2 killed in Russian artillery strikes in Ukraine

Kyiv, March 9

Ukrainian authorities said two persons, including a teenage boy, were killed in Russian artillery attacks on Saturday. Russia reported it had shot down a Ukrainian fighter jet and destroyed a wave of drones over several regions. The attacks came as Russia is gaining momentum on battlefield and Ukraine is running low on ammunition. Ukraine’s allies in the West are delicately raising the prospect of sending troops. Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski said Friday that deploying NATO troops to Ukraine “is not unthinkable”. French President Emmanuel Macron said last month that the idea should not be ruled out.

NATO presence in Kyiv thinkable: Poland

• Poland’s foreign minister Radek Sikorski has said the presence of NATO forces “is not unthinkable” and that he appreciates the French president for not ruling out that idea.
• French President Emmanuel Macron recently said the possibility of Western troops being sent to Ukraine could not be ruled out.

Serhiy Lysak, governor of Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, said a 16-year-old boy was killed and a 22-year-old man injured in a morning artillery attack that hit the town of Chervonohryhorivka. The town is on the opposite bank of the river from the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Europe’s largest, and the area is subject to almost-daily Russian attacks.

In the town of Chasiv Yar, one person was killed in artillery fire, according to authorities in the Donetsk region, much of which is under Russian control and where fighting has been heavy throughout the war that is now in its third year.

The Russian Defence Ministry said its forces shot down 41 drones that were launched over the Rostov region, which borders Ukraine and is home to Russia’s southern military command, along with two drones over the Kursk region and three over Volgograd. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

The ministry also said the air force had shot down a Ukrainian MiG-29 fighter jet over Pokrovsk, a city and important railway junction in the Donetsk region that is a prime Russian target following Ukrainian forces’ February withdrawal from Avdiivka, a significant setback for Ukraine’s struggling war effort.

Meanwhile, Pope Francis has said that Ukraine should have what he called the courage of the “white flag” and negotiate an end to the war with Russia that followed Moscow’s full-scale invasion two years ago and that has killed tens of thousands. Francis made his comments in an interview recorded last month with Swiss broadcaster RSI, well before Friday’s latest offer by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan to host a summit between Ukraine and Russia to end the war.

Erdogan made the fresh offer after a meeting in Istanbul with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Zelenskiy has said while he wants peace he will not give up any territory. The Ukrainian leader’s own peace plan calls for the withdrawal of Russian troops from all of Ukraine and the restoration of its state borders. — Agencies