Heavy fighting was reported from the south in particular, but also in the east and from around the capital Kyiv. There was no sign of relief for the approximately 400,000 residents of the besieged port city of Mariupol in the south-east. On the 17th day of the war, the Russian Ministry of Defense spoke of attacks on a “broad front”.
For his part, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reported that the attackers had suffered considerable losses and that the “biggest blow to the Russian army in decades”. In the meantime, 12,000 Russian soldiers have been killed. He gave the losses in his own ranks since the beginning of the war as around 1,300 soldiers. The figures cannot be independently verified.
Video: Political scientist Eder on ways out of war
Mariupol: Food and water scarce
In Mariupol, pro-Russian separatists with the support of Russian troops advanced into the eastern outskirts, according to the Ukrainian armed forces. The Russian Ministry of Defense had previously reported that several parts of the city had been taken. Mariupol has been under siege for days. The humanitarian situation there is dramatic. Tens of thousands of people lack food, water and medicine.
Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Wereschuk said that a convoy with aid supplies and evacuation buses had left the city. It was initially unclear whether the fifth attempt at an escape corridor would succeed. Both sides blamed each other for the aid not arriving.
“They changed their tactics”
From the south, the governor of the Mykolaiv region, Vitaly Kim, wrote: “The occupiers shelled hospitals and boarding schools at night with indiscriminate, chaotic fire.” The attackers changed their tactics and hid in villages between civilian buildings. Mykolaiv is located at the mouth of the Southern Bug into the Black Sea. Should Russian troops capture or bypass the city, they would be able to travel overland to Odessa.
According to Ukrainian sources, about half of the embattled small town of Izyum on the border with the Donetsk region in the east of the beleaguered country is already under Russian control. The attacking troops had entrenched themselves in the northern part of the city. Independent confirmation of this was not possible.
Video: Wehrschütz (ORF) on the situation in Kyiv
Big city without water supply
According to Kiev sources, Russian troops tried to launch an offensive around the city of Volnowacha in the Donbass that had been captured by the Russians. There was also heavy fighting around the village of Rubishne in the Luhansk region. According to Russian information, the attackers also took numerous towns in eastern Ukraine. According to the governor of the Donetsk region, Volnovakha is completely destroyed; the struggle for the city’s territory continues, according to Pavlo Kyrylenko.
According to Ukrainian military information, Russian troops are also trying to blockade the north-east Ukrainian city of Chernihiv from the south-west. President Selenskyj said the city with almost 280,000 inhabitants was without water supply.
Deputy Prime Minister Wereshchuk spoke of planned refugee corridors for several places north-west of Kyiv such as Hostomel, Makariv and Borodyanka. The Russian army has been established there for days and is still trying to blockade the capital from the west. Efforts to evacuate residents also continued in north-eastern Ukraine.
Video: What an attack on Kyiv could look like
Around 3600 military objects destroyed
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, an air force base in Wassylkiv and the intelligence center of the Ukrainian armed forces in Brovary were destroyed near Kyiv. In total, the Russian army destroyed 79 military installations in attacks in Ukraine on Saturday. Among them were four command and control centers of the Ukrainian armed forces, said Igor Konashenkov, spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, according to the Interfax news agency. Attacks were also flown on six ammunition and fuel depots. A Ukrainian Mi-24 attack helicopter and three drones were also shot down. This information could not be verified.
According to the spokesman, a total of 3,593 Ukrainian military facilities have been destroyed since the war began more than two weeks ago. Russia claims to attack only military targets and not civilian objects. The United Nations, on the other hand, says they have information about the illegal use of cluster munitions by Russian troops in the Ukraine war – including in populated areas. According to the UN, it is also aware of 26 attacks on health facilities in Ukraine, in which twelve people died.
According to Moscow, the pro-Russian separatists in the Luhansk region have reached the city of Sieverodonetsk, which has a population of 100,000. The Russian armed forces continued their advance in the area on a “broad front” and advanced another twelve kilometers. In doing so, they gained control of several villages. This information was also not independently verifiable.
Some of the electricity at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is running again
At the former Chernobyl nuclear power plant, technicians managed to repair part of the power lines. This was reported by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna on Friday evening, citing the Ukrainian operator. The power supply for the cooling of fuel elements was interrupted on Wednesday. However, the IAEA saw no security problem. Emergency generators provide electricity there. Despite the difficult situation, it was possible to deliver more diesel.
Source: Nachrichten
