March 25 (Reuters) – Ukrainian troops are recapturing towns east of Kyiv and Russian forces who had been trying to seize the capital are falling back on overextended supply lines, Britain said, an indication of a shift in momentum in the war.
The mayor of a suburb east of Kyiv said Ukrainian troops had retaken a nearby village and thousands of civilians were now leaving the area, answering a call from the authorities to get out of the way of the counter-attack.
Kharkiv, #Ukraine. Spring 2022. This video gives me goosebumps. The man is playing “My dear mother”, a song that every Ukrainian knows very well. pic.twitter.com/6iCoo5L7bF
* About 3.7 million people have left Ukraine since the conflict began, a U.N. refugee official said.
* A United Nations human rights team is looking into allegations that civilians have been forcibly moved from Mariupol to Russia, a senior official said.
* If Mariupol resident Alexandra’s husband could have stayed alive long enough to receive the humanitarian aid that finally came, he would have lived, she said.
* The United States assesses that Russia is suffering failure rates as high as 60% for some precision-guided missiles in Ukraine, three U.S. officials told Reuters.
* The northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv has in effect been cut off by Russian forces, the regional governor said.
Governor Viacheslav Chaus also said the city was under fire from artillery and warplanes.
*The United States and its NATO allies are doing contingency planning for any possible Russian attack on NATO territory, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Friday as U.S. President Joe Biden traveled to Poland.
* Ukraine’s northern Rivne region has suspended its rail links with Russia-allied Belarus to prevent supplies reaching Russian forces in Ukraine, Governor Vitaly Koval said on Friday.
“This means that Russia will no longer be able to deliver military equipment and supplies to the occupiers through the Belarusian railways,” he said in an online statement
* The United States will supply the European Union with more liquefied natural gas (LNG) to help curb its reliance on Russian fossil fuels, U.S. President Joe Biden said as EU leaders met to deal with an energy crunch triggered by the war.
* European shares fell for a third straight session on Friday and were set to end the week lower as the Russia-Ukraine conflict kept investors cautious heading into the weekend.
* The Swiss trading arm of Russian energy firm Lukoil has scaled back operations after the oil company cut its supply of capital to guarantee nearly $1 billion in margin calls in the wake of sanctions, according to three sources.
The world condemns Putin’s senseless war. The U.S. and our @NATO Allies will continue to provide security assistance to support Ukraine’s right to self-defense, while we continue to impose costs on Russia. pic.twitter.com/VhsRgQZeZG
* “I told my wife to grab the children and to hide in the basement, and I went to the drafting station and joined my unit straight away. And the next day from the army base we moved to the frontline.” Andriy, a Ukrainian soldier on the frontline northwest of Kyiv.
* “We have to stay fully, totally, thoroughly united.” – Biden in Brussels after meetings with Western allies.
Ukrainian servicemen carry a coffin during a funeral ceremony to pay their respects to Ukrainian soldiers killed in fighting with Russian forces, in Lviv, Ukraine. A memorial ceremony was held for Senior Lieutenant Igor Fedorchik who was killed from shelling during Russia’s operation in Ukraine. On 24 February Russian troops had entered Ukrainian territory in what the Russian president declared a ‘special military operation’, resulting in fighting and destruction in the country, a huge flow of refugees, and multiple sanctions against Russia. EPA-EFE/MYKOLA TYS
