March 21, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

Our live coverage of the war in Ukraine has moved here.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said any constitutional changes that relate to security guarantees in the country would need to be decided through a referendum and not by him alone.

The President made the comments during an interview with Ukraine's public broadcaster Suspilne News on Monday.

"It is a long process which will be decided by the parliament and by the Ukrainian people," he said.

Some context: It comes as delegates from Ukraine and Russia have held a series of peace talks. Zelensky said he has not met with Russian negotiators but told his delegation that any significant compromise would require a referendum.

"I explained to our negotiators at the talks that when one is talking about changes — and these changes may be of historic importance — there is no other way around it, we will have to hold a referendum," he said.
"The people will have to speak up and respond to this or that form of compromise you have mentioned. And what they (the compromises) will be is the subject of our talks and understanding between Ukraine and Russia." 

When a Suspilne reporter asked about the limit of the compromise Ukraine would go for, Zelensky said: "I think that without this meeting you cannot truly understand what they are really prepared to do in order to stop the war and what they are prepared to do if we are not ready for this or that compromise." 

Zelensky repeated previous comments that he was ready to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"The issue of the occupied territories is important for us. But I am certain that a solution will not come at this meeting," he said.

Here's the background to the "occupied territories:" In early 2014, mass protests in Kyiv known as Euromaidan forced out a Russia-friendly president after he refused to sign an EU association agreement. Russia responded by annexing the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea and fomenting a separatist rebellion in Ukraine's east, which seized control of part of the Donbas region. In late February ahead of the invasion, Putin recognized the two separatist territories in eastern Ukraine as independent states.

The European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA) said it has raised more than $600,000 to help operations at Ukrainian zoos impacted by Russia’s invasion.

“EAZA Ukraine Zoos Emergency Fund has raised €576,371 ($635,000) from a very large number of individual and institutional donors, an extraordinary and humbling result that will help provide immediate and long-term assistance to our colleagues in Ukraine,” a statement from EAZA said. 

The groups said it has already made initial cash transfers to zoos in need from the fund.

"These transfers are intended to allow zoos to meet the costs of local resupply while banking facilities are still available,” the statement said.

The donations come after local zoos including the Mykolaiv Zoo posted online pleas for help. 

“Every day we go to work, feed and clean the animals despite the howl of the air raid siren,” said the Mykolaiv Zoo director Volodymyr Topchiy in a Facebook post asking for international financial assistance.

Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs tweeted Friday the zoo had been bombed since the beginning of the war. Its staff had either been evacuated or joined up to fight the invasion.

As of Monday, 925 civilians have been killed in Ukraine since the Russian invasion began, according to an update from the UN Human Rights office (OHCHR).

Among the dead are 11 girls, 25 boys and 39 more children whose gender is not known, the OHCHR said.

According to the agency, at least 1,496 civilians have been injured.

"Most of the civilian casualties recorded were caused by the use of explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including shelling from heavy artillery and multiple-launch rocket systems, and missile and air strikes," the OHCHR said.

The office warned that the actual figures are likely to be "considerably higher" especially in recent days "as the receipt of information from some locations where intense hostilities have been going on has been delayed and many reports are still pending corroboration."

New satellite images from Maxar Technologies show fires from military strikes and growing flooding from the Irpin River.

The images, taken on Monday, also show Russian artillery positions west of the Russian-held Antonov Air Base northwest of the capital, Kyiv. Those positions match similar scenes at other Russian artillery positions — earthen berms have been constructed around them. 

Damage from Russian military strikes are also seen across Irpin, northwest of Kyiv, in the satellite images. Two distinct fires are seen in central Irpin near a complex of city government and apartment buildings. 

Two other fires can also be seen in another satellite image among a group of buildings near a school in the city and a residential area near a lake. 

An additional satellite image shows growing floodwaters from the Irpin River. 

CNN previously reported that a dam along the Dnieper River was flooding the Irpin River basin and its tributaries. The Irpin River is critical to the Russian advance toward Kyiv; if the Russians cannot cross it, they can't take Kyiv from the west.

It's unclear how the dam began flooding the Irpin River basin: whether the gates were opened on purpose by the Ukrainians to flood the area, or it was hit by a military strike. 

In a video uploaded to Telegram early Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called Russian military pilots unhuman saying, "They definitely have emptiness instead of heart. Instead of soul. Instead of everything that makes human, human." 

Without offering evidence, Zelensky also claimed Russian troops hit the Zhytomyr region with rockets Tuesday and that a Russian aircraft was shot down in the Kharkiv region near Chuhuiv.

Zelensky also said, in Kherson, "the occupiers shot at people who peacefully took to the streets without weapons at a rally for their freedom. For our freedom.
"The Russian soldiers do not even know what it is like to be free. They were driven here, to be honest, as if sentenced. Sentenced to death, sentenced to disgrace."

Zelensky added that civilians also came under fire in the Zaporizhzhia region. "Four children were hospitalized. Two are in grave condition," he said. 

The President thanked everyone who worked to help evacuation corridors, saying more than 8,000 people were rescued Monday. "Thank you to everyone who did it, who worked for the people. We also managed to deliver 200 tons of humanitarian aid," he said.

In a video uploaded to Telegram early Tuesday morning local time, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he spoke with the prime minister of the Netherlands and the French president to coordinate upcoming important summits in Europe. 

Zelensky said, "I spoke today with Prime Minister of the Netherlands Rutte and President of France Emanuel Macron. We are coordinating our positions on the eve of important summits in Europe. Meetings of the G7, leaders of NATO, and the European Union will take place on March 24. Our position will definitely sound. It will sound, believe me, firmly."

Russian military vehicles, including artillery positions, in Mariupol are seen in new satellite images from Maxar Technologies. The images were taken on March 19.

One of the images shows Russian military vehicles and tanks on the streets of the "left bank" neighborhood in Mariupol — the day Russian-backed separatists took control of government buildings.

Additional imagery shows Russian military artillery positions northeast of Mariupol and smoke rising from burning apartment buildings.

The Russian tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda published, then later removed, a report that the Russian Ministry of Defense had recorded 9,861 Russian Armed forces deaths in the war in Ukraine.

The report from the tabloid originally read, "According to the Russian Defense Ministry, during the special operation in Ukraine, the Russian Armed Forces lost 9861 people killed and 16153 wounded."

CNN analyzed the HTML code in the website which indicates that the article was published on Monday at 12:09 a.m. Moscow time.

Seconds after CNN read the original article — at 9:56 p.m. Moscow time according to the HTML code — the story was updated and removed all references to the death count. That update on the outlet's website came shortly after the article began to get attention from social media posts, which referenced the death count. 

Some background: Since March 2, Russia has not reported a military death count. The original report from the tabloid is in line with US Department of Defense estimates, which say that there have been up to 10,000 Russian military deaths.

After the update, Komsomolskaya Pravda later published a statement saying that "access to administrator interface was hacked" and that "a fake insert was made into a publication." 

They claimed that "inaccurate information was immediately removed." CNN analysis showed that the update came after 21 hours.