Russia-Ukraine war LIVE- Fearless Zelenskyy survives THREE assassination attempts this week as Putin’s killers stalk him

Reports of Russian soldiers raping Ukrainian women

Russian troops have been accused of raping Ukrainian women as they rampage through the country by the country’s government.

As the war enters its ninth day, the country’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said there were reports of Putin’s soldiers sexually assaulting women.

Kyiv’s Mayor, former world heavyweight boxing champion Vitali Klitschko, claims a 40-mile convoy of Russian military vehicles are getting closer to the capital city after their advance was stalled by days of fierce Ukrainian resistance.

He told a briefing at Chatham House: “We have numerous cases of, unfortunately, when Russian soldiers rape women in the Ukrainian cities.”

Kuleba backed a call for the creation of a special tribunal to punish Moscow’s aggression as Russia’s hostility escalates beyond bombing.

Kuleba said international law “is the only tool of civilisation that is available to us to make sure that in the end, eventually, all those who made this war possible will be brought to justice”.

He said: “We are fighting against the enemy who is much stronger than us.

“But the international law is on our side, and hopefully… it will make its own contribution to help us prevail.”

Ukraine war: The latest developments

Russia blocks access to Facebook

Russia has blocked access to Facebook, according to the country’s state communications watchdog Roskomnadzor.

In a statement, the regulator said: “On March 4, 2022, a decision was made to block access to the Facebook network (owned by Meta Platforms, Inc) in the Russian Federation.

“Since October 2020, 26 cases of discrimination against Russian media and information resources by Facebook have been recorded.

“In recent days, the social network has restricted access to accounts: the Zvezda TV channel, the RIA Novosti news agency, Sputnik, Russia Today, the Lenta.ru and Gazeta.ru information resources.”

It comes a week after Russia limited access to Facebook after the social media provider refused to stop fact-checking and labelling content from state-owned organisations.

Liz Truss says ‘invading Ukraine has serious consequenes’

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss added: “Our message to Putin and his cronies has been clear from day one.

“Invading Ukraine would have serious and crippling consequences.”

She claims the UK had introduced the “largest and strongest sanctions package in our history”.

G7 ‘deeply concerned’ over humanitarian toll of invasion

G7 foreign ministers on Friday said they were “deeply concerned” with the humanitarian toll from “Russia’s continuing strikes” against Ukraine’s civilian population and added they will hold to account those responsible for war crimes.

“We reemphasize that indiscriminate attacks are prohibited by international humanitarian law. We will hold accountable those responsible for war crimes, including indiscriminate use of weapons against civilians”, G7 foreign ministers said in a joint statement released by the U.S. State Department.

Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant ‘being guarded by Russian troops’

Russia’s ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia says the plant and its surrounding area is being guarded by Russian troops, and personnel with “relevant experience” have been brought in.

The security of the site is being ensured by Russian armed forces and Ukrainian operators, and the troops are “not interfering” in the operators’ work, he says.

Mr Nebenzia says a similar operation is being carried out at the Chernobyl power plant, which is also under Russian control.

He denies that Russian troops attacked the Zaporizhzhya last night, accusing Ukraine of trying to create “artificial hysteria”.

Instead, he claims a “Ukrainian sabotage group” tried to provoke return fire from a Russian mobile patrol by firing on the group.

The Ukrainians then set fire to the training facility they were in, he claims.

Zelenskyy makes appeal to European to ‘stand up’ for Ukraine

In an address from Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged Europeans to stand up for his country.

“People of Europe, I call upon you not to be silent,” he said.

“Come out onto the streets and support Ukraine.”

He continued: “If Ukraine will not stand, Europe will not stand. If we will fall, you will fall. Please don’t be silent. Do not turn a blind eye on this.”

Dame Barbara Woodward says Putin ‘misjudged strength’ of Ukrainian people

Dame Barbara Woodward said Russian President Vladimir Putin had “misjudged the strength, resilience and will of the Ukrainian people”.

Addressing the UN Security Council, the UK permanent representative to the United Nations said: “President Putin said yesterday that the special military operation, or as everyone else calls it, the war, was going to plan. Everyone around this table knows that is not true.

“President Putin misjudged the strength, resilience and will of the Ukrainian people to his invasion.

“He underestimated the world’s condemnation of his actions – 141 votes in the General Assembly and the unprecedented sanctions on Russia demonstrate the strength of the global response.

“Every day, this war continues the destruction it brings to Ukraine, the suffering it inflicts on Ukrainian and Russian people, and the risks it poses to international peace and security increase.

“This must stop. We call on Russia to end this violence, withdraw its troops and enter into serious peace negotiations.”

World narrowly escaped a nuclear catastrophe overnight

The world narrowly averted a nuclear catastrophe overnight when a fire broke out during a Russian seizure of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations said on Friday.

He also demanded assurances from Moscow that such an assault will not happen again.

Speaking at an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council, Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the attack reflected a “dangerous new escalation” in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

She warned that “imminent danger” persisted, citing Russian troops whom she said were 20 miles (32 km) from Ukraine’s second largest nuclear facility.

Good evening

This is John Hall signing off from The Sun’s rolling coverage of developments in Ukraine today.

Joseph Gamp will continue our coverage over the course of the evening.

What’s the latest on Russia’s invasion?

Russian forces are getting even closer to the city of Kyiv in the north of Ukraine.

As this map shows, they’ve also been able to link the Donbas pro-Russian breakaway areas in the east of the country with the annexed region of Crimea in the south.

What’s the latest in Ukraine

Here’s a quick recap of everything that’s been going on in Ukraine over the past few hours.

Bring them to justice

Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba has backed a call for the creation of a special tribunal to punish Moscow’s aggression as Russia’s hostility escalates beyond bombing.

Kuleba said international law “is the only tool of civilisation that is available to us to make sure that in the end, eventually, all those who made this war possible will be brought to justice”.

He said: “We are fighting against the enemy who is much stronger than us.

“But the international law is on our side, and hopefully… it will make its own contribution to help us prevail.”

Russian soldiers reportedly raping Ukrainian women

Putin today issued a fresh warning to Russia’s neighbours not to “escalate the situation” by supporting Ukraine.

And Russian troops have been accused of raping Ukrainian women as they rampage through the country by the country’s government.

As the war enters its ninth day, the country’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said there were reports of Putin’s soldiers sexually assaulting women.

Waves of destruction

Some of the worst destruction in Ukraine has been in Chernihiv in the northeast, where horrifying pictures showed blocks of flats turned to smouldering ruins.

More victims were pulled from the rubble today as rescuers confirmed the death toll from one attack had risen to 47.

Chilling video filmed in the aftermath showed bodies strewn across the streets in one of the hardest-hit regions of the conflict.

Nuclear reactors could have exploded

Reactors hit by Russian shells during an attack on the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant in Ukraine last night could have exploded.

Prof Robin Grimes from Imperial College London told the BBC that the reactors do have a pressure vessel that can “withstand considerable damage from phenomena such as earthquakes”.

But he added that they are “not designed to withstand explosive ordinance such as artillery shell”.

He poured cold water on claims the attack could have caused a Chernobyl-style nuclear event though, saying it was unlikely.

He did, however, tell the BBC that “shelling nuclear power plants is against the Geneva convention and this is obviously very worrying”.

Top Putin general shot dead by Ukrainian sniper

ONE of Vladimir Putin’s top generals was shot dead by a sniper in a major blow to the Kremlin’s war plan to annihilate Ukraine.

Major General Andrei Sukhovetsky was reportedly killed at the battle for Hostomel Airfield about 30 miles outside the capital Kyiv.

Ukrainian soldiers fought off a Spetsnaz special forces air assault there — and his loss could explain why Russian forces failed to secure the airfield as well as why the assault on Kyiv had stalled.

The elite para commander is the most senior officer known to have died since Putin unleashed his bloodbath on February 24.

Washington’s new hotline to Moscow

America’s Department of Defense – known as the Pentagon – has established a new hotline with Russia’s ministry of defence.

The move is intended to prevent “miscalculation, military incidents and escalation” in Ukraine as the conflict intensifies, a US official told Reuters.

There are great fears that fighting in Ukraine could spill over borders into areas where Nato troops are stationed, risking serious incidents or accidents involving western forces that could trigger global war.

“The Department of the Defense recently established a de-confliction line with the Russian ministry of defense on March 1 for the purposes of preventing miscalculation, military incidents, and escalation,” a senior US defense official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

What was the response to the nuclear plant attack?

At least three Ukrainian soldiers were killed and three injured in the fighting overnight.

Fire crews were reportedly unable to get near the blaze because they were being shot at by the Russians.

In a chilling warning, Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said: “If it blows up, it will be 10 times larger than Chernobyl.

“Russians must immediately cease the fire, allow firefighters, establish a security zone.”

What was happening at the plant when it came under attack?

Four of the plant’s six units were being cooled down, while one was in outage, and one in operation.

The regulator added that spent nuclear fuel stored at the site posed a further risk.

“It shall be reminded that in addition to six power units at the Zaporizhzhia NPP site, there is a spent nuclear fuel storage facility, damage of which due to shelling will also lead to radioactive releases,” it said.