In this context, heavy fighting continued yesterday on the banks of another strategic port town, Mariupol, on the Sea of Azov, where a large part of the population was still without electricity or telephone services. Food and water were becoming scarce in homes and businesses, the BBC reported.
Mayor Vadym Boichenko said Russian troops wanted to blockade the city of 440,000 people, preventing evacuations and supplies. “They destroyed all the bridges, they destroyed the trains to prevent our women, children, elderly people from leaving. They prevent us from getting supplies,” he stated, saying there were constant attacks from all sides.
Several explosions were also heard in Kiev, with mixed information about the huge artillery column that has been heading towards the capital for days.
A US defense official suggested that the convoy appeared to have “stalled”, but there was also speculation that they may be regrouping and waiting for logistical supplies before an assault on the city. In addition to Kherson, Russian troops have already seized another important port in the country, Berdyansk.
Another hot spot in the conflict is Kharkov, the country’s second most populous city with 1.4 million inhabitants, the scene of heavy bombing and fighting after the landing of Russian airborne troops.
Local authorities also reported air strikes in the nearby city of Izium that killed eight people, including two children, and in northern Ukraine, the emergency services of the city of Chernigov reported the death of at least 33 people in a bombardment. against residential areas, including schools.
“The special military operation is proceeding on schedule, as planned,” Putin said as he opened a meeting of the Russian Security Council, adding that his troops are fighting “neo-Nazis” and that “Russians and Ukrainians are one people.”
In a previous conversation with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, Putin promised to continue his offensive “without concessions”.
After that conversation, Macron concluded that “the worst is yet to come” in the conflict, reported the French Presidency.
Against this background, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, called for greater support from Western powers and warned that if his country is defeated, Russia will not hesitate to attack the Baltic countries and the rest of Europe.
In particular, he called for Western countries to “close the sky” over Ukraine to Russian planes or hand over planes to Ukraine.
Until now, Western countries have delivered weapons to Ukraine, but have focused their response on a battery of sanctions to isolate Russia diplomatically, economically, culturally and sportingly.
To those already effective, are added those announced yesterday by the United States that have the Russian oligarchs in their sights, also the object of retaliation by the European Union (EU).
Given this, the head of the Russian intelligence services accused Western countries of seeking to “destroy” Russia and of trying to “establish an economic, informational and humanitarian blockade” of the country.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) yesterday asked the Kremlin for the “immediate cessation of all military actions” in nuclear plants and the European Commission (EC) announced that it is working on a “contingency plan” in the event of a possible attack on those centers.
Russian soldiers have surrounded Zaporizhia, Europe’s largest atomic facility, and occupied Chernobyl on the first day of the offensive.
homeless
More than a million people have already fled Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion, in an exodus that is occurring “at an unprecedented rate” and is on track to become “Europe’s biggest refugee crisis this century.” , indicated the UN.
According to the agency’s count, about 1,050,000 people fled from Ukraine to neighboring countries, mainly Poland, a figure that represents more than 2% of the country’s population, which reaches 44 million, according to World Bank data.
The few hopes of a ceasefire are placed on the negotiations between Ukraine and Russia that resumed yesterday, with the second round of dialogue in which it was agreed to create humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians and the delivery of food and medicine.
For the Russian delegation, “significant progress” was achieved during the meeting held in Belarus, but for the Ukrainian representatives, who seek an immediate cessation of hostilities, the meeting “has not yet had the necessary results.”
Russia seeks the recognition of Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula that was annexed in 2014, as Russian territory and the demilitarization and “denazification” of Ukraine.
It also demands the promise of a neutral country status that would stop its entry into NATO, but the attack is bringing the former Soviet republics even closer to Western powers.
Georgia and Moldova, which also have sovereignty conflicts with Russia, officially presented yesterday their candidacy to join the EU, in response to a similar request already made by Ukraine.
Source: Ambito
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