Russian airstrike hits military training base in western Ukraine, kills 35
Lviv (Ukraine), Mar 13: Waves of Russian missiles pounded a military training base near Ukraine's western border with NATO member Poland, killing 35 people, Ukrainian authorities said Sunday. The strike followed Russian threats to target foreign weapon shipments that are helping Ukrainian fighters defend their country against Russia's grinding assault.
More than 30 Russian cruise missiles targeted the sprawling facility that is less than 25 kilometers (15 miles) from the closest border point with Poland, according to the governor of Ukraine's western Lviv region. Poland is a transit route for Western military aid to Ukraine, and the United States increased the number of America troops deployed there.
The training base near Yavoriv appears to be the westernmost target struck during Russia's 18-day invasion. The facility, also known as the International Peacekeeping and Security Center, has long been used to train Ukrainian military personnel, often with instructors from the U.S. and other NATO countries.
The base has also hosted international NATO drills and a senior NATO official, Admiral Rob Bauer, previously hailed it as embodying the spirit of military cooperation" between Ukraine and international forces. As such, the site symbolizes a longstanding Russian complaint: that the 30-member Western military alliance has expanded in Eastern Europe too close to Russian territory.
One of Moscow's stated conditions for ending the hostilities in Ukraine is for the country to drop its ambitions to join NATO.
Lviv governor Maksym Kozytskyi said most of the Russian missiles fired Sunday were shot down because the air defense system worked. The ones that got through through killed at least 35 people and wounded 134, he said.
NATO said Sunday that it currently does not have any personnel in Ukraine. White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the West would respond if Russia's armaments travel outside Ukraine and hit any NATO members, even accidentally.
President Joe Biden has been clear, repeatedly, that the United States will work with our allies to defend every inch of NATO territory and that means every inch, Sullivan said on CBS News' Face the Nation.
The city of Lviv itself so far has been spared the scale of destruction unfolding to its east and south. Its population of 721,000 has swelled during the war with residents escaping other bombarded population centers and as a waystation for the nearly 2.6 million refugees who fled the country.
Ukrainian and European leaders have pushed with limited success for Russia to grant safe passage to civilians trapped by fighting. Ukrainian authorities said more than 10 humanitarian corridors would open Sunday, with agreement from Russia, including from the battered and besieged port city of Mariupol, where authorities say more than 1,500 people have been killed.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address that a convoy carrying 100 tons of humanitarian aid was on its way to Mariupol, and all necessary diplomatic efforts have been taken to make sure it reaches those in need. Capturing Mariupol and other ports on the Azov Sea could allow Russia to establish a land corridor to Crimea, which Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014.
Ukrainian officials have accused Russia of failing to honor previous pledges to withhold fire along temporary evacuation routes. Zelenskyy said Ukrainian authorities still have managed to evacuate nearly 125,000 people from areas where hostilities are ongoing.
But continued fighting on multiple fronts heaped further misery on the country Sunday and provoked renewed international outrage.
In the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv, near the Black Sea, authorities reported nine people killed in bombings. Russian forces advancing from Crimea were attempting to circumvent Mykolaiv on what appeared to be a westward push toward the Black Sea port of Odesa, Britain's Defense Ministry said.
Russian fighters also fired at the airport in the western city of Ivano-Frankivsk, which is less than 150 kilometers (94 miles) north of Romania and 250 kilometers (155 miles) from Hungary, countries that also are NATO allies. The airport, which includes a military airfield as well as a runway for civilian flights, also was targeted Friday.
Ukrainian authorities said Russian airstrikes on a monastery and a children's resort in the eastern Donetsk region hit spots where monks and refugees were sheltering, wounding 32 people.
Another airstrike hit a westward-bound train evacuating people from the east, killing one person and injuring another, Donetsk's chief regional administrator said.
To the north, in the city of Chernihiv, one person was killed and another injured in a Russian airstrike that destroyed a residential block, emergency services said.
Around the capital, Kyiv, a major political and strategic target for the invasion, fighting also intensified, with overnight shelling in the northwestern suburbs and a missile strike Sunday that destroyed a warehouse to the east.
In Irpin, a suburb about 12 miles (20 kilometers) northwest of central Kyiv, bodies lay out in the open Saturday on streets and in a park.
When I woke up in the morning, everything was covered in smoke, everything was dark. We don't know who is shooting and where, resident Serhy Protsenko said as he walked through his neighbourhood with explosions sounding in the distance.
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Belagavi youth’s murder case projected as road accident, cracked in Uttara Kannada; Three arrested
Karwar: Uttara Kannada police have cracked a murder case in which a Belagavi youth was killed and his body burnt inside a car to make it appear like a road accident.
Addressing a press meet in the city, Superintendent of Police Deepan M.N. said three accused from Old Hubballi have been arrested in connection with the case. The crime was a pre-planned act driven by personal enmity, he said.
The case came to light on April 8 morning when a car (KA-04/MJ-8996) was found completely burnt in a roadside ditch near Talekumbri bus stand in Yellapur. Only charred human remains were found inside the vehicle. Initially, it was suspected to be an accident caused by overspeeding, and a case was registered at Yellapur police station based on a complaint filed by the deceased’s father, Jagannath Dhapale.
However, the father later expressed suspicion that his son’s death was not accidental, prompting a detailed investigation.
Taking the matter seriously, two special teams were formed under the leadership of Yellapur Inspector Ramesh Hanapur. On analysing technical evidence and CCTV footage, police found that it was a planned murder.
The accused have been identified as Abdul Raheem Basheer Ahmed Mujawar (32), Maulasab Bavahan Wada (36) and Dadapeer alias Aftab Mehboob Saab Balasangi (22), all chicken traders from Old Hubballi.
Police have seized the car used in the crime along with two scooters. The accused have been remanded to judicial custody.
Investigations revealed that the accused killed Nitesh Dhapale due to personal enmity and later set the car on fire along with the body to project it as an accident.
SP Deepan M.N. appreciated the efforts of Inspector Ramesh Hanapur, PSIs Rajashekhar Vandali and Siddappa Gudi, and the entire team for solving the complex case.
