Russia escalated attacks in western Ukraine on Sunday with a deadly airstrike on a military base where Ukrainian troops had trained with NATO forces, bringing the conflict closer to Poland and other members of the bloc.
Meanwhile, police in the capital of Kyiv confirmed that a U.S. video journalist died Sunday and another American journalist was injured when they were attacked by Russian forces.
From Vatican City, Pope Francis decried the “barbarianism” of the killing of children and other defenseless Ukrainians and called for a stop to the attacks “before cities are reduced to cemeteries.”
“In the name of God, I ask: ‘Stop this massacre,’” Francis told about 25,000 people gathered in St. Peter’s Square for his customary Sunday noon appearance.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of trying to create new “pseudo-republics” to break his country apart. He called on Ukraine’s regions not to repeat the experience of two eastern areas where pro-Russian separatists began fighting Ukrainian forces in 2014.
Now in its third week, the war has forced more than 2.5 million people to flee Ukraine.
Here are some key things to know about the conflict:
WHAT HAPPENED IN WESTERN UKRAINE?
Ukrainian officials said at least 35 people were killed and 134 wounded Sunday when more than 30 cruise missiles were fired at the Yavoriv military range, just 25 kilometers (15 miles) from the Polish border.
The training base appears to be the most westward target struck so far in the 18-day invasion. The facility, also known as the International Peacekeeping and Security Center, has long been used to train Ukrainian military personnel, often with instructors from the United States and other NATO countries.
The base has also hosted international NATO drills. As such, the site symbolizes what has long been a Russian complaint: That the NATO alliance of 30 member countries is moving ever closer to Russia’s borders. Russia has demanded that Ukraine drop its ambitions to join NATO.
The U.S. issued a swift warning after the attack. White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” that Russia will face a response from NATO should any of its attacks in Ukraine cross borders and hit members of the security alliance — even by accident.
Russian airstrikes also again hit the airport in Ivano-Frankivsk, another city in western Ukraine south of Lviv and 250 kilometers (155 miles) away from Ukraine’s border with NATO members Slovakia and Hungary. The city’s mayor, Ruslan Martsinkiv, said Russia’s goal was “to sow panic and fear.”
WHAT’S HAPPENING IN MARIUPOL AND ELSEWHERE?
In the besieged port city of Mariupol, the city council says more than 2,180 people have been killed in near-constant shelling by Russian forces.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said suffering in the port city is “simply immense” and that hundreds of thousands of residents are “facing extreme or total shortages of basic necessities like food, water and medicine.” The organization said bodies of civilians and soldiers remain lying where they fell.
Ukrainian authorities said Russians agreed that a humanitarian corridor from Mariupol would be among more than 10 safe routes that were to open Sunday. But similar promise have failed and there was no word late Sunday on whether the routes were usable. Officials said a convoy carrying 100 tons of aid was expected to arrive in Mariupol on Monday.
In the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv, near the Black Sea, authorities reported nine people killed in bombings. They said 32 people were wounded in Russian airstrikes on a monastery and a children’s resort in the eastern Donetsk region.
WHAT HAPPENED TO THE U.S. JOURNALISTS?
The Kyiv police force said Sunday that Russian troops opened fire on the car of Brent Renaud and another journalist in Irpin, near the capital. It said the injured journalist, Juan Arredondo, was taken to a hospital in the city.
A New York Times spokesperson said Renaud, 50, was a “talented filmmaker who had contributed to The New York Times over the years.” The spokesperson said he was not working for the publication at the time of his death.
The police force said: “Of course, the profession of journalism carries risks. Nonetheless, U.S. citizen Brent Renaud paid with his life trying to highlight the deceit, cruelty and ruthlessness of the aggressor.”
Journalist Annalisa Camilli told The Associated Press she was at a hospital in Kyiv where Arredondo was brought for treatment. In a video recorded by Camilli, Arredondo, lying on a stretcher, said he and Renaud had been filming refugees fleeing the area when Russian soldiers opened fire at a checkpoint.
The driver of their vehicle turned around, but soldiers continued firing, Arredondo said. Arredondo said an ambulance carried him away and Renaud, who was shot in the neck, was left behind.
Sullivan, the White House national security adviser, told CBS News that the U.S. government would consult with Ukraine to determine how the incident happened and would then “execute appropriate consequences.”
“This is part and parcel of what has been a brazen aggression on the part of the Russians, where they have targeted civilians, they have targeted hospitals, they have targeted places of worship, and they have targeted journalists,” Sullivan said on “Face the Nation.”
WHAT HAS THE AP DIRECTLY WITNESSED OR CONFIRMED?
At a hospital in Brovary, near Kyiv, doctors tended to the injured, including three people who drove over a mine.
Valentyn Bagnyuk, the hospital’s chief doctor, said 80% of patients at the hospital are civilians who have been injured by shelling.
Volodymr Adamkovych sat shirtless on a hospital bed, bandages on his abdomen covering wounds caused by a shell that landed in his home. He said he spent the night in the basement of the home before he could safely reach the hospital. He said his wife and child were also at home but were not injured.
WHAT IS THE LATEST ON UKRAINIAN REFUGEES?
While the number of people arriving in neighboring countries from Ukraine appears to have eased in the past week, the refugees’ harrowing accounts of destruction and death continue.
At the train station in Przemysl, Poland, refugees described traveling in packed trains and “people sleeping on each other” during their journeys to safety. Some heard explosions as they passed through a western region of Ukraine near Lviv, in the area where Russian missiles hit the military training base.
“The sky,” said Elizaveta Zmievskaya, 25, from Dnipro, “became red.”
Ina Padi, 40, who crossed the border with her family, was taking shelter at a fire station in Wielkie Oczy, Poland, when she was awakened by blasts Sunday that made the windows shake.
“I understood in that moment even if we are free of it, (the war) is still coming after us,” she said.
More than 1.5 million refugees have arrived in Poland since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24 — the United Nations says a total of about 2.7 million people have fled Ukraine so far.
Polish border guard spokeswoman Anna Michalska said the numbers of refugees arriving have eased in the past week with about 79,800 arriving on Saturday, compared to 142,000 a week earlier.
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