adds suspension of shipments from Samsung
KIEV (awp/afp) – The strategic port of Mariupol, in eastern Ukraine, is “under blockade” and undergoing “ruthless attacks” by Russian forces, the city’s mayor said on Saturday at the tenth day of the invasion and as Russians and Ukrainians prepare for a third round of negotiations over the weekend.
“For five days, our hometown, our family of half a million people, has been under ruthless attack,” Mariupol Mayor Vadim Boitchenko wrote on Telegram, calling for continued resistance.
“We are looking for solutions to humanitarian problems and all possible ways to get Mariupol out of the blockade,” the mayor continued. “Our priority is to establish a ceasefire so that we can restore vital infrastructure and set up a humanitarian corridor to bring food and medicine into the city,” he added.
The capture by Moscow of this city of some 450,000 inhabitants, located on the Sea of Azov, would be a turning point in the invasion of Ukraine.
It would allow the junction between the Russian forces coming from annexed Crimea, which have already taken the key ports of Berdiansk and Kherson, and the separatist and Russian troops in the Donbass.
The Russian army has occupied the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine since Friday, where artillery strikes, according to the Ukrainians, caused a fire – which Moscow denies being the cause.
This attack against the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, which has six reactors, shocked the international community. It constitutes “an immense threat for all of Europe and the world”, reacted Friday to the UN Security Council the American ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield.
“Six Chernobyl”
“We survived a night that could have ended history. History of Ukraine. History of Europe”: an explosion at the Zaporozhye power plant in southern Ukraine , would have been the equivalent of “six Chernobyls”, alarmed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is to address the US Senate on Saturday by videoconference.
Moscow has categorically denied attacking the site. This is a “lie”, affirmed the Russian ambassador to the Security Council, Vassili Nebenzia. In Moscow, the Russian Ministry of Defense implicated “groups of Ukrainian saboteurs, with the participation of mercenaries”.
The G7 countries have announced that they will “impose tough new sanctions in response to Russian aggression”.
If he insisted on the need to “end” this conflict, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned that the Atlantic Alliance could not respond to the request for the creation of a no-fly zone, to avoid getting drawn into the conflict.
“The only way to really enforce something like a no-fly zone is to send NATO planes into Ukrainian airspace and shoot down Russian planes. That could lead to all-out war,” added US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
“Self Hypnosis”
President Zelensky reacted strongly. NATO “has given the green light to continue bombing Ukrainian towns and villages, refusing to establish a no-fly zone”, he denounced in a video published by the Ukrainian presidency.
The NATO countries convinced themselves “that a no-fly zone over Ukraine would provoke direct Russian aggression against NATO”, he continued. “It’s a process of self-hypnosis for those who are weak, insecure inside, while they have weapons much more powerful than ours,” added Mr. Zelensky.
Meanwhile, a Pentagon official announced on Friday that “equipment in the amount of $240 million, including some of the most critical equipment like anti-armor equipment,” had been handed over to Ukrainian forces “in multiple locations.” .
According to Mykhaïlo Podoliak, adviser to the Ukrainian presidency, a third round of Russian-Ukrainian negotiations could be held on Saturday or Sunday.
But the chances of achieving progress appear extremely slim, Russian President Vladimir Putin having warned that dialogue with Kiev would only be possible if “all Russian demands” were accepted, including a “neutral and non-nuclear” status for the country. Ukraine and its “compulsory demilitarization”.
“We are waiting for a third round of negotiations in Belarus with the Ukrainian authorities. And we hope that Ukraine will listen to Russia’s position and concerns, which, in particular, is essential for ending military operations” , Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with Sky News Arabia on Friday evening.
The two previous rounds of talks, on the Ukrainian-Belarusian border and then on the Polish-Belarusian border, did not lead to a cessation of fighting, but the parties agreed to set up “humanitarian corridors” for the evacuation of civilians.
After ten days of war, the balance sheet is impossible to verify independently. Moscow reports 2,870 dead on the Ukrainian side and 498 on the Russian side, Kiev evokes more than 9,000 Russian soldiers killed.
“Rough workmanship”
Vladimir Putin assured that the Russian forces did not bombard Kiev and the big Ukrainian cities, qualifying as “gross fabrication of propaganda” the information on the destruction carried out by Moscow.
In Russia, the Kremlin has tightened its repression of all dissenting voices in the face of the conflict.
Since the start of the offensive on February 24, arrests, closures of the few remaining independent media and new repressive texts have been linked, while the Kremlin and the major Russian media present the conflict as “a special military operation”.
Vladimir Putin on Friday signed a law providing for up to 15 years in prison for anyone publishing “false information”.
The Bloomberg News agency and the BBC (British public broadcasting) have announced that they are temporarily suspending the activity of their journalists, and the American news channel CNN the broadcasting of its programs in Russia.
More than 1.2 million refugees have already fled Ukraine, according to the latest UN count, prompting strong mobilization, particularly in bordering countries.
The UN Security Council will meet again urgently on Monday on the humanitarian crisis, diplomats say, as the World Food Program (WFP) warned that food is in short supply in war-affected areas.
The list of companies withdrawing from Russia grew even longer on Saturday. South Korea’s Samsung Electronics has suspended exports to Russia, where it controls a third of the smartphone market. The day before, the American computer giant Microsoft had suspended “new sales” of its products and services in this country, and the world number one in luxury LVMH the temporary closure of 124 stores.
In the Ukrainian media, calls for a boycott of Coca Cola, which has decided for the time being to continue its activities in Russia, are circulating massively on social networks and in the media. The adviser to the Ukrainian President Mykhailo Podoliak, claimed on Twitter that the American drinks group was “covered in blood”.
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