March 20, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Sunday announced additional military and humanitarian aid for Ukraine, while also imposing an immediate ban on exports of alumina and aluminium ore to Russia.

“It is clear that Ukraine’s need for military assistance remains urgent and ongoing," Morrison’s Office announced in a statement.

Military aid: The package includes A$21 million (US $15.3 million) in defensive military assistance for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, bringing Australia’s total military assistance so far to A$91 million (US $66.3 million), the statement said.

Morrison said the assistance will include ammunition and body armor.

Humanitarian aid: The government said it will also provide US $21.8 million worth of emergency humanitarian assistance which will focus on “protecting women, children, the elderly and the disabled.”

Export ban: Australia also announced immediate ban on Australian exports of alumina and aluminium ores (including bauxite) to Russia, which “will limit its capacity to produce aluminium – a critical export for Russia.”

Some context: According to the Australian government, Russia relies on Australia for nearly 20% of its alumina needs.

Coal donations: Australia will donate "at least 70,000 tonnes of thermal coal" to Ukraine following a request from Kyiv, the government said.

Sanctions: Australia has so far imposed 476 sanctions on 443 individuals, including on Russian oligarchs with close connections to President Vladimir Putin, and on 33 entities, including Russia's Finance Ministry.

Seventy-one children from an orphanage in northeastern Ukraine have been evacuated to safety after spending two weeks in a basement sheltering from Russian shelling.

The orphans, many of whom are disabled and all under the age of four, were rescued from their care home in Sumy and taken out of the combat zone through an evacuation corridor, according to Sumy regional governor Dmytro Zhyvytsky.

He said they quickly found people in other countries to take the children in.

According to Zhyvytsky, some of the children remain in the care of specialists of a hospital in Kyiv. 

 "My heartfelt gratitude goes to them for hosting our babies!" he said.

In a video accompanying the post, Borys Todurov, Director of the Heart Institute of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, said the children were brought to the Kyiv hospital from Sumy a day prior, and that some are going to be sent to Lviv, while some will stay in Kyiv longer.

A new satellite image shows the bombed theater in Mariupol completely destroyed, as the City Council said trapped residents are being taken to Russia against their will. Meanwhile dozens of Ukrainian troops have reportedly died in a strike on a military barracks in Mykolaiv.

Here are the latest developments:

Russia hasn't gained air superiority: Britain's military said Russian forces have still not managed to gain control over Ukraine's airspace. An intelligence assessment provided by the UK's Ministry of Defense said Russia has failed to gain air superiority over Ukraine and is largely depending on stand-off weapons, “launched from the relative safety of Russian airspace to strike targets within Ukraine.”

Mariupol residents forced to go to Russia: Residents of besieged Mariupol are being taken to Russian territory against their will by Russian forces, according to the Mariupol City Council. Captured residents were taken to camps where Russian forces checked their phones and documents, the city council said. They were then redirected to remote Russian cities. The besieged city of Mariupol is under almost constant bombardment, according to a major in Ukraine's army, and residents are rationing food and water as bodies are left in the streets. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said what Russian forces have done to Mariupol is an "act of terror that will be remembered for centuries."

Ukrainian troops killed in missile strike: Rescue efforts are ongoing in the southern city of Mykolaiv at the scene of a missile strike on barracks housing soldiers, regional official Vitalli Kim said. Dozens of troops are reported to have been killed in the attack by Russian forces, according to journalists from CNN Swedish affiliate Expressen who were at the scene.

Russia uses hypersonic missile: US officials confirmed Russia launched hypersonic missiles against Ukraine last week, the first known use of such missiles in combat. Russia claimed it deployed powerful hypersonic missiles on Friday to destroy an ammunition warehouse in western Ukraine.

Russian bombardment of civilians continues: Two children and a women were killed in the eastern town of Rubizhne after being pulled from the rubble of a residential building pummeled by Russian artillery fire, the emergency services said. In Kyiv, a mother covered her one-month-old baby with her body while their home was being shelled, according to the National Children's Specialized Hospital Ohmatdit. The child was unharmed, but the mother sustained multiple injuries, the hospital said. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said Russia continues to make "incremental gains" in Ukraine's south and has used "brutal, savage techniques'' in the way it has targeted civilians.

More than 6,600 people evacuated via evacuation corridors: At least 6,623 people were rescued via evacuation corridors from besieged Ukrainian cities Saturday, according to Kyrylo Tymoshenko, a senior official in President Volodymyr Zelensky's office. Tymoshenko said 4,128 people, including 1,172 children, were evacuated from Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia. Zelensky said eight evacuation corridors were operating Saturday but due to Russian shelling, authorities were unable to evacuate people from Borodyanka in the Kyiv region. Authorities were also unable to deliver humanitarian aid to the cities in the southern Kherson region.

Zelensky singles out Nestle: Zelensky addressed the Swiss people via video link, calling for Switzerland to take further action against Russia. He singled out Swiss company Nestle, which unlike many other major brands, has not left the Russian market. "Your company that refuses to leave Russia. Even now — when there are threats from Russia to other European countries. Not only to us. When there is even nuclear blackmail from Russia," he said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the sustained Russian attack on the besieged city of Mariupol is an "act of terror" that will be "remembered for centuries."

In a video message posted to Facebook early Sunday, the Ukrainian President said Mariupol will go down in history as an example of war crimes.

Earlier Saturday, Zelensky addressed the Swiss people via video link, saying Switzerland supported EU sanctions against Moscow and called for Switzerland to take further action against Russia.

He said he urged Switzerland to take additional steps such as ensuring Swiss companies that have not yet left the Russian market would do so immediately.

In the Saturday address, Zelensky singled out Swiss company Nestle, which has not left Russia.

A mother covered her one-month-old baby with her body while their home was being shelled in Kyiv, according to a Facebook post from National Children's Specialized Hospital Ohmatdit on Friday.

The child was unharmed, but the mother sustained multiple injuries, the post said.

The child's mother and father were at home feeding their baby in the early morning hours when their building was shelled. They heard the sounds of shelling throughout the night getting closer and closer, the hospital said.

The father was treated for scraping wounds to his leg and the mother underwent surgery for her injuries. 

A picture of the family in the hospital shows the mother feeding her baby with a large bandage around her head while the father looks on

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

Here's what we know about the weapon:

Why were they used?

What are hypersonic missiles?

A Ukrainian attack on an airfield in the south of the country last week killed a Russian general, according to the Ukrainian military's General Staff.

Amid heavy fighting between the cities of Mykolaiv and Kherson, Ukrainian forces carried out an attack on the airport at Chornobayivka, just north of Kherson, on Wednesday.

The airport was occupied by Russian forces and served as a forward command post of Russia's 8th Guards Combined Arms Army, according to Ukrainian officials.

Images and video geolocated by CNN showed three helicopters and multiple vehicles on fire at the airport.

Soon after the attack, Ukraine's Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said, "Burning enemy helicopters in Chornobayivka in the Kherson region is a demonstration of what is now happening to the occupying forces."

Ukraine's General Staff later said, "according to preliminary data" Russian Lieutenant-General Andrei Mordvichev, commander of the 8th Guards, had been killed.

CNN cannot independently verify the Ukrainian claim. Ukraine says that five Russian generals have been killed since the invasion began on Feb. 24.

While Ukraine’s army reported little in the way of offensive operations by Russian forces around Kyiv and in parts of the south on Saturday, further east fighting continued to rage.

Two children were killed in the town of Rubizhne after being pulled from the rubble of a residential building pummeled by Russian artillery fire, the emergency services said. 

A woman also died in the same building collapse; her daughter survived and was in a stable condition.

Some context: Rubizhne is part of a cluster of small towns and villages that remain in Ukrainian hands but lie close to two breakaway pro-Russian statelets inside eastern Ukraine.

The Ukrainian army’s most recent assessment of the war makes clear they are seen as a current focus of Russia’s campaign in the east — to link the two strongholds around Luhansk and Donetsk with territorial gains made to the northwest in the region around Kharkiv.

Saturday’s daily update from the army’s central command — released in the early afternoon — reported a series of Russian offensives with “the main efforts focused on attempts to capture Severodonetsk, Rubizhne and Popasna.”

Further deaths and destruction: On Friday, four people were killed and ten others injured as Russian artillery opened up across a series of communities in the region, local Ukrainian authorities said. 

Regional head Serhii Haidai said a total of 54 buildings had been hit, including 19 apartment blocks and two health care centers.

Some 23 towns and villages were without gas supplies and 26 were without electricity by the day’s end.

Many of those wounded in recent days were among 700 people evacuated through a humanitarian corridor on Saturday, Haidai reported. 

Residents of Mariupol, Ukraine, are being taken to Russian territory against their will by Russian forces, according to a statement Saturday from the Mariupol City Council.

Captured Mariupol residents were taken to camps where Russian forces checked their phones and documents, the city council said, and then were redirected to remote Russian cities.

The besieged city is under almost constant bombardment, according to a major in Ukraine's army, and residents are rationing food and water as bodies are left in the streets.

There are also conflicting reports over the status of one of Ukraine’s key industrial facilities, the Azov steel plant, in Mariupol. New satellite imagery shows the destruction of the city's bombed theater, with the word "children" clearly visible on the outside of the building.

The statement quoted Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boichenko, who said, "What the occupiers are doing today is familiar to the older generation, who saw the horrific events of World War II, when the Nazis forcibly captured people.”