Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in remarks published early Saturday, said lifting Western sanctions against Russia was part of the peace talks, which he described as “difficult” but which continue daily through video link.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told Polish reporters there was a “high chance” that the talks, which have not been held in person for a month, will end due to the “playbook of the Russia on the killing of people,” according to the Interfax news agency.
Ukraine accuses Russian troops of atrocities in areas near the capital, kyiv, which they had occupied. Moscow denies these allegations.
After failing to capture the capital during the nine-week assault that reduced the cities to rubble, killed thousands and forced 5 million Ukrainians to flee abroad, Moscow is now concentrating on the east and the south.
Russian forces captured the city of Kherson in southern Ukraine and mainly occupied the southeastern port city of Mariupol, where the United Nations is working to evacuate civilians and fighters entrenched in a large steelworks.
Lavrov told China’s official Xinhua news agency that 1.02 million people had been evacuated from Ukraine to Russia since the invasion began on February 24. Ukraine says thousands of people have been taken to Russia against their will.
Reuters could not independently verify the claims of either party.
Lavrov said those evacuated included 120,000 foreigners and people from Russia-backed breakaway regions of Ukraine – the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics which Russia recognized as independent just before President Vladimir Putin announces the invasion.
COLOSSAL LOSSES
Moscow calls the war a “special military operation” to disarm and “denazify” Ukraine, defend Russian-speakers from persecution and prevent the United States from using the country to threaten Russia.
Ukraine denies Putin’s persecution claims and says it is fighting an unprovoked land grab to fully take over Donetsk and Luhansk, which form the Donbas region.
Britain and the United States have expressed support for Ukraine in the peace talks but say it is vital to continue to arm kyiv. On Thursday, President Joe Biden asked the US Congress for new aid of 33 billion dollars, including more than 20 billion in weapons.
This funding received bipartisan support from Congress. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she hoped to get the package through “as soon as possible”.
Ukraine acknowledges losing control of some towns and villages in the east, but says Moscow’s gains have cost a force already worn down by its defeat near the capital.
“We have serious losses but those of the Russians are much, much greater,” said Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych, without giving further details. “They have colossal losses”.
Russia is pounding the entire Donetsk frontline with rockets, artillery, mortar bombs and aircraft, in part to prevent Ukrainian troops from regrouping, according to Ukrainian officials.
The Ukrainian army said that Russia was preparing offensives in the areas of Lyman Donetsk and Sievierodonetsk and Popasna Luhansk. In the south, she said Russia “continues to regroup, increase the effectiveness of fire and improve its position.”
The Russian Defense Ministry said his forces hit Ukrainian weapons storage sites, platoon strongholds, artillery positions and drones. Russia said a diesel submarine in the Black Sea struck military targets with Kalibr cruise missiles, the first report of such strikes from a submarine.
IT’S INDESCRIBABLE
Russia said its high-precision long-range missiles had destroyed production facilities at a rocket factory in kyiv.
Ukraine says the attack hit a residential building on Thursday, injuring civilians and killing a US-backed Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty producer.
The body of producer Vira Hyrych was found in the rubble of the building, the broadcaster said.
Western officials said Russia suffered fewer casualties after reducing the scale of its invasion, but the numbers were still “quite high”.
On Saturday, Britain’s Defense Secretary said: “The gaps in Russian tactical coordination remain.” Russia has been forced to merge and redeploy exhausted and disparate units from failed advances in northeastern Ukraine, he said in a daily bulletin.
The bloodiest fighting and the worst humanitarian catastrophe took place in Mariupol, reduced to a wasteland by two months of Russian bombardment and siege. Ukraine says there are 100,000 civilians left in the city.
In the areas of Mariupol now held by Russian troops, rescuers were recovering bodies from the streets. Those who remained among the shattered ruins remember their fear.
“We were hungry, the child was crying, when the Grad (multiple rocket launcher) shells were hitting near the house,” a tearful Viktoria Nikolayeva, 54, who survived the battle with her family in a penny, told Reuters. -floor.
“We thought, ay est, this is the end.”
A Ukrainian fighter expressed optimism about rescuing the wounded and other soldiers from the factory, although previous evacuation attempts had failed.
“I really believe that all the defenders of Mariupol – the troops who remained here, the wounded and the living – that we will be able to save the lives of these heroes”, said Captain Svyatoslav Palamar.