It’s Sunday night in Kyiv Ukraine. Here’s what you need to know

News Desk March 27, 2022 in EUROPE, UKRAINE WAR, WORLD Tagged Russia, Ukraine, USA, War - 5 Minutes

The Russian military on Sunday confirmed strikes on fuel depots in Lviv and outside of Kyiv Saturday, saying it had targeted fuel supplies for Ukrainian troops.

At least five people were reportedly injured after at least two missiles struck Lviv, a city in western Ukraine that had been previously spared the worst of Russia’s brutal onslaught.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeated his plea to international partners for stronger military assistance, saying his country is only asking for 1% of NATO’s tanks and planes. In a video message posted to social media Saturday, Zelensky said the need to strengthen common security in Europe was raised during his two conversations with Polish President Andrzej Duda.

Here are more of the latest headlines in the Russia-Ukraine conflict:

US ambassador to NATO: No evidence yet that the Kremlin will limit their sights on the Donbas region: Julianne Smith, the US’s ambassador to NATO, discussed Russia’s supposed changing focus, on Sunday with CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union.” Smith said she didn’t think “we have evidence of that quite yet,” that the Kremlin will limit their sights on the Donbas region, but that the US and allies will be looking for it. “But what we do have evidence of is the fact that the Russians have not succeeded in their original aims. And that was, as you well know, to take Kyiv in just a couple of days,” she said. Smith also defended the new actions NATO and the US introduced to continue to punish Russia in the wake of the US President’s trip, even as Ukrainian officials have voiced disappointment in the lack of support.

Next round of Russia-Ukraine talks will be held in Istanbul this week: The next round of talks between Russia and Ukraine will be held in the Turkish city of Istanbul on Tuesday, according to the Turkish presidency. A statement from the Turkish Presidency’s Communications Directorate said during a phone call on Sunday that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin “agreed that the next meeting of the Russian and Ukrainian delegations will be held in Istanbul.” Turkish presidential spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin told CNN International Anchor Becky Anderson on Sunday that the talks will take place Tuesday. However, Ukrainian negotiator David Arakhamia said earlier that the meeting would take place Monday. Previous negotiations have yielded little result.

Putin eyeing “Korean scenario” for Ukraine, says Ukrainian military intel chief: Ukraine’s military intelligence head says Russian President Vladimir Putin could be looking to carve Ukraine in two – like North and South Korea. Brig. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence Agency, said Russia’s operations around Kyiv had failed and it was now impossible for the Russian army to overthrow the Ukrainian government. Putin’s war was now focused on the south and the east of the country, he said. “There is reason to believe that he is considering a ‘Korean’ scenario for Ukraine. That is, [Russian forces] will try to impose a dividing line between the unoccupied and occupied regions of our country. In fact, it is an attempt to create North and South Korea in Ukraine.”

US Ambassador to NATO says there’s no US policy on regime change in Russia: US President Joe Biden’s administration continued on Sunday to clean up his off-the-cuff remark that Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power,” made on his final day in Europe. Julianne Smith, the US’s ambassador to NATO, called Biden’s surprising comments a “principled human reaction,” made after he spent the day seeing the firsthand tragedies of war, when he visited with hundreds of Ukrainian refugees, in a Sunday interview with CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union.” Smith said the “US does not have a policy of regime change in Russia, full stop.”

US senator: “There is one individual that’s trying to make regime change in Europe, and that’s Vladimir Putin”: US Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner avoided directly criticizing President Biden’s remark Saturday that Russian President Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power,” instead shifting focus onto Putin, saying, “There is one individual that’s trying to make regime change in Europe, and that’s Vladimir Putin trying to change the regime in Ukraine.” Asked by CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union” if he thinks the United States’ policy should be for a regime change, Warner said, “The stated policy is the White House’s point and that has not changed. It is up to the Russian people to determine who’s going to be in power in the Kremlin.”

French foreign minister says there will be “collective guilt” if nothing is done to help Mariupol: The French foreign minister Jean Yves Le Drian said during the Doha Forum that there will be “collective guilt” if we do nothing to help Mariupol. “Mariupol is the new Aleppo,” Le Drian said. Speaking at the Doha Forum to CNN’s Becky Anderson, Le Drian said “there is an invading power, which to reach its own ends, it is taking a population hostage in Mariupol. This is truly unacceptable.”