Kiev-Jerusalem-The evacuation of the residents of Mariupol, a strategic port in eastern Ukraine besieged by Russian forces, has been postponed due to numerous Russian ceasefire violations, the city's municipality said Saturday, as Russian soldiers advance into other parts of the country and a fierce battle is raging around the capital of Kiev.
Moscow ’ s control of Mariupol, a country of 450,000 people on the Azov Sea, will be an important turning point in invading Ukraine.
In 2014, the city was the scene of attacks by pro-Russian forces, mainly from Donetsk.
The municipality wrote on a midday telegraph that the evacuation of civilians, which was scheduled to start late Saturday morning, was “postponed for security reasons” because Russian forces “continue to bombard Mariupol and its environs”.
The Russian Defense Ministry later accused Ukrainian nationalists in Mariupol and Volnovkha, a city of 20,000 people near the rebel center in Donetsk, of preventing Ukrainians from leaving for Russia, citing a truce to bolster their defenses.
On Saturday, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) described the situation in Mariupol as “tragic” as the evacuation of the population was postponed and called on the parties to protect civilians in Ukraine, whether there was a humanitarian corridor or not.
After ten days of war, it is impossible to verify the numbers from independent sources. How do you talk about the death of at least 350 civilians and more than 9,000 Russian soldiers, while Moscow announced the fall of 2,870 victims on the Ukrainian side and 498 on the Russian side?
The Mariupol trench comes at a time when Russian forces are approaching the capital of Kiev and facing stubborn resistance, especially in Chernigov, located 150 kilometers north of the capital, where tens of civilians have been killed in the last few days.
"The bodies were all over the place," said Serge, one of the survivors. They were waiting in line for treatment and they were all dead. ”
In a Facebook post on Saturday morning, the Ukrainian Minister of Defense, Oleksy Chirenkov, admitted that the Russians had advanced in several directions, but stressed that they controlled only a “small part” of the country's territory and that Ukrainian fighters were “confronting them”.
The Ukrainian president challenged Moscow and announced on Saturday that Ukrainian forces had launched a counterattack around Kharkiev in the north, and the second city in the country to witness some of the most violent bombing operations since the start of the war.
Between Mariubol and Kiev, located in the centre, the army has been occupying the Zabo Rachera nuclear power plant in southeast Ukraine since Friday, where, according to Ukrainians, artillery fire broke out. Moscow denies bombing the plant.
Within 10 days of the invasion, the Russians have made significant progress in Ukrainian territory, but so far they have captured only two major cities, Berdynsk and Gerson, on the southern coast of the Black Sea.
Mnadielo Podolak, Ukraine's presidential adviser, said a third round of Russian-Ukrainian negotiations may be held on Saturday or Sunday.
But the chances of progress are slim. Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that dialogue with Kiev will be possible only if “all Russian demands” are accepted, including ensuring Ukraine's status as a “neutral and non-nuclear” State and its “mandatory disarmament”.
He indicated on Saturday that any country that would seek to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine would consider Moscow a party to the conflict. On the other hand, Putin stressed that his country does not intend to impose martial laws.
Meanwhile, battles continue around Kiev.
The 29-year-old soldier, Motica, who was hit by shrapnel, recounted: “We were in a reconnaissance position and we encountered a hostile column. He fought the assassin and we killed their infantry soldiers, but they rained mortar shells on us. " Ukrainian troops lost many fighters and had to retreat.
Zelinski is scheduled to ask Washington for more help on Saturday after expressing disappointment over NATO's refusal to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine.
Vladimir Putin stressed that Russian forces were not bombing Kiev and major Ukrainian cities and described the information about Moscow's destruction as a “serious fabrication”.
In Russia, the Kremlin tightened its repression of all anti-conflict voices with the signing on Friday of a law providing for imprisonment of up to 15 years for those who spread “false information”.
The financial news agency Bloomberg, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and the "CBS / Radio Canada" network announced the temporary suspension of their journalists' activities. The American CNN network also stopped broadcasting its programs in Russia.
The German and Italian "Rai" and "R" stations stopped covering them from Russia on Saturday.
Also on Saturday, the Spanish clothing giant Indyx, owner of the world's leading company Zara, announced the temporary suspension of its activities in 502 stores in Russia as well as on the Group's online shopping site in the country.
