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A child seeks refuge from the bombs in the port city of Mariupol
Photo: ALEXANDER ERMOCHENKO / REUTERS
That happened in the past few hours
According to Ukrainian sources, the course of the front in the war with Russia is “practically frozen”.
Both the Russian and Ukrainian sides do not have enough strength to turn the situation one way or the other, Oleksiy Arestovich, adviser to the head of the office of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said at a briefing on Sunday.
Tactical actions and attacks would be carried out.
The US think tank Institute for the Study of War agrees in a new analysis.
A "bloody stalemate" is likely and could last for weeks or months, experts said.
No one would win militarily, but many people would die.
The authors even see parallels to the battles of Verdun and the Somme in World War I.
Read the background here:
military situation
In particular, the fighting for
Mariupol
continues.
According to the city council, an art school in the besieged port city in south-eastern Ukraine has become the target of a bomb attack.
400 people had sought shelter there, including women, children and the elderly, the Mariupol city council said on Sunday on the Telegram news channel.
A few days ago, a theater in Mariupol was also attacked.
The head of the military hospital in Zaporizhia has given SPIEGEL the first figures on the victims.
He speaks of at least twelve dead and 33 injured.
About two dozen of the injured are being treated at a civilian hospital in Zaporizhia.
At least five people were injured when a grenade exploded in front of a ten-story apartment building
in north-west
Kiev .
The building was badly damaged and all the windows were destroyed, report journalists who are on site for the AFP news agency.
Meanwhile, Ukraine fears an attack on
western Ukraine
from Belarus.
A statement by the Ukrainian General Staff on Facebook said signs of preparations by Belarusian forces for a direct invasion of Ukraine had been registered.
Lviv is also in western Ukraine.
Read a SPIEGEL report from the city here:
humanitarian situation
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), ten million people have already fled Ukraine.
They either fled to other places within Ukraine or outside the country, UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi wrote on Twitter on Sunday.
So far, Poland has taken in the highest number of refugees from Ukraine.
»Poland has taken in almost two million people and is doing outstanding things.
As are other neighboring countries of Ukraine,” said Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser (SPD) to SPIEGEL.
Seven humanitarian corridors for fleeing civilians have been set up in the embattled cities of Ukraine.
Aid goods should also be brought to the cities via the routes, said the Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Irina Wereschuk in Kyiv.
The corridors are laid out in the areas around the capital Kyiv and Kharkiv, as well as from Mariupol in the direction of the city of Zaporizhia.
In a dramatic appeal, the mayor of the city of Chernihiv drew attention to the destruction and the desperate situation of the population.
"Indiscriminate artillery shelling of residential areas continues, peaceful people are dying," Vladislav Atrashenko said, according to the Unian agency.
The city is experiencing a humanitarian catastrophe.
"There is no electricity, no water, no heating, the city's infrastructure is completely destroyed."
A different kind of suffering was evidently experienced by civilians in Hostomel, a suburb of Kyiv.
As the New York Times reported, the Russian military held 200 residents of an apartment complex there as hostages in the basement for days.
Video footage shows the soldiers taking over the building.
Reporters spoke to seven of those hostages who managed to escape.
That's what Ukraine says
In a video message to Israel, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy equated Russia with Nazi Germany and accused the Kremlin of plotting to wipe out Ukraine.
"Listen to what is being said in Moscow now: 'Final Solution', but already in relation to the Ukrainian question," said the 44-year-old in a video appearance in front of members of the Knesset on Sunday.
The head of state with Jewish roots recalled the so-called "final solution to the Jewish question," as Nazi Germany called the murder of millions of Jews in Europe.
Read the SPIEGEL cover story here about the actions of the Ukrainian politician, who went from comedian to war president:
In his own country, Zelenskyj merged all Ukrainian television stations.
The president signed a corresponding decree, his office said.
In times of war, it is important to have a uniform information policy, the reasoning goes.
It is unclear when the decree will come into force.
Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council has also banned the work of a number of pro-Russian parties while martial law is in place in the country.
President Zelenskyj announced that the activities of their politicians "aimed at division or collaboration" would not be successful.
That's what Russia says
According to its own statements, the Russian army has advanced twelve kilometers in the east of Ukraine in its war of aggression against Ukraine.
The border of the Nikolske settlement northwest of the city of Mariupol has been reached, the spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry said.
According to Moscow, the Russian armed forces have again used hypersonic missiles in Ukraine.
A depot for fuel and lubricants belonging to the Ukrainian armed forces in the Mykolaiv region was destroyed by Kinzhal missiles, the Defense Ministry said.
According to Moscow, the new hypersonic weapon system was used for the first time on Friday.
The impact on Germany
The war in Ukraine changed German energy policy in a very short time.
The Russian gas pipeline Nord Stream 2 was stopped, instead the federal government is now looking for alternatives to gas, oil and coal from Russia.
Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) has now announced a partnership with Qatar.
The country is one of the largest exporters of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the world.
Read the background to the trip to Qatar here:
Thousands of people demonstrated again in Berlin against the war in Ukraine.
Natalia Klitschko, wife of the mayor of Kyiv and ex-professional boxer Vitali Klitschko, used the rally to thank the international support for her country.
“It's important to see the masses that gather here.
It's important to see that the whole world stands for Ukraine,” she said on stage.
Ukraine is currently fighting for all people, "for peace all over the world".
International Reactions
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu reports that negotiations between Russia and Ukraine to end the war are progressing.
“Of course it's not easy while the war is raging, but we believe we're making progress.
We see that the parties are close to an agreement," he said on Sunday.
Cavusoglu is in contact with the negotiating teams of the two countries.
However, he did not want to reveal details about the talks because "we play an honest role as mediators".
Turkey maintains good relations with Russia and Ukraine and is trying hard to position itself as a mediator.
Meanwhile, China says it is not providing Moscow with any military support for the war in Ukraine.
“There is false information that China is providing military aid to Russia.
We reject them,” Chinese Ambassador to the US Qin Gang said.
Read the background to the speculation about Chinese arms deliveries here:
Beijing will "do everything in our power to achieve de-escalation," the ambassador said.
However, he deliberately avoided making any statement about his country's future position in the conflict.
The government in Beijing has so far refused to condemn the actions of Russian President Vladimir Putin or to describe the invasion as a war.
sep/dpa/AFP/Reuters
