Mariupol defenders hold out; missiles hit Lviv

Bloomberg

The remaining defenders of Mariupol are encircled by Russian forces but have not surrendered the strategically important port city, Ukrainian officials said, as a deadly strike was reported in Lviv near the Polish border.
Ukrainian troops in besieged Mariupol still held out at the giant Azovstal steelworks, one of the largest metallurgical plants in Europe. Air raid sirens were heard in Kyiv for a second day, and Russian missiles targeted the central Dnipro region.
Spain said it would follow European allies like France and Italy and soon reopen its embassy in Kyiv as a show of
support. Ukrainian officials, meanwhile, will seek more financial aid this week at meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Washington.
Ukraine’s postal service said it has sold almost half a million stamps featuring a soldier on the tiny Black Sea outpost known as Snake Island who became a symbol of resistance to Russia’s invasion on the day it began.
According to the story, guards on the island swore at the Moskva — Russia’s flagship missile cruiser that later caught fire and sank — and another ship when ordered to surrender on February 24. An audio recording of the exchange spread rapidly on social media and unleashed a torrent of patriotic memes. The total number of available stamps is 1 million and no additional issues are planned, the postal service said on Facebook.
Viktor Medvedchuk, a businessman and politician seen as one of President Vladimir Putin’s top allies in Ukraine, has agreed to offer himself in a swap for troops and residents in the besieged city of Mariupol, according to the State Security Service in Kyiv.
After Medvedchuk was detained this month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy proposed swapping him for prisoners of war. He had gone missing around the start of the Russian invasion after being placed under house arrest last year.
Separately, a Ukrainian troop commander in Mariupol wrote to Pope Francis asking him to help rescue trapped civilians, Ukrayinska Pravda reported, citing the letter.
Separatist fighters were in factories in Mariupol as Ukraine’s crucial port city appeared on the brink of falling to Russian forces.
Air Serbia will maintain flights to Moscow even as frequent bomb threats wipe out potential profit from the service, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said.
Almost every flight from Belgrade to Moscow has received an anonymous bomb threat since other European carriers stopped flying to the Russian capital, causing delays or requiring the plane to return to its airport of origin for security checks, Vucic said in an interview on Pink TV.
Central bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina said Russia is struggling to find alternative reserve currencies after international sanctions cut access to about half of its stockpile and left it with only yuan and gold.
Before the invasion, the Bank of Russia spent years reducing exposure to the dollar, bringing its share to just under 11% at the end of last year.
But more than a third of the total was in euros — on top of additional investments into currencies such as the British pound and yen.
Russian bombs and missiles hit locations across Ukraine, including in the western city of Lviv, according to officials.
Four missiles hit Lviv, including a strike on a car repair shop that killed seven people and injured 11, Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said. Several rockets targeted the Dnipro region, with some hitting local infrastructure, regional Governor Valentyn Reznichenko said. Shelling of Kharkiv was reported throughout the night.
Bombing in the Donbas
continued. “Russian shells are falling everywhere,” Luhansk’s Haiday said.
Ukrainian authorities haven’t open humanitarian corridors as Russian forces continue to block and shell the routes, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.