Mariupol: Russians capture evacuation convoy. Fighters of the so-called “DPR” captured an evacuation convoy with the staff of Ukraine’s State Emergency Service as it headed along a pre-agreed route near Manhush outside Mariupol, Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories Iryna Vereshchuk said on television.
“Today, we made another attempt to open a corridor. There is a convoy of buses, and there are State Emergency Service workers that were captured by the ‘DPR’. They stopped near Manhush, and remain there. We’re doing everything we can to pull them out,” Vereshchuk said. “We have pre-agree the corridor, pre-agreed it with the Red Cross, but people are held hostage. They have captured the vehicles. It is unclear if they will let the people go,” the Minister added.
More than 100,000 people want to flee Mariupol, but they can’t, Vereshchuk said. More than 300,000 people stay in the besieged city.
Belarus could “soon” join Russia in its war against Ukraine, NATO says. Belarus is already taking steps to do so, unnamed U.S. and NATO officials told CNN. It is increasingly “likely” that Belarus will enter the conflict, a NATO military official said on Monday. “Putin needs support,” the official explained.
The NATO military official said that a final decision for Belarus’ involvement in the war still has to be made in Moscow. It is not about what Lukashenka wants, the official explained.
A senior NATO intelligence official said separately that the alliance assesses that the Belarusian government “is preparing the environment to justify a Belarusian offensive against Ukraine.”
The official wouldn’t elaborate on how Belarus could intervene in the war, but said it made sense for Russia to try and cut off NATO military aid coming into Ukraine from its Western border.
Terror against civilians continues. In Severodonetsk, people queuing outside a grocery store fell victim to a Russian artillery attack. One person was killed, and ten more were wounded.
In Kyiv, a curfew was extended from last evening until 7am on Wednesday, March, 23. Kyiv citizens are ordered to stay at home or in shelters. A day earlier, law enforcement detained 149 saboteurs and neutralized 10 explosive devices.
In Kyiv’s Obolon district, two houses and a truck caught fire as Russian forces launched an attack. One person was killed, and three were wounded.
Ukraine in Flames #12. Environmental disaster in Ukraine is Russia’s war crime
UKRAINE IN FLAMES project is created by Ukraine Crisis Media Center, Ukrainian Catholic University’s analytical center and NGO “Euroatlantic Course”. We are aiming at searching a loud support for Ukraine in the war started by Russia on the 24th of February 2022.
Nuclear catastrophe is only one of the environmental disasters that may be unleashed by war in a heavily industrialized country. If destroyed, hundreds of chemical, metallurgical and mining sites, hydropower plants, oil depots and refineries, nuclear energy plants and waste dumps, industrial ports, solid and liquid waste management infrastructure, can cause lasting damage to Ukrainian air, soil, water, biodiversity and air. Some of the facilities have already been attacked in all regions of Ukraine. Ukraine’s environmental governance, such as monitoring, maintaining and launching nature conservation and restoration projects, will be disrupted, because they may not be a priority.
The long-term health and environmental risks of military destruction are site-specific and hard to evaluate without thorough post-conflict field research. This is why early identification of risks and tracking of environmental incidents is crucial. Ukrainian NGOs have started monitoring environmental damage in Crimea and ORDLO since 2014, reporting water pollution, water shortage and marine pollution in Crimea, as well as massive accumulation of poorly managed toxic waste in the Donbas. The Ministry of Environmental Protection continued a wide national online initiative (SaveEcoBot) to register environmental crimes in Ukraine.
Speakers:
Iryna Stavchuk, Deputy Minister for Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine
Oleksii Vasyliuk, Biologist, Head of Ukraine Nature Conservation Group
Natalia Gozak, Executive Director, Ecoaction
Andriy Andrusevych, Senior Policy Expert, Society & Environment
If you want to support Ukraine against Russian aggression, check the link with recommendations by Ukraine Crisis Media Center – https://uacrisis.org/en/help-ukraine
NGO Euroatlantic Course collects donations to support Ukrainian Army and civilians – https://eac.org.ua/en/main-page/