Macron hopes to “involve as many actors as possible in this operation” and wants the evacuation to begin in the coming days. Representatives of the French government spoke with the mayor of Mariupol on Friday. The remaining 150,000 inhabitants lived there in “dire conditions”.
As the Elysee Palace said, France is in contact with the authorities of Ukraine, Greece and Turkey as well as with international organizations. France required Russia to lift the siege of the city so that people who wanted to leave could leave the city, and those who wanted to stay could stay. Adequate humanitarian aid for basic needs must be provided in compliance with the terms of international humanitarian law.
Reuters / Alexander Ermochenko A large part of Mariupol is in ruins
Numerous civilian casualties
According to local authorities in Mariupol, more than 2,000 civilians have already died in the fiercely disputed port city. According to information from Friday, 300 people died last week as a result of the shelling of the theater used as a shelter. According to Ukrainian sources, about 1,000 people fled to a theater in the city center fearing Russian air strikes.
debate
The war in Ukraine: how powerless is the West?
However, 2,800 people managed to flee Mariupol on Friday thanks to organized tours, the Ukrainian government said. Numerous vehicles were made available for evacuation in nearby Berdyansk. Emergency corridors from the city have been blocked several times in the past few weeks. It is under particularly heavy fire and the damage is serious. According to the Ukrainian authorities, around 7,330 people managed to flee other cities on Friday. The number of people who fled the country has risen to almost 3.8 million.
Russia suggests changing its strategy
The war has been going on for over a month. Russia’s deputy chief of staff Sergey Rudskoy announced, despite reports of heavy losses and the slow progress of the war for Russia, that “the basic tasks of the first stage of the operation have been completed.” Now they want to concentrate on eastern Ukraine and “direct their main efforts towards the achievement of the main goal – the liberation of Donbas”.
Life in struggling Kiev
In Ukraine itself, resistance to the Russian army continues. ZIB correspondent Christian Wehrschütz has returned to the capital – he tells about many human tragedies that were brought about by the war in Kiev.
However, according to Western military experts, Russia is also responding to waning advances on larger cities such as Kyiv, Kharkiv and Mykolaiv. A high-ranking representative of the US Department of Defense said at a briefing with journalists on Russian troops: “They are focusing on the Donbas.” The Russian attack on the capital Kyiv is currently unnoticeable. “They dig themselves in, build up defensive positions.” However, the Ukrainian military command still believes that an attack is possible.
According to the Russian general staff, 93 percent of the Luhansk Oblast and 54 percent of the Donetsk Oblast are no longer under the control of Ukraine. The Ukrainian armed forces lost a good quarter of their initially nearly 60,000 people in this area. soldiers. This information cannot be independently verified.
Attacks continue
The battle for Mariupol continues, Rudskoy said. He also did not rule out further raids on Ukrainian cities. According to the Pentagon, the Ukrainian army has also launched an offensive to recapture the city of Kherson. The city should be reassessed as a “contested area”. Ukrainians “resist” there.
Reuters Kiev Metro as an air raid shelter
There was also shelling recently in Kharkiv, where the police reported the deaths of at least four civilians in a medical facility from the Russian shelling. Metropolitan residents told the AFP news agency that cluster munitions were used in Kharkiv. Attacks on civilian targets continued to receive harsh criticism.
According to Ukraine, the missile attack also hit the command center of the Ukrainian Air Force in Vinnitsa on Friday. Russian forces fired six cruise missiles. Some were intercepted by the Ukrainian air defense, others hit buildings and “caused significant damage,” the Ukrainian air force command in the Telegram courier service reported. Ukrainian aviation and air defense have so far been able to prevent the Russian army from taking full control of Ukrainian airspace.