Russia flies attacks
Battle for Mariupol continues – city “not fallen yet”
Large parts of Mariupol have already been destroyed
Russia is apparently stepping up its attacks on the Ukrainian port of Mariupol again. Before that, an ultimatum to surrender had expired. The city “didn’t fall,” it said.
The situation in the embattled Ukrainian city of Mariupol remains unclear.
The Ukrainian general staff reported on Sunday evening Russian rocket and bomb attacks on the city, which used to have a population of more than 400,000. Tu-22M3 supersonic bombers would also be used. Attempts have been made to attack, especially in the vicinity of the port and the Azovstal steelworks. The information cannot be independently verified.
Mariupol “didn’t like”
Ukrainian fighters in Mariupol have previously allowed the Russian army to surrender an ultimatum to expire. The strategically important port city has still “not fallen,” said Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Schmyhal. Ukraine will “fight to the end”. The fighting meanwhile shifted further east, with attacks in Kharkiv killing at least five people. However, the Russian army also continued its air raids on Kyiv.
Russia had given the Ukrainian fighters who remained in Mariupol until Sunday noon to lay down their arms. Otherwise, Moscow threatened them with death. After the ultimatum expired, however, Ukrainian soldiers were apparently still in the Mariupol steelworks.
The devastating situation in Mariupol is further dwindling hopes of a diplomatic solution to the war. Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned on Saturday that the killing of the last defenders of Mariupol would mean the end of the Russian-Ukrainian ceasefire negotiations. Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin had previously said the talks were at a “dead end”.
Schmyhal stressed on the US broadcaster ABC that his government wanted a diplomatic solution if possible. However, he ruled out a capitulation of his country. “If the Russians don’t want negotiations, we will fight to the end.”
Mariupol has been under siege since the first days of the Russian war of aggression. In the meantime, the city on the Azov Sea has been largely destroyed. According to the World Food Program, more than 100,000 civilians in the city are at risk of starvation.
Ukrainian Minister Mykhailo Federov spoke of a “humanitarian catastrophe” in Mariupol and said his country is currently collecting evidence of atrocities committed there by Russian soldiers. “We will hand everything over to The Hague,” he said, referring to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
In a CNN interview, Zelenskyy renewed his accusation that Russia was committing “genocide” in Ukraine. He called on French President Emmanuel Macron in particular to get an idea of the situation on site.
Unlike US President Joe Biden, Macron has so far refused to describe the war atrocities allegedly committed by Russian soldiers in Ukraine as “genocide”. After the atrocities in the Kiev suburb of Bucha, Biden, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Great Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke of indications of genocide.
Since the withdrawal of the Russian armed forces from the greater Kyiv area, the fighting in the Ukraine war has increasingly shifted to eastern Ukraine. In view of fears of a major Russian offensive in the eastern Ukrainian regions of Luhansk and Donetsk, the Ukrainian authorities have been calling on the residents there for days to flee to the west.
Planned escape routes remained closed on Sunday. It was not possible to reach an agreement on a ceasefire with the Russian “occupiers,” said Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Wereschuk.
Number of Ukraine refugees approaches five million
According to rescue workers, at least five people were killed and 13 others injured in a series of attacks in the city of Kharkiv near the Russian border on Sunday. AFP journalists reported several fires spreading through residential neighborhoods in central Kharkiv, causing roofs to collapse as a result of the attacks.
On Sunday night, the Russian army said it destroyed an ammunition factory in Brovary, near Kyiv. It was the third such attack in the Ukrainian capital region since Friday.
According to the UN, the number of people who have fled Ukraine since the start of the Russian war of aggression is now approaching the five million mark. More than 4.8 million people have fled the country since February 24, 2.75 million of them to Poland alone.