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The satellite photo is said to show a mass grave in Manhush, which is about 20 kilometers west of Mariupol.
Photo: - / AFP
Satellite images indicate a possible mass grave near Mariupol
9.40 a.m .:
According to the media, satellite images are said to indicate a possible mass grave near the port city of Mariupol in south-eastern Ukraine, which was besieged by Russian troops.
The US satellite photo service Maxar distributed images that are said to show several excavated graves in the suburb of Manhusch.
Vadym Boychenko, city councilor and mayor of Mariupol, spoke of graves for up to 9,000 bodies.
The Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj had previously spoken of tens of thousands of dead in the port city, which had been fought over for weeks.
The Ukrainian information was not independently verifiable.
President Selenskyj has not yet publicly commented on the alleged mass grave.
A Maxar satellite photo of Manhush, about 20 kilometers west of the port city of Mariupol, is said to show a mass grave near a cemetery parallel to the road.
According to a report by the US newspaper The New York Times, which claims to have analyzed the recordings, there are around 300 excavated graves there.
They are said to have been created within two weeks between March and April, as a comparison of the recording dates showed.
Macron warns of further escalation of the war in Ukraine
7:52 a.m .:
French President Emmanuel Macron has called for massive efforts to prevent the war in Ukraine from escalating further.
There is a risk that Russia will further escalate the conflict and even use chemical or nuclear weapons, Macron said in an interview with the newspapers of the Funke media group and other European media (Friday editions).
Another potential for escalation is "the willingness of allied countries or other powers" to intervene in the war.
"Our responsibility is to do everything we can to prevent a conflagration," stressed Macron.
"In view of the war crimes that Russia has committed, the way it is waging war in Donbass and Mariupol, the nuclear provocations at the end of February, one has to say very clearly: Russia has a will to escalate," said the French president.
He described the test of a Russian ICBM on Wednesday as "very worrying".
Macron warned of a "subjugation" of Europe as a result of the Russian war in Ukraine.
In addition to its policy of pressure and sanctions against Russia, Europe must continue to talk to its partners "in the Persian Gulf, in India, in China" and play a mediating role, said the President.
"It can't be that only the USA and Europe stand up to Russia and the rest make a slender foot."
The dialogue must also be continued with the Russian head of state Vladimir Putin, Macron demanded.
It was "hard" to talk to the Kremlin chief in view of the atrocities in Ukraine.
“If you talk for hours with the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy or with people who have experienced the horror of the war with all the destruction.
And then someone sits across from you who denies everything, laughs about it and talks about staging.« At the same time, Macron emphasized: »We still have to continue.«
Union faction announces application for arms deliveries in the Bundestag
7.30 a.m .:
The CDU/CSU parliamentary group wants to use an application in the Bundestag to urge the federal government to move on the issue of heavy weapon deliveries to Ukraine.
Union faction vice Johann Wadephul (CDU) said on Friday in the ZDF "Morgenmagazin" when asked whether the threat with the application and a roll-call vote was valid, the Union had decided to do so and bring in the application.
There is a clear parliamentary majority for the delivery of heavy weapons.
The majority, if not all, of the Greens and the FDP are in favour, and there are also important voices in the SPD.
The Union has been supporting this for weeks.
"Germany can deliver," emphasized Wadephul.
That must be clarified in the Bundestag.
If the question of compulsory vaccination was a decision of conscience, then this question was all the more so.
Ukraine is exposed to a "terrible war of annihilation".
One experiences an »unparalleled breach of civilization«.
That must be stopped.
That's only possible with heavy weapons, said the CDU politician.
Germany must be there and "help effectively" Ukraine.
The Union offers to talk about the text of the application.
But the content must be clear: “Germany must deliver”.
Wadephul sees the ring exchange planned by the federal government - the delivery of heavy weapons to other countries, which in turn send heavy equipment to Ukraine - as insufficient.
'It's one excuse after another.
It's too little and too late,' he said.
Zelenskyy: Mariupol "continues to resist"
6:52 a.m .:
According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the strategically important port city of Mariupol is not yet completely in Russian hands.
Mariupol is "a city that continues to resist Russia, despite everything the occupiers say," Zelenskyy confirmed in a video message on Thursday evening.
His Russian colleague Vladimir Putin had previously said the city was "liberated."
Mariupol was surrounded in the early days of the Russian attack on Ukraine and has been under siege ever since.
Evacuation actions for the civilian population repeatedly failed - including on Thursday.
The city is now largely destroyed.
The Ukrainian side speaks of tens of thousands dead.
The remaining Ukrainian soldiers are holed up in the vast industrial complex of the Azov Steel concern.
According to Ukrainian sources, civilians are also with them.
"They have almost no food, no water and no essential medicines," the Ukrainian foreign ministry said.
Putin ordered the plant to be besieged - so tightly that "not a fly can get out".
A storm, on the other hand, does not make sense.
"We have to think about the lives and health of our soldiers and officers," said the head of state.
The Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych, meanwhile, relativized Putin's statements even more than his boss: "The immediate danger of losing Mariupol has disappeared," he said in Kyiv.
In his view, Moscow does not have enough troops to surround the steel mill.
During the siege, civilians had rarely been evacuated from the embattled city.
Apparently no ceasefire over Orthodox holidays
6 a.m.:
Russia has rejected the proposal for a ceasefire over the Orthodox Easter holidays, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his video message on Friday night.
This shows what the Christian faith and one of the happiest and most important holidays mean to the leaders of Russia.
'But we'll still have hope.
The hope of peace, the hope that life will triumph over death".
More than 100,000 people are still holding out in Mariupol.
Attacks in eastern and southern Ukraine killed again.
Ukrainian President Zelenskyy needs hundreds of billions of dollars to rebuild his country.
You can read an overview of everything that happened during the night here.
mfh/hej/AFP