IS THIS STORY AN ONION PIECE? After RUSSIA INVADES UKRAINE they want to Put Ukrainians Defending it on Trial for 'crimes against the peace'; Outgunned Ukraine Needs More Weapons Fast as Russia Advances; Fate of Donbas being decided in 'fierce battle' in Severodonetsk; US to train Ukrainians on rocket artillery, LIVE UPDATES and MORE

Russia opens more than 1,100 'crimes against the peace' cases against Ukrainians:

Russian investigators have opened more than 1,100 cases into Ukrainian leaders for allegedly committing “crimes against peace.”

Even before Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion on Feb. 24, he and the Kremlin began engaging in a misinformation strategy to hide the complexities and details of the war from their own people.

Alexander Ivanovich Bastrykin, the chairman of the Investigative Committee of Russia, held a meeting with subordinates on Thursday. They have identified and interrogated more than 75,000 people, including roughly 13,000 minors, according to a readout from the council.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Tuesday that they are holding nearly 6,500 Ukrainian prisoners of war, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier this week said that 2,500 of them were the servicemen captured at the Azovstal plant, according to the New York Times. --->READ MORE HERE

PHOTO: GLEB GARANICH/REUTERS

Outgunned Ukraine Needs More Weapons Fast as Russia Advances, Officials Say:

Defense of eastern regions hinges largely on supply of heavy weaponry, Ukrainian leaders warn

Ukrainian leaders are warning that the fate of the industrial heartlands in their country’s east depends on the amount of Western-supplied heavy weaponry that can be placed on the front lines in Donbas, as Russia presses on with its attempts to expand its control to Severodonetsk and other strategic cities.

The entire area has come under heavy Russian fire, Serhiy Haidai, the Ukrainian governor of the eastern Luhansk region, which along with Donetsk makes up Donbas, said Friday. “Fierce street fights continue in Severodonetsk,” he said on the Telegram social-media platform, adding that key routes such as the road between the eastern cities of Lysychansk and Bakhmut remain under Ukrainian control as the fighting turns into a war of attrition.

How much longer the Ukrainian forces can hold back the Russian advance will depend in large part on how many Western artillery systems they can deploy.

There are now five systems placed near the front lines made by members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said on Thursday, with Polish-AHS Krab artillery units supplementing M777 and FH70 howitzers, Caesar self-propelled howitzers and U.S.-made and Norwegian-supplied M109A3 howitzers.

The U.S. and U.K. have also agreed to provide Ukraine with multiple-launch rocket systems to help stop the Russian advance, he said, and 1,600 Ukrainian forces are learning how to operate them. --->READ MORE HERE

Follow links below to +++++relevant+++++ and related stories:

+++++Russia-Ukraine News LATEST UPDATES: (REUTERS) (AP) (NY POST) and (WSJ)+++++

+++++Fate of Donbas being decided in 'fierce battle' in Severodonetsk, Zelensky says+++++

+++++Milley says US to train Ukrainians on rocket artillery+++++

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