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The defenders of Kherson lost a significant part of their weapons to the enemy
Photo: IMAGO/SNA
Four weeks ago, Russia invaded Ukraine in violation of international law.
While the West is apparently preparing new sanctions against Moscow, the situation of the civilian population in many cities is deteriorating: according to Kiev, planned escape corridors from Mariupol could not be used because Russian armed forces prevented people from escaping.
In addition, the Ukrainian government has accused the enemy of housing refugees in concentration camps.
Moscow, meanwhile, continues to repress Kremlin and war opponents, and the US does not want to close its embassy in Moscow.
The developments at a glance.
The humanitarian situation
According to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, food and medical products are becoming scarce for the people of Cherson.
"Due to the Russian blockade, the 300,000 inhabitants of Kherson are facing a humanitarian catastrophe," the ministry spokesman tweeted.
“Nevertheless, Russia is refusing an escape corridor to let civilians out of the city.” There is no immediate response from Russia.
According to the government, three escape corridors were supposed to be opened in the besieged city of Mariupol.
This was announced by Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk in a video message published on Telegram.
The people should therefore be brought from the surrounding towns of Berdyansk, Jurjiwka and Nikolske to the city of Zaporizhia.
But the plan apparently didn't work out: Wereschuk said on Ukrainian television that at least 100,000 people could not leave the city.
Among other things, because Russian forces would have prevented rescue workers from getting to the site of the bombed theater in the city.
"We demand the opening of a humanitarian corridor for civilians," Vereshchuk said.
According to the United Nations, the number of people fleeing Ukraine is now more than 3.5 million – women and children in particular have fled the country.
More than two million of them fled to neighboring Poland, said the UN refugee agency UNHCR.
The military situation
Putin's troops have intensified their attacks on numerous Ukrainian cities.
Cities from which airstrikes were reported include the capital Kyiv, the second-largest city Kharkiv in the east, the port cities of Mariupol and Odessa, and Mykolaiv in the south.
In the city of Mariupol alone, which has been under siege by Russian troops for weeks, according to the military administration, "more than 80 percent of the infrastructure has now been damaged or destroyed."
According to Zelensky, Russian soldiers fired shots at demonstrators in the southern city of Cherson, which was occupied by Russian troops.
According to video recordings, at least one person was injured.
Kiev's Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that "65 peaceful residents" had been killed in Russian air raids in the capital since the beginning of the war.
Although the Russian advance quickly faltered at first, the Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov now conceded that the military "situation was very difficult".
On the one hand, the Russian army is "very numerically superior", on the other hand there is a threat of a "ground invasion" by the army of Moscow's ally Belarus.
According to the US government, however, the Kremlin troops are still struggling with major logistical problems.
There are shortages not only in food and fuel, but also in the equipment for the soldiers, said a senior official at the Ministry of Defense.
“We have received indications that some soldiers did in fact suffer frostbite and were withdrawn from combat.
So you continue to have problems with logistics and supplies.” The Russian troops also have problems communicating with each other.
That says Kyiv
Kyiv has accused Moscow of kidnapping civilians fleeing the war to Russia.
"Women and children are being deported en masse from the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk regions," Ukrainian Parliament Human Rights Commissioner Lyudmyla Denisova wrote on Facebook.
Moscow repeatedly emphasizes that many Ukrainians are waiting to be evacuated from the besieged port city of Mariupol to Russia via escape corridors.
Kyiv denies that.
Denisova meanwhile raised further serious allegations against Russia: “Women, children, old people are searched, their Ukrainian documents and telephones are confiscated and they are sent to Russian areas near the border.
There they are housed in concentration camps and then resettled in the depressed regions of Russia.” However, she did not provide any evidence to support these allegations.
Moscow says so
The Kremlin does not yet see the desired progress in the negotiations with Ukraine.
"A certain process is taking place, but we would like it to be more vigorous and substantial," said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
He did not want to provide any information on the content of the talks with Kyiv because this "would only further impede the negotiation process".
Zelenskyj had agreed on Monday to talk to Russian President Vladimir Putin about a "compromise" with regard to areas in eastern Ukraine and Crimea.
For almost three weeks, people in Russia have had to be careful what they say about the war in Ukraine.
Alleged misinformation about the Russian armed forces carries severe penalties under the law.
Now the Russian lower house has expanded the law: Anyone who spreads "false information" about foreign actions by the Russian state can now be prosecuted.
The law sets prison terms and fines for people who "knowingly spread false information" about actions taken by Russian government agencies "outside Russian territory."
If the "false information" leads to "serious consequences," there is a risk of up to 15 years in prison, according to a statement.
At the same time, Russia is intensifying the repression of Kremlin opponents.
As expected, the Putin critic Alexej Navalny has to be imprisoned for another year.
A court has convicted him of allegedly embezzling funds for his anti-corruption foundation, which has since been banned.
You can find the whole message here.
That's what the international community says
According to the US government, the West wants to impose new sanctions on Russia.
As National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in Washington, further punitive measures are to be announced on Thursday.
At the same time, existing sanctions by the West should be tightened.
The US has nevertheless stressed the importance of diplomatic relations with Moscow.
"I want to say bluntly that the United States has no intention of closing the embassy in Moscow," US Ambassador to Moscow John Sullivan told the opposition Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta.
"And President (Joe) Biden has no intention of removing me as Ambassador."
Poland, meanwhile, has suggested excluding Russia from the group of the most important industrialized and emerging countries, the G20.
Economy Minister Piotr Nowak said in Warsaw that the matter had already been discussed at meetings in Washington last week, including with US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo.
»We made the proposal to exclude Russia from the G20, which met with a positive response and approval.«
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That's absurd.
An interjection.
Taking Kiev seems unlikely at the moment.
The Kremlin troops are therefore apparently concentrating on the east of the country.
Losing this region would be fatal for the Ukrainian government.
svs/dpa/Reuters/AFP