In the port city of Mariupol, besieged by Russian troops, a rescue of civilians failed again on Wednesday, according to the Ukrainian government. “Unfortunately, the Mariupol humanitarian corridor did not work as planned today,” said the deputy prime minister. Iryna Vereshchuk on Telegram com. There was no ceasefire.
The situation is particularly tense around the Azovstal steelworks, which according to Ukrainian sources is also home to 1,000 civilians. The “disorganized occupants” were unable to get people to the point in the agreed time “where our buses and ambulances were waiting,” Vereshchuk said.
Try again on Thursday
This Thursday there should be another attempt to bring people from the embattled port city to the Zaporizhia area safely.
Ukraine agrees with its chief negotiator Mikhailo Podolak ready for extraordinary talks without preconditions with Russia in Mariupol. It can be called two-way or four-way. “So that our boys can be saved, the Azov regiment, the military, civilians, children, the living and the wounded,” Podoliak tweeted, referring to the fighting in the port city.
Another ultimatum passed in the afternoon
The Russian Defense Ministry announced in the evening that no one had left the steelworks down the hall. The fighters had already been asked to lay down their weapons and go into Russian captivity. They refuse.
Meanwhile, pro-Russian separatists in the Donetsk region said nearly 130 civilians managed to escape from a residential area on the outskirts of the embattled steelworks.
“The enemy continues the bombing, so our civilians cannot safely leave the territory,” said the deputy commander of the Azov regiment. Sviatoslav Palamar, in a video message. He called on the enemy to keep the promised ceasefire.
City under constant attack
Mariupol has been completely surrounded by Russian troops since the beginning of March. Of the 440,000 inhabitants, more than 100,000 are still in the largely destroyed city. Several attempts to evacuate the largely destroyed city failed.
According to his own statements, the Russian military bombed 1,053 Ukrainian military sites on Wednesday night. The Russian Defense Ministry announced on Wednesday that 106 gun stations had been destroyed.
EU Council President Charles Michel paid a surprise visit to Kiev. Russian forces are trying to breach Ukrainian defenses in eastern Ukraine, British military intelligence said in a new situation report. Second aide to the president Volodymyr Zelenskyy would have prevented Ukrainian troops from advancing on the city of Sloviansk.
Weapon delivery granted
Especially in view of the material battle that is now starting in eastern Ukraine, Western countries such as the US, Britain, Germany and France agreed on Tuesday to supply Ukraine with heavier weapons as well. Norway announced that it would deliver 100 Mistral anti-aircraft missiles. The weapons have already been shipped, the Norwegian Ministry of Defense said.
Russian troops invaded Ukraine on February 24. The Moscow government describes its actions as a special operation to demilitarize and denazify the neighboring country. She denies accusations of attacking civilians. Western states, on the other hand, speak of a war of Russian aggression and crimes against the Ukrainian civilian population. According to the United Nations, more than five million people have fled Ukraine since the Russian invasion began.