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March 27 (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden called Russian leader Vladimir Putin a butcher who “cannot remain in power” on Saturday after meeting Ukrainian refugees in Poland. Russian attacks in Ukraine included rocket strikes on the western city of Lviv.
FIGHTING
* Russia continued its “full-scale armed aggression”, while Ukrainian forces had repulsed seven attacks in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said.
* Russia has started destroying Ukrainian fuel and food storage depots, Ukrainian Interior Ministry adviser Vadym Denysenko said.
* Four missiles hit Lviv on Saturday just 60 km (40 miles) from the Polish border, local officials said.
* Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy asked whether the West was intimidated by Russia, demanding on Saturday that they provide a fraction of the military hardware in their stockpiles.
BIDEN’S TOUGH WORDS
* Biden said Saturday Putin “cannot remain in power”, remarks a White House official said later were not meant to back regime change in Russia. But the comment raised the spectre of an escalation by Washington in its approach to the conflict.
CIVILIANS
* Ukraine and Russia have agreed two “humanitarian corridors” to evacuate civilians from frontline areas on Sunday, including allowing people to leave by private car from the southern city of Mariupol, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.
* Ukraine asked the Red Cross not to open a planned office in Russia’s Rostov-on-Don, saying it would legitimise Moscow’s “humanitarian corridors” and the abduction and forced deportation of Ukrainians.
* Chernihiv has 44 severely wounded people, including three children, who could not be evacuated for treatment since the northern city has been cut off by Russian forces, the mayor said on Saturday.
ECONOMY, BUSINESS
* Zelenskiy urged energy-producing countries on Saturday to boost output so Russia cannot use its oil and gas wealth to “blackmail” other nations.
QUOTES
* “They attacked and bombed us. They destroyed everything in our city. So many children have died, so many women,” Olha Moliboha, 90, said after escaping to Poland from Chernihiv. “All our houses are destroyed, they are not there anymore. There is nowhere to live.”
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Source: NewsAsia
