and another large explosion appeared to have been around Vasylkiv, which has a large military airfield and multiple fuel tanks and is about about 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) south of Kyiv.
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Ukrainian service members take cover in a shelter at the Vasylkiv Air Base near Kyiv on Saturday, February 26.
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A damaged residential building is seen in Kyiv on February 26.
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People in Kyiv run for cover during shelling on February 26.
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An apartment building in Kyiv is seen after it was damaged by shelling on February 26. The outer walls of several apartment units appeared to be blown out entirely, with the interiors blackened and debris hanging loose.
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A police vehicle patrols the streets of Kyiv on February 26.
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Ukrainian troops inspect a site following a Russian airstrike in Kyiv on February 26.
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Following a national directive to help complicate the invading Russian Army’s attempts to navigate, a road worker removes signs near Pisarivka, Ukraine, on February 26.
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From Telegram
A man kneels in front of a Russian tank in Bakhmach, Ukraine, on February 26 as Ukrainian citizens attempted to stop the tank from moving forward. The dramatic scene was captured on video, and CNN confirmed its authenticity. The moment drew comparisons to the iconic “Tank Man” of Tiananmen Square.
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Members of the Territorial Defense Force — Ukraine’s military reserve — prepare to defend Kyiv on February 26.
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Ukrainian service members collect unexploded shells after fighting with advancing Russian troops in Kyiv early on February 26.
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People in Kyiv board a train heading to the west of the country on February 26. Kelly Clements, the United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees, told CNN that more than 120,000 people had left Ukraine while 850,000 were internally displaced.
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Ukrainian service members look for and collect unexploded shells after fighting in Kyiv on February 26.
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Smoke and flames are seen near Kyiv on February 26. Explosions were seen and heard in parts of the capital as Ukrainians battled to hold back advancing Russian troops.
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Office of the President of Ukraine
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky posted a video to Facebook on February 25, vowing to defend his country as he stood on a Kyiv street with other leaders of his administration. “We are all here,” he said. “Our military are here. Citizens and society are here. We are all here defending our independence, our state and it will remain so. Glory to our defenders! Glory to our women defenders! Glory to Ukraine!”
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The body of a Russian soldier lies next to a Russian vehicle outside Kharkiv on February 25.
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A woman weeps in her car after crossing the border from Ukraine into Sighetu Marmatiei, Romania, on February 25.
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A Ukrainian soldier sits injured from crossfire inside Kyiv on February 25.
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A child from Ukraine sleeps in a tent at a humanitarian center in Palanca, Moldova, on February 25.
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A firefighter walks between the ruins of a downed aircraft in Kyiv on February 25.
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Newly married couple Yaryna Arieva and Sviatoslav Fursin pose for photo in Kyiv on February 25 after they joined the Territorial Defense Forces.
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Members of the Ukrainian National Guard take positions in central Kyiv on February 25.
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People walk past a residential building in Kyiv that was hit in an alleged Russian airstrike on February 25.
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The body of a school employee, who according to locals was killed in recent shelling, lies in the separatist-controlled town of Horlivka in Ukraine’s Donetsk region on February 25.
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Kyiv residents take shelter in an underground parking garage on February 25.
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In this handout photo from the Ukrainian government, firefighters respond to the scene of a residential building on fire in Kyiv on February 25. Anton Gerashchenko, adviser to the Head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, said the city had been hit by “cruise or ballistic missiles.”
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A wounded woman stands outside a hospital after an attack on the eastern Ukrainian town of Chuhuiv, outside of Kharkiv, on February 24.
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The body of a rocket remains in an apartment after shelling on the northern outskirts of Kharkiv on February 24.
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A boy plays with his tablet in a public basement used as a bomb shelter in Kyiv on February 24.
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A man mourns after an airstrike reportedly hit an apartment complex in Chuhuiv on February 24.
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Rescuers work at a crash site on February 24 after a Ukrainian military plane fell and caught fire outside of Kyiv, according to the Ukrainian State Emergency Service. The cause of the crash wasn’t indicated.
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Sviatoslav Fursin, left, and Yaryna Arieva kneel during their wedding ceremony at the St. Michael’s Cathedral in Kyiv on February 24. They had planned on getting married in May, but they rushed to tie the knot due to the attacks by Russian forces. “We maybe can die, and we just wanted to be together before all of that,” Arieva said.
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Ukrainian service members sit atop armored vehicles driving in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region on February 24.
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People in Kyiv try to board a bus to travel west toward Poland on February 24.
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US President Joe Biden arrives in the East Room of the White House to address the Russian invasion on February 24. “Putin is the aggressor. Putin chose this war. And now he and his country will bear the consequences,” Biden said, laying out a set of measures that will “impose severe cost on the Russian economy, both immediately and over time.”
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Smoke rises from a military airport in Chuhuiv on February 24. Airports were also hit in Boryspil, Kharkiv, Ozerne, Kulbakino, Kramatorsk and Chornobaivka.
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People seek shelter inside a subway station in Kharkiv on February 24.
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From Telegram
Russian military vehicles are seen at the Chernobyl power plant near Pripyat, Ukraine, on February 24. Russian forces have seized control of the the plant, the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster, according to the agency that manages the area.
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Firefighters attempt to extinguish a fire after a reported strike in Chuhuiv on February 24.
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People wait after boarding a bus to leave Kyiv on February 24.
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Ukrainian President Zelensky holds an emergency meeting in Kyiv on February 24. In a video address, Zelensky announced that he was introducing martial law. He urged people to remain calm.
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Police officers inspect the remains of a missile that landed in Kyiv on February 24.
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A staff member of a Kyiv hotel talks on the phone on February 24.
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Smoke rises from an air defense base after an apparent Russian strike in Mariupol on February 24. A CNN team in Mariupol reported hearing a barrage of artillery.
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People wait in line to buy train tickets at the central station in Kyiv on February 24.
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A long line of cars is seen exiting Kyiv on February 24. Heavy traffic appeared to be heading west, away from where explosions were heard early in the morning.
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A photo provided by the Ukrainian President’s office appears to show an explosion in Kyiv early on February 24.
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People in Moscow watch a televised address by Russian President Vladimir Putin as he announces a military operation in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine on February 24. “Whoever tries to interfere with us, and even more so to create threats to our country, to our people, should know that Russia’s response will be immediate and will lead you to such consequences as you have never experienced in your history,” he said.
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An emergency meeting of the UN Security Council is held in New York to discuss the crisis on February 23. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres told Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop “attacking Ukraine” and to give peace a chance.
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A convoy of Russian military vehicles is seen February 23 in the Rostov region of Russia, which runs along Ukraine’s eastern border.
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Ukrainian soldiers talk in a shelter at the front line near Svitlodarsk, Ukraine, on February 23.
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Smoke rises from a damaged power plant in Shchastya that Ukrainian authorities say was hit by shelling on February 22.
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A damaged house is worked on after shelling near the Ukrainian front-line city of Novoluhanske on February 22.
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Mourners gather at a church in Kyiv on February 22 for the funeral of Ukrainian Army Capt. Anton Sydorov. The Ukrainian military said he was killed by a shrapnel wound on February 19 after several rounds of artillery fire were directed at Ukrainian positions near Myronivske.
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Ukrainian soldiers pay their respects during Sydorov’s funeral in Kyiv on February 22.
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A sign displays conversion rates at a currency exchange kiosk in Kyiv on February 22. Global markets tumbled the day after Putin ordered troops into parts of eastern Ukraine.
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Russian howitzers are loaded onto train cars near Taganrog, Russia, on February 22.
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Sergey Ponomarev/The New York Times/Redux
People who left a separatist-held region in eastern Ukraine watch an address by Putin from their hotel room in Taganrog, Russia, on February 21. Putin blasted Kyiv’s growing security ties with the West, and in lengthy remarks about the history of the USSR and the formation of the Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic, he appeared to cast doubt on Ukraine’s right to self-determination.
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Putin signs decrees recognizing the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic in a ceremony in Moscow on February 21. Earlier in the day, the heads of the self-proclaimed pro-Russian republics requested the Kremlin leader recognize their independence and sovereignty. Members of Putin’s Security Council supported the initiative in a meeting earlier in the day.
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Protesters demanding economic sanctions against Russia stand outside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kyiv on February 21. Only a small number of protesters showed up to demonstrate.
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Activists hold a performance in front of the Russian embassy in Kyiv on February 21 in support of prisoners who were arrested in Crimea. They say the red doors are a symbol of the doors that were kicked in to search and arrest Crimean Tatars, a Muslim ethnic minority.
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Ukrainian servicemen shop in the front-line town of Avdiivka, Ukraine, on February 21.
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People lay flowers at the Motherland Monument in Kyiv on February 21.
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A local resident shows the depth of a crater from shelling in a field behind his house in the village of Tamarchuk, Ukraine, on February 20.
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Ukrainian service members are seen along the front line outside of Popasna, Ukraine, on February 20.
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Sergey Ponomarev/The New York Times/Redux
People evacuated from the pro-Russian separatist regions of Ukraine are seen at a temporary shelter in Taganrog, Russia, on February 20.
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Anastasia Manha lulls her 2-month-old son Mykyta after alleged shelling by separatists forces in Novohnativka, Ukraine, on February 20.
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A Ukrainian soldier stays on position on the front line near Novohnativka on February 20.
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Emilio Morenatti/AP
A couple arrives at the city council to get married in Odessa, Ukraine, on February 20. As Ukrainian authorities reported further ceasefire violations and top Western officials warned about an impending conflict, life went on in other parts of the country.
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Timothy Fadek/Redux for CNN
Ukrainian Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskiy, left, visits soldiers at a front-line position in Novoluhanske on February 19. Minutes after he left, the position came under fire. No one was injured.
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A woman rests in a car near a border checkpoint in Avilo-Uspenka, Russia, on February 19.
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Residents of the breakaway Donetsk state sign up for evacuation to Russia on February 19. The evacuation orders were given by pro-Russian separatist leaders in eastern Ukraine’s breakaway regions, who claimed they were necessary because of an imminent offensive by the Ukrainian army. Ukrainian officials repeatedly denied any such plans and accused the separatists of launching a “disinformation campaign.”
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A Ukrainian service member walks by a building on February 19 that was hit by mortar fire in the front-line village of Krymske, Ukraine.
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Fighter jets fly over Belarus during a joint military exercise the country held with Russia on February 19.
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Ukrainian soldiers stand guard at a military command center in Novoluhanske on February 19.
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Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters
People sit on a bus in Donetsk on February 18 after they were ordered to evacuate to Russia by pro-Russian separatists.
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The remains of a military vehicle are seen in a parking lot outside a government building following an explosion in Donetsk on February 18. Ukrainian and US officials said the vehicle explosion was a staged attack designed to stoke tensions in eastern Ukraine.
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A memorial service and candlelight vigil is held at the St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery in Kyiv on February 18. They honored those who died in 2014 while protesting against the government of President Viktor Yanukovych, a pro-Russian leader who later fled the country.
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Carlos Barria/Reuters
A kindergarten that officials say was damaged by shelling is seen in Stanytsia Luhanska, Ukraine, on February 17. No lives were lost, but it was a stark reminder of the stakes for people living near the front lines that separate Ukrainian government forces from Russian-backed separatists.
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Children play on old Soviet tanks in front of the Motherland Monument in Kyiv on February 16.
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Ambassadors of European countries lay roses at the Wall of Remembrance in Kyiv on February 16. The wall contains the names and photographs of military members who have died since the conflict with Russian-backed separatists began in 2014.
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US troops walk on the tarmac at the Rzeszów-Jasionka Airport in southeastern Poland on February 16. US paratroopers landed in Poland as part of a deployment of several thousand sent to bolster NATO’s eastern flank in response to tensions with Russia.
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A 200-meter-long Ukrainian flag is unfolded at the Olympic Stadium in Kyiv on February 16 to mark a “Day of Unity,” an impromptu celebration declared by President Volodymyr Zelensky.
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Timothy Fadek/Redux for CNN
Travelers wait in line to check in to their departing flights February 15 at the Boryspil International Airport outside Kyiv. US President Joe Biden urged Americans in Ukraine to leave the country, warning that “things could go crazy quickly” in the region.
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Vadim Ghirda/AP
A Ukrainian serviceman carries an anti-tank weapon during an exercise in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine on February 15.
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Brendan Hoffman/The New York Times/Redux
A location of Oschadbank, a state-owned bank, is seen in Kyiv on February 15. The websites of Oschadbank and PrivatBank, the country’s two largest banks, were hit by cyberattacks that day, as were the websites of Ukraine’s defense ministry and army, according to Ukrainian government agencies.
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A woman and child walk underneath a military monument in Senkivka, Ukraine, on February 14. It’s on the outskirts of the Three Sisters border crossing between Ukraine, Russia and Belarus.
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Milan Sabic/Reuters
F/A-18E and 18F Super Hornets are seen on the flight deck of the USS Harry S. Truman, an American aircraft carrier in the Adriatic Sea on February 14. The Truman was on its way to the Middle East in mid-December, but the Pentagon decided to keep it in Europe as tensions began to escalate.
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Vadim Ghirda/AP
Ukrainian service members talk at a front-line position in eastern Ukraine on February 14.
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Emilio Morenatti/AP
Members of Ukraine’s National Guard look out a window as they ride a bus through the capital of Kyiv on February 14.
Satellite images taken on February 13 by Maxar Technologies revealed that dozens of helicopters had appeared at a previously vacant airbase in Russian-occupied Crimea.
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The Russian navy’s diesel-electric Kilo-class submarine, Rostov-on-Don, moves through Turkey’s Bosphorus Strait en route to the Black Sea on February 13.
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US soldiers and military vehicles are seen at a military airport in Mielec, Poland, on February 12. The White House approved a plan for the nearly 2,000 US troops in Poland to help Americans who may try to evacuate Ukraine, according to two US officials familiar with the matter.
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An anti-war demonstration takes place in Kyiv’s Independence Square on February 12.
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Pro-Russian separatists observe the movement of Ukrainian troops from trenches in Ukraine’s Donbas area on February 11.
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Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters
Ukrainian service members unpack Javelin anti-tank missiles that were delivered to Kyiv on February 10 as part of a US military support package for Ukraine.
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Vadim Ghirda/AP
Ukrainian service members walk on an armored fighting vehicle during a training exercise in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region on February 10.
Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boichenko said on Saturday the city was without power, heat, water or mobile networks, and some buses that were going to be used to evacuate civilians had been destroyed in the shelling.
“(The Russian military) is working to besiege the city and set up a blockade. They want to cut us off from the humanitarian corridor, shutting down the delivery of essential goods, medical supplies, even baby food,” he said in an interview on a YouTube channel Saturday. “Their goal is to choke the city and place it under an unbearable stress.”
A resident of a village near Volnovakha, whose husband has been trying to evacuate people from the city in recent days, gave CNN a written account of the situation there, saying: “There is almost nothing left in the city, something comes in every minute from all sides, it is not clear what … and it is not clear from where it comes. Scary, crazy!”
Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement carried by TASS that offensive operations resumed Saturday evening, local time, claiming the “population of these cities is being held by nationalist formations as human shields.”
The United Kingdom’s Defense Ministry said Russia had likely accused Ukraine of breaking the agreement to “shift responsibility for current and future civilian casualties in the city.”
As the Russian invasion continues, Zelensky has reiterated his pleas for US and NATO assistance in establishing a no-fly zone over Ukraine – a move which could prevent Russian forces from carrying out airstrikes against the country.
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‘This war is for all the world’: Zelensky says war is over democracy and freedom
But there are fears such a move could be seen as an escalation, with Russian President Vladimir Putin warning on Saturday he would consider countries imposing a no-fly zone over Ukraine as “participants in a military conflict.”
Zelensky has repeatedly asked NATO and Western officials to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine, but both say they oppose such a move.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday that establishing such a zone could lead to a “full-fledged war in Europe,” but added Washington would continue to work with its allies to provide Ukrainians with the means to defend themselves from Russian aggression.
In an impassioned call to US lawmakers Saturday, Zelensky also encouraged Eastern European nations to provide Ukraine with fighter jets, stressing they were needed to defend against Russian aggression.
On the call, Zelensky said if the West won’t impose a no-fly zone they should give Ukraine planes.
Putin claimed Saturday that Russia had almost completed the destruction of Ukrainian air defense systems, and added that Western sanctions were the “equivalent of a declaration of war.”
In Mariupol – a city with a population of nearly 400,000 – doctors are living and sleeping at hospitals as they work to save lives, Boichenko said.
“This is the sixth straight day of airstrikes and we are not able to get out to recover the dead,” he said Saturday.
A Doctors Without Borders (MSF) staff member said they collected snow and rain on Friday for water. Multiple grocery stores were reportedly destroyed by missiles, and pharmacies are out of medicine, the staffer said.
MSF Director of Operations Christine Jamet called for safe routes to allow civilians to flee from Mariupol.
“Civilians must not be trapped in a war zone,” Jamet said Saturday. “People seeking safety must be able to do so, without fear of violence.”
In the southern city of Kherson, Ukrainians took to the streets to protest Saturday – despite being under Russian occupation.
On Wednesday, the city’s mayor said the Ukrainian military was no longer in the city and that its inhabitants must now carry out the instructions of “armed people who came to the city’s administration” – indicating that Kherson had fallen under Russian control.
A Kherson resident said Friday people couldn’t go outside, Ukrainian TV had been taken off air and men were being seized and taken away.
But on Saturday, residents took to the Russian-occupied streets, waving flags and chanting, video shows.
Zelensky praised the Ukrainian resistance in Kherson, saying protesting when your city is occupied is a “special kind of heroism.”
“When you don’t have a firearm but they respond with gunshots and you don’t run … this is the reason why occupation is temporary,” he said in a video address posted to his official Facebook page on Saturday.
