Ukraine’s President Volodymr Zelenskyy calls for no-fly zone to stop Russian bombardment, but White House says US is not considering such a move. Meanwhile, according to Ukraine’s health ministry, civilian death toll now stands over 352 people, including 14 children. According to a credible source, Kyiv may fall by Tuesday evening and the fate of President Volodymr Zelenskyy would be totally uncertain, as Moscow may like to arrest or eliminate him.
Democratic US Senator Chris Murphy ruled out approving a no-fly zone for Ukraine in Congress, saying the move would amount to war between the US and Russia.
“It’s a bad idea and Congress would never authorize it,” Murphy wrote on Twitter.
“Military equipment for Ukraine, humanitarian support for Ukraine, crippling sanction on Russia, movement of US troops to the eastern flank of NATO – these are all the right moves. But direct war between the world’s two nuclear powers should be a non-starter.”
As 40-mile-long Russian military convoy is almost at the doorway of Kyiv, at least 520,000 people have fled Ukraine to Poland and other neighboring countries. All men aged 18 and 60 have been banned from leaving the country to take up arms.
The Russian military convoy descending on Ukraine’s capital stretches for about 40 miles (64 km), according to Maxar Technologies.
The US satellite-imaging company said pictures taken on Monday shows the convoy “contains hundreds of armored vehicles, tanks, towed artillery and logistics support vehicles”.
Oksana Markarova, Kyiv’s ambassador to the US, says Russia had used a vacuum bomb in Ukraine on Monday.
Also known as a thermobaric bomb, the weapon uses oxygen from the surrounding air to generate a high-temperature explosion, typically producing a blast wave of a significantly longer duration than that of a conventional explosive.
“They used the vacuum bomb today, which is actually prohibited by the Geneva convention,” Markarova said after a meeting with US legislators. “The devastation that Russia is trying to inflict on Ukraine is large.”
Ukraine’s president Volodymr Zelenskyy says Russian troops intensified shelling of Ukraine in an effort to force his government into making concessions during talks held earlier on Monday.
In a video address, Volodymr Zelenskyy said that “the talks were taking place against the backdrop of bombing and shelling of our territory, our cities. Synchronizing of the shelling with the negotiating process was obvious. I believe Russia is trying to put pressure (on Ukraine) with this simple method”.
The president said Ukraine is not prepared to make concessions “when one side is hitting each other with rocket artillery.”
Volodymr Zelenskyy says that Kyiv, the capital, remains “a key goal” for the Russians and that Russian forces have also shelled the city of Kharkiv with rocket artillery.
Ukraine’s president is seeking a global ban on Russian planes and ships as punishment for attacking his country.
“We must close entry for this state in all ports, all canals and all the world’s airports,” Zelenskyy said on Facebook. He also urged the international community to “consider a total closure of the skies to Russian missiles, planes and helicopters”.
Ukraine’s minister of digital transformation says equipment to use SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service has arrived in his country.
Mykhailo Fedorov thanked SpaceX founder Elon Musk for the equipment in a Twitter post Monday that was accompanied by a photo of boxes on the back of a truck.
Starlink is a satellite-based internet system that SpaceX has been building for years to bring internet access to underserved areas of the world. It markets itself as “ideally suited” for areas where internet service is unreliable or unavailable.
Kyiv’s Ambassador to the UN, Sergiy Kyslytsya, says Russian troops are “attacking hospitals, mobile brigades and ambulances” in Ukraine.
“This is not the action of a state with a legitimate security concern,” Kyslytsya said at a UN Security Council’s emergency meeting. “This is the action of a state determined to kill civilians. There is no debate. These are war crimes.”
