There are air strikes on the cities of Mariupol, Kharkiv and Chernihiv, said presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych on Ukrainian television on Saturday. In addition to the armaments industry, residential areas are also affected. Meanwhile, at least 20 bodies were discovered in a northern Kiev suburb after the Russian army withdrew from there.
Chernihiv as the “second Mariupol”
Arestovych said the “enemy” was trying to turn Chernihiv into a second Mariupol. The port city of Mariupol has been badly damaged in recent weeks. Chernihiv can still be reached by land. “The residents can leave the city.”
On the other hand, Russian soldiers were pushed towards the state border in the north and north-east, said Arestovych. Ukrainian troops recaptured more than 30 villages around Kyiv. Presidential adviser Michailo Podoliak had previously reported that Russian soldiers in the north were “quickly withdrawing”. Moscow wants “to gain a foothold in the east and south in order to dictate its conditions harshly,” said Podoliak. Ukraine now needs “heavy weapons” to advance into occupied areas in these regions “and push back the Russians as far as possible”.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had previously expressed fears that the invaders would step up their pace in the east of the country. “Russian soldiers are being brought to the Donbass. The same goes in the direction of Kharkiv,” said the head of state in a video speech on Saturday night. “The situation in the east of our country remains very difficult.”
“They even mine corpses”
The authorities, however, raised serious allegations against the invaders. President Zelenskyy said the retreating troops left mines behind. “They mine this territory. Houses are mined, equipment is mined, even corpses,” says Zelenskyy without presenting any evidence. There were indications of war crimes in the suburb of Bucha, north-west of Kyiv. An AFP journalist reported that more than 20 bodies were found on a single street in Bucha. They all wore civilian clothes. One of the men had his hands tied. Another body appeared to have a large head wound. The lifeless bodies of the men were scattered several hundred meters down a street in a residential area of the suburb.
According to British intelligence, Ukrainian troops are advancing on retreating Russian troops near the capital Kyiv. According to a statement by the Ministry of Defense in London on Saturday, Ukrainians are also continuing to try to advance from Irpin towards Bucha and Hostomel on the north-western edge of the capital.
The Russians have meanwhile withdrawn from the important cargo airport Hostomel, which has been fought over since the beginning of the war on February 24, it was said. Several villages along the eastern axis have also been recaptured by Ukrainian units, as has an important road in Kharkiv.
Troops withdrawn from Chernobyl
According to the Ukrainian general staff, Russian troops have also been withdrawn from the exclusion zone around the former Chernobyl nuclear power plant and from the adjacent areas in Belarus. Apparently they were to be transferred to the Russian Belgorod region, from where the advance to Kharkiv would take place. However, the British military assumed that the explosions in a fuel depot and an ammunition depot in Belgorod would slow down supplies to the Russian troops off Kharkiv. Because of the attack, the Russian judiciary launched criminal proceedings against the Ukrainian military on Saturday. The accusation was a “terrorist attack”.
Next hope for Mariupol
Meanwhile, the Red Cross did not give up hope that the port city of Mariupol, which had been reduced to rubble by the Russian army, would be evacuated. A new attempt will be made on Saturday to bring civilians out of the city. On Friday, however, a convoy of 54 Ukrainian Red Cross buses and cars had to turn back for safety reasons, and evacuation attempts had previously failed. Planned ceasefires had repeatedly not been observed. The people who somehow made it from Mariupol to Zaporizhia reported harassment. Russian soldiers repeatedly stopped them and searched for Ukrainian fighters.
Rocket attacks on big cities
On Saturday night, Russian troops again attacked several major cities in the south of the country with rockets, including Dnipro, Poltava, Kremenchuk and Kryvyi Rih. According to Russian information, these were military targets such as military airfields. Despite the rocket attacks – some from aircraft – the Ukrainian Air Force claims to maintain control of the country’s airspace. “The enemy did not control the Ukrainian sky and does not control it,” said Lieutenant General Mykola Oleshchuk.
The US Department of Defense now wants to send Ukraine additional weapons worth 300 million dollars (270 million euros). Among other things, the new package should include various drones, missile systems, armored vehicles, ammunition, night vision devices, secure communication systems, machine guns, medical supplies and the provision of commercial satellite images, as the Pentagon announced on Friday evening.
Apparently, the United States, together with allies, also want to supply Soviet-made tanks to Ukraine. These should strengthen the defense in the Donbass region, writes the “New York Times”, citing a US official. The tanks were to be taken there soon. The US Department of Defense declined to comment, and the US Presidential Office initially declined to comment.
Source: Nachrichten
