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People leave a residential area after Russian attacks on the Ukrainian city of Odessa
Photo: OLEKSANDR GIMANOV / AFP
In Germany, the government cannot agree on the delivery of heavy weapons, in Ukraine the war is entering its 59th day: Russian troops have again attacked the Azovstahl steelworks in Mariupol, Ukraine.
According to the government in Kyiv, several people were killed and injured in Russian air strikes in the southern Ukrainian port of Odessa on Saturday, including a baby.
The events at a glance:
Military
situation
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Russian troops have resumed attacks on the Azovsteel steelworks in the port city of Mariupol, Ukrainian sources said.
"The enemy is trying to smother the last resistance of the Mariupol defenders," said presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych in a video message on Saturday.
Artillery and air force would be used.
However, the Ukrainian soldiers held their positions and "even launched counterattacks."
While Moscow says it "liberated" Mariupol, according to Kyiv, the port city remains contested.
Despite the Orthodox Easter, there has been no ceasefire in Ukraine, despite all international appeals.
According to Russian information, the task of the Russian army in the "second phase" of the conflict is to achieve "complete control over the Donbass and southern Ukraine".
The aim is to create a land connection to the annexed Crimea and to the Transnistria region in Moldova, which is controlled by pro-Russian separatists.
Meanwhile, Russian attacks also continued in Donbass.
The Ukrainian authorities in the Luhansk region also reported continuous attacks.
humanitarian situation
Satellite images point to another possible mass grave in Ukraine.
It is said to be near the port city of Mariupol in south-eastern Ukraine, which is besieged by Russian troops.
The occupying forces would try to cover up war crimes, the Ukrainian side said.
The images distributed by the US satellite photo service Maxar from March 22 to April 15 are said to show a cemetery near Wynohradne before, during and after an expansion of the graves.
According to the government in Kyiv, at least five people were killed and 18 others injured in Russian air raids on the southern Ukrainian port city of Odessa on Saturday.
A three-month-old baby was among the fatalities, wrote the head of the Ukrainian presidential administration, Andriy Yermak, in the online service Telegram.
According to the Ukrainian military, two rockets fell, hitting a military facility and two residential buildings.
Two more missiles were intercepted by air defenses.
The number of victims is expected to be higher.
That says Kyiv
At a press conference in a central metro station in the capital Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy again brought up the possibility of breaking off any talks with Russia to end the war.
"If our people in Mariupol are annihilated, if a pseudo-referendum on independence is held in Kherson, then Ukraine will withdraw from all negotiation processes," he said Saturday at an underground metro station.
Zelenskyy said he was still ready to negotiate directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
After a Russian general announced a change of strategy in warfare, Zelenskyj warned: Ukraine is only the beginning, Russia wants to conquer other countries afterwards.
“All peoples who, like us, believe in the victory of life over death must fight with us.
You must help us because we are the first in line.
And who will be next?” said the President in his video speech on Saturday night.
Zelenskyy also told the Ukrainian population not to cooperate with the invading Russians: "Everyone has to resist the occupation at every opportunity." All those who lived in areas controlled by Russian units should "cause them as many problems as possible «.
That's what the Kremlin says
The Russian leadership has accused the United States of provocative behavior: The United States is trying to foist on Russia to use weapons of mass destruction in Ukraine, said the head of the NBC protection troops in Russia, Igor Kirillov.
ABC is short for Atomic, Biological, Chemical.
"The staging of the use of weapons of mass destruction serves to accuse Russia of using prohibited weapons in order to then implement the so-called Syrian scenario, in which the state in question is economically and politically isolated and also excluded from international organizations such as the UN Security Council," said Kirillov.
The Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad used such weapons of mass destruction in the war against his people and was subsequently ostracized internationally.
Kirillov said that in recent weeks the leaders of Western countries have regularly provoked statements that Russia is planning to use a tactical nuclear bomb and chemical and biological weapons in Ukraine.
The aim is to increase pressure on Russia's allies India and China to comply with the sanctions, Kirillov claimed.
With a smug gesture, the Russian ex-president Dmitry Medvedev reacted to a guideline from the EU Commission on how to deal with the payment of gas deliveries in rubles demanded by Russia.
According to the guideline, European Union companies could continue to pay for Russian gas in euros or dollars and open an account with Gazprombank for it without violating EU sanctions.
The "consistency and loyalty to principles of the European partners is appreciated," Medvedev wrote on Telegram on Saturday night, adding a smiley face with tears and a clown emoji.
Especially when you consider that, according to current data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Europe can get by without Russian gas for a maximum of six months.
"But seriously, they won't last a week."
On Friday, Brussels said that the EU Commission would allow EU companies to continue paying for Russian gas without violating European sanctions against Moscow.
That's what the West says
FDP leader Christian Lindner has committed to supplying heavy weapons to Ukraine.
"Ukraine must win this war, and Ukraine will win this war," said Lindner in his speech at the federal party conference of the Liberals in Berlin, to which he was connected from Washington.
He was infected with Corona during a trip to the USA.
In his speech, however, Lindner qualified the statement that there were two "limits" to arms deliveries: they should neither endanger "our own security" nor the "defensibility of NATO territory".
"This limits our options." He defended Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) against criticism of his Ukraine policy and assured him of his support.
"Olaf Scholz is a responsible leader who weighs things up carefully and makes decisions on this basis," said Lindner.
»The Federal Chancellor has the confidence of the FDP and also of their parliamentary group in the German Bundestag.«
In the discussion about a complete energy embargo against Russia, the warning voices in Germany are getting louder and louder.
Because of the foreseeable consequences for the people in the Federal Republic, the President of the Social Association Germany, Adolf Bauer, also rejects an embargo.
»We shouldn't take the risk of dramatic consequences for our labor market.
We can only withdraw from Russia's energy supply when we can rule out the possibility of major distortions here," Bauer told the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung.
Because of the high inflation, Bauer has already warned of the dramatic consequences for poorer people in Germany as a result of the war in Ukraine.
“It's not just energy prices that are skyrocketing, but also rents and food prices.
If things continue like this, the poorer population, for whom it is not a question of a loss of prosperity because they can hardly make ends meet anyway, will suffer immensely.« Politicians cannot tolerate this.
You should read and watch this
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"I want to see the sun"
- hope in the port city: According to Kiev, there should be a new attempt to save the people from Mariupol.
The Russian Defense Ministry publishes footage of its troop movements in the Donbass.
The situation in the video.
jso/dpa/AFP
