Update 2022-03-17 (6): According to information from the Russian Defence Ministry on Thursday (17 March), a further 43,000 people were able to flee from the besieged port city of Mariupol on the Sea of Azov. Furthermore, for the first time since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, urgently needed relief supplies are to be brought to Mariupol.
Update 2022-03-17 (5): According to media reports on Thursday (17 March), around 80 percent of the flat in the southern Ukrainian port city of Mariupol has been destroyed by Russian shelling. According to Russian reports, heavy fighting is currently taking place around the major city of Zyverodonetsk in the east of the country. The villages of Novomayorske and Prechystivka (Donetsk oblast) were captured by pro-Russian separatists. The shelling of the Kiev suburb of Svyatoshyn in the south-west killed two civilians, in the locality of Novi Petriivtsi (Kiev oblast) another person was killed and four others were injured
Update 2022-03-17 (4): According to Ukrainian forces, they have succeeded in destroying a command post of the Russian army. Russian forces have fixed their positions in the western and northwestern parts of the city of Rubishne in the east of the country. Russian forces have also consolidated their positions in the northwestern part of Kherson region on the border with Dnipropetrovsk region, about 30 kilometres from the large city of Kryvyi Rih. In the town of Merefa (Kharkiv oblast), a school and a cultural centre were hit by Russian shelling on Thursday (17 March), killing 21 civilians and injuring many others.
