the highlights of Wednesday 9 March

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On the fourteenth day of the invasion of Ukraine, Wednesday March 9, Russian forces surrounded at least four cities: Kharkiv (second largest city in Ukraine), Sumy (north-east), Chernihiv (north of Kiev) and Kiev , the capital, still under Ukrainian control, which is preparing for an upcoming assault.

Russia and Ukraine have reached an agreement on ceasefires to allow the establishment of several humanitarian corridors around areas hard hit by fighting in recent days.

A facility housing a pediatric hospital and a maternity ward was hit by Russian shelling in Mariupol, injuring at least 17 people. The executive director of Unicef ​​said “horrified”. “We do not know the number of victims but we fear the worst”, she said in a statement.

A bombed children’s hospital in Mariupol

A pediatric hospital in Mariupol, a besieged port in southeastern Ukraine, was destroyed by Russian shelling on Wednesday, regional official Pavlo Kirilenko said. According to a first provisional report, 17 adults were injured “among the hospital staff”he announced on Ukrainian television, specifying that there was for the moment “no child” among the wounded and “no deaths”.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reacted quickly on Twitter, writing that “people, children are under the rubble”. “Atrocity! (…) Stop these murders”, he wrote again. In a video posted on his Twitter account, we can see from inside buildings blown up, debris, sheets of paper and shards of glass strewn on the ground.

The international community reacted quickly, with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson slamming an attack “immoral”the UN recalling that no health facility “must not be a target”. The executive director of Unicef ​​said “horrified”. “We do not know the number of victims but we fear the worst”, she said in a statement.

The nine days of Russian siege in Mariupol have caused a total of 1,207 civilian deaths, the town hall said on Wednesday evening in a short text on its Telegram channel. Some 300,000 civilians have been pinned down for days by the fighting in this strategic port in the south-east of the country, on the Sea of ​​Azov, deprived of water, food and electricity and where humanitarian aid is not available. couldn’t happen.

Chernobyl power plant cut off from power grid

After the Zaporijia nuclear power plant, it is now Chernobyl’s turn to focus concerns in Ukraine. The plant, the cause of the most serious civil nuclear disaster in 1986, “has been completely disconnected from the electricity network due to the military actions of the Russian occupier. The site no longer has an electricity supply”, said the Ukrainian operator Ukrenergo. The Chernobyl site, located in an exclusion zone, includes decommissioned reactors and radioactive waste facilities.

Considering the time that has elapsed since the 1986 accident, “the thermal load of the swimming pool and the volume of the cooling water are sufficient to ensure efficient heat removal without electricity”, estimated the IAEA, which “does not see a major impact on security”she added.

A power outage “would pose more problems” in the four power plants in operation in the country, “where it is absolutely necessary to cool the fuel present in the reactor core or in the pool”, believes the head of the IRSN. Since the beginning of the Russian invasion, the Director General of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi, has called for the greatest restraint. He has repeatedly offered to visit Ukraine to establish a framework to ensure site security during the conflict, the first to take place in a country with a large nuclear program.

Progress in the negotiations

Russians and Ukrainians agreed on Wednesday to respect ceasefires around a series of humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians, the Ukrainian government announced.

Russia has found “some progress” in negotiations with Ukraine, said a government spokeswoman. Russia’s goals “does not include the occupation of Ukraine, the destruction of its state, or the overthrow of the current government”she said, reaffirming that she was not targeting the civilian population.

Turkey will host the Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers on Thursday for their first face-to-face since the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has stepped up mediation efforts since the crisis began, argued on Wednesday that “Turkey can talk to both Ukraine and Russia”. “We are working to prevent the crisis from turning into a tragedy”he insisted.


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