March 8, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

Around 700 Indian students stuck in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy are en route to the town of Poltava, around 108 miles away, according to the Indian Ministry of External Affairs.

The news comes as Ukraine and Russia agreed Tuesday to one evacuation corridor in Sumy, which has seen sustained Russian attacks and airstrikes in recent days.

“Happy to inform that we have been able to move out all Indian students from Sumy. They are currently en route to Poltava, from where they will board trains to western Ukraine,” ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi tweeted Tuesday evening local time, adding that flights were being prepared to repatriate them.

The news comes as Ukraine and Russia agreed Tuesday to one evacuation corridor in Sumy, which has seen sustained Russian attacks and airstrikes in recent days.

“694 Indian students were remaining in Sumy last night, all have now left for Poltava (Ukraine) in buses,” Press Trust of India, a news agency owned by multiple Indian newspapers, tweeted Tuesday citing Hardeep Singh Puri, an Indian cabinet minister.

Earlier Monday, the Indian embassy had attempted to evacuate students in buses, however the efforts were suspended after Russian airstrikes continued to hit evacuation corridors. 

The embassy also said Tuesday that 75 Indian sailors stranded in Mykolaiv Port had been evacuated.

The United Kingdom has warned Poland that sending fighter jets to Ukraine may put them into the "direct line of fire" from Russia. 

Defense Secretary Ben Wallace told Sky News on Tuesday that whilst the UK would "support" a Polish choice to supply Ukraine with fighter jets the country should be aware of Russia's warning of "retribution." 

The news comes a day after the US Ambassador to NATO Julianne Smith told CNN Chief International Anchor Christiane Amanpour that US officials are discussing with the Polish government the potential for Poland to send MiG-29 Soviet-era fighter jets in support of Ukraine. Smith emphasized that this is a "sovereign decision" for Poland take. 

"Poland borders a number of countries such as Belarus, that is an active participant with Russia. And Poland will understand that the choices are not only directly helping Ukraine, which is a good thing, but also may bring them into direct line of fire from countries such as Russia or Belarus," Wallace said. 

He added that it wasn't for him to "second guess" Poland's choice, remarking that there is a "really big responsibility on the shoulders of the President of Poland and the defense minister."

"It is for me as a fellow NATO member to say that we will support Poland and whatever choice she makes," Wallace concluded.

So far, NATO has remained firm in its unwillingness to get directly involved in the conflict beyond supporting Ukraine's resistance to an invasion that is killing innocent civilians, while US officials have made clear that American troops won't engage directly with Russian forces.

Both parties on Friday also pushed back against calls for a no-fly zone to be set up in Ukraine, warning that it could lead to a "full-fledged war in Europe" and saying they're doing what they can to help Ukraine defend itself against Russia's invasion.

CNN's Jeremy Herb and Paul LeBlanc contributed reporting to this post.

Ukrainian athletes showed support for their compatriots at the 2022 Winter Paralympics in Beijing amid the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, after securing a clean sweep of medals in two more para biathlon events at the games on Tuesday.

Iryna Bui led the first Ukrainian podium sweep of the day in the women's middle distance standing, with Oleksandra Kononova and Liudmyla Liashenko earning silver and bronze, respectively.

"I was preparing for this special moment for 12 years. It was my aim and I've been training really hard all of this time," Bui said of winning her first Paralympic medal at her third Games.

"But I came here with another thought. The whole world knows what's going on in Ukraine at the moment and now I know that I have a mission here I represent the whole country. The whole country is behind me and with this medal I will just one more time promote the Ukrainian nation."

And yet another Ukraine podium sweep was to follow just a few hours later in the men’s middle distance vision impaired.

Vitaliy Lukyanenko won comfortably and in the process secured the eighth Paralympic gold medal of his career, with Anatoliy Kovalevskyi and Dmytro Suiarko crossing the line to win silver and bronze, respectively. 

At 43-years-old, Lukyanenko becomes the most successful male biathlete of all-time.

"First of all, I would like to congratulate our beloved women on International Women's Day. I want to wish them a peaceful sky over their heads, and to be happy in life and not to cry like they do now in Ukraine," he said.

Iaroslav Reshetynskyi and Oleksandr Kazik followed Lukyanenko, Kovalevskyi and Suiarko as Ukrainian athletes secured the top five positions in the race. 

It was Ukraine’s third para biathlon podium sweep at the Beijing Paralympics after Lukyanenko, Kazik and Suiarko secured the top three spots in the men's vision impaired sprint on Saturday. Ukraine so far has 6 gold medals at the Games, two behind China.

Ukrainian officials say the planned evacuation route to help civilians leave the northeastern city of Sumy, which has experienced sustained Russian attacks and airstrikes in recent days, is now operating.

The corridor is between Sumy and the Ukrainian city of Poltava -- a journey of just under 100 miles.

"This route has been agreed by the Ukrainian and Russian sides," Dmytro Lunin, head of the Poltava regional administration, said on his Telegram channel.

"The ceasefire regime is from 09:00 till 21:00 Kyiv time. Ukraine adheres to it," he said.

Lunin added that several dozen buses have already left Lokhvytsia, a city southwest of Sumy, to pick up civilians, and that 20 tons of humanitarian aid, including food and medicine, has also been sent.

Some background: The announcement of an evacuation corridor in Sumy comes after a Russian airstrike on an apartment building in the city killed nine civilians, including two children, according to the State Emergency Services (SES) in Ukraine.

On Monday, Ukrainian officials rejected Russia's unilateral proposal for evacuation corridors for civilians as an unacceptable non-starter, as most of the routes lead to Russia or its staunch ally Belarus and would require people to travel through active areas of fighting.

Several previous attempts to evacuate civilians failed earlier this week, with Western leaders accusing Russian forces of continuing to target pre-approved safe routes.

On Sunday, a Russian strike hit an evacuation crossing point outside Kyiv, killing eight people including two children trying to flee.

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Oleksandr Markushyn, the mayor of the Kyiv suburb of Irpin, says he has rejected a demand from Russian forces to surrender the town.

In a Telegram account on Tuesday, Markushyn said he had received a threat on his "life and health and demanding for the complete surrender of Irpin" the previous day.

"I have a counter-offer to the occupiers to leave [the] Irpin community within 24 hours and save the lives and health of several thousand Russian conscripts, whose mother, sister, daughter, grandmother and partner are waiting for them at home."

The Russians declared a ceasefire for the Kyiv area on Tuesday. It's unclear yet whether a cessation of hostilities is being held around the Ukrainian capital.

The UK defense ministry on Monday accused Russian forces of targeting evacuation corridors and killing “several civilians” trying to evacuate Irpin, according to the latest intelligence assessment released publicly by the department.

The ministry noted that due to heavy fighting Irpin has been without heat, water, or electricity for several days.

Eight civilians were killed in the midst of an evacuation of the town, Mayor Markushyn said in a statement on Telegram Sunday.

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The Ukrainian government has agreed on an evacuation corridor for fleeing civilians from the northeastern city of Sumy, which has seen sustained Russian attacks and airstrikes in recent days.

Iryna Vereshchuk, the Ukrainian minister of Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories, said the corridor had been agreed by the Russian Ministry of Defense in a letter to the International Committee of the Red Cross. 

The route for the evacuation corridor would lead from Sumy through Holubivka and Lokhvytsia to Poltava, a city in central Ukraine. It will open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Tuesday, Vereshchuk said, adding that "all obstacles ... must be removed along the entire route."

"No other routes were agreed," she said. "We call on Russia to agree on these routes immediately and ensure a stable ceasefire on these routes." 

She added that Ukraine hoped the Sumy corridor would be followed by others.

Bombing in Sumy: The announcement comes after a Russian airstrike on an apartment building in Sumy killed nine civilians, including two children, according to the State Emergency Services (SES) in Ukraine.

Several previous attempts to evacuate civilians failed earlier this week, with Western leaders accusing Russian forces of continuing to target pre-approved safe routes.

On Sunday, a Russian strike hit an evacuation crossing point outside Kyiv, killing eight people including two children trying to flee.

On Monday, Ukraine's Ambassador to the UN accused Russia of blocking attempts to evacuate civilians, adding it was “appalling” that Russian troops were opening fire on evacuees after both countries had allocated certain roads to be utilized as evacuation corridors. 

Nine people were killed by a Russian air strike of the northeastern city of Sumy on Monday night, according to the State Emergency Services (SES) in Ukraine.

Two children were among the dead, SES said.

Ukraine's Interior Ministry said the attack was an air strike against an apartment building. One injured woman was rescued from the rubble. 

The walls of Lviv's National Museum stand bare. Elaborate gold lacquered panels, on display after being recovered from 17th century Baroque churches, have been bundled up and hidden in the basement in a race to save the city's cultural treasures from possible Russian attack.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has already destroyed a museum containing works by renowned Ukrainian painter Maria Prymachenko, whose vivid and imaginative art was admired by both Pablo Picasso and Marc Chagall.

Now, the city of Lviv, often dubbed Ukraine's cultural capital, is racing to protect its rich collection of historic art.

Ancient artifacts in cardboard boxes: The rush to save its books, paintings and other artifacts has left little time to wait for specialized packing materials. Instead, volunteers make do by hastily nailing together crates from whatever wood is available.

On Monday, volunteers hastily packed ancient manuscripts into cardboard boxes originally intended for transporting bananas to supermarkets. Among them was a thousand-year-old bible decorated with gold thread.

At religious sites, people are also preparing for the worst. The Armenian Cathedral of Lviv removed a medieval wooden sculpture, depicting the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, for safe storage. Having survived World War II, the giant stained-glass windows of Lviv's Latin Cathedral have now been boarded up with steel plates. Many of the city's landmark statues are now swaddled in bubble wrap.

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Atika Shubert, CNN

At least 1.2 million refugees have crossed the border from Ukraine into Poland since the Russian invasion began on February 24, the Polish Border Guard tweeted early Tuesday.

141,500 refugees passed through the border on Monday alone, according to the Border Guard.

In total, at least 1.7 million refugees have left Ukraine, according to the United Nations. Though the majority have crossed into Poland, many others have also entered Hungary, Slovakia, Moldova and Romania.