March 13, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

A resident of the besieged city of Mariupol in southern Ukraine has recorded a video diary of the desperate situation in the city.

The video was recorded Sunday morning on deserted streets and posted to Twitter. It also shows looted shops and people trying to cook outdoors in sub-zero temperatures.

Nearly 2,200 people have been killed in the bombardment of the city. Repeated efforts to get humanitarian aid into the city have so far failed. 

Here is what the resident said:

About 5,500 Ukrainian refugees have arrived in Ireland since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the country’s Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Micheál Martin said on Sunday.

“If Ukrainians come into Ireland, they will get access to our social protection. Access to our health services, access to our education, the right to work immediately. And we believe that is the correct thing to do in the context of the worst displacement of people and refugee crisis since World War II,” Martin said.

“Speed is important in a situation like this,” he added.

Ukraine’s National Energy Company (NEC) Ukrenergo completed repair work and resumed power supply to the Chernobyl NPP, the company announced on Sunday.

Some more context: The Chernobyl nuclear power plant's electrical system was damaged during a Russian attack on March 9. Following the attack, the plant was dependent on external diesel generators to keep its reactors operating, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said. Russian officials have also arrived to Ukraine's largest nuclear power plant, demanding to take control of the facility, according to a statement from Energoatom, Ukraine’s state-operated nuclear energy company.

Russian airstrikes hit a large military base near the western city of Lviv, which is close to the Polish border, killing 35 people and leaving more than 130 in hospital, the Lviv regional administration said. More than 30 missiles fired from warplanes over the Black and Azov seas hit the military base, according to a statement.

If you're just reading in, here are the latest headlines from the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Ukraine responded to Russia’s claims it has killed up to 180 foreign mercenaries during a strike on Yavoriv military base, calling it “pure Russian propaganda,” Ukrainian Defense Ministry spokesperson Markiyan Lubkivsky told CNN. 

Earlier on Sunday, Russian Ministry of Defense spokesperson Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said in a briefing, "On the morning of March 13, high-precision long-range weapons attacked the training centers of the Ukrainian armed forces in the village of Starichi and at the Yavoriv military base. At these facilities, the Kyiv regime deployed a point for the training and combat coordination of foreign mercenaries before being sent to the areas of hostilities against Russian military personnel, as well as a storage base for weapons and military equipment coming from foreign countries. As a result of the strike, up to 180 foreign mercenaries and a large consignment of foreign weapons were destroyed. The destruction of foreign mercenaries who arrived on the territory of Ukraine will continue."

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to host the leaders of the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) for a summit on European defense this week.

Representatives from Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Norway will attend meetings “on shoring up European security and increasing defensive military support to Ukraine,” according to a UK government statement released Sunday.  

The statement adds that “leaders are expected to discuss joint military exercises in the High North and Baltic regions.”

“Ensuring we are resilient to Putin’s threats needs to go beyond our military footing - together alongside our North and Baltic Sea partners we must ensure we are insulated from Russia’s interference and impact on our energy supplies, economy and values,” he added.

The group will have dinner at Chequers on Monday, before meeting in London on Tuesday.

Kyiv region police said on Sunday that two other journalists were wounded by Russian troops. One of the wounded journalists is believed to be Colombian-American photographer Juan Arredondo, who is now in the hospital, according to social media video and international media reports. 

In a Facebook post, head of the Kyiv region police Andriy Nebitov said that Russian forces killed American journalist Brent Renaud and that "two more journalists were injured, adding that "the injured have been already saved and moved to a hospital in the capital. What condition they are in is unknown at the moment."

Social media footage has emerged of a journalist identified as Juan Arredondo at Okhmatdyt hospital in Kyiv, in which he describes being shot at by Russian forces while driving through a checkpoint in Irpin, Ukraine, while on the way to film refugees leaving the city. 

Arredondo, a filmmaker and visual journalist who is also an adjunct professor at Columbia Journalism School, posted photos from Zhytomyr, Ukraine on Saturday, noting in an Instagram post that he is "#onassignment." 

The Dean of Columbia Journalism School, Steve Coll, told CNN, "We don’t have any independent information about his injuries at this time but are working now to learn more and to see if we can help."

The Committee to Protect Journalists also noted Arredondo's injuries in a statement released Sunday, in which the organization also denounced the shooting and called for the perpetrators to be brought to justice. 

Arredondo is a 2019 Harvard Nieman fellow. He has previously had his photography featured in The New York Times, National Geographic, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, ESPN, Vanity Fair, and other media outlets, according to his personal website bio. 

Latvian President Egils Levits stressed Sunday that a permanent NATO military base in Latvia is “absolutely” needed in order to protect the country against any potential Russian aggression there.   

“Absolutely. NATO should strengthen the NATO eastern flank. That’s the Baltics, Poland, Romania, so that this would be a strong signal to Moscow that NATO is ready to defend the member states,” Levits told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union” when asked whether US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s announcement that NATO is establishing a permanent base in Latvia would help protect the country against Russia.

“I welcome also the American troops in Poland and Baltics, and we need a permanent presence of American troops in this area. I think it is a response to Russian ideas on aggression beyond Ukraine,” he added.

Latvia, a NATO member that shares a border with Russia, has in recent days condemned Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. The war has caused the US to help Latvia shore up its defenses, including by sending hundreds of American troops and some fighter jets to the country.

Journalists were among the people arrested during anti-war protests in Russia on Sunday, Russian journalist Andrey Okun told CNN.

Russian journalists Anastasia Romanova from MR7, Angelina Trofimenko from Avtozak Live, Anastasia Rogacheva from SOTA, Andrey Okun from Zaksru and Elena Lukyanova from Novaya Gazeta were detained during the anti-war protests in St. Petersburg.

All of the detained journalists were wearing yellow “Press” vests, had accredited press cards and editorial assignments, Okun told CNN.

“My colleagues and I filed a collective complaint against the police actions and the illegal detentions of journalists, that are becoming larger with each protest action,” Okun said.

Some more context: Russia’s riot police arrested more than 776 people in 37 Russian cities on Sunday, almost half detained in Moscow, according to OVD-Info, an independent human rights protest-monitoring group. According to the group, more than 5,000 people were arrested across Russia for participating in the anti-war protests last weekend and more than 14,763 protesters have been detained in 151 Russian cities since the start of Russia’s invasion on Feb. 24.