Russia Ukraine War Updates: Putin admits to bringing in Middle Eastern fighters to join invasion

US President Joe Biden is authorising the State Department to provide additional aid to Ukraine of up to USD 200 million.

The funds would cover weapons as well as military services, education and training as Ukrainians seek to repel a Russian invasion.

The aid is part of broader U.S. support in the form of aid and sanctions. When Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, Secretary of State Antony Blinken noted that USD 1 billion in aid had been provided to Ukraine.

The ongoing warfare has led to additional support with Congress this week approving USD 13.6 billion in additional aid, a sum that includes USD 6.5 billion for the costs of sending troops and weapons to Eastern Europe and USD 6.8 billion for refugees and economic aid.

Biden plans to sign the spending bill with the additional aid when he receives it next week..

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Taiwan's president says Russia's war on Ukraine shows the island would need “the unity of all the citizens” to defend itself if it were attacked.

Training for military veterans in Taiwan was doubled in length to two weeks this year amid increased efforts by China's ruling Communist Party to intimidate the self-ruled island democracy, which Beijing claims as part of its territory.

President Tsai Ing-wen said Saturday that “the recent situation in Ukraine once again proved that to protect the country, not only the assistance from the international society is necessary, but also the unity of all the citizens.

Tsai said that “educational mobilisation is an implementation of the spirit of all-out defense with the principle of local mobilisation and local engagement of the enemy." Taiwan and the mainland split in 1949 following a civil war. They have no official relations but multibillion-dollar ties of trade and investment. 

Croatian officials criticized NATO on Saturday for what they said was its slow reaction to a military drone that apparently flew all the way from the Ukrainian war zone over several NATO member states, before crashing in an urban zone of the Croatian capital. The Russian-made unmanned aircraft crossed Romania and Hungary before entering Croatia and slamming late Thursday into a field near a student dormitory. Some 40 parked cars were damaged but no one was injured after a loud blast.

NATO said the alliance's integrated air and missile defense had tracked the object's flight path. But the Croatian prime minister said the country's authorities were not informed and that NATO reacted only after question were posed by journalists.

“We cannot tolerate this situation, nor should it have ever happened,” Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said while visiting the crash site.

 Petro Kotin, the head of Ukraine’s state-run nuclear company Energoatom, said that Russian occupiers told the plant’s staff that they must follow the orders of the Russian state atomiс energy corporation Rosatom.

Italian financial police has seized a Russian-owned superyacht valued at 530 million euros (USD 578 million) in the port of Trieste as part of seizures of oligarch wealth to pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin to halt the war on Ukraine. The “Sy A” yacht was identified by Italian police as belonging to belonging to billionaire Andrey Igorevich Melnichenko, who made a fortune in fertilizer production and coal energy. It was seized Friday evening.

Video shows police in cars with flashing lights approaching the triple-mast yacht and officers boarding it. Italian authorities last week seized some 143 million euros (USD 156 million) in luxury yachts and villas belonging to Russian billionaires in such picturesque retreats as Sardinia, the Ligurian coast and Lake Como.

Britain's Defense Ministry says fighting northwest of Kyiv has continued with the bulk of Russian ground forces now around 25 kilometers (15 miles) from the center of the city. A daily intelligence update says elements of the large Russian military column north of Kyiv have dispersed. It says this is likely to support a Russian attempt to encircle the Ukrainian capital. According to the brief, it could also be an attempt by Russia to reduce its vulnerability to Ukrainian counterattacks, which have taken a significant toll on Russian forces. The update says that beyond Kyiv, the cities of Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Sumy and Mariupol remain encircled and continue to suffer heavy Russian shelling.

The “Evropeisky” mall in Moscow was once a symbol of a Russia integrated into the global consumer economy, with atriums named after cities like London, Paris and Rome.

But now large parts of the seven-story shopping center have gone quiet after Western brands from Apple to Victoria's Secret closed their Russian operations in the two weeks since the country invaded Ukraine.

Hundreds of companies have similarly announced plans to curtail ties to Russia, with the pace accelerating over the past week as the deadly violence and humanitarian crisis in Ukraine worsens, and as Western governments ratchet up economic sanctions.

Russian President Vladimir Putin responded Thursday by saying that if foreign companies shut down production in Russia, he favored a plan to “bring in outside management and then transfer these companies to those who want to work.”

A draft law could allow Russian courts to appoint external administrators for companies that cease operations and are at least 25% foreign-owned. If the owners refuse to resume operations or to sell, the company's shares could be auctioned off, the ruling United Russia party has said, calling it “the first step toward nationalization.”

Chris Weafer of Macro-Advisory, a consultancy specializing in Russia, said the Russian government "is adopting a carrot-and-stick approach to foreign business,” with talk of nationalization balanced out with government help for those who stay. A key reason, Weafer said, is the Kremlin's desire to avoid mass unemployment.

“When it comes to social pressures or potential public backlash, what they understand, I guess, is that people will not take to the streets because they cannot buy a Big Mac,” Weafer said. “But they might take to the streets if they have no job and no income.”

White House press secretary Jen Psaki criticized “any lawless decision by Russia to seize the assets of these companies,” saying that it “will ultimately result in even more economic pain for Russia."

“It will compound the clear message to the global business community that Russia is not a safe place to invest and do business,” she said in a tweet, adding that ”Russia may also invite legal claims from companies whose property is seized."

A top Ukrainian official on Saturday claimed that the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, which was captured by Russian forces on March 4, has been taken over by Rosatom, Moscow's state nuclear company.

In a social media post, Petro Kotin, chief of Ukraine's state nuclear company Energoatom, said: "Representatives of the so-called military-civil administration came to the station and gathered the management. They did not give their names, they only said that they were representatives of the military-civil administration.

"They told the management that it (plant) was now a Rosatom station, and it no longer belonged to Ukraine. They said that they are here for the long term and it is now their territory, so the nuclear power plant must operate in accordance with Rosatom decrees."

It was earlier reported that Rosatom, which operates several hundred Russian nuclear energy enterprises, is involved in the capture of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, said the Ukrayinska Pravda newspaper.

"There were eight other people trying to take the management of Zaporizhzhya NPP into their own hands. They were not allowed there. However, all these cases demonstrate that Rosatom also took part in this aggression, and is essentially raiding now, trying to seize and control the nuclear power plant," he said.

According to Kotin, Energoatom has already prepared an appeal to relevant international organisations, including the IAEA, to draw attention to the role and participation of Rosatom in aggressive actions against Ukrainian nuclear power plants.

Earlier today, Ukraine President Zelensky had claimed that Russian troops had abducted the mayor of Melitopol city. Now, the residents of the city are demanding to free him. According to Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy chief of staff for President Volodymyr Zelensky, over 2,000 residents of Melitopol gathered near the city administration building on March 12 for a protest.

One man was detained in Poland suspected of raping a 19-year-old refugee he'd lured with offers of shelter after she fled war-torn Ukraine. Another was overheard promising work and a room to a 16-year-old girl before authorities intervened. Another case inside a refugee camp at Poland's Medyka border, raised suspicions when a man was offering help only to women and children.

In the Luhansk region, Rubizhne, Lysychansk, Severodonetsk, Gorsk, Zolote, Popasna are constantly fighting. People in apartments have no electricity, gas, water. Products in stores are sold out, there are no new deliveries. People have nothing to eat. 

Russian media Sputnik has said that US independent agency has asked the White House to get Russia expelled from Interpol.

Explosions have been reported in Dnipro. The city’s mayor Borys Filatov says Ukraine’s air defense systems repelled the early morning attack. No casualties were reported.

An oil depot is on fire in Vasylkiv, 36 km south of Kyiv, and another was hit in the village of Kryachky.  In the village of Kvitneve, a warehouse for frozen food products is on fire after Russian shelling.

Russia has begun mobilizing troops in Donbas and Crimea.  According to the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence Kyrylo Budanov, Russia is also transferring new units from the central and eastern parts of Russia to replenish reserves.

Ukraine has started repairing the damaged power lines near Chornobyl power plant. The International Atomic Energy Agency said Ukrainian technicians have started repairing damaged power lines to the power plant site to restore electricity supply that was cut off earlier in the week.

As per NEXTA, at least eight explosions were heard in Ukraine's Vasylkiv city. The local airport is presumably bombed by the Russian aviation.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that 7,144 people had been evacuated from a number of Ukrainian cities on Friday. "7,144 people have been rescued from Enerhodar, Bucha, Hostomel and Kozarovychi," Zelenskyy said in a video address on his Telegram channel.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on Friday informed that the humanitarian situation in Ukraine is deteriorating at an alarming pace. An estimated 1.9 million have been internally displaced and more than 2.3 million people have crossed international borders out of Ukraine, according to the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR.

US President Joe Biden said he has moved 12,000 troops along the borders with Russia, such as Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and Romania while asserting that Vladimir Putin will not be victorious in the war he has waged against Ukraine. Addressing members of the House Democratic Caucus on Friday, Biden stressed over "not fighting a third World War in Ukraine" but avowed sending an "unmistakable message that we will defend every inch of NATO territory".

Several explosions have been reported from the city of Kyiv. Chief international correspondent Clarissa Ward noted “a nonstop volley… of just heavy booms in the distance” overnight on March 12, reported the Kyiv Independent. Heavy fighting continues in the areas outside Kyiv, including in Bucha, Irpin, and Hostomel.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia on Friday of kidnapping the mayor of the city of Melitopol, equating it to the actions of “ISIS terrorists.”

“They have transitioned into a new stage of terror, in which they try to physically liquidate representatives of Ukraine’s lawful local authorities,” Zelenskyy said in a video address Friday evening.

Ukraine's banking system remains operational despite the ongoing war, according to the country's media outlet, Kyiv Independent. The national bank of Ukraine has also reported that all the systems are operating despite the war situation in Ukraine.

The United States accused Russia of using a UN Security Council meeting Friday for "lying and spreading disinformation” as part of a potential false-flag operation by Moscow for the use of chemical or biological agents in Ukraine. US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Russia was playing out a scenario put forth in the council last month by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken — that President Vladimir Putin would "fabricate allegations about chemical or biological weapons to justify its own violent attacks against the Ukrainian people.

Deutsche Bank, a German investment banking company has announced to halt its operations in Russia, reported Reuters.

Russia widened its offensive in Ukraine on Friday, striking airfields in the west and a major industrial city in the east, while the huge armored column that had been stalled for over a week outside Kyiv appeared to have spread out near the capital.

As shelling in Nikolaev continues, Russia troops are trying to break through to Odessa in Ukraine (NEXTA)