Fighting is reported on the outskirts of the besieged port city of Mariupol, where several hundred thousand civilians are stranded. According to Ukrainian data, on the 18th day of the invasion, Russian troops continue to try to capture other cities. NATO expects the humanitarian emergency to get even worse. The summary:
Ukraine: Russian Units Continue to Try to Take Mariupol
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According to Ukrainian sources, Russian units are still trying to storm the city of Mariupol. With the support of Russian troops, the pro-Russian separatists advanced to the eastern outskirts, according to the Ukrainian military.
A Russian offensive on the city of Sievjerodonetsk of 100,000 people in the Luhansk region is also imminent. In the south of the country, Russian troops amassed forces in the industrial city of Kryvyi Rih with more than 600,000 inhabitants. The information was not independently verifiable.
The evacuation in Mariupol failed again
In the southeastern Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, which was besieged by the Russian army, another attempt to evacuate civilians failed on Saturday. The Russian Defense Ministry announced that 50 buses were unable to leave due to shelling.
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Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said the column was held at a checkpoint for five hours. There should be another try on Sunday. Escape corridors worked elsewhere, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. A total of 12,729 people were able to leave the besieged and besieged cities that day, most of them from the northeastern city of Sumy.
War comes to western Ukraine
Several explosions were heard overnight in the city of Lviv in western Ukraine. The sirens also sounded again and again. According to unconfirmed information, the city’s airport is said to have been the target of the attack. Until now she had been relatively quiet in the city. Lviv is the gateway to the EU for many refugees.
NATO chief on Ukraine: The next few days will probably bring greater anguish
NATO expects a further escalation of the fighting and the humanitarian emergency. “We are horrified to see the increasing number of civilian casualties and senseless destruction by Russian forces,” the military alliance’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper. The people of Ukraine resisted the invasion with courage and determination, “but the coming days are likely to bring even greater difficulties,” he warned.
Stoltenberg again rejected NATO’s calls to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine. That would mean that the Russian forces would have to be attacked. “And that would risk direct confrontation and uncontrollable escalation. We have to end this war and not expand it further.” NATO is a defensive alliance. “We are not looking for a conflict with Russia.”
Zelenskyi threatens Russian collaborators in Ukraine
Zelenskyj threatens potential Russian collaborators in Ukraine. Anyone tempted by the Russian occupiers’ offers is signing their own verdict, he said in a video message posted Sunday night.
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“The verdict is to follow more than 12,000 occupiers who could not understand in time why Ukraine should not be attacked.” More recently, the Ukrainian side said that more than 12,000 Russian soldiers had been killed in the war in Ukraine.
Zelenskyj: The resistance is having an effect on the Russian position
Following the stubborn military resistance of the Ukrainians, Zelenskyj sees the first changes in Russia’s position. “Now they have started talking about something, and not just giving ultimatums,” he told international journalists in Kiev on Saturday. The 44-year-old says he is happy about that, as it is the first time in more than two years that Moscow is willing to engage in dialogue.
Report: Svyatohirsk Ascension Monastery in eastern Ukraine damaged
According to Ukrainian reports, the Ascension Monastery was damaged during the fighting in the eastern Ukrainian city of Sviatohirsk in the Donetsk region. Late on Saturday night, an aerial bomb detonated about 50 meters from the monastery’s entrance, the internet newspaper Ukrajinska Pravda reported. Windows and church facilities were destroyed to varying degrees by the blast.
That will be important on Sunday.
In the port city of Mariupol there is said to be a new attempt to evacuate civilians. In Berlin and other major German cities, tens of thousands of people want to protest again on Sunday against Russia’s war in Ukraine. In the capital, the alliance of organizers from unions, churches, peace groups and environmental protection initiatives registered 100,000 participants. (AP, TSP)
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