The situation continues to develop rapidly. Here is an overview of the most important events of the night:
The war events
After more than a week of war, the two sides agreed on a ceasefire lasting several hours in the southern Ukrainian port of Mariupol and a small town in the area on Saturday to allow civilians to flee. But the ceasefire was broken and the evacuation failed. Mariupol’s mayor Wadym Boitschenko then spoke on television of a “humanitarian blockade” of the city by Russian units.
There has been no electricity or heating for five days and problems with the water supply. The mayor said there were thousands injured and many dead after the shelling. He pleads for a corridor to be built to take the elderly, women and children out of the city.
The Ukrainian general staff said on Sunday morning that the main focus of the Russian offensive, which has been ongoing since February 24, is still the encirclement of the cities of Kyiv, Kharkiv in the east and Mykolaiv in the south. Russian units attempted to penetrate the southwestern outskirts of Kyiv. They were also approaching the highway from the Kiev suburb of Brovary to Boryspil, where Kiev’s international airport is located. According to estimates by the Ukrainian army, Russia is planning to seize the dam of the Kaniv hydroelectric power station around 150 kilometers south of Kyiv on the Dnipro River.
In a video message, President Zelenskyy called on his compatriots to expel the Russian troops. “We must go outside! We must fight! Whenever there is an opportunity.” As in Cherson, Berdyansk or Melitopol, the Ukrainians should go outside “and drive this evil out of our cities”. In the past few days, there have been reports from the aforementioned Ukrainian cities that ordinary, unarmed people have opposed Russian units.
Israel tries to mediate
Attempts at international mediation in the war currently seem to be of little use. Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett traveled to Moscow on Saturday for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. According to Israeli sources, the meeting lasted three hours. Bennet also phoned Zelenskyj. Results were not known. Bennet then came to Berlin for a one-and-a-half hour talk with Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Afterwards, the German government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit only said that the common goal remained to end the war in Ukraine “as quickly as possible”. “We will work on that with all our might.” US President Joe Biden also spoke to Zelenskyy on the phone.
Economic pressure on Russia
The USA, the EU and other western partners had imposed tough sanctions on Russia since the beginning of the war. Another blow from the private sector followed: the world’s two largest credit card providers, Visa and Mastercard, suspended business with Russia. Visa said it would stop all transactions in the coming days. After that, cards issued in Russia would no longer work abroad. Mastercard made a similar statement. Both companies had previously stopped processing transactions for Russian banks affected by international sanctions.
Tens of thousands of Ukrainian refugees in Germany
Before the war, tens of thousands of people continue to flee across the Ukrainian borders to the European Union every day. Around 830,000 made it to Poland alone, and tens of thousands to Germany. Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) agreed to accept people regardless of nationality. “We want to save lives. It doesn’t depend on the passport,” said Faeser of “Bild am Sonntag”. “The vast majority of the refugees are Ukrainians. People from other countries who already had a permanent right of residence in Ukraine bring this status with them.” She cited Indians who studied in Ukraine as an example. Faeser called the European cooperation in caring for the refugees “historic”. The Saxon Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer (CDU) called for better coordination within Germany.