a top aide of the Russian president Vladimir Putin Said that Russian forces would seize the last main stronghold of resistance in the besieged city Mariupol after thursday Ukraine Proposed talks to evacuate soldiers and civilians there.
Mariupol will be the largest city to be captured by Russia It has taken longer than some military analysts expected since the invasion of Ukraine eight weeks ago, saw more than five million people flee abroad and turn cities to rubble.
“Before lunch, or after lunch, Azovstal will be completely under the control of the forces of the Russian Federation,” Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of the Chechnya Republic of Russia, whose forces are fighting in Ukraine, said about the steel plant. said in.
Ukraine’s defense ministry was not immediately available for comment.
A few dozen civilians managed to leave the strategically important southeastern port in a small bus convoy on Wednesday, escaping the fiercest of battle, according to Reuters witnesses.
Serhi Volny, a Ukrainian maritime commander, said fighters could not last long in the steel works. President Volodymyr Zelensky has said an estimated 1,000 civilians are taking refuge there.
Negotiator Mykhailo Podolik tweeted, “Ukraine is ready for a “special round of negotiations” unconditionally to rescue our people, (most right-wing) Azov (battalion), military, civilians, children, living and wounded.
Kyiv has proposed swapping Russian prisoners of war for safe passage for stranded civilians and soldiers. It was not known whether Russia had responded to the offer for special talks.
The fighters hide in the plant and have ignored an ultimatum by Russia to surrender. Fewer citizens left on Wednesday than expected.
Ukraine said it has so far stopped an attack by thousands of Russian troops in what it calls the Battle of Donbass on Kyiv, a new campaign by separatists to seize two eastern provinces of Moscow.
Russian forces attacked dozens of military bases in eastern Ukraine and shot down a Ukrainian Mi-8 helicopter near the village of Korovy Yar.
Putin said Wednesday’s first test launch of Russia’s Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile, a new and long-awaited addition to its nuclear arsenal, “will provide food for thought for those in the heat of frenzied offensive rhetoric”. , try to threaten our country.”
Russia called its incursion a “special military operation” to demilitarize and “deny” Ukraine. Kyiv and its Western allies dismiss this as a false pretext for the war of choice.
G7 finance ministers said in a meeting on Wednesday that Russia should not participate in international fora including meetings of the G20, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank this week.
Top officials from Britain, the United States and Canada walked out on Russia’s representatives at the Group of 20 meeting in Washington, highlighting deep divisions in the bloc of major economies.
The West has imposed unprecedented sanctions on Russia and Washington on Wednesday imposed sanctions on dozens of people and entities, including a commercial bank.
cloud of smoke
Mariupol, a once prosperous seaside town of 400,000, is now a wasteland with corpses lying on the streets as Russia slammed the Azovstal steel plant with bunker-buster bombs, the government in Kyiv said.
Svyatoslav Kalamar, deputy commander of the Azov regiment in Mariupol, said there are still about 80-100 civilians in several bunkers under the plant.
Black smoke emanated from the plant on Wednesday as people queued up to board the buses.
Tamara, a 64-year-old pensioner, said she was supposed to live with her sister in Zaporizhzhya. She was going with her husband, daughter, son-in-law and grandson.
“It’s a pleasure … to leave after this nightmare. We lived in the basement for 30 days,” she said tearfully.
Ukraine accused the Russian military of failing to comply with the local ceasefire agreement to allow large numbers of people to leave. Russia did not immediately respond to the allegation.
Moscow denied targeting civilians and blamed Ukraine for the failure of earlier efforts to organize humanitarian corridors outside Mariupol.
If Russia captures Mariupol, it would link the region formerly occupied by pro-Russian separatists to the Crimea region that Moscow annexed in 2014.
Moscow was forced to withdraw from northern Ukraine after an attack on Kyiv last month, but has sent back troops for an offensive in the east that began this week.
Oleksiy Erestovich, adviser to the President of Ukraine, said that Russia was focusing on moving towards the city of Slovakia, but “so far they are not succeeding”.
Meanwhile, peace talks have stalled.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said peace talks were likely to fail and that world leaders including the US President Joe BidenAgreed on a call this week that they would continue to supply weapons to Ukraine.
Mariupol will be the largest city to be captured by Russia It has taken longer than some military analysts expected since the invasion of Ukraine eight weeks ago, saw more than five million people flee abroad and turn cities to rubble.
“Before lunch, or after lunch, Azovstal will be completely under the control of the forces of the Russian Federation,” Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of the Chechnya Republic of Russia, whose forces are fighting in Ukraine, said about the steel plant. said in.
Ukraine’s defense ministry was not immediately available for comment.
A few dozen civilians managed to leave the strategically important southeastern port in a small bus convoy on Wednesday, escaping the fiercest of battle, according to Reuters witnesses.
Serhi Volny, a Ukrainian maritime commander, said fighters could not last long in the steel works. President Volodymyr Zelensky has said an estimated 1,000 civilians are taking refuge there.
Negotiator Mykhailo Podolik tweeted, “Ukraine is ready for a “special round of negotiations” unconditionally to rescue our people, (most right-wing) Azov (battalion), military, civilians, children, living and wounded.
Kyiv has proposed swapping Russian prisoners of war for safe passage for stranded civilians and soldiers. It was not known whether Russia had responded to the offer for special talks.
The fighters hide in the plant and have ignored an ultimatum by Russia to surrender. Fewer citizens left on Wednesday than expected.
Ukraine said it has so far stopped an attack by thousands of Russian troops in what it calls the Battle of Donbass on Kyiv, a new campaign by separatists to seize two eastern provinces of Moscow.
Russian forces attacked dozens of military bases in eastern Ukraine and shot down a Ukrainian Mi-8 helicopter near the village of Korovy Yar.
Putin said Wednesday’s first test launch of Russia’s Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile, a new and long-awaited addition to its nuclear arsenal, “will provide food for thought for those in the heat of frenzied offensive rhetoric”. , try to threaten our country.”
Russia called its incursion a “special military operation” to demilitarize and “deny” Ukraine. Kyiv and its Western allies dismiss this as a false pretext for the war of choice.
G7 finance ministers said in a meeting on Wednesday that Russia should not participate in international fora including meetings of the G20, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank this week.
Top officials from Britain, the United States and Canada walked out on Russia’s representatives at the Group of 20 meeting in Washington, highlighting deep divisions in the bloc of major economies.
The West has imposed unprecedented sanctions on Russia and Washington on Wednesday imposed sanctions on dozens of people and entities, including a commercial bank.
cloud of smoke
Mariupol, a once prosperous seaside town of 400,000, is now a wasteland with corpses lying on the streets as Russia slammed the Azovstal steel plant with bunker-buster bombs, the government in Kyiv said.
Svyatoslav Kalamar, deputy commander of the Azov regiment in Mariupol, said there are still about 80-100 civilians in several bunkers under the plant.
Black smoke emanated from the plant on Wednesday as people queued up to board the buses.
Tamara, a 64-year-old pensioner, said she was supposed to live with her sister in Zaporizhzhya. She was going with her husband, daughter, son-in-law and grandson.
“It’s a pleasure … to leave after this nightmare. We lived in the basement for 30 days,” she said tearfully.
Ukraine accused the Russian military of failing to comply with the local ceasefire agreement to allow large numbers of people to leave. Russia did not immediately respond to the allegation.
Moscow denied targeting civilians and blamed Ukraine for the failure of earlier efforts to organize humanitarian corridors outside Mariupol.
If Russia captures Mariupol, it would link the region formerly occupied by pro-Russian separatists to the Crimea region that Moscow annexed in 2014.
Moscow was forced to withdraw from northern Ukraine after an attack on Kyiv last month, but has sent back troops for an offensive in the east that began this week.
Oleksiy Erestovich, adviser to the President of Ukraine, said that Russia was focusing on moving towards the city of Slovakia, but “so far they are not succeeding”.
Meanwhile, peace talks have stalled.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said peace talks were likely to fail and that world leaders including the US President Joe BidenAgreed on a call this week that they would continue to supply weapons to Ukraine.