On the eve of the new talks between Kiev and Moscow, scheduled for tomorrow in Istanbul (they could start at 10 local time, 9 in Italy), President Volodymyr Zelensky says he is ready to accept Ukraine's neutrality status as part of an agreement of peace with Russia.
The war continues bloody on the field.
Besieged Mariupol is on its last legs but there will be no humanitarian corridor in Ukraine today for reasons of public security.
THE CHRONICLE OF THE DAY LIVE
Listen to "Zelensky:" Ukraine poised for neutrality status "" on Spreaker.
Some of the mayors who had been kidnapped by Russian forces were found dead,
President Zelenskyi said in an interview with The Economist.
"They are kidnapping the mayors of our cities. They killed some of them. We can't find some of them. We have already found some and they are dead," said the Ukrainian president.
In recent days, the Ukrainian media had stressed that at least 14 mayors were kidnapped.
Zelensky lashes the West: 'You lack courage'
ZELENSKY WANTS ITALY AMONG THE GUARANTS
- "Our president has launched the U24 initiative, United for peace, to create a group of countries capable of giving an answer within 24 hours in the event of aggression. According to our president - he said - the Ukrainian ambassador to Rome, Yaroslav Melnyk -, this group should include the permanent members of the UN Security Council, plus Germany, Canada, Turkey and even Italy. I am happy to see Italy. in this list ".
Prime Minister
Mario Draghi, in the course of today's telephone conversation with the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky
- reports Palazzo Chigi -,
reiterated the Italian government's firm support for the Ukrainian authorities and people and Italy's full availability
to contribute to international action to end the war and promote a lasting solution to the crisis in Ukraine.
And Zelensky, after the telephone conversation with Prime Minister Mario Draghi, on Twitter thanked "the willingness of Italy to join in the creation of a system for security guarantees in support of Ukraine"
.
Zelensky thanks Draghi also for the
Ukraine, 32nd day of war: the summary in pictures
BIDEN IN THE BUFFER
- The Kremlin calls Biden's comments on Putin "alarming".
The American president has called the Russian president a "butcher".
China sees "dialogue and negotiation" as "the only correct way to resolve the Ukrainian question: what all parties urgently need to do now is to alleviate the situation, promote talks and end the war, rather than intersecting the conflicts "is the comment of Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin.
Storm on Biden's thrust on Putin, Europe is unmarked
Meanwhile, Germany is considering purchasing a missile defense system to protect itself from a potential Russian attack, Scholz announced.
"It is certainly one of the problems we are discussing, and for good reason - said the German Chancellor -. We must be aware that we have a neighbor who is ready to use violence to assert their interests".
PUTIN AND GAS IN RUBLES
- Does Europe not want to pay for gas in rubles?
Certainly Russia will not distribute its gas for free, "we will not do charity".
This was guaranteed by the spokesman of the Kremlin, Dmitry Pesko according to the TASS.
Peskov was not out of balance on the countermeasures that Moscow could take to the Western refusal to pay for supplies in rubles as requested by the Russian administration referring to unidentified "hostile countries".
"But we will certainly not provide gas for free, that's for sure. It is almost impossible to do charity in our situation," Peskov added.
Moscow authorities are working on measures to limit the granting of visas for Russia to citizens of countries involved in "hostile activities by some foreign countries",
said Foreign Minister
Serghei Lavrov
quoted by Interfax.
"A decree is in preparation" to this effect, Lavrov said during a meeting with the international cooperation commission of the ruling United Russia party.
The measure "will introduce a series of restrictions for entry into the territory of Russia", stressed the foreign minister.
"Even though Russia has not yet fully introduced its response measures" to Western sanctions, "the prices of the
, then said the secretary of the Russian Security Council,
Nikolaj Patrushev,
quoted by Interfax.
"Many companies are reducing their operations, a circumstance that is seriously complicating the socio-economic situation in the Old World, against the backdrop of increasing migratory flows," he added, on the sidelines of a meeting with his Algerian colleague.
THE WAR
- "Our Irpin was freed from the evil of Moscow! Glory to Ukraine", Alexander Markushin, Mayor of the city outside Kiev, said on Telegram.
According to the Ukrainian public broadcaster Supsilne News, "the Ukrainian army is cleaning up the city and residents have been asked not to return to their homes yet".
Almost five thousand people died in the Russian siege of Mariupol, including 210 children,
says the mayor of the port city in southern Ukraine, Vadym Boychenko, quoted by Ukrinform.
The city of Mariupol is on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe and must be completely evacuated
, He said.
For the mayor, about 160,000 civilians are trapped in the city without electricity and 26 buses are waiting to evacuate civilians but Russian forces have not agreed to ensure safe passage.
The siege of Mariupol has been underway for 28 days.
Before the exits from the city were blocked, the mayor added, 140,000 people had fled, while another 150,000 were subsequently evacuated and 30,000 "deported" to Russia or Russian-occupied areas in eastern Ukraine.
About 170,000 people remain stranded in the city.
During the siege, the mayor said again, the bombings damaged 2,340 apartment buildings and 61,200 private buildings.
Three hospitals were destroyed, another seven were damaged,
The kickboxing world champion,
Maksym Kagal, died in battle
right in Mariupol, he was part of the Azov special forces.
Heavy fighting in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions
"because unlike other operational areas, Russia does not stop trying to carry out offensive operations there".
This was stated by Oleksandr Motuzyanyk, spokesman for the Ukrainian Defense Ministry.
In Marinka and other cities "there is heavy fighting: the armed forces of Ukraine and other defense forces are successfully defending these settlements" while "other places have now passed under the control of the Russian army but I cannot name them".
According to the defense spokesman, the capture of the territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions is "one of Russia's strategic tasks: to completely conquer these two regions within the administrative borders, so to speak".
In the past 24, Russian troops have
bombed the Kharkiv region more than 200 times
with artillery and mortars, multiple rocket launchers and tornadoes with banned cluster munitions.
The head of the regional military administration of Kharkiv Oleh Synegubov reported on Telegram, quoted by the Kyiv Independent.
From the camp comes news that Russia has withdrawn troops surrounding Kiev after suffering significant casualties, according to the latest Ukrainian army operational report.
But the Russian Defense Ministry has released a video showing armored vehicles of the Airborne Forces moving in the Kiev region.
In addition, in the past 24 hours, there have been
more than 40 bombings by Russian troops in the Kiev region
.
This was announced by the head of the Kiev regional military administration Oleksandr Pavliuk, as reported by Ukrinform.
"The districts of Bucha (community of Irpin, Bucha, Makariv, Borodyan, Dmytriv), Brovarsky (community of Velikodimersk), Vyshgorod (community of Dymersk, Ivankiv) suffered the most damage due to the bombing," he said.
The most dangerous directions, according to Pavliuk are the Zhytomyr highway, Bucha - Irpin - Gostomel, Nemishayeve, the community of Dmytriv, the community of Makariv, north of the Vyshgorod district, the territory of some settlements Baryshivska, Kalityanska, the community of Velikodimerskaya.
He also left the town of Slavutych, largely inhabited by workers from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
ODESSA'S REQUEST TO UNESCO
- "Unesco give us a signal, it can be our best defense against the Russian attack".
This is the appeal launched this morning by the mayor of Odessa Gennady Trukhanov meeting some international media.
Responding to ANSA that asked him about the possible acceleration of the city's request to enter the UNESCO World Heritage list, Trukhanov confirmed that he had consulted the Ukrainian government about it.
"We are on the pre-list, our documentation was completed 2-3 years ago. It would be a great sign from UNESCO," explained the mayor.
KIEV INVESTIGATES THE VIDEO OF THE RUSSIAN GAMBIZED
- The Ukrainian government has promised an "immediate investigation" on
a video in which Ukrainian soldiers shoot Russian prisoners
, hitting them in the knees, during an operation in the Kharkiv region: CNN reports.
Ukraine, soldiers shoot Russian prisoners in the knee in a video
MATTARELLA'S APPEAL -
"We do not find a rational motivation for this war. We need to stop it now, immediately. We need dialogue and negotiations to end the war immediately", said President Sergio Mattarella speaking at the University of Trieste.
THE INTERVENTION
THE MASSACRE OF CHILDREN
- The toll of children killed in Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian invasion has increased to 143, compared to 139 yesterday, while the wounded are now 216: this was announced on Telegram by Liudmyla Denisova, responsible for human rights of the Ukrainian parliament, according to reports Ukrinform.
Novaya Gazeta suspends publications -
The most important independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta suspends its publications.
This was reported by the same newspaper on its website.