Russia Ukraine War March 22 News: A day after U.S. President Joe Biden claimed that Russia has falsely accused Kyiv of having biological and chemical weapons, a senior American defense official was quoted by Reuters as saying that the US has not yet seen any concrete indications of an imminent Russian chemical or biological weapons attack in Ukraine but it is closely monitoring intelligence.
Biden had said that Russia’s claim illustrates that Russian President Vladimir Putin is considering using them himself in the war against Ukraine. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the U.S. official shared Biden’s assessment but added that there’s no indication that there’s something imminent as of now.
Earlier, Ukraine’s Defence Ministry revealed that the Ukranian forces managed to retake Kyiv suburb of Makariv early Tuesday. The regained territory has reportedly allowed Ukraine to retake control of a key highway and block Russian forces from surrounding Kyiv from the northwest. Meanwhile, Russia’s attack on the embattled southern port of Mariupol raged unabated, with fleeing civilians describing relentless bombardments and corpses lying in the streets, reported AP.
The Russia-Ukraine war is into the fourth week and despite many emergency summits and calls for negotiations, the ground realities remain as destructive as ever. US President Joe Biden, who set to visit Europe this week, has once again warned the world against more damages that Ukraine may see. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ‘back is against the wall in Ukraine,’ Biden said today adding that this may lead to use of chemical or biological weapon in the country. Biden has also warned the American companies for cyberattacks by Russian hackers.
While lauding the unity shown by major global powers against Putin, Biden said that India’s ‘response’ was somewhat ‘shaky’. It should be noted that India has abstained on the United Nation’s resolution against Russia. Even when an Indian judge was part of an ICJ ruling against Moscow, India’s Ministry of External Affairs distanced itself from it and said that Judge Dalveer Bhandari acted in ‘personal capacity’. This is not the first time that the US has expressed its angst over India’s stance. Recently, while talking about New Delhi’s Decision to buy discounted crude oil from Russia, the Biden administration had said that India should see where it want to stand when the history books are written about this period.
The Russian Defence Ministry, in its latest briefing says that its troops will use ‘high-precision weapons’ to target critical infrastructure across Ukraine. Russia has already fired the hypersonic missiles into Ukraine over the weekend. Moscow has refuted the claim by Kyiv that over 15,000 Russian soldiers have been killed since the war began on February 24 last month. The data by Russian ministry says that 9,861 Russians were killed in the conflict. Over 16,000 have been injured, says Russia. Even if this number is lower than what Kyiv claimed, the figures are much higher that what Western powers had estimated.
Latest satellite images show huge plumes of smoke rising from major cities. There are also report of flooding in Irpin River. Mariupol, which has seen the worst attacks so far, has turned into a ghost town. The US says that the Russian forces have increased the number of daily sorties to 300. Russia has been using the dominance in airspace to launch rockets, cruise missiles into Ukrainian territories. While Russia has claimed that it is only targeting military infrastructures, the bombing in Kyiv, Kharkiv etc show total destruction of civilian areas as well.
The horror of war is getting stark by every passing minute. Boris Romanchenko, a 96-year-old Holocaust survivor, was killed in Kharkiv shelling. Romanchenko had survived Nazi Buchenwald concentration camp during the Second World War.
A BBC report says that the separatist backed by Moscow have launched series of thermobaric rockets or more commonly known as vacuum bombs deep into Ukraine. The clip, which was verified by the BBC, showed militia men launching the bombs from Donetsk region today.