BEAUTY & THE BEAST
Among the volunteers who rushed to take up arms to fend off Vladimir Putin's army in Kyiv is the former Miss Ukraine Anastasiia Lenna. Lenna, who won the crown in 2015, posted an image of herself on Instagram as she announced she had joined the resistance movement. A public relations manager in Turkey, she posted the image alongside two hashtags - stand with Ukraine and hands off Ukraine. It is not the first time she has been pictured with a gun and previous posts appear to show her training with a gun in wooded arenas and indoor training grounds. The other volunteers included a man with a prosthetic leg and a young couple who brought forward their wedding from May to tie the knot before joining the civil defence force the next day.
UNCANNY QUIET
The Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, was eerily quiet after huge explosions lit up the morning sky and authorities reported blasts at one of the airports. Only an occasional car appeared on a deserted main boulevard as a strict 39-hour curfew kept people off the streets. Terrified residents instead hunkered down in homes, underground garages and subway stations in anticipation of a full-scale Russian assault.
KHARKIV REPELS ATTACK
Russian troops briefly entered Kharkiv, another key Ukrainian town. Videos posted on Ukrainian media and social networks showed Russian vehicles moving across the city and Putin’s troops roaming in the city in small groups. However, Ukrainian forces claimed they have repelled the attack and the city was clear of Russian troops after street-to-street overnight fighting. Residents described intense shelling, with one woman saying it was "something like Star Wars above your head", reports BBC. A nine-storey residential tower was hit, emergency services said.
GERMANY RAMPS UP
Germany announced on Sunday it was committing 100 billion Euros (USD 113 billion) to a special armed forces fund and would keep its defence spending above 2 per cent of GDP from now on. It was one of the most significant shifts in European security policy in decades, brought on by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The announcement by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, which came hours after Germany announced it would send weapons and other supplies directly to Ukraine, underscored how Russia's war in Ukraine was rewriting Europe's post-World War II security policy. Scholz's announcement of new defense funding is significant for Germany, which has come under criticism from the United States and other NATO allies for not investing adequately in its defense budget. NATO member states committed to spending 2 per cent of their GDP on defense, but Germany has consistently spent much less.
PROTESTS IN RUSSIA
From Moscow to Siberia, Russian anti-war activists took to the streets again on Sunday to protest Russia's invasion of Ukraine, despite the arrests of hundreds of protesters each day. Demonstrators held pickets and marched in city centers, chanting “No to war!” Approximately 100,000 turned out in Berlin to protest against the invasion.
BAN ON AIR SPACE
Russian-owned planes, including private jets, can no longer enter the skies above the Baltic states, Poland, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Romania and Slovenia. Russian planes have also been banned from UK airspace. Germany has imposed a three-month ban; Spain, France, Denmark, the Netherlands and Italy will also close their airspace. So will Finland. Ireland and Austria have also thrown their weight behind an EU-wide ban. The restriction on flights over many of the countries will require the airlines to take circuitous routes, resulting in longer flight times.
