KYIV, Ukraine — A Ukrainian photojournalist has gone lacking in a fight zone close to the capital, elevating fears he may have been injured, killed or taken captive by Russian forces.

The UNIAN information company reported Tuesday that Maksym Levin has been unaccounted since March 13 when he contacted his pal from Vyshhorod close to Kyiv. His pal, Markiyan Lyseiko, stated Levin went to the realm in his automobile to report on combating there.

Lyseiko stated Levin left his automobile close to the village of Huta Mezhyhirska and was going to move to the village of Moshchun. Levin hasn’t contacted him ever since and hasn’t been seen on-line, Lyseiko stated.

Levin has labored as a photojournalist and videographer for a lot of Ukrainian and worldwide publications.

KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR:

— Ukraine says it has retaken a strategically necessary suburb of Kyiv. In the meantime, the Russian siege of Mariupol continues.

— A professional-Kremlin Russian newspaper briefly reported that nearly 10,000 Russian troopers had been killed.

— Russian opposition chief Alexei Navalny has been sentenced to 9 yr in jail

— Ukrainian orphans who’re headed to refuge within the UK are caught in Poland resulting from lacking paperwork

— The U.N. is split over mentioning Russia’s invasion in a decision on the worsening humanitarian scenario in Ukraine

Go to https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine for extra protection

COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen stated Tuesday that Ukrainian refugees shouldn’t be built-in into the Danish society however should as a substitute return to Ukraine and assist rebuild their homeland as quickly as potential.

“Being a refugee is momentary, so you must return and assist construct up your homeland while you get the chance. It provides us the chance to assist different refugees,” Frederiksen stated in Parliament throughout a debate.

Underneath a newly adopted regulation in Denmark, Ukrainian refugees can keep within the Scandinavian nation for 2 years and may work, get an schooling and have entry to well being companies.

UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations chief says his discussions with officers point out “there may be sufficient on the desk to stop hostilities now” and significantly negotiate peace between Russia and Ukraine.

Secretary-Normal Antonio Guterres instructed reporters Tuesday that the struggle is “unwinnable,” and the one query is what number of extra lives can be misplaced and what number of extra cities like Mariupol can be destroyed earlier than the struggle strikes from the battlefield to the peace desk.

“From my outreach with varied actors, parts of diplomatic progress are coming into view on a number of key points,” he stated, sufficient to finish hostilities now.

Guterres didn’t state what these parts are or reply any questions.

He stated the struggle is intensifying and “getting extra damaging and extra unpredictable by the hour.” Ten million Ukrainians have already been pressured to flee their properties.

“Even when Mariupol falls, Ukraine can’t be conquered metropolis by metropolis, avenue by avenue, home by home,” the secretary-general stated.

Guterres stated “the Ukrainian persons are enduring a dwelling hell,” and the struggle’s reverberations “are being felt worldwide with skyrocketing meals, power and fertilizer costs threatening to spiral into a worldwide starvation disaster.”

PRZEMSYL, Poland — The movement of refugees from Ukraine right into a main entry level in Poland has slowed to fewer than 8,000 folks a day, the town’s mayor stated.

That quantity is six to seven occasions decrease than through the top of the Ukrainian exodus into Poland, Przemyśl Mayor Wojciech Bakun stated Tuesday outdoors the town’s practice station. He in contrast the Polish effort to supply secure harbor for refugees to a marathon.

“After one month, lots of people are very drained, so we have now to consider subsequent month, or perhaps, hopefully not, however perhaps about years,” Bakun stated. “In order that’s the primary factor at this second. Not just for Poland, but in addition for EU international locations.”

Poland has established a system to assist new arrivals, offering them with speedy help and serving to prepare journey to different components of Poland and different European international locations.

BRUSSELS — Moldovan Deputy Prime Minister Nicu Popescu is warning that the plight of Ukrainian refugees in his nation may get a lot worse if the struggle launched by Russia approaches its borders.

Popescu says that about 360,000 refugees have crossed into Moldova in latest weeks. Round 100,000 of them – equal to 4% of Moldova’s inhabitants – have remained, and plenty of are minors. The remaining have moved additional into Europe.

“This can be a very, very dramatic velocity and scale of a humanitarian scenario and, in our evaluation, it may get a lot worse if the frontline approaches our borders,” he instructed European Union lawmakers on Tuesday.

Russia has troops in Moldova, a rustic of two.6 million positioned between Ukraine and Romania, stationed within the disputed territory of Transnistria. Concern is rife in Europe that Russian President Vladimir Putin would possibly push his forces west although Ukraine to affix up with them.

Popescu says that “for now, the scenario is calm” in Transnistria, however that issues may change quickly if the combating spreads.

He says the struggle in Ukraine has harm Moldova’s financial system, notably its commerce, simply because the nation struggles to get better from the coronavirus pandemic and an power disaster.

MEDYKA, Poland — Ukrainians, principally ladies and kids, continued to cross into the Polish border city of Medyka on Tuesday.

Viktoria Totsen, 39, arrived there from Mariupol.

“Mariupol is nearly 99% destroyed,” Totsen stated. “They bombed us for the previous 20 days. Over the last 5 days the planes had been flying over us each 5 seconds and dropped bombs in all places, on residential buildings, kindergartens, artwork faculties, in all places. We stay close to the theater within the metropolis middle, and, as you recognize, they broken the theater. It was horrible and we took a threat and we left. They metropolis is beneath blockade, and once we left we acquired (cell phone) connection, and we managed to search out the path to Zaporizhzhia.”

Olena Almazova, 54, fled Kharkiv, a northeast Ukrainian metropolis close to the Russian border.

“It’s a very tough scenario in Kharkiv,” Almazova stated. “On daily basis they bomb, 40, 50, 60 occasions a day. They bombed suburbs and metropolis middle. They broken the tradition middle, they broken historical structure. Thus far, 700 buildings have been destroyed.”

ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish International Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu says this week’s assembly between NATO leaders needs to be centered on methods of securing a cease-fire in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and never simply on sanctions and deterrence.

“Everybody’s first purpose needs to be a cease-fire,” Cavusoglu instructed Turkish journalists on the sideline of an Group of Islamic Cooperation in Pakistan on Tuesday. “It needs to be to cease the struggle that is occurring proper now. Everybody ought to act responsibly and constructively.”

Cavusoglu continued: “In fact, we have to present unity and solidarity inside NATO, we have to present deterrence. However who’s paying the value of the continuing struggle?”

U.S. President Joe Biden and different NATO leaders are scheduled to satisfy Thursday in Brussels. NATO Secretary-Normal Jens Stoltenberg instructed CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday that the assembly is meant not simply to point out NATO’s “help to Ukraine, but in addition our readiness to guard and defend all NATO allies,”

Cavusoglu stated Turkey was urgent with its efforts as a “mediator and facilitator” to finish the combating and was in contact with negotiators on each side. Turkey was additionally attempting to carry the warring sides to satisfy nose to nose once more, Cavusoglu stated.

Earlier this month, the international ministers of Russia and Ukraine met in Turkey on the sidelines of a diplomacy discussion board.

LVIV, Ukraine — Exhausted Mariupol survivors continued to reach by practice within the western metropolis of Lviv on Tuesday.

“In a single compartment there have been 10 or eleven folks, with others within the hall, however while you’re going to security it doesn’t matter,” stated one lady, Julia Krytska, who made it out along with her husband and son. Her fingers had been shaking.

They had been fortunate to get out after volunteers discovered them within the besieged metropolis, she stated. “There’s no reference to the world,” she stated. “We couldn’t ask for assist.”

The folks of Mariupol don’t have an opportunity to be heard, she stated. “They’re in want of assist. Individuals don’t even have water there,” Krytska stated.

KYIV, Ukraine — A Ukrainian actor is now serving within the Territorial Protection Forces on the outskirts of Kyiv in a unit filled with folks from showbusiness.

Sergiy Volosovets stated on Monday that the combat towards Russian forces has drawn in folks from all walks of life.

“There’s lots of very completely different folks right here, I met lots of my associates right here, in addition to artists,” he stated.

“I believe perhaps their creative spirit simply broke the concern and that allowed them to return and be right here. For instance in my items there have been actors, singers, cameramen, photographers, folks associated to the showbusiness in varied methods. These persons are artists, they imagine they might change their nation for higher in addition to defeat the enemy.”

Volosovets has acted in theater, films and TV and has gained awards for his work.

He now instructions a unit of 11 males, and oversees the army coaching of volunteers in a base northeast of Kyiv, a couple of kilometers away from the frontlines the place Ukraine’s military is attempting to dam the Russian advance in direction of the capital.

BRUSSELS — Worldwide information channel Euronews says it has been blocked from broadcasting in Russia resulting from its Ukraine struggle protection.

“We firmly condemn this insupportable restriction imposed on tens of millions … in Russia who relied on us to get neutral information,” Euronews stated, including that Russian authorities pulled the channel off air and blocked its web sites in Russia.

Euronews stated it would launch authorized motion to proceed to freely broadcast within the nation. Euronews is broadcast in 160 international locations.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has intensified a crackdown on media and people who fail to toe his line on Russia’s struggle in Ukraine, blocking Fb and Twitter and signing into regulation a invoice that criminalizes the intentional spreading of “faux” experiences.

Euronews stated it strongly rejected Russian claims it unfold “faux information” and that it allegedly referred to as on Russians to protest the struggle. It stated it confronted an “unacceptable risk of felony legal responsibility” as a result of new Russian regulation.

ATHENS, Greece — Greece’s international minister says he intends to personally escort humanitarian help into the besieged southern Ukrainian metropolis of Mariupol, in coordination with the Worldwide Committee of the Crimson Cross.

International Minister Nikos Dendias stated Tuesday he had despatched an official request to the Ukrainian aspect to facilitate the sending of humanitarian help into the town, and an official request to the Russian aspect to let the supply in. A sizeable Greek neighborhood lives within the Mariupol space.

Dendias didn’t present any particulars on a potential date for the supply or what the humanitarian help would encompass.

He made the announcement after assembly with the Greek consul basic in Mariupol, Manolis Androulakis, who arrived in Athens final Sunday after being evacuated from the town on March 15.

Androulakis was the final European Union diplomat to depart the town, which has been pummeled by Russian forces for weeks. Dwelling circumstances within the metropolis are dire.

On arriving in Athens, Androulakis stated civilians within the metropolis had been being hit “blindly and indiscriminately” and likened Mariupol to different cities decimated by struggle previously, similar to Guernica, Aleppo and Grozny.

WARSAW, Poland — Poland’s president has in contrast the conduct of Russian forces in Ukraine to that of Adolf Hitler’s notorious SS troops throughout World Warfare II.

“At present, the Russian military is behaving in precisely the identical manner … because the German SS,” President Andrzej Duda stated throughout a go to to Bulgaria on Tuesday.

Duda, whose nation suffered a brutal Nazi occupation throughout World Warfare II, famous that Russia had already violated worldwide regulation when it attacked Georgia in 2008 and first invaded Ukraine in 2014.

He stated he hoped that these answerable for assaults on civilians in Ukraine could be introduced earlier than worldwide courts.

PARIS — The previous Paris-based Europe correspondent for Russian state-controlled broadcaster Channel One says she stop her job earlier this month over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Zhanna Agalakova, who was once a newsreader on the channel, stated she believes Russian networks have been commandeered by the Kremlin to broadcasts lies and propaganda.

The 56-year-old journalist stated there may be little impartial media in Russia, that means that Russians are being “zombified” by the stream of media-sponsored untruths.

Agalakova stop March 3, leaving the channel formally on March 17.

BELGRADE, Serbia — A senior Serbian official says Belgrade won’t ever impose sanctions or be a part of the Western “hysteria” towards Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.

Serbia’s Inside Minister Aleksandar Vulin stated Tuesday: “Serbia won’t ever be a part of the anti-Russian hysteria wherein the property of Russian residents and the property of the Russian Federation is stolen, simply as we won’t ban Russian media.”

The Balkan nation is a staunch ally of Russia, although it has condemned its invasion of Ukraine.

Serbia is looking for membership of the European Union, however it’s the solely European nation that has refused to affix worldwide sanctions towards the Kremlin.

MOSCOW — The Kremlin has refused to touch upon a newspaper’s reporting of Russian army casualties in Ukraine.

The professional-Kremlin Komsomolskaya Pravda reported Monday that 9,861 troopers have been killed in motion in Ukraine and one other 16,153 have been wounded. It cited the Russian protection ministry.

The newspaper rapidly eliminated the article from its web site, describing it because the work of hackers.

Requested in regards to the report, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused to touch upon it at Tuesday’s convention name with reporters, referring questions in regards to the army casualties to the protection ministry.

On March 2, the protection ministry reported 498 troopers had been killed and hasn’t launched any casualty numbers since then.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — The Dutch authorities has frozen almost 400 million euros ($440 million) in funds linked to Russians focused by sanctions following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Finance Minister Sigrid Kaag revealed the most recent figures on frozen accounts in a letter to Parliament on Tuesday.

She stated that greater than 242 million euros ($267 million) in funds linked to Russians have been frozen at Dutch belief firms and almost 145 million euros ($160 million) in financial institution accounts.

The rest of the frozen belongings are held at funding firms and pension funds.

LVIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s pure assets minister says wildfires have been extinguished within the space of the Chernobyl nuclear energy plant, which is beneath the management of Russian forces.

The fires have raised concern in regards to the potential launch of radiation from the plant, the place a 1986 explosion and hearth despatched radioactive emissions throughout giant components of Europe.

However Pure Sources Minister Ruslan Strelets stated Tuesday that radiation ranges within the space are throughout the norms.

Ukrainian officers had earlier accused Russian forces of intentionally setting the fires or inflicting them with artillery shelling.

PARIS — A gaggle of 20 Ukrainian kids with most cancers and leukemia has arrived in Paris as a part of a rescue plan coordinated by French First Woman Brigitte Macron and Ukrainian First Woman Olena Zelenska.

The youngsters are accompanied by their dad and mom as they flee the struggle with Russia. They arrived at Orly airport close to the French capital on Monday night.

Chatting with Le Parisien newspaper in an interview, Zelenska stated “when it grew to become clear that it was unimaginable to deal with kids with most cancers within the bomb shelters, we instantly sought an answer.”

She stated among the evacuated kids will stay in Poland, whereas others are heading to France, Italy, Germany, the US and Canada.

ROME — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is urging Italy to beef up sanctions towards Russia and seize extra belongings from President Vladimir Putin and his allies as a manner of pressuring Moscow into negotiating an finish to the struggle.

Zelenskyy spoke to the Italian parliament Tuesday by way of video from Kyiv, as he has carried out with different international parliaments. Sporting a collared shirt and talking via an Italian translator, Zelenskyy instructed Italian lawmakers that he had simply spoken by cellphone to Pope Francis and that the pontiff had endorsed Ukraine’s proper to defend itself.

He stated that 117 kids have been killed within the struggle with Russia and that the town of Mariupol has been flattened by the Russian onslaught.

He warned that Europe’s safety is in danger if Russia advances and that grain deliveries to the creating world are being jeopardized as a result of Ukraine’s farmers can’t plant crops.

Italian Premier Mario Draghi praised the “heroic” resistance of the Ukrainian folks.

MOSCOW — Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has rejected U.S. President Joe Biden’s warning that Russia could also be planning a cyberattack towards the US.

Requested about Biden’s feedback, Peskov stated Tuesday that “the Russian Federation, not like many Western international locations together with the US, doesn’t have interaction in banditry on the state stage.”

Biden instructed a gathering of company CEOs on Monday that “evolving intelligence” indicated a cyberattack could also be deliberate. He urged personal firms to put money into their very own safety to counter cyberattacks.

Biden has recommended a cyberattack might be Russia’s response to financial sanctions imposed by the U.S.

GENEVA — The U.N. refugee company says greater than 3.5 million folks have fled Ukraine since Russia’s invasion, passing one other milestone in an exodus that has led to Europe’s worst refugee disaster since World Warfare II.

UNHCR reported Tuesday that 3.56 million folks have left Ukraine, with Poland taking within the lion’s share — greater than 2.1 million — adopted by Romania with greater than 540,000 and Moldova with greater than 367,000.

Shortly after the invasion on Feb. 24, UNHCR predicted that some 4 million refugees would possibly depart Ukraine, although it has been re-assessing that prediction. The outflows have been slowing in latest days after peaking at greater than 200,000 every on two straight days in early March.

The Worldwide Group for Migration estimates that almost 6.5 million persons are internally displaced inside Ukraine, suggesting that some if not most of them would possibly to flee overseas if the struggle continues.

The World Well being Group, in the meantime, says it has confirmed 62 assaults on well being care belongings in Ukraine for the reason that battle started and thru final Friday. The assaults prompted 15 deaths and 37 accidents. The belongings embody hospitals and medical services, transport of medical provides, warehouses, and well being care employees.

MOSCOW — Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov says he desires to public sale off his 2021 Nobel Peace Prize medal to lift funds for Ukrainian refugees.

Muratov referred to as Tuesday within the impartial Novaya Gazeta newspaper, which he edits, for folks to “share with refugees, the wounded and kids who want pressing therapy what’s pricey to you and has a worth for others.”

Muratov is asking public sale homes about the opportunity of organizing a sale.

Muratov stated final yr he was freely giving his share of the Nobel prize cash to causes together with impartial media, a Moscow hospice, and care for kids with spinal issues. He stated he wouldn’t hold any himself.

LONDON — Two Russian pranksters are claiming credit score for tricking Britain’s protection secretary right into a hoax name with a person purporting to be Ukraine’s prime minister.

A video of the prank circulated on YouTube on Tuesday. It appeared after the U.Okay. accused Russian President Vladimir Putin’s authorities of backing efforts to safe delicate or embarrassing info via hoax calls.

Protection Secretary Ben Wallace final week had a video name with somebody he thought was Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal. As an alternative, he was talking to “Vovan and Lexus,” a pair of hoaxers who had beforehand focused Britain’s Prince Harry.

The video exhibits Wallace talking from Poland to a caller who says Ukraine desires to advance its “nuclear program” to guard itself from Moscow, one thing Russian state media has baselessly claimed previously.

The Ministry of Protection stated the video had been “doctored.” Wallace stated final week that he ended the decision after it strayed into delicate topics over a non-secure line.

MADRID — Authorities in Gibraltar have detained a superyacht linked to a Russian tycoon who’s the goal of British sanctions over Russia’s struggle towards Ukraine.

Gibraltar is a tiny British abroad territory on the southernmost tip of the European mainland, bordering Spain.

In response to Gibraltar’s public broadcaster, GBC, the yacht known as Axioma and is believed to be owned by Dmitrievich Pumpyansky. He’s chairman of the board of administrators of PJSC, a most important metal pipe provider for Russia’s oil and fuel business.

Pumpyansky was additionally included earlier this month in a European Union listing of Russian sanctioned people.

The Gibraltar authorities stated late Monday it will not have usually granted the vessel permission to enter its waters given its “final helpful possession,” however that port authorities allowed it in after “it was confirmed to be the topic of an arrest motion by a number one worldwide financial institution within the Supreme Court docket of Gibraltar.” The assertion didn’t specify the authorized claims from collectors.

Yachts owned or linked to super-rich Russian oligarchs have been among the many first belongings seized or frozen by Western governments as a part of their response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

Authorities in Italy, France and Spain have impounded a number of luxurious vessels within the crackdown.

ANKARA, Turkey — A second superyacht belonging to Chelsea soccer membership proprietor and sanctioned oligarch Roman Abramovich reportedly has docked in a resort in southwestern Turkey.

Turkey has not imposed financial sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine final month, nor has it frozen belongings belonging to high Russian businessmen linked to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The personal DHA information company stated Tuesday the Bermuda-registered Eclipse docked within the resort of Marmaris.

A day earlier, Abramovich’s Bermuda-flagged luxurious yacht My Solaris arrived within the close by resort of Bodrum, triggering a protest by a bunch of Ukrainians who boarded a small motorboat and tried to forestall the yacht from docking.

NATO member Turkey has shut ties to each Russia and Ukraine. It has criticized Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine however has additionally positioned itself as a impartial get together attempting to mediate between the 2.

LONDON — Britain’s protection ministry says Russian forces haven’t managed to take over the Ukrainian port metropolis of Mariupol regardless of weeks of bombardment and days of avenue combating.

In an replace posted on social media, U.Okay. officers say that “regardless of heavy combating, Ukrainian forces proceed to repulse Russian makes an attempt to occupy” the town.

It says Russian forces have made “restricted progress” elsewhere in Ukraine within the final day, and stay “largely stalled in place.”

The Ukrainian army stated Tuesday that Ukrainian forces had been nonetheless defending Mariupol and destroyed a Russian patrol boat and digital warfare complicated. However the protection ministry stated Russia for now controls the land hall from Crimea, the peninsula it annexed in 2014, and is obstructing Ukraine’s entry to the Sea of Azov.

PARIS — France’s international ministry has introduced that the nation despatched 55 metric tons (60 tons) of humanitarian help to Ukraine by way of Poland, together with computer systems, medical gear, child method and mills.

The two.4 million euros ($2.6 million) in emergency help was despatched on an A330 cargo airplane from Paris to Warsaw, the Polish capital, France stated in an announcement late Monday. It stated that “in liaison with the Polish authorities, the fabric can be handed over to the Ukrainian authorities at once.”

The medical gear — which weighs some 10 metric tons (11 tons) — is claimed to incorporate 10 oxygen mills designated for intensive care items along with 9 metric tons (10 tons) of medicines.

The help consists of 31 mills, six of that are high-capacity mills “aimed toward strengthening {the electrical} security of Ukrainian well being services.”

Eight metric tons (9 tons) of laptop and web entry materials — similar to smartphones, computer systems, routers and 60 kilometers (37 miles) of optical fiber — was additionally included within the bundle.

TOKYO — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is ready to just about ship his deal with to the Japanese parliament on Wednesday to rally worldwide help for his nation’s combat towards Russian invasion.

Japan, not like previously, has been performing powerful towards Russia, in step with different Group of Seven international locations, although Tokyo’s steps have triggered Moscow’s retaliation. A compromise may set a nasty priority in East Asia, the place China is more and more making assertive army actions.

Zelenskyy’s speech, anticipated to be about 10 minutes, can be proven in a gathering room on the decrease home — the extra highly effective of Japan’s two-chamber parliament which Prime Minister Fumio Kishida belongs to. Zelenskyy has made digital addresses to the U.S. Congress, in addition to parliaments in Europe, Canada, and Israel.

International dignitaries, together with former U.S. President George W. Bush and former Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, have delivered their addresses in individual throughout visits to Japan as state friends, however an internet speech by a international chief is unprecedented.

On Monday, Russia introduced a call to discontinue peace treaty talks with Japan over the disputed Kuril islands and withdraw from joint financial initiatives there, citing Tokyo’s sanctions towards Russian invasion of Ukraine.