35 perish in Russian air strikes at Poland border

Kyiv: As Russian troops advanced closer to the Ukrainian capital from the north, west and northeast, fears were raised of Kyiv becoming encircled completely, while multiple air strikes rained down on a military base near the western city, Lviv, on Sunday.

Thirty-five have been reported dead, and 57 injured after Russian troops launched eight air strikes onto a military training ground outside western Ukraine's Lviv, in a major escalation near the Polish border, officials said Sunday.Russia's attack on Ukraine on February 24 marked the beginning of World War III, George Soros, an American financier and founder of the Renaissance Foundation, stated this in an article, which was published by Project Syndicate. According to Soros, this war has the potential to "destroy our civilisation".

The article says that before the invasion, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping released a large document declaring a close partnership between the two countries, UNIAN reported.

Prominent Wikipedia editor Mark Bernstein has been detained in Belarus for editing Wikipedia articles about Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The Main Directorate for Combating Organized Crime and Corruption of Belarus (GUBOPiK) has arrested Bernstein, according to Belarusian publication Zerkalo.

Ukraine's government has accused the Russian military of abducting another mayor in an area that it has captured.

Yevhen Matveyev was seized in the southern town of Dniprorudne, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted, accusing Russia of "terror" tactics.

Earlier, Russia installed a new mayor in Melitopol, after allegedly abducting the city's previous incumbent. Ukraine's president also accused Russia of trying to create "pseudo-republics" to break his country apart. Russian President Vladimir Putin may be suffering from a brain disorder caused by dementia, Parkinson's disease or 'roid rage' resulting from steroid treatment for cancer, a media report said citing intelligence sources.

Citing sources close to the Kremlin, senior figures in the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the US, believe there is a physiological explanation for the Russian President's globally reviled decision to invade Ukraine, the Daily Mail report said.

The intelligence community is sharing a growing number of reports about 69-year-old Putin's "increasingly erratic behaviour", combined with a bloated appearance in recent footage, and the absurd distance he insists on keeping from visitors to the Kremlin, the report added. A security source said: "It is only human sources that can offer you the sort of rich picture that we have of Putin's psyche.

"There has been an identifiable change in his decision-making over the past five years or so. Those around him see a marked change in the cogency and clarity of what he says and how he perceives the world around him."