Situation on the ground, international reactions, sanctions: the point on the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.
Truce Thursday in Mariupol
The Russian Ministry of Defense announced on Wednesday evening a “regime of silence”, or a local ceasefire, from 10:00 am Thursday (0700 GMT) in the besieged Ukrainian port of Mariupol in order to evacuate civilians. This measure should make it possible to open a humanitarian corridor to the Ukrainian city of Zaporozhye with a stopover via the port of Berdiansk, under Russian control.
“For this humanitarian operation to succeed, we propose to carry it out with the direct participation of representatives of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)”, added the ministry in a statement.
To read : Red Cross building shelled by Russians in Mariupol, kyiv says
Nothing “promising” in the talks
Appearing to go back on announcements made by Moscow following discussions between the belligerents on Tuesday in Istanbul, the spokesman for the Russian presidency Dmitry Peskov said that he could not “report anything very promising or some kind of breakthrough”. “For the time being, we cannot talk about progress and we are not going to do it,” he insisted on Wednesday, specifying that there was “no progress” either in the organization of a possible meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky.
“We don’t believe anyone,” says Zelensky
Ukrainian Defense Ministry spokesman Oleksandre Motuzyanyk had earlier stressed that he had noted the departure of certain units from kyiv and Cherniguiv, but “no massive withdrawal of Russian troops from these areas”, contrary to the promise made. the day before by Moscow to “radically reduce” its military activity in this area. On this subject, “we do not believe anyone, not a single beautiful sentence”, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in the evening, adding that Russian forces were regrouping to attack the Donbass region. “We won’t give in. We will fight for every meter of our territory,” he said.
Beginning of withdrawal at Chernobyl
Russian forces are beginning to withdraw from the Chernobyl nuclear site, which they took control of on the first day of the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, a senior Pentagon official said on Wednesday.
The Russian army has started to withdraw from Gostomel airport, northwest of kyiv, and “Chernobyl is another area where they are starting to reposition themselves, leaving Chernobyl to go to Belarus”, told the press this senior official having requested anonymity.
Moscow accused of firing phosphorus shells
Ukrainian authorities accused Russian forces of firing phosphorus shells at the small town of Marinka in eastern Ukraine on Wednesday.
“War crimes” in Ukraine
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, spoke on Wednesday of “war crimes” committed in Ukraine in a long indictment against the actions carried out mainly by the Russian army.
She left no doubt that she believes Russia is the main culprit even though she has not fully cleared the Ukrainian forces. A little earlier, the UN Human Rights Council had appointed Erik Mose, a Norwegian judge who has sat on several international tribunals, to lead the investigation into the violations committed by Russia in Ukraine.
Tatars demand return of Crimea
Representatives of the Crimean Tatars demanded on Wednesday that the return to Ukraine of this peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014 be one of the conditions set by kyiv in negotiations with Moscow to end the armed conflict.
In the military field
The city of Cherniguiv (north) was bombed “all night”, announced the governor of the region, despite the announcement made the day before by Moscow of a reduction in its military activity around kyiv and this city. In Irpin, which is now “100% controlled by the Ukrainian army”, at least 200 people have died since the start of the conflict, according to its mayor. In the east, the Ukrainian army regained control of a strategic highway linking Kharkiv to Chuguiv, and Russian forces left the town of Trostyanets (northeast) after a month of occupation.
In Mariupol (south), Russian forces “deliberately bombarded a building of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)”, a Ukrainian official said on Wednesday, without being able to give an assessment. The town hall for its part denounced the forced evacuation to Russia of a maternity hospital in the city.
South Ossetian separatists want to join Russia
The leader of South Ossetia, a pro-Russian territory in the Caucasus that seceded from Georgia, planned on Wednesday to organize a popular consultation to be attached to Russia.