Igor Konashenkov

Russia attacked the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv on Sunday morning, striking at least two residential buildings, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

MOSCOW, KYIV (AP) – The Russian military has told Ukrainian troops in the besieged port of Mariupol that if they lay down their weapons they will be “guaranteed to keep their lives.”

The Russian military claims it has destroyed a Ukrainian base hosting “foreign mercenaries” with warship-launched cruise missiles.

While what exactly transpired at the plant and why is contested, both sides agree Europe’s largest nuclear plant is now in Russian hands. 

The Russian Defense Ministry on Wednesday offered its first official estimate of casualties suffered in the attack on Ukraine, claiming 498 Russian troops have been killed and 1,597 injured.

Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar claimed on Monday that roughly 5,300 Russian troops have been killed since the Russian invasion began on February 24.

The Russian government has claimed that armed Ukrainian nationalists are killing Ukrainian army officers who want to give up, and that looters armed by Kyiv (Kiev) are “rampaging” through the capital. 

The Russian Defense Ministry spokesman seemed to indicate Moscow was making a peculiar distinction between civilian facilities and the Ukrainian “military” assets it was targeting, thereby selectively ignoring their overlap.

Contents: Russia denies reports of Russian special forces in eastern Libya; Russian intervention comes as fighting between Libya’s militias increases; E-mail problems

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov claimed on Monday that “mass graves of several dozens of Syrians who suffered atrocious torture and massacre” have been found near Aleppo.

Contents: Syria’s Bashar al-Assad calls Aleppo’s ‘liberation’ a historic event; Syria and Russia suffer a big military setback in Palmyra; Syria’s civil war shows similarities to America’s Vietnam war

Contents: Syria’s al-Assad goes for the kill, turning Aleppo and civilians to bloody rubble; Responses to reader comments

Contents: Syrian regime encircles Aleppo, causing new flood of refugees; Saudi Arabia ready to send ground troops into Syria; Saudi Arabia sees itself in an existential crisis; Turkey denies Russian reports of Syria invasion