Fighting is being reported in 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 worsen further. The overview:
Ukraine: Russian units continue to attempt storming of Mariupol
According to Ukrainian sources, Russian units are still trying to storm the city of Mariupol. With the support of Russian troops, pro-Russian separatists advanced into the eastern outskirts, according to the Ukrainian armed forces.
A Russian offensive is also imminent in the city of Sievjerodonetsk with 100,000 inhabitants in the Luhansk region. In the south of the country, Russian troops built up forces at the industrial city of Kryvyi Rih with over 600,000 inhabitants. The information was not independently verifiable.
Evacuation in Mariupol failed again
In the port city of Mariupol in southeastern Ukraine, which was besieged by the Russian army, another attempt to evacuate civilians failed on Saturday. The Russian Ministry of Defense announced that 50 buses could not leave because of 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 attempt on Sunday. The escape corridors worked elsewhere, said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. A total of 12,729 people were able to leave besieged and embattled towns that day, most of them from the northeastern city of Sumy.
War reaches western Ukraine
Several explosions were heard in the city of Lviv, in western Ukraine, during the night. The sirens also went off again and again. According to unconfirmed information, the city’s airport is said to have been the target of the attack. So far it had remained 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 distress
NATO expects a further intensification of the fighting and the humanitarian emergency. “We are horrified to see the increasing number of civilian casualties and the senseless destruction by the Russian forces,” Secretary General of the military alliance 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 hardship,” he warned.
Stoltenberg again rejected calls for NATO to enforce a no-fly zone over Ukraine. That would mean that Russian forces would have to be attacked. “And that would risk a direct confrontation and an uncontrollable escalation. We have to end this war and not expand it.” NATO is a defensive alliance. “We are not looking for a conflict with Russia.”
Zelenskyi threatens Russian collaborators in Ukraine
Zelenskyj threatens possible Russian collaborators in Ukraine. Anyone who is tempted by offers from the Russian occupiers is signing their own verdict, he said in a video message published on 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.” Most recently, the Ukrainian side said that more than 12,000 Russian soldiers had been killed in the war in Ukraine.
Zelenskyj: Resistance is having an effect on the Russian position
After 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 making ultimatums,” he told international journalists in Kyiv on Saturday. The 44-year-old says he’s happy with it, as it’s the first time in over two years that Moscow has been willing to engage in dialogue.
Report: Svyatohirsk Ascension Monastery in eastern Ukraine damaged
According to Ukrainian reports, the Ascension Monastery was damaged during fighting in the eastern Ukrainian city of Sviatohirsk in the Donetsk region. Late on Saturday evening, an aerial bomb detonated around 50 meters from the entrance to the monastery, 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 organizers’ alliance of trade unions, churches, peace groups and environmental protection initiatives registered 100,000 participants. (AP, TSP)
