Russia Ukraine War LIVE Updates: Rockets hit oil storage facility, unspecified industrial location in Lviv

 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused the West of cowardice as his country fights to stave off Russia's invading troops, making an exasperated plea for fighter jets and tanks to sustain a defense as the war ground into a battle of attrition.

Russia will try to impose a "Korean" scenario on Ukraine and gather all the occupied territories into a single quasi-state entity, believes Kyrylo Budanov, Head of the Chief Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine.

"After their failures near Kiev and inability to overthrow Ukraine's central government, Putin is already shifting his main operational directions - now it is the south and the east. He may be considering a 'Korean' scenario for Ukraine," Budanov said, Ukrayinska Pravda reported.

He added that Putin will try to impose a dividing line between the unoccupied and occupied regions of our country. In fact, this is an attempt to create North and South Korea in Ukraine. After all, he is definitely not able to 'swallow up' the whole state, he added.

"The occupiers will try to unite the occupied territories into a single quasi-state entity that will oppose independent Ukraine. We are already seeing attempts to create 'parallel' authorities in the occupied territories and force people to reject the hryvnia (Ukrainian currency). They may want to use this scenario to bargain with at the international level," Budanov added.

Budanov is convinced that the issue of establishing a land corridor to Crimea is still relevant for the Russian fascist regime. But the main problem complicating the implementation of this plan is unbreakable Mariupol, which is trying to stop the Russian occupying forces.

Spiced fuzzy coconut Moscow Mule cocktail, served in a chilly copper mug, has completely vanished from bars across the US, as an attempt to raise awareness and show solidarity against the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Numerous countries, including the US, have launched sanctions against Russia for the invasion of Ukraine. This was followed by local and state boycotts on one of Russia’s most iconic exports - vodka.

Across US liquor stores and bars have removed bottles of Russian vodka from their shelves and changed the name of this popular classic cocktail Moscow Mule and called it by various names like Kyiv Mule, Snake Island Mule, American Stallion, Freedom Mule or Texas Mule.

The Russian vodka has been replaced by local brands like Texas made Tito's handmade vodka, Indiana made Fuzzy's vodka. The stores are also promoting Ukrainian vodka more prominently.

Several State Governors, including Texas’ Greg Abbot, soon after the invasion, issued an executive order requesting retailers to voluntarily remove all Russian products as a protest against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

Menu items and product lines have had references to the Russian capital scrubbed away and have subsequently been replaced with the names of Ukrainian cities, patriotic terms and calls for peace throughout the US.

"We saw what was happening, and really knew we had to take a step to give back as a protest against the aggression,'' a bar owner in Houston said. 

Russian authorities have blocked the website of German newspaper Bild, part of their efforts to control the message on Ukraine.

Communications and media regulator Roskomnadzor said Sunday it blocked Bild's website at prosecutors' request.

Instagram and Facebook were already blocked in Russia after Roskomnadzor said they were being used to call for violence against Russian soldiers.

Russian authorities also have shut access to foreign media websites, including BBC, European news network Euronews, the US government-funded Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, German broadcaster Deutsche Welle and Latvia-based website Meduza.

Bild says it has been putting Russian-language reports on Russia's war in Ukraine and its slide toward “totalitarian dictatorship” on its website, and parts of its live video broadcasts have been subtitled in Russian. It noted that it also has a Russian-language Telegram channel.

Bild editor-in-chief Johannes Boie said the decision to block its website in Russia “confirms us in our journalistic work for democracy, freedom and human rights.”

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France’s top diplomat is warning that the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol is becoming a “second Aleppo,” the Syrian commercial capital that in 2016 saw widespread Russian-backed destruction.

Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on Sunday told the Doha Forum, a policy conference in Qatar, that Russia’s “siege warfare” against Ukrainian cities should induce “collective guilt.”

“Civilian populations are slaughtered, annihilated, the suffering is horrible,” said a visibly angry Le Drian.

When asked whether he agreed with President Joe Biden’s remark in Warsaw that Russian President Vladimir Putin cannot remain in power, he said only that diplomacy with both sides remained a French priority.

Le Drian said French President Emmanuel Macron was trying to avert the worst in Ukraine through talks with both the Ukrainian and Russian presidents. A ceasefire remains the most pressing task, he added, so that parties can move onto thornier topics like Ukraine’s security guarantees and a possible neutral military status.

Le Drian said the world is “at a tipping point" as the war continues to spiral, adding, “This is a crisis that affects us all.”

Ukraine's chief of defence intelligence said on Sunday that Russia, whose troops have been slowly advancing towards the capital Kyiv, may aim to divide the country into versions of North and South Korea.

French President Emmanuel Macron warned on Sunday against a verbal "escalation" over Russia's invasion in Ukraine, after US President Joe Biden branded Vladimir Putin a "butcher" who "cannot remain in power".

According to Kyrylo Budanov, head of Defense Ministry’s Intelligence Directorate, Russia will try a “Korean scenario” by creating a separate political entity in the Russian-occupied regions. 

U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has said that the United States has no strategy for regime change in Russia. His comments have come after Biden said Putin no longer can remain Russia's President.

Russian troops seem to concentrate their forces on Eastern Ukraine, while the battlefield across Northern Ukraine remains largely static, says the British Ministry of Defence.

Russian rockets struck the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on Saturday while President Joe Biden visited neighbouring Poland, a reminder that Moscow is willing to strike anywhere in Ukraine despite its claim to be focusing its offensive on the country's east.

The back-to-back airstrikes shook the city that has become a haven for an estimated 200,000 people who have had to flee their hometowns.

Lviv had been largely spared since the invasion began, although missiles struck an aircraft repair facility near the main airport a week ago.

Among the many who sought refuge in Lviv was Olana Ukrainets, a 34-year-old IT worker from the northeastern city of Kharkiv.

When Russia launched its war, Hungary opened its borders for the tens of thousands of refugees escaping Ukraine. Other refugees have been left with no help in a field in Serbia.

After studying in Hungary for three years, Hasib Qarizada sought asylum there after his native Afghanistan unraveled in chaos last August.

But rather than receiving refuge, Hungarian authorities whisked Qarizada over the border six months ago into neighboring Serbia, kicking him out into a country he didn't even know.

“Police just came over and handcuffed me,” Qarizada told The Associated Press in Belgrade, the Serbian capital.

The US has put Russian cyber-security firm Kaspersky Labs to the list of entities that pose an "unacceptable risk to US national security".

This is the first time a Russian company has been added to the list, which consists of Chinese tech giants like Huawei and ZTE.

The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has added Kaspersky to its Covered List, which identifies entities that pose an unacceptable risk to the country's national security.

Specifically, the Commission added three new entities to the list: China Mobile International USA, China Telecom (Americas) and Kaspersky Labs.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy angrily warned Moscow that it is sowing a deep hatred for Russia among his people, as constant artillery barrages and aerial bombings are reducing cities to rubble, killing civilians and driving others into shelters, leaving them to scrounge for food and water to survive.

“You are doing everything so that our people themselves leave the Russian language, because the Russian language will now be associated only with you, with your explosions and murders, your crimes," Zelenskyy said in an impassioned video address late Saturday.

Ukraine's nuclear watchdog says that a nuclear research facility in Kharkiv again has come under shelling by Russia and the fighting makes it impossible to assess the damage. The State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate said that the neutron source experimental facility in the Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology came under fire Saturday.

Ukrainian authorities have previously reported that Russian shelling damaged buildings at the Kharkiv facility, but there has been no release of radiation.

The newly built neutron source facility is intended for the research and production of radioisotopes for medical and industrial needs.

Ukraine needs just one per cent of aircraft and tanks that are stationed in NATO countries, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, accusing Kyiv's Western allies of being indecisive in terms of military assistance to Ukraine. "Only 1 per cent of all NATO aircraft and 1 per cent of all NATO tanks, 1 per cent - we are not asking for more," Zelenskyy said in a video address posted on his Telegram channel.

In his speech to 27 European leaders released on Friday, Zelenskyy criticized Hungary for refusing to supply Kyiv with weapons and not allowing the transfer of arms through Hungarian territory.

Ukraine's Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova said that 12 journalists have been killed in the country since Russia began its war on February 24.

In a Facebook post on Saturday, Venediktova said besides the 12 victims, there were 10 other journalists who "have received injuries of varying severity", Ukayinska Pravda reported.

According to the Prosecutor General, the Unified Register of Pre-Trial Investigations indicates that the Russians have committed crimes against at least 56 members of the media, 15 of them citizens of other countries.

Of the 15, four are from the UK; two each from the Czech Republic, Denmark, the US, United Arab Emirates; and one from Switzerland.

A total of 5,200 people have been evacuated from Ukraine through humanitarian corridors on Saturday (local time).

According to Ukraine Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk, 10 humanitarian corridors were successful. She added that 4,000 people were able to leave Mariupol, reported Ukraine's media outlet The Kyiv Independent.

Moreover, Russia attacked an oil depot in Rivne Oblast in Ukraine. According to Rivne Oblast Governor Vitaliy Koval, Russian forces have shelled an oil depot in Dubno, Rivne Oblast. The authorities are still addressing the damage from the attack.

Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has hinted at an agreement on "concrete steps" to reduce the number of Russian missiles hitting facilities in Ukraine.

This was announced by Dmytro Kuleba after his talks with the US delegation led by President Joe Biden in Warsaw.

Kuleba did not specify the details, but hinted quite clearly at the prospect of obtaining additional weapons capable of shooting down missiles, European Pravda reported.

At least five people were injured in missile attacks on Ukraine's western city of Lviv, Head of the Lviv Regional Military Administration, Maksym Kozytskyi said on Facebook.

Two missile strikes hit the city at about 4:30 p.m. local time (1430 GMT) on Saturday, Kozytskyi said, noting that residential buildings were not affected, according to preliminary information.

The threat of new attacks on the city persists, the official added, urging people to stay in shelters.

Ukrainian Presidential Advisor Mykhailo Podolyak said Kiev insists on a system of security guarantees for Ukraine as one of the key elements of negotiations with Russia, the presidential press service reported.

During an interview with German media, Podolyak on Saturday stressed that such a system "is impossible without the participation of the US in the first place."

According to the Negotiator, the future of Crimea, certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk should be decided only by the Presidents of Ukraine and Russia, Xinhua news agency reported.

US President Joe Biden met with Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov during his visit to Poland, "for an update on Ukraine's military, diplomatic and humanitarian situation," according to the White House.

Biden on Saturday dropped in a meeting between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and their Ukranian counterparts, Kuleba and Reznikov.

They discussed "further efforts to help Ukraine defend its territory" and the US and its allies' ongoing actions towards Russia, the White House said in statement.

Bulgarian President Rumen Radev has said he would not allow his country to be involved in the conflict in Ukraine, according to a press release by his press office.

"As Head of state, I will not allow Bulgaria to be involved in this conflict," Radev added on Saturday while answering a question about Bulgaria's decision, along with Hungary, of not to send weapons to Ukraine.

I was elected to defend the security of Bulgarians and peace in Bulgaria, he said.

"The price of war is paid by the citizens, not the television preachers," he added.

"My concern is the people," the President said.

The bodies of four Marines who died in a military aircraft crash during a NATO exercise were transferred back to the US on Friday. The US Marine Corps said an Osprey aircraft crashed on March 18 in a Norwegian town in the Arctic Circle, killing the four Marines.

Officials with the Marines said on Saturday that hundreds of US Marines, sailors, service members and civilians rendered final salutes to the fallen Marines in Bodø, Norway, early Friday.

The bodies of the Marines were then placed on board an Air National Guard military transport aircraft and flown to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, Marine Corps officials said.

The remains of the Marines will ultimately be moved to their final resting places according to their families' wishes, officials said in a statement.

In a forceful speech in Warsaw denouncing Russia's Vladimir Putin and praising Ukrainians, President Joe Biden on Saturday also appeared to have a more subtle message for his Polish hosts.

Speaking of a “perennial struggle for democracy,” Biden mentioned the rule of law and freedom of the press among the principles essential in a free society.

He made his remarks in a speech attended by President Andrzej Duda and his conservative political allies in the ruling Law and Justice party.

The governor of the Lviv region says a man was detained on suspicion of espionage at the site of one of the two rocket attacks that rattled the city on Saturday.

Maksym Kozytskyy said police found the man had recorded a rocket flying toward the target and striking it. Police also found on his telephone photos of checkpoints in the region, which Kozytskyy said had been sent to two Russian telephone numbers.

Rockets hit an oil storage facility and an unspecified industrial facility, wounding at least five people. A thick plume of smoke and towering flames could be seen on Lviv's outskirts hours after the attacks.

Nights are spent huddling underground from Russian strikes pounding their encircled city into rubble. Daylight hours are devoted to hunting down drinkable water and braving the risk of standing in line for the little food available as shells and bombs rain down.

Russian troops, Chernihiv's remaining residents are terrified that each blast, bomb and body that lies uncollected on the streets ensnares them in the same macabre trap of unescapable killings and destruction.

“In basements at night, everyone is talking about one thing: Chernihiv becoming (the) next Mariupol,” said 38-year-old resident Ihar Kazmerchak, a linguistics scholar.

Russian rockets struck the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on Saturday while President Joe Biden visited neighbouring Poland, a reminder that Moscow is willing to strike anywhere in Ukraine despite its claim to be focusing its offensive on the country's east.
The back-to-back airstrikes shook the city that has become a haven for an estimated 200,000 people who have had to flee their hometowns.

Lviv had been largely spared since the invasion began, although missiles struck an aircraft repair facility near the main airport a week ago.

After US President Joe Biden, while speaking at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Poland, declared that Russian President Vladimir Putin "cannot remain in power", the White House clarifies that 'it was not a call for regime change.'

Notably, Biden towards the conclusion of his speech said, "For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power."

A White House official while clarifying the remarks made by Biden said, "The President's point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbours or the region. He was not discussing Putin's power in Russia, or regime change,"

Biden's line that Putin "cannot remain in power" was not in his prepared remarks, the official said.

President Joe Biden delivered a forceful and highly personal condemnation of Russia’s Vladimir Putin on Saturday, summoning a call for liberal democracy and a durable resolve among Western nations in the face of a brutal autocrat.

As he capped a four-day trip to Europe, a blend of emotive scenes with refugees and standing among other world leaders in grand settings, Biden said of Putin: “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power.”