UKRAINE: Mariupol running out of food, American journalist killed

Article content

As Sunday brought more death and destruction raining down on Ukraine, even the Pope spoke out against the Russian invasion of the country.

Article content

Pope Francis referred to Mariupol as a martyr city and said, “In the name of God… let the bombings and attacks cease.

“In the name of God, I ask you, stop this massacre.”

The Pope put his concern for the city named for the Virgin Mary on social media.

Spiritual leader of the Orthodox world, Bartholomew I, also called for a ceasefire in Ukraine on Sunday and praised the country’s “powerful resistance” against invading Russian forces.

— More than 2,100 residents of Mariupol have now been killed since hostilities began, according to local authorities. Ukrainian President Volomydyr Zelenskyy was featured in a tweet by CBSNews Sunday stating that a child had died of dehydration in the city.

— Mariupol is running out of food and water and faces a humanitarian catastrophe if a relief convoy cannot get through. Those efforts were stopped Sunday as the city has been blocked by the Russians, who continue to bomb non-military targets. there is no electricity, heat or running water in the city. About 400,000 people are stranded there.

Article content

— American journalist and filmmaker Brent Renaud was in Ukraine to film refugees leaving the country for a documentary when he was shot and killed by Russian forces near Irpin. He was working in that city, just outside Kyiv, as was US photographer Juan Arredondo, who was wounded and taken to hospital.

— Missiles hit Yavoriv military base near the western city of Lviv, which is only about 17 kilometers from the Polish border, killing 35 people and leaving more than 130 in hospital, according to a report from CNN. Ukrainians deny a Russian report that said 180 were killed.

— Al Jazeera reports that demonstrators against the invasion are being arrested in Russia. More than 776 people in 37 Russian cities were arrested on Sunday, almost half of them detained in Moscow, according to OVD-Info, an independent human rights protest-monitoring group. More than 5,000 people were arrested across Russia for participating in the anti-war protests last weekend. Some 14,763 protesters have been detained in 151 Russian cities since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.

Article content

— Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said Sunday he’s worried about the possibility of Russia using chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine, according to CNN. Polish President Andrzej Duda likewise told bbc tv of his fears that Russia may use chemical weapons. Claims were made Sunday that Russia used phosphorus munitions in an attack on Popasna in Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region; this claim came from Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman Liudmila Denisova and such an attack is a war crime.

— Russian troops continue to batter Kyiv. The city is said to have a two-week supply of food in case of a blockade; Russian forces shelled a convoy of hundreds of people fleeing Peremoha, about 12 miles northeast of Kyiv, killing seven, including a child. Zelenskyy announced Saturday that 1,300 Ukrainian soldiers had died in the war. However, I have said there was only one way the Russians could capture Kyiv: “They will come here only if they kill us all. If that is their goal, let them come.”