Kashmir Digits

As Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed that Russia has attacked a chemical plant, we take a look at key events from Day 26 of the Russia-Ukraine war.

Fighting

• Russia has shelled houses and a shopping area in Kyiv’s Podil district, killing at least four people, city authorities say.
• An official in Odesa says Russia has started using “unmanned aerial vehicles in urban areas”.
• Ukraine and its Western backers say Russian ground forces have not advanced much in the past week, concentrating instead on artillery and missile attacks – often into urban centres.
• Iryna Vereshchuk, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, has rejected a Russian call for Ukrainian forces in Mariupol to lay down their arms.
• UK defence ministry says Russian forces advancing from Crimea are trying to go around Mykolaiv as they attempt to get to Odesa.
• Dmytro Zhyvytskyy, governor of Sumy, says the villages of Novoselytsya and Verkhnya Syrovatka have been contaminated by an ammonia leak at a chemical plant in the northeastern part of the city besieged by Russian troops.

Diplomacy

• Russian and Ukrainian negotiators will continue with their online talks on Monday, according to the Ukrainska Pravda.
• Turkey’s foreign minister says Russia and Ukraine are nearing agreement on “critical” issues and he is hopeful for a ceasefire if the two sides did not backtrack.
• European Union foreign ministers will meet on Monday to start discussing imposing tougher sanctions on Russia, including an oil embargo.
• US President Joe Biden arrives in Brussels on Thursday for summits with the 30 members of NATO, the EU, and in a Group of Seven (G7) format including Japan.

3.3 million refugees

• More than 3.3 million refugees have fled Ukraine since the invasion and nearly 6.5 million are thought to be internally displaced within the country, the UN refugee agency has said.
• The First Lady of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska, has called on the World Council of Churches to help organise “real” humanitarian corridors.