ADDS statements IAEA, German Foreign Minister, one million refugees in Poland, TikTok, civilians killed in Irpine
KIEV (awp/afp) – The population was trapped on Sunday in the besieged port of Mariupol, in southern Ukraine, where a second humanitarian evacuation attempt failed, while the Russian army tightened its grip on the capital Kyiv.
A third round of talks between Ukraine and Russia is scheduled for Monday, according to a member of the Ukrainian delegation, David Arakhamia, who did not give further details.
The two previous sessions, on the Ukrainian-Belarusian border and then on the Polish-Belarusian border, did not lead to a cessation of fighting, but the parties had agreed to set up “humanitarian corridors”.
But for the second day in a row on Sunday, the population of Mariupol, on the Sea of Azov, which is experiencing a “humanitarian blockade”, according to its mayor Vadim Boïtchenko, had to give up the evacuation.
“Amid devastating scenes of human suffering, a second attempt today to begin evacuating some 200,000 people from the city has been halted,” the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said.
This was to allow an evacuation to Zaporozhye, about three hours away. But “we were unable to use the humanitarian corridor because of the Russian bombardments,” said Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk.
Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed the failure of the evacuations on “Ukrainian nationalists” who, according to him, prevented those scheduled for Saturday from Mariupol and Volnovakha, a nearby city.
A rare family who was able to join Dnipro (center) on Saturday said, on condition of anonymity, having remained sheltered in a cellar “seven days without heating, electricity, internet”, lacking water and food. On the road, she testified, “there were corpses everywhere, Russians and Ukrainians”.
The fall of Mariupol would be a turning point in the Russian invasion, launched on February 24. It would allow the junction between Russian troops coming from annexed Crimea, which have already taken the key ports of Berdiansk and Kherson, and those from Donbass. These consolidated forces could then move up towards central and northern Ukraine.
On the Black Sea, it is now Odessa that worries Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who accuses Russia of “preparing to bombard” this port of nearly a million inhabitants near the Moldovan border.
Kyiv in sight
At the same time, Russian soldiers are closing in on Kiev.
Intense fighting took place on the outskirts of the capital, according to the Ukrainian regional administration, in particular around the road leading to Zhytomyr (150 km west of Kiev), as well as in Cherniguiv (150 km north of the capital), pounded for several days by the Russian air force.
In the western outskirts of Kiev, in Irpin, “from morning to evening, all the neighboring buildings were hit, a tank came in. It was scary, we were scared. Before that, we didn’t think we were going to leave “, testified Tetiana Vozniuchenko, 52 years old.
200 km southwest of the capital, Vinnytsia airport was “completely destroyed” by Russian strikes, according to Mr. Zelensky. In the morning, Moscow announced that it had destroyed the Starokonstantinov military airfield, 130 km to the northeast.
As for Kharkiv, the second city of Ukraine located 50 km from the Russian border (east), it remained the target of intense bombardments which hit a television tower, according to regional governor Oleg Synegoubov.
After the March 4 bombing of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant (south), the largest in Ukraine and Europe, which raised fears of a catastrophe and heightened the concern of Western countries, the Agency International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was informed by Kiev that the management of the plant was now under the orders of the Russian forces.
According to the Ukrainian authorities, only communications by mobile phone are still possible there, but of poor quality, and the head of the IAEA Rafael Grossi said he was “deeply concerned” by “the deterioration of the situation regarding communications between the regulatory authority and the plant”.
The exodus intensifies
On the 11th day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi called it “the fastest-moving refugee crisis in Europe since World War II”.
“More than 1.5 million refugees from Ukraine have crossed (the border) to neighboring countries in 10 days,” said Grandi, who expects the flow to increase further as the days go by. to come. More than a million have arrived in Poland, according to border guards.
In Irpine, civilians were fleeing, crossing with difficulty the rubble of a bridge destroyed by the Ukrainian army.
In the stations of the towns threatened by the Russian army, the crush reigned. “We send our wives and children to Lviv, maybe further, and we stay here… It’s a horrible situation,” Andrey Kyrychenko, a 40-year-old builder, told Dnipro.
Vladimir Putin denied on Sunday “that his army is targeting civilians”, during an interview with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron.
But the World Health Organization (WHO) “has authenticated several attacks on health care in Ukraine, causing several deaths and injuries,” said its chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
“About eight” civilians were killed during an evacuation from Irpin on Sunday, the town’s mayor, Oleksandr Markushin, said on Telegram.
Moscow had mentioned Wednesday the death of 498 Russian soldiers and 2,870 dead on the Ukrainian side. Kiev reported on Sunday more than 11,000 Russian soldiers killed, without revealing its own military losses. Figures impossible to verify independently.
For its part, the UN has confirmed the death of 351 civilians and more than 700 wounded, a toll which is “probably much higher because the verifications are in progress”.
Diplomatic efforts
Diplomatic consultations continued throughout the weekend without success.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday demanded an “urgent general ceasefire” from his Russian counterpart. The day before, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett had offered to mediate.
The head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell pleaded for a role of mediator to be played by Beijing, which for its part called for direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine.
In his exchange with Vladimir Putin, Mr. Macron found the Russian president “very determined to achieve his objectives”, including “what he calls the + denazification + and the neutralization of Ukraine”, as well as the recognition of the independence of Crimea and Donbass, indicated the French presidency.
The Kremlin has also multiplied messages to Westerners.
Mr Putin warned on Saturday that the establishment of a no-fly zone over Ukraine – requested by Kiev but refused by NATO – would be considered “as participation in the armed conflict”.
And the Russian Defense Ministry on Sunday warned countries neighboring Ukraine against hosting fighter jets from Kiev which would then be used against forces in Moscow, which could be considered “an implication of these countries in an armed conflict”.
For their part, the G7 countries are working on new sanctions against Russia, which will above all “affect the oligarchs” who have “benefited from Putin”, said Sunday the German Minister of Finance, Christian Lindne, whose country currently exercises the presidency of the group of seven most industrialized countries.
Effects of sanctions in Russia
In Russia, the effects of the sanctions are beginning to hit the middle class hard.
Foreign companies continue to leave the country en masse. Latest: American Express announced on Sunday the suspension of its operations in Russia, following in the footsteps of American credit card giants Visa and Mastercard. The PayPal payment system has also suspended its services there.
The ruble collapsed after international sanctions were imposed on Moscow and some of Russia’s biggest banks were cut off from the Swift international interbank system.
The Russian authorities now fear the emergence of a food black market. Supermarket chains have imposed restrictions on the quantities sold to each individual.
But opposition voices and independent media continue to be silenced.
At least 4,600 people demonstrating against the military intervention in Ukraine were arrested on Sunday in around fifty cities in Russia, according to the NGO OVD-Info.
The BBC said its international news channel, BBC World News, had stopped broadcasting in that country after Russian authorities cracked down on the media. The TikTok social network has also announced that it will suspend the possibility of posting new videos on its platform in Russia.
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