On the 17th day of the invasion of Ukraine launched by Vladimir Putin, Moscow maintains pressure on the Ukrainian army. This Saturday, Russian forces are still positioned around the capital Kiev and the port of Mariupol, where thousands of Ukrainians find themselves besieged today.
12:30 p.m.
French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke again on Saturday with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the war in Ukraine, the day after the Versailles summit, the Elysee said.
The three leaders had already had a telephone conversation on Thursday during which France and Germany had “demanded an immediate ceasefire from Russia”. Since their meeting on February 7 in the Kremlin, Emmanuel Macron has had nine telephone conversations, including that of last Thursday, with Vladimir Poutine, according to the count of the Elysée.
11:32 am
The port city of Mykolaiv, located in southern Ukraine, near Odessa, was shelled relentlessly overnight from Friday to Saturday, the shots hitting a cancer care center and an eye hospital.
The windows of the newly renovated cancer center, where patients undergo daytime chemotherapy treatments, have been blown out. Projectile impacts were visible on the doors.
10:03
A mosque housing 80 civilians, including Turks, was bombed in Mariupol, a port in southeastern Ukraine where thousands of people have been besieged for days, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said on Saturday.
“The mosque of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent and his wife Roxolana in Mariupol was bombed by Russian invaders,” the ministry said in a tweet. “More than 80 adults and children are sheltering there, including Turkish citizens,” he added, without specifying when the shelling took place.
This strategic city, bombarded for days, suffered a devastating siege. The inhabitants, holed up in the cellars, are without water, without gas, without electricity, without communications, and we have seen people there in recent days fighting for food, an “almost hopeless” situation, Doctors Without Borders warned on Friday. (MSF).
07:56
Western sanctions introduced against Russia could cause the fall of the International Space Station, said Saturday Dmitry Rogozin, the head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, asking for their lifting.
According to him, the operation of the Russian vessels supplying the ISS will be disrupted by the sanctions, accordingly affecting the Russian segment of the station, which serves, among other things, to correct the orbit of the space structure. As a result, it could cause “the ISS weighing 500 tons to ditch or land”.
07:19
Russian forces are positioned around Kiev on Saturday morning and “block” Mariupol, where thousands of people are under a devastating siege, in southern Ukraine, a country that has been bombed for more than two weeks.
Local media reported on Saturday morning anti-bombing warning sirens throughout Ukraine, including major cities Kiev, Odessa, Dnipro and Kharkiv.
After twelve days of siege, Mariupol, strategic port, is without water, without gas, without electricity, without communications, and one saw there these last days people fighting for food. An “almost hopeless” situation, alerted Doctors Without Borders (MSF). “The enemy is still blocking Mariupol,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday evening. “The Russian troops did not let our aid into the city,” he added, promising to try again to bring food, water and medicine there “tomorrow”, Saturday.