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President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy
Photo: IMAGO/Ukraine Presidency/Ukraine Presi/IMAGO/ZUMA Wire
The 24th day of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine is also overshadowed by reports of dead civilians.
In the heavily contested city of Mariupol, there is said to be heavy fighting over a steel mill.
However, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, more than 9,000 people have been evacuated from the city.
Further evacuations are planned, as the government announced, ten evacuation corridors have been set up from towns and villages.
military situation
The situation in the Ukrainian port cities remains critical, with Mariupol in particular not calming down.
The city is of particular strategic importance because it lies on the land connection between Crimea and the separatist areas in Donbass.
According to an adviser to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, there is currently fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces around Azovstal, one of the largest steelworks in Europe.
"We've lost this economic giant," said the adviser.
The situation in the port cities could also have dramatic consequences for the Ukrainian military: As the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense announced during the night, access to the Sea of Azov, the country's only sea connection, was "temporarily" lost.
According to Russian information, two military reconnaissance bases were destroyed in the port city of Odessa.
There was also an attack in the Kyiv region: According to Ukrainian sources, seven people died in a mortar attack in Makariv.
And Russia apparently continues to try to intimidate.
According to government information, the Russian military used so-called hypersonic missiles in western Ukraine.
The Ministry of Defense in Moscow said that the Kinschal missile system had destroyed an underground weapons depot there the day before.
According to Russian information, the Kinzhal missiles, which are easy to steer, can bypass all air defense systems.
According to the state agency Ria Novosti, their use was a first in the Ukraine war.
humanitarian situation
On Saturday there were also further reports from the Ukrainian authorities about civilian casualties.
According to the Attorney General's Office, 112 children have died since the beginning of the war and 140 others have been injured.
In the suburbs of Zaporizhia in the south-east of the country, nine people died and 17 others were injured, according to the authorities.
The people in Mariupol, in particular, continue to live under dramatic conditions. An adviser to the Ukrainian Ministry of the Interior described the situation as "catastrophic".
That is why people should continue to be evacuated from the heavily contested city: As Selenskyj said, authorities had managed to bring more than 9,000 people from Mariupol to safety.
Rescue work continued at the theater in Mariupol that was bombed on Wednesday.
According to the government in Kyiv, ten escape corridors have been set up to enable the evacuation of civilians.
One leads from Mariupol in the direction of Zaporizhia, said Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk.
Four corridors led from the embattled Luhansk region in the east of the country to the city of Bakhmut.
Other escape routes were set up from villages and towns around the capital, Kyiv.
The routes are announced anew for each day.
According to the Reuters news agency, the UN refugee agency UNHCR reported that fewer people are currently leaving Ukraine than at the beginning of the war.
However, that could change if the situation in western Ukraine deteriorated.
3.27 million people have fled so far, it said.
As the Federal Ministry of the Interior announced, more than 200,000 people were registered by the Federal Police in Germany.
However, the actual number is likely to be much higher.
That's what Ukraine says
Zelenskyj commented on the appearance of Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow.
Almost 100,000 people in front of the stadium, 95,000 people in the arena itself - this corresponds roughly to the number of Russian soldiers who invaded Ukraine, he said in a video speech.
"And now imagine 14,000 corpses in this stadium, plus tens of thousands of wounded and maimed people." The numbers are not independently verifiable.
At the same time, Zelenskyy called for serious and honest peace talks.
Its parliament speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk emphasized the so-called red lines for the negotiations with the Russian side - sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine as well as its state independence.
Criticism of the West came from Lviv, which since the beginning of the war has become a gathering place for refugees, diplomats and correspondents.
The mayor, Andrij Sadowyj, accused aid organizations of a lack of preparation, "although everyone has been talking about a possible Russian attack for six months," he told the "Süddeutsche Zeitung".
"Probably because the Western analysis services said that the war would only last two days and that Ukraine would be occupied by the Russians without resistance."
That's what the West says
British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss was skeptical about peace talks.
As she told the London Times, Moscow could use peace talks as a diversionary tactic for a military reorganization.
"I'm very skeptical," Truss said.
"What we have seen so far is an attempt by the Russians to buy time for a reorganization." There are no signs of a withdrawal of Russian troops or serious proposals on the negotiating table.
Meanwhile, the Polish government is daring another push against the Russian invasion in the western community.
After the proposal for a peacekeeping mission by NATO, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has now called for a complete ban on trade between the European Union and Russia.
During the week, Morawiecki traveled to Kyiv with his counterparts from Slovenia and the Czech Republic to show his solidarity with the Ukrainians and Zelenskyj.
The Ukrainian ambassador in Berlin would have wished for such a visit from Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
"I would have wished Chancellor Olaf Scholz had traveled to Kyiv and said there: I'm from Kiev," said Andrij Melnyk of the "Rheinische Post".
“That would have been a mega-strong signal to the world.” Melnyk also accused the German government of hesitancy in the Ukraine war.
»At the moment Germany doesn't know what to do.
You seem at a loss,' he said.
Moscow says so
Of course, criticism of the West also came from the Kremlin.
According to the Interfax news agency, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that cooperation with ally China was becoming "closer".
"At a time when the West is blatantly tearing down all the foundations on which the international system is based, we - as two great powers - need to think about how we proceed in this world."
The statement from Moscow comes after a video call between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden.
"The top priority now is to continue dialogue and negotiations, avoid civilian casualties, prevent a humanitarian crisis, stop the fighting and end the war as quickly as possible," Xi said end,” Xi was quoted as saying.
Lavrov also addressed the negotiations with Ukraine, and the foreign minister accused the United States of making the peace negotiations more difficult.
"Some of the dialogue has improved, although there is a constant feeling that the Ukrainian delegation is being held by the hand, most likely by the Americans, and not being allowed to agree to the demands, which in my opinion are absolutely minimal." , said Lavrov.
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hba/dpa/AFP/Reuters