March 20, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

The Russian Ministry of Defense has called on Mariupol local authorities to surrender the city to Russian forces by 5 a.m. Moscow time Monday (4 a.m. Monday in Mariupol and 10 p.m. ET Sunday), according to Russian state-owned news agency, RIA Novosti.

The news agency said the Ministry of Defense would open humanitarian corridors to the city by 10 a.m. local time Monday (4 a.m. ET Monday) and “wants to receive a written response from Kiev to these proposals before 5:00.”

RIA Novosti attributed its reporting to comments made by the head of the National Center for Defense Management of the Russian Federation, Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev.

This latest demand comes as the Mariupol City Council said Saturday residents are being taken to Russia against their will by Russian forces.

"Over the past week, several thousand Mariupol residents have been taken to Russian territory," the city said in a statement. "The occupiers illegally took people from the Livoberezhny district and from the shelter in the sports club building, where more than a thousand people (mostly women and children) were hiding from the constant bombing."

Captured Mariupol residents were taken to camps where Russian forces checked their phones and documents, then redirected some of the residents to remote cities in Russia, the statement said, adding the "fate of the others is unknown."

In calling on city officials to surrender, RIA Novosti quoted Mizintsev saying "we appeal to the odious bandits, who are responsible for hundreds of lives of innocent people, and now call themselves representatives of the official local authorities, of this unique city Mariupol."

RIA also reported Mizintsev said nearly 60,000 residents of Mariupol “found themselves in Russia in complete safety.”

This post has been updated

Russian troops in southern Ukraine are “still attempting to circumvent Mykolaiv as they look to drive west towards Odesa,” the British Ministry of Defense said late Sunday.

These forces, advancing from Crimea, “have made little progress over the past week,” the ministry tweeted.

Meanwhile, “Russian naval forces continue to blockade the Ukrainian coast and launch missile strikes on targets across Ukraine,” the ministry added, while warning “the blockade of the Ukrainian coast is likely to exacerbate the humanitarian situation in Ukraine (and) prevent vital supplies reaching the Ukrainian population.”

Earlier Sunday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted he spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and told him he will advance “Ukraine’s interests at meetings of NATO and the G7,” set to take place this week.

“The UK will continue to step up military, economic and diplomatic support to help bring an end to this terrible conflict,” Johnson tweeted.

One person has been killed following explosions in Kyiv’s Podilskyi district, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said late Sunday.

Several explosions were heard in Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv, according to CNN’s team on the ground.

The explosions hit the Ukrainian capital’s Podil district, including residential and business areas, Klitschko said. The Podil neighborhood is part of the city’s larger Podilskyi District.

The blasts hit “some houses and on the territory of one of the shopping centers. Rescuers, paramedics and police are already on scene,” Klitschko said via Telegram.

Also via Telegram, Klitschko said rescuers are extinguishing a large fire in one of the shopping centers in the Podilskyi district of the capital. He added medical, rescue and police services are on site.

Earlier Sunday, massive anti-aircraft fire erupted above Kyiv. CNN saw anti-aircraft cannons firing into the night sky for several minutes in what appeared to be at least two anti-aircraft rockets that were also fired into the air.

It’s not clear what the Ukrainians were firing at, but the CNN crew saw an illuminated dot traverse the sky over the capital, which may have been an aircraft.

Nearly half of Chernobyl's nuclear plant staff were able to rotate and return to their homes, Ukraine’s nuclear regulator, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said Sunday.

Those who were able to leave the plant had been working for nearly four weeks, according to the IAEA.

IAEA Director Gen. Rafael Grossi tweeted that he welcomed news of the staff's rotation, emphasizing “they deserve our full respect and admiration for having worked in these extremely difficult circumstances. They were there for far too long. I sincerely hope that remaining staff from this shift can also rotate soon.”

Grossi also said he is “continuing consultations with a view to agree on a framework for the delivery of IAEA assistance. The initiative aims to ensure safety and security at Ukraine’s nuclear sites.”

On March 15, Ukraine informed the UN's nuclear watchdog the Chernobyl nuclear power plant had reconnected to the national electricity grid after losing on-site power. 

As of Monday, the site had been receiving all required power from the repaired line, enabling the staff to switch off the emergency diesel generators they were relying on since March 9, it said in a statement.

Since Russian troops took control of the nuclear plant on February 24, the plant's 211 technical personnel and guards had not been able to leave, meaning they had been "in effect living there for the past three weeks," according to the watchdog. 

The Ukrainian regulator told the IAEA the information it received regarding Chernobyl was “controlled by the Russian military forces” and consequently it could not “always provide detailed answers to all” questions posed.

The Russian Ministry of Defense has called on Mariupol local authorities to surrender the city to Russian forces, according to Russian state media outlet, RIA Novosti.

The news agency attributed its reporting to comments made by the head of the National Center for Defense Management of the Russian Federation, Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev.

“We appeal to the odious bandits, who are responsible for hundreds of lives of innocent people, and now call themselves representatives of the official local authorities, of this unique city Mariupol. We are aware that in the current situation little depends on you, since you are under the full control of nationalist battalions, but we very much hope that you, including the mayor of the city, have at least something human in you left, at least a sense of compassion for the civilians entrusted to you," Mizintsev said, according to RIA Novosti.

The Mariupol City Council said Saturday residents are being taken to Russia against their will by Russian forces.

Captured Mariupol residents were taken to camps where Russian forces checked their phones and documents, then redirected some of the residents to remote cities in Russia, the statement said, adding the "fate of the others is unknown."

In calling on city officials to surrender, RIA Novosti quoted Mizintsev, saying: "It is you who now have the right to a historic choice – either you are with your people, or you are with bandits. Otherwise the military tribunal that awaits you is only a minor thing that you have already deserved because of the despicable attitude towards your own citizens, as well as the terrible crimes and provocations already arranged by you."

RIA went on to report the Colonel-General said nearly 60,000 residents of Mariupol “found themselves in Russia in complete safety.”

A deputy commander of Russia's Black Sea Fleet, Captain of the First Rank Andrei Paliy, was killed during fighting in the region of the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol, two senior Russian officials said.

In a statement on Telegram, Mikhail Razvozhaev, the governor of Sevastopol, said, "Andrei Nikolaevich chose to defend his homeland as his life's work and died for our peaceful future. In 1993, he refused to take the oath of allegiance to Ukraine, remained loyal to Russia by leaving for [Russia's] Northern Fleet."

Sevastopol is the headquarters for Russia's Black Sea Fleet. The port city is in Crimea, annexed by Russia from Ukraine in 2014.

Ekaterina Altabaeva, a Russian senator from Sevastopol, said on VK.com, a popular Russian social network, that the city had "suffered a heavy, irreparable loss."

According to Altabaeva, Paliy graduated from the Kyiv Higher Naval Political School -- a school for political officers of the Soviet navy -- and took part in Russia's 2008 war against Georgia.

Thousands of Russian troops have been killed in Ukraine since Russia's invasion began nearly one month ago, US and NATO officials told CNN this week, and Russia is now struggling to resupply those forces as it faces sagging troop morale and fierce Ukrainian resistance.

US and allied intelligence assessments vary widely as to exactly how many Russian forces have been killed to date, sources familiar with the intelligence tell CNN. But even the lowest estimates are in the thousands.

One such assessment found approximately 7,000 Russian troops have been killed so far, said one of the sources. But that figure, first reported by The New York Times, is on the higher end of US estimates, which vary because the US and its allies have no precise way of counting casualties. Some estimates place the number of Russian troops killed in Ukraine at about 3,000, while others suggest more than 10,000 have died.

Four of the seven established humanitarian corridors out of the besieged southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol were operational on Sunday, said Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk.

In total, almost 7,295 people were evacuated during the day, Vereshchuk said in a video address. Among them, 3,900 people were evacuated from Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia by buses and private transport.

Russia's Defense Ministry also released a statement Sunday, claiming to have evacuated more than 330,000 people -- including 68,963 children -- since the invasion's beginning.

The United Nations said within the invasion's first week, more than one million Ukrainian refugees fled to neighboring countries.

The Russian military claimed on Sunday that it had launched a series of strikes on military targets in Ukraine employing hypersonic and cruise missiles on Saturday night and Sunday morning.

US officials have also confirmed to CNN that Russia launched hypersonic missiles against Ukraine last week, the first known use of such missiles in combat.

It's late Sunday night in Kyiv. Here are more of the headlines from Sunday in the Russia-Ukraine conflict:

Turkey wants to see Ukraine’s independence recognized and is working hard to achieve peace, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said during a party gathering in Antalya on Sunday.

While Turkey has strong ties to both Ukraine and Russia, the war between two large neighbors of Turkey is affecting the country as well as the rest of the world, he said. 

He believes both sides are close to an agreement in fundamental areas. Ukraine’s independence is among the conditions discussed which Turkey wants it to be guaranteed. Along with UN Security Council and Germany, Turkey wants to be guarantors for Ukraine’s independence. 

Ibrahim Kalin, the presidential spokesperson, posted updates on his Twitter page indicating Turkey is continuing their efforts to end the war in Ukraine. He took parts of his interview with Al Jazeera and posted this update: “The humanitarian toll is becoming heavier by the day. There will be no winners in this war. A peace deal is not impossible.” 

Kalin added: "The most difficult conditions to agree are Russia’s demand of recognition of Crimea annexation under Russia and also recognition of so-called independence of two republics in Donbas region. They are main issues and I think they are most difficult to reach an agreement on, Kalin added. The other four topics in discussion are Ukraine’s neutrality, disarmament and security guarantees for Ukraine, and work so-called de-Nazification”. 

Both officials emphasized President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has continuous communications with both Russian and Ukrainian officials in this process to achieve an end to the war.

Turkey hosted an international meeting last week, including a meeting between Ukrainian and Russian Foreign Ministers.