capital of ukraine Kyiv Under renewed Russian shelling as rescuers in the besieged port of Mariupol dug up survivors from the rubble of the bombed buildings. Officials from the two countries met again for peace talks, but said their position was far from over.
Western sources and Ukrainian officials said Russia’s offensive has faltered since its troops attacked on February 24, dashing hopes of a swift victory for Moscow and the overthrow of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s government.
Despite setbacks on the battlefield and punitive sanctions by the West, Russian President Vladimir Putin has shown little sign of relenting. His government says it is counting on China to help Russia cope with the blow to its economy.
The United States, which this week announced $800 million in new military aid to Kyiv, is concerned that Beijing is “considering directly assisting Russia with military equipment to use in Ukraine,” said Secretary of State Antony. Blinken said.
Blinken told reporters that President Joe Biden would make it clear to Chinese President Xi Jinping in a call on Friday that Beijing “will be responsible for any action to support Russia’s aggression, and we will not hesitate to impose costs.” “
China has refused to condemn or call Russia’s action in Ukraine an invasion. It says it recognizes Ukraine’s sovereignty but Russia has legitimate security concerns that must be addressed.
While the United States says it wants to avoid a direct confrontation with Russia, Chinese military aid to Moscow has been criticized by Washington and Beijing – the world’s two biggest powers – in the biggest attack on a European state since World War II. will stand in the opposite direction.
far side
The war has settled into a grinding pattern of sieges of cities, with Ukrainian officials reporting Russian attacks on schools, hospitals and cultural facilities.
The UN Human Rights Office in Geneva said it had recorded 2,032 civilian casualties in Ukraine so far – 780 killed and 1,252 wounded.
The United Nations said about 3.2 million civilians, mostly women and children, have now fled to neighboring countries. A Ukrainian official said some 3,810 people were evacuated from humanitarian corridors on Thursday, a decrease compared to Wednesday.
Russian and Ukrainian negotiators held talks via videolink for a fourth straight day, but the Kremlin said an agreement was yet to be reached.
“Our delegation is making enormous efforts,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. “Our delegation … is ready to work round the clock – but unfortunately we do not see such enthusiasm from Ukraine.”
Moscow has previously said it was close to agreeing a formula that would keep Ukraine neutral among its demands.
Adviser to the President of Ukraine Mykhailo Podolik said the talks were complicated. “The position of the parties is different. For us the fundamental issues are the violent ones,” he said.
Ukraine has said it is ready to negotiate an end to the war but will not surrender or accept a Russian ultimatum. It maintains its original position that it maintains sovereignty over areas occupied by Russian and pro-Russian forces since 2014.
Kyiv and its Western allies say Russia started the war to subjugate a neighboring Putin to an artificial state. Moscow says it is conducting a “special operation” to disarm Ukraine.
Ukraine’s Zelensky addressed the German Bundestag by video link on Thursday, drawing no punches in a speech that called for the Holocaust and the Berlin Wall, and shaming pro-Russian politicians in Germany, Moscow’s main energy buyer. was intended.
“Every year politicians repeat ‘never again,'” said Zelensky, who is of Jewish heritage, citing a slogan used to mark the Holocaust.
“And now we see that these words are absolutely useless. People are being destroyed in Europe, they are trying to destroy everything that is dear to us, for which we live.”
digging for survivors
The Russians have failed to capture a large city in the face of enthusiastic resistance from Ukrainian forces defending residential areas under daily bombardment.
Rescue workers in the southern port city of Mariupol rescue survivors from the rubble of a theater that officials said had been hit by an airstrike on Wednesday as civilians took refuge there from the bombing. Russia has denied attacking the theatre.
Mariupol has suffered the worst humanitarian catastrophe of the war, with hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped in basements without food, water or electricity. City officials say they still haven’t been able to estimate casualties from the theater.
“Yesterday and today, despite continued shelling, debris is being removed as much as possible and people are being rescued. Information about the victims is still being clarified,” the city council said in a statement.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the allegation that Russia bombed the theater was false, and that “Russian armed forces do not bomb towns and cities”.
At the United Nations, diplomats said the Security Council would not vote on Friday on a Russian-draft call for aid access and civil protection in Ukraine as Russia’s UN envoy accused Western nations of campaigning pressure against the measure. .
The World Health Organization said on Thursday it had confirmed 43 attacks on health facilities in Ukraine that killed 12 and injured dozens, including health workers.
“In any conflict, attacks on health are a violation of international humanitarian law,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the UN Security Council, without specifying who to blame for the attacks.
bloody sheet
Kyiv’s northeastern and northwestern suburbs have suffered heavy damage, but the capital has placed itself firmly under a curfew and has been subject to deadly rocket attacks at night.
A building in Kyiv’s Dernitsky district was extensively damaged. As residents cleaned the glass, a man wept over the body of a woman covered in bloody sheets.
Ukraine’s Defense Ministry spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyannik said the Russian military had not made any significant progress around Kyiv in the past 24-48 hours and had resorted to “chaotic” shelling.
“Ukrainian armed forces are doing everything possible to prevent enemy attacks from that area,” he told a press briefing in Kyiv. He said the missiles had damaged several residential buildings, resulting in civilian casualties.
“It is a war crime,” he said, but did not give an exact number.
British military intelligence said Thursday that Russia’s offensive has largely halted on all fronts, with the Russian military suffering heavy losses and minimal progress on land, sea or air in recent days.
Vyacheslav Chaus, the governor of the region centered on the northern border town of Chernihiv, said 53 civilians had been killed in the past 24 hours. The toll could not be independently verified.
His family said one of those killed in Chernihiv was American citizen Jimmy Hill, who was shot while waiting in a bread line.
His sister wrote on Facebook, “His body was found in the street.”
This story has been published without modification in text from a wire agency feed. Only the title has been changed.
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