An elderly woman in a deserted street in the village of Velyka Dymerka, at the gates of Kiev, on March 10, 2022 (AFP / Dimitar DILKOFF)
Moscow promised on Thursday the daily opening of humanitarian corridors to allow Ukrainians fleeing the fighting to reach Russia, even as its army continued its maneuver to encircle Kiev.
Ukraine, where the population of cities besieged by Russian troops is forced to live in hiding because of the bombardments, is calling for the establishment of secure passages for the evacuation of civilians within its borders.
“We officially announce that humanitarian corridors for the Russian Federation will now be opened unilaterally, without coordination, every day from 10:00 a.m.”, while those going “in other directions will be negotiated with the Ukrainian side”, has declared in the evening the Russian Ministry of Defense.
A decision made public shortly after the end of the first high-level direct talks between the belligerents since the start, on February 24, of the invasion of Ukraine.
But in the evening, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused the Russian army of a tank “attack” on a humanitarian corridor towards the surrounded city of Mariupol (southeast), calling it an act of “brazen terror, from experienced terrorists”.
He also added that around 100,000 people had left other Ukrainian towns in the last two days in the throes of fighting, including 40,000 people on Thursday alone, via humanitarian corridors.
On the ground, having previously reached the northern and western outskirts of Kyiv, Russian tanks arrived near its northeastern entrance on Thursday.
AFP journalists saw columns of smoke rising from the village of Skybyn, a few hundred meters from the last checkpoint of Ukrainian forces on the axis leading to the capital in this area.
At the end of the morning, a shower of Russian Grad rockets fell on the deserted town of Velyka Dymerka, about five kilometers from the limits of Kiev, some of which landed about twenty meters from the AFP team.
According to the Ukrainian general staff, the Russian forces, while continuing their “offensive operation” to encircle the capital, are attacking on other fronts, in the east, the towns of Izium, Petrovske, Hrouchouvakha, Sumy and Okhtyrka or in the Donetsk and Zaparojie regions.
– No ceasefire –
For their part, the Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers Sergei Lavrov and Dmytro Kuleba stuck to their guns during their discussions under the auspices of their Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu in Antalya, a seaside resort in southern Turkey popular with tourists. Russians.
“We have talked about a ceasefire, but no progress has been made in that direction,” Kuleba said.
The head of Ukrainian diplomacy revealed that Sergei Lavrov had assured him that Russia “will continue (its) aggression until we accept its request to capitulate”. But “Ukraine has not surrendered, is not surrendering and will not surrender,” he said.
The Russian minister, according to whom Russia “does not plan to attack other countries” and has “not attacked Ukraine”, spoke for the continuation of dialogue with Ukraine, but above all via envoys of the two camps in Belarus, therefore at a lower level.
Map of Ukraine locating the places where explosions, strikes and fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces have been recorded and Russian advances, claimed by the Russians, Russian attacks or operations without control of the area and claimed counter-offensives by the Ukrainians, to March 10 at 17:00 GMT (AFP / )
Three sessions of talks between Russian and Ukrainian negotiators have already taken place in this state allied with Moscow, since the start of the invasion, resulting in several local ceasefires and the opening up of humanitarian corridors in dribs and drabs evacuate civilians from encircled towns.
But the Russians have repeatedly been accused of violating these agreements.
Ukraine and Russia are also “ready” to discuss to guarantee the security of Ukrainian nuclear sites, each day more compromised by the war, declared Thursday the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN nuclear policeman. This announcement comes as Kiev “lost all communication” with the Chernobyl plant, according to information received by the IAEA.
A Ukrainian soldier at a checkpoint near Velyka Dymerka east of Kiev on March 9, 2022 (AFP/Aris Messinis)
French and German leaders Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz, in a telephone interview with Mr. Putin, “insisted that any solution to the crisis must pass through negotiations between Ukraine and Russia” and demanded “a cease -immediate fire”.
Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, criticized for his close ties to Russia, was in Moscow on Thursday for a “mediation effort” at the request of a Ukrainian official, according to the Politico news site citing “well-known sources informed”.
– Bombings –
For the time being, the Russian army is maintaining its siege of major cities and a bombing campaign, like the one that hit on Wednesday an establishment housing a children’s hospital and a maternity hospital in Mariupol, a strategic port on the sea. of Azov (southeast) besieged by Russian forces for ten days.
Map of Europe showing the flow of Ukrainian refugees to other European countries, as of March 10 at 12:00 GMT, according to the UNHCR (AFP / )
Three people, including a girl, perished there, announced in a new report Thursday the town hall, which reported the day before of 17 wounded.
Wednesday’s attack drew a wave of international condemnation, and the United States and its European allies were considering additional sanctions against Russia in response to what appeared to be “escalating” atrocities against Ukrainian civilians.
“The alleged airstrike is a total stage set-up for the purpose of provocation in order to maintain the anti-Russian agitation of the Western public,” retorted the Russian Ministry of Defense.
A Ukrainian soldier and a resident in an underground shelter in Irpin, north of Kiev, on March 10, 2022 (AFP/Aris Messinis)
In total, since the beginning of the invasion, 71 children have been killed and more than 100 injured in Ukraine, said Thursday Liudmyla Denisova, in charge of human rights at the Ukrainian Parliament.
Half of the population of the agglomeration of Kiev fled in two weeks, announced its mayor, Vitali Klitschko, affirming that, now, “a little less than two million inhabitants” were there.
– The pessimistic IMF –
The damage caused by the war is currently estimated at 100 billion dollars by Ukraine.
Faced with this situation, the Americans and their allies are trying to help this country while avoiding the direct military involvement of NATO member states.
A child waits to be evacuated from the town of Irpin, north of Kiev, on March 10, 2022 (AFP/Aris Messinis)
The United States, estimating Thursday that Ukraine did not really need combat aircraft to counter Russian attacks, considered providing it with more ground-to-air defense systems.
In Turkey, Mr. Lavrov judged “dangerous” the supply of arms by the West to the Ukrainians, denouncing in particular the sending of portable surface-to-air missiles.
Speaking at a two-day summit of the 27 in Versailles, near Paris, Emmanuel Macron judged that the European Union would “change faster and stronger under the impact of the war”, while , of Warsaw, the American vice-president Kamala Harris considered that NATO had become “stronger” and Russia “weaker”.
Ukrainian soldiers guard a checkpoint near the village of Velyka Dymerka, at the gates of Kiev, on March 10, 2022 (AFP / Dimitar DILKOFF)
However, there is “no rapid procedure for joining the EU”, recalled Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, for whom the integration of Ukraine is a “long-term question”.
In the meantime, hosting millions of Ukrainian refugees is a “very, very big challenge”, but European Union member countries are showing “unprecedented” solidarity, noted Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson. .
After two weeks of conflict, Western sanctions continue to rain down on Russia, including the freezing in the United Kingdom of the assets of seven Russian oligarchs including Roman Abramovich, a decision which involves the suspension of the sale of the Chelsea football club.
Facebook for its part announced Thursday to make exceptions to its rules on violent and hateful content, by not deleting messages hostile to the army and Russian leaders.
Residents of Irpin, north of Kiev, wait to be evacuated to escape Russian shelling on March 10, 2022 (AFP / Aris Messinis)
To deal with the sanctions, Moscow banned the export of certain previously imported goods and equipment.
“All our obligations in terms of energy supplies” will be fulfilled, Vladimir Putin nevertheless promised.
The G7 states have for their part called on the gas and oil producing countries to “increase their deliveries” to cope with the rise in energy prices and the risk of shortages.
As a result of the war in Ukraine, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced that it would lower its global growth forecasts, further warning that a Russian default was no longer “unlikely”.