Live updates on the Russia-Ukraine conflict: Putin’s red line’ on chemical weapons could lead to Nato intervention as Russian elites ‘deploy’

VLADIMIR PUTIN has been accused of genocide following Russia’s “barbaric” bombing of a maternity hospital in Mariupol.

On Wednesday, Russian forces dropped “several bombs” on the Mariupol hospital during what was supposed to be a ceasefire to allow civilians to be evacuated.

According to the city council, seventeen people were injured as a result of the “colossal” destruction, including a number of labouring women.

Since then, President Volodymyr Zelensky has called the attack “barbaric” and urged the West to intervene to prevent Putin from “committing genocide.”

He has also accused Ukraine’s Western allies of “ignoring terror,” despite the fact that Nato has repeatedly denied his numerous requests for a no-fly zone over Ukraine.

Boris Johnson condemned the attack, saying “few things are more depraved than targeting vulnerable and defenceless people.”

Disney taking steps to ‘pause’ operations in Russia

The Walt Disney Company has announced that it will “pause all other operations in Russia.”

“In light of Russia’s unrelenting assault on Ukraine and the escalating humanitarian crisis,” Disney said in a statement.

Twitter: Russia embassy tweets broke rules

The Russian embassy claimed on Twitter this evening that the maternity hospital in Mariupol that was bombed on Wednesday was being used by Ukrainian forces.

Officials provided no evidence to back up their claims.

Twitter has now confirmed that it has removed tweets about the incident from the Russian Embassy in the United Kingdom.

According to Reuters, the tweets violated the platform’s rules regarding “denying violent events.”

Russia says it will open evacuation corridors from five Ukrainian cities

According to the RIA and Interfax news agencies, the Russian defence ministry will declare a ceasefire on Friday and open humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of Ukrainians from five cities.

The Russian National Defence Control Centre’s head, Mikhail Mizintsev, was quoted by the news agencies as saying that people could travel to Russia or other cities in Ukraine.

“From 10:00 a.m. Moscow time (0700 GMT) on March 11, 2022, the Russian Federation will declare a’regime of silence’ and will be ready to provide humanitarian corridors,” Interfax reported, citing Mizintsev’s statement.

The five cities are:

• Kyiv
• Sumy
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• Kharkiv
• Mariupol
• Chernihi