EAccording to Ukrainian sources, the Russian missile attack hit the airport runway in the port city Odesa destroyed. The Russians attacked the southern Ukrainian metropolis from the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which was annexed in 2014, the governor of the Odessa region, Maxym Marchenko, told the Telegram news service on Saturday.
Missiles from the “Bastion” coastal defense system were used. There were no injuries. Civilian air traffic in Ukraine has been suspended since the war began on February 24. Until then, the tourist city of Odessa had also been flown to from abroad – for example from Berlin.
The Russian army continued its offensive in the east and south of Ukraine with undiminished intensity, but according to the Ukrainian account it failed in its attempt to capture three important regions in the east. The attackers tried the area around the city Lyman in the Donetsk region and the areas around Sieverodonetsk and Popasna in the Luhansk region, announced the General Staff of the Ukrainian army.
“No success – the fighting continues,” it said. Russia said its artillery hit 389 targets in Ukraine overnight, including 35 checkpoints, 15 weapons or ammunition depots and several locations where Ukrainian troops or equipment were located. Four ammunition and fuel depots were hit by Russian missiles.
The President described the situation as brutal. However, Ukrainian troops and secret service agents have had important tactical successes, said Volodymyr Zelenskyy, without giving details. “We’re hitting the occupiers in every direction they try to advance. The situation in the region Kharkiv is difficult, but our military and intelligence have achieved important tactical successes.” He did not give any further details.
According to their own statements, the Ukrainian armed forces captured the “strategically important” village near Kharkiv Ruska Lozova return. According to the Ministry of Defense in Kyiv, the Ukrainian soldiers brought more than 600 residents to safety.
According to the Russian representation, Ukraine is supposed to be a Russian region close to the border Kursk attacked with grenades. On Saturday afternoon, a border crossing in the village of Krupez was attacked with grenades, said the governor of the western Russian region, Roman Starovoyt.
Russian border guards returned fire and stopped the shelling. Nobody was injured. Starovojt had already declared on Friday that his region had been shelled from Ukrainian territory. The representations were initially not independently verifiable. There was no official reaction from Kyiv.
25 civilians evacuated from steel mill in Mariupol
From the besieged Azovstal Steelworks in Mariupol According to reports from Russian news agencies, 25 civilians have been evacuated. Tass and Ria Nowosti reported on Saturday that six children were among the rescued, citing their respective correspondents. The information could not be checked independently.
According to Ukrainian information, a total of around 1,000 civilians are said to have sought refuge in the bunkers of the steelworks – and are now trapped. Russia, on the other hand, speaks of around 2,500 Ukrainian fighters and foreign mercenaries who are also said to have holed up there.
Police report three other bodies with their hands tied near Butscha
Near the Kiev suburb Bucha According to the police on Saturday, three more bodies were discovered with their hands tied. The bodies of the three men were found in a pit in the village of Myrozke, said the police chief in the Ukrainian capital, Andriy Nebytov. They had gunshot wounds on different parts of the body.
According to Nebytow, the eyes of the three men were blindfolded, and “some” were also gagged. According to the police chief, the corpses bear the marks of prolonged torture. Each of the men was eventually killed with a shot in the temple. “According to what is known so far, the occupiers tried to hide the traces of their acts of violence,” explained Nebytov. So they threw the bodies into a pit and covered them with earth.
Bucha has become synonymous with war crimes committed by Russian forces in their war of aggression against Ukraine. The suburb was under the control of Russian troops for around four weeks before they withdrew at the end of March. According to the police, around 400 bodies were then discovered in Butscha and the surrounding area, including in two mass graves. While international investigations into possible war crimes are ongoing, Moscow denies any responsibility for these killings.
Lavrov: Brought over a million Ukrainians to Russia
Around 1.02 million people have been brought “to safety” from Ukraine to Russia since February 24, according to estimates by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. As Lavrov announced in a statement published early on Saturday, 120,000 of these people come from the regions alone Donetsk and Luhansk.
The minister also told the Xinhua news agency and the Russian Foreign Ministry website that NATO’s vocal support for Ukraine is standing in the way of a political agreement to end the conflict.
According to Ukrainian sources, seven soldiers and seven civilians were released as part of a prisoner exchange with Russia. Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Iryna Vereshchuk said on social media on Saturday that this exchange was something special for her: one of the soldiers was five months pregnant. The exchange of prisoners was not confirmed by the Russian side until the afternoon.
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