Live news: 35 die in Russia air strike on Ukraine military base near Poland

Live news updates: Troops launch missile attack on a large Ukrainian military facility near the Polish border.

4:28 PM

Indian Embassy in Ukraine temporarily shifted to Poland

India has decided to temporarily relocate its embassy in Ukraine to Poland in view of the rapidly deteriorating security situation in the war-torn country.

The decision comes amid increasing Russian attacks on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and several other prominent cities.

"In view of the rapidly deteriorating security situation in Ukraine, including attacks in the western parts of the country, it has been decided that the Indian Embassy in Ukraine will be temporarily relocated to Poland," the Ministry of External Affairs said.

"The situation will be reassessed in the light of further developments," it said in a brief statement.

4:26 PM

Yogi meets Vice Prez; likely to meet PM Modi next

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath met Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu and BJP general secretary (organisation) BL Santhosh on Sunday, in his first visit to the national capital after the party notched up a comprehensive victory in the assembly polls.

Adityanath is likely to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi next, and BJP president JP Nadda, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh thereafter.

Set to take oath as the chief minister for a second term, Adityanath's talks with the top party leadership, including Shah and Nadda, are likely to centre around a host of issues related to the government formation besides being a formal exercise.

He is likely to be here for two days, sources said.

The BJP won 255 seats in the 403-member assembly. Its two allies secured another 18 seats.

4:16 PM

Invasion jolts Russia's friends in tiny West-leaning Moldova

Across the border from war-engulfed Ukraine, tiny, impoverished Moldova an ex-Soviet republic now looking eagerly Westward has watched with trepidation as the Russian invasion unfolds.

In Gagauzia, a small, autonomous part of the country that's traditionally felt closer to the Kremlin than the West, people would normally back Russia, which they never wanted to leave when Moldova gained independence. But this time, most have trouble identifying with either side in the war.

Anna Koejoglo says she's deeply conflicted.

I have sisters (in Ukraine), I have nephews there, my own son is in Kyiv, the 52-year-old said, quickly adding that her other, younger, son is studying in Russia.

My heart is (broken), my insides are burning, she told The Associated Press.

Koejoglo is one of Moldova's 160,000 Gagauz, an Orthodox Christian people of Turkic origin who were settled there by the Russian Empire in the 19th century. They make up over 80% of Gagauzia's population, but only 5% of Moldova's 2.6 million people.

In the early 1990s, when landlocked Moldova voted to leave the Soviet Union, its Gagauz and Russian minorities wanted to stay. But unlike Russian-backed separatists in eastern Moldova who took up arms in 1992 to establish the unrecognized, breakaway Trans-Dniester area which Russia essentially controls, maintaining some 1,500 troops there the Gagauz in the south chose to compromise.

4:12 PM

57 members invited to attend Congress meet

Fifty Seven members has been invited to attend a top level meeting of the Congress Party, to assess the reasons for the party's debacle in the recent assembly polls in five states, a television channel reported today

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will not be attending due to heath reasons, the channel said.

It added that there were only three dissenters in the CWC. 

4:01 PM

Russian forces advance 8 miles over past day: Russian Defense Min

Units of the Russian armed forces are moving forward with the special operation, having advanced up to 14 kilometres (8.7 miles) over the past 24 hours, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said on Sunday.

"Units of the Russian armed forces advanced up to 14 kilometers over the past day. During offensive operations, the southern districts of the settlements of Blahodatne, Volodymyrivka, Pavlovka and Nikolske were put under control," Konashenkov said.

In addition, the spokesman noted that troops of the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) completely blocked the settlement of Borivske and consolidated their positions in the northern regions of the city of Popasna. According to Konashenkov, the LPR forces also blocked the eastern and southern parts of Severodonetsk.

On February 24, Russia began a special operation to demilitarize and "denazify" Ukraine, responding to calls for help from the Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics in countering the aggression of Ukrainian troops.

The Russian Defense Ministry said the special operation is targeting Ukrainian military infrastructure only and the civilian population is not in danger. Moscow has repeatedly stressed that it has no plans to occupy Ukraine.

3:59 PM

Bus full of Ukrainian refugees overturns in Italy; 1 dead

A bus carrying about 50 Ukrainian refugees overturned on a major highway in northern Italy at dawn on Sunday, killing one person, Italian firefighters said.

Italian state radio said there were several injured in the accident on the A14 autostrada near Forli', a town in the Emilia-Romagna region in northeastern Italy. It said the rest of those aboard were safely evacuated.

The bus landed on its side on a grassy slope just beyond a highway guardrail and near a farm field. Firefighters used two cranes in an operation to set the bus upright and remove it.

Italy's Interior Ministry said the bus had set out from Ukraine and was heading south to Pescara, an Adriatic port city, when it overturned.

The passengers were taken to a nearby police barracks for initial assistance, and would later resume their journey, the ministry said.

Some 35,000 Ukrainians refugees who fled war in their homeland have entered Italy, most of them through its northeastern border with Slovenia.

Forli' is in the region of Emilia-Romagna, which borders the Adriatic Sea.

What caused the bus to overturn was under investigation.

3:30 PM

Putin may be suffering from dementia, Parkinson's, says report

Russian President Vladimir Putin may be suffering from a brain disorder caused by dementia, Parkinson's disease or 'roid rage' resulting from steroid treatment for cancer, a media report said citing intelligence sources.

Citing sources close to the Kremlin, senior figures in the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the US, believe there is a physiological explanation for the Russian President's globally reviled decision to invade Ukraine, the Daily Mail report said.

The intelligence community is sharing a growing number of reports about 69-year-old Putin's "increasingly erratic behaviour", combined with a bloated appearance in recent footage, and the absurd distance he insists on keeping from visitors to the Kremlin, the report added.

A security source said: "It is only human sources that can offer you the sort of rich picture that we have of Putin's psyche.

"There has been an identifiable change in his decision-making over the past five years or so. Those around him see a marked change in the cogency and clarity of what he says and how he perceives the world around him."

The source said this failure to think clearly was being compounded by the lack of a "negative feedback loop", with the Russian leader "simply not being briefed" on elements of failures with the invasion.

Russia's ongoing war on Ukraine entered the 18th day on Sunday

 

3:26 PM

179 students reach Jharkhand from crisis-hit Ukraine

As many as 179 students who were trapped in war-torn Ukraine, have reached Jharkhand, State Migrant Control Room officials said on Sunday.

Of the 179 students, 34 were from Ranchi district followed by East Singhbhum (26), Dhanbad (18), Godda (15), Palamu (14), Hazaribag (13) and Bokaro (10).

Control Room head, Johnson Topno, told PTI, "We had identified 184 Jharkhand students stranded in different locations of Ukraine, of which 179 have returned till Saturday evening. Two students have been traced in Budapest and Russia respectively, and they are not willing to return. Contacts of three remaining could not be established."

Topno said, "We are expecting that the remaining three might have reached India or Jharkhand. This may be the reason that neither the students nor their family members contacted us again. So, we can say that all Jharkhand students who have been traced in crisis-hit Ukraine have returned."

On February 25, Jharkhand government had set up the Control Room to help families of students and workers stuck in crisis-hit Ukraine. Later, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren also announced that the state will reimburse the airfare of those who are returning from war-torn Ukraine on personal expenses.

2:34 PM

Ukraine says 9 killed in Russian air strike on military base

At least nine people were killed and 57 wounded in a Russian air strike on a large Ukrainian military base near the Polish border on Sunday, local Ukrainian authorities said, in what appeared to be the westernmost attack of the war. Foreign military instructors have worked in the past at the Yavoriv International Center for Peacekeeping and Security. It was not clear if any were present at the time, Reuters reported.

12:49 PM

Russian forces attempt to surround Ukrainian forces in east

Russian forces are attempting to surround Ukrainian forces in the east of the country as they advance from the direction of Kharkiv in the north and Mariupol in the south, Britain's defence ministry said on Sunday. "Russian forces advancing from Crimea are attempting to circumvent Mykolaiv as they look to drive west towards Odesa," the ministry said in an intelligence update posted on Twitter.

12:13 PM

Air strike launched on Ukraine military base near Polish border

Russia launched an air strike on a Ukrainian military base Yavoriv in the west of the country near the Polish border, local officials said on Sunday, in what appeared to be the westernmost attack of the war. "The occupiers launched an air strike on the International Center for Peacekeeping and Security. According to preliminary data, they fired eight missiles," the Lviv regional military administration said in a statement. The military training facility, the biggest in the western part of the country and traditionally the site of joint drills with NATO, is located less than 25 km from the Polish border, Reuters reported.

10:46 AM

Zelensky says around 1,300 Ukrainian troops killed in war

Ukrainian President Zelensky said around 1,300 Ukrainian troops have been killed during the invasion and Russia was sending more forces after suffering its biggest losses in decades, according to Reuters. Civilian infrastructure and residential buildings throughout the key Black Sea port of Mariupol suffered extensive damage, said private US satellite firm Maxar.

 

 

9:55 AM

Ukraine warns of desolation if Russia tries to take Kyiv

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has warned Russian forces they face a fight to the death if they try to occupy the capital Kyiv, as air raid sirens again woke residents on Sunday morning. "If they decide to carpet bomb and simply erase the history of this region ... and destroy all of us, then they will enter Kyiv. If that's their goal, let them come in, but they will have to live on this land by themselves," Zelenskiy said on Saturday, according to Reuters.

9:21 AM

Qatari foreign minister to meet counterpart in Moscow

Qatari Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani will travel to Moscow on Sunday after talks to revive the Iran nuclear deal stalled and Russia invaded Ukraine. Al Thani plans to meet with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, Bloomberg reported quoting a person with knowledge of the matter. Al Thani could also potentially meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the person added, asking not to be identified. 

 

9:10 AM

Former US President Trump says 'we don't have anybody to talk to' Putin