Russia warns nations against hosting Ukrainian warplanes
Moscow says it may consider them a part of the conflict if Ukrainian aircrat fly combat missions from their territory; pope says ‘rivers of blood’ flowing in war; Ukrainian refugee, 11, crosses Slovak border alone
The Russian military has warned Ukraine’s neighbouring countries from hosting its warplanes, saying Moscow may consider them a part of the conflict if Ukrainian aircrat fly combat missions from their territory.
Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov charged on Sunday that some Ukrainian combat planes had redeployed to Romania and other Ukraine neighbours he didn’t identify.
Konashenkov warned that if those warplanes atack the Russian forces from the territory of those nations, it “could be considered as those countries’ engagement in the military conflict.”
Ukrainians fleeing the town of Irpin just outside Kyiv were caught in shelling by Russian forces on Sunday and forced to dive for cover, witnesses said.
Irpin, some 25km northwest of the capital, has seen intense fighting in recent days. Russia’s military is closing in on Kyiv, home to around 3.4 million people before the invasion sparked a mass exodus of civilians.
Irpin residents scurried along pavements clutching children, luggage and pets as they made their way to waiting buses and cars that would take them further from the clashes.
Soldiers and fellow residents helped elderly men and women who were falling behind. Some people crouched down when explosions went off nearby, apparently from mortar rounds.
Reuters reporters did not witness casualties in the shelling, but several news outlets said that at least three people were killed — a woman and two children.
Pope Francis on Sunday rejected Russia’s use of the term “special military operation” for its invasion of Ukraine, saying the country was being batered by war and urging an immediate end to the fighting.
“In Ukraine, rivers of blood and tears are flowing. This is not just a military operation but a war which sows death, destruction and misery,” the pope said in his weekly address to crowds gathered in St. Peter’s Square.
The comments were the strongest the pope had yet made about the violence although, as has been the case throughout the conflict, he did not condemn Russia by name.
Instead, he repeated his appeal for peace, the creation of humanitarian corridors and a return to negotiations.
“In that martyred country the need for humanitarian assistance is growing by the hour,” the pope said, speaking from a window overlooking the square. “War is madness, please stop.”
Meanwhile, an 11-year-old boy from Ukraine has crossed the border into Slovakia with just a plastic bag, a passport and a telephone number writen on his hand, Slovak police said on Sunday.
“He came all alone from Zaporizhzhia because his parents had to stay in Ukraine,” police spokeswoman Denisa Bardyova told reporters.
Volunteers took care of the boy, who arrived on Saturday, and provided him with food and drink.
The boy’s mother had put her son on a train to Slovakia since she could not leave because she has to look ater her own disabled mother.
“I am very grateful that they saved the life of my child,” the mother, Yulia Pisetskaya, said in a video message posted on Facebook on Sunday.
“In your small country, there are people with big hearts,” the mother said.
The police said on Facebook that the boy “won everybody’s hearts with his smile, fearlessness and determination, worthy of a real hero.”
Local volunteers have managed to contact the boy’s relatives in Slovakia, who have now come for him and brought him to the capital Bratislava.
An atempt to evacuate residents from the besieged southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol collapsed for a second day on Sunday, the International Commitee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said, blaming an insufficiently clear agreement between the two sides.
“Amid devastating scenes of human suffering in Mariupol, a second atempt today to start evacuating an estimated 200,000 people out of the city came to a halt,” the ICRC said in a statement.
Russian President Vladimir Putin told French counterpart Emmanuel Macron on Sunday that Moscow planned to achieve its aims in Ukraine either through diplomacy or military means, the Elysee said.