the ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, had considered on Friday that NATO’s refusal to make that decision was give a “go-ahead to the continuation of the bombing of Ukrainian cities and towns”.
On the ground, the Russian army resumed its offensive on two besieged cities in southeastern Ukraine, Volnovakha and the port of Mariupol, in the Sea of Azov, which has been deprived of water and electricity for several days.
The ceasefire had been decided a few hours earlier to allow the non-belligerent population to leave. However, the operation “was postponed for security reasons,” as Russian forces “continue to bombard Mariupol and its surroundings,” the city mayor said.
The Russian Ministry of Defense considered, however, that the operation was frustrated by Ukrainian “nationalist” groups who seized the population “as human shields”.
Control of Mariupol would allow Russia territorial continuity between its forces from Crimea and those from the pro-Russian separatist territories of Donbas in the east.
Russian troops approach the capitalhe, Kiev, where they meet fierce resistance, and bomb neighborhoods in the western suburbs. The city of Chernigov, in the north, is also subject to constant bombing that has left many civilian victims.
AFP crews saw numerous scenes of devastation, despite Putin’s contention that his forces do not attack residential areas. “There were bodies on the ground everywhere. They were waiting to go into the pharmacy here, and they are all dead,” Chernigov resident Sergei told AFP.
Almost 1.4 million Ukrainians have fled the country since the start of the Russian offensiveon February 24, according to UN data, and hundreds of thousands have become internally displaced.
On Kharkivthe country’s second largest city, Ukrainian forces launched a counterattack and, according to President Zelinski, “inflicted losses on the invaders that they could never have imagined in their wildest dreams.”
Source: Ambito
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