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Destroyed Mykolaiv regional government building
Photo: Francisco Seco/AP
In Ukraine there is great enthusiasm about the victory of the band Kalush Orchestra at the Eurovision Song Contest in Turin - and their call for the rescue of the port city of Mariupol and the Azov steelworks besieged by Russian troops.
Ukrainian fighters are still trapped there.
Meanwhile, hundreds of residents managed to escape.
A convoy of 500 to 1,000 cars set off from Berdyansk, about 80 kilometers west of Mariupol, to take the city's residents to safety.
An adviser to the mayor of Mariupol spoke of the largest evacuation since the Russian invasion on February 24.
The developments at a glance.
The military situation
According to Ukrainian military information, Russian troops are attacking on a broad front in the east of the country.
There is heavy fighting
in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions.
The Russian army is particularly active in Donetsk, the Ukrainian general staff wrote on Facebook on Saturday.
Russian troops regrouped in the Sieverodonetsk region.
British military intelligence sees the Russian offensive in Donbass
far behind schedule
.
"Under the current conditions, it is unlikely that Russia can dramatically accelerate its advance in the next 30 days," the British military said in its situation report on Twitter.
An adviser to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry said on television that the Russian military was trying to encircle Ukrainian units in the Donbass.
By late Saturday evening, Ukrainian soldiers had
repulsed twelve attacks,
destroying eight tanks, five artillery systems, nine armored fighting vehicles and six drones.
According to Ukrainian authorities, on Sunday morning there was a
rocket attack in the Lviv region
near the Polish border, which hit military infrastructure.
It is still unclear whether people were killed or injured.
According to Ukrainian sources, the Azovstal steelworks
in
Mariupol , in which the last Ukrainian defenders of the city are trapped, continues to be bombed and shelled.
The humanitarian situation
A
large convoy
of cars and vans has arrived safely with refugees from Mariupol in the Ukrainian-controlled city of Zaporizhia.
The people had to leave Mariupol on their own beforehand and make their own way
to
Berdyansk, about 80 kilometers further west.
From there, rescue vehicles were able to take them to safety in Zaporizhia, 200 kilometers away.
The convoy is said to have included 500 and 1000 cars.
That says Kyiv
Parties that support the Russian war of aggression
should soon be able to be
banned
in Ukraine .
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a law passed in early May, the Ukrainian parliament announced on its website.
The law will come into effect one day after its official publication.
The ban is intended to target parties that justify or deny Russia's war against Ukraine.
As early as March, Ukrainian authorities halted the activities of nearly a dozen parties allegedly linked to Russia.
Ukrainian
Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba
has expressed skepticism about a possible ceasefire with Russia.
“There is nothing wrong with a ceasefire if it were the first step towards a solution where Ukrainian territory would be liberated.
But we will not accept that there is a partial separation of territory,” says Kuleba in an interview with “Bild TV”.
Kuleba called on the Germans to accept the consequences of the sanctions against Russia: "Give us everything we need and we will contain Russia and defeat it in
Ukraine
so
that
they never knock on your door."
Ukrainian President
Volodymyr Zelenskyy
said in his daily video address on Sunday night that the
situation in the Donbass region
remained "very difficult" for Ukraine.
The Russian troops tried to achieve "at least some victory" there.
But he was confident: "Step by step we are forcing the occupiers to leave our country." And he later wrote on the Telegram news channel: "Next year Ukraine will
host Eurovision
!
For the third time in our history.«
Moscow says so
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, one of their
transport ships in the Black Sea
was not damaged by Ukrainian forces.
Ukrainian military authorities in Odessa said on Thursday that they had attacked and set fire to a Russian transport ship.
The Russian Ministry of Defense has now published photos of the ship, which are said to have been taken on Saturday in the Black Sea port of Sevastopol in Crimea.
According to the
Russian ambassador to the US
, Russian diplomats in the US are threatened with violence.
“Our embassy is in a hostile environment.
Embassy staff are receiving threats, including threats of physical violence,” Ambassador Anatoly Antonov was quoted as saying by the Russian news agency TASS.
US security agents would hand out CIA and FBI contact numbers outside the Russian embassy.
This is how the West reacts
NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoana spoke of a
possible victory for Ukraine
on the sidelines of informal consultations between NATO foreign ministers on Sunday morning in Berlin : "Thanks to the courage of the Ukrainian army and our help, Ukraine can win this war."
Ukraine
is already "losing momentum."
Sweden
's
governing Social Democrats want to make a decision on whether their country should apply for NATO membership.
The party had previously spoken out against joining the military alliance, but the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine triggered an intense NATO debate in Sweden – as well as in neighboring Finland.
You should read this
ESC triumph for Ukraine:
The Kalush Orchestra asks for help for their own country, President Selenkskyj celebrates the courage of his people and the Ukrainian TV presenter struggles to regain his composure in a makeshift studio - the Eurovision Song Contest has never been so political.
Putin's propaganda:
Ten years ago no sane politician or publicist in Russia would have dared to justify a nuclear strike against the West.
That has changed – also because the Kremlin has shifted the norms.
vet/dpa/Reuters/AP/AFP
