Another attempt to evacuate the dozens, perhaps hundreds, of civilian refugees from the Azovstal Steelworks in Mariupol, southern Ukraine, failed today. The Russian Defense Ministry announced this morning that a humanitarian corridor would be in place from 2 p.m. local time, but the Kiev government denied this a few hours later.
“The humanitarian corridors will be opened according to the agreements of the two parties. This unilaterally announced corridor offers no security and is therefore not actually a humanitarian corridor. Therefore, I officially and publicly declare: there are no humanitarian agreements today, unfortunately, corridors will be Azovstal, “announced Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshuk.
The Deputy Prime Minister added that “we have appealed to the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and asked to establish and guarantee an Azovstal humanitarian corridor for civilians. In particular, we ask that the representatives of the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross be present in the humanitarian convoy”. Didn’t give up on civilians at the steel mill.
As for Moscow’s rocket attacks on five train stations in western and central Ukraine, local authorities in the central Vinnytsia region have announced that the victims of the raids have also died, not just been injured. Subsequently, the local prosecutor’s office said that there were at least 5 dead and 18 wounded. According to official figures, “the Russians are trying to hit critical infrastructure” and after these attacks, the Ukrainian railways “cancelled or hijacked” the trains on different routes. . For his part, Russian President Vladimir Putin condemned “the West’s attempt to divide Russian society and destroy Russia from within” and called for an end to “provocations against Russian forces using foreign media.” Referring to the international sanctions imposed on Moscow, he said that “the Russian economy certainly has all the capabilities to function stably and smoothly even in new realities.” Putin – who today ordered measures to stop the spread of “fake news” in response to online calls for unauthorized protests – also sneered at the various missions of Western leaders who have visited Kyiv, noting that “it’s strange diplomacy when diplomats ask Ukraine to “win the war on the battlefield”.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met Ukrainian President Voldymyr Zelenskyy on a lightning visit to Kyiv yesterday, where they announced that Washington will release more than $700 million in military aid to Ukraine.
“We see that Russia has not achieved the goals that it set out to achieve,” Blinken said, and Austin went even further, arguing that Ukraine “can win if they have the right gear.” “We want Russia to be weakened enough that it can’t do things like invade Ukraine,” he added, noting that Moscow “has already lost much of its military capability and many troops.” For his part, Zelenskyy summed up his talks with US leaders as follows: “Defense assistance, strengthening sanctions policy against Russia, financial support for Ukraine and security guarantees.” New exchange of allegations of secret actions between Kyiv and Moscow. Speaker of the Ukrainian Parliament Ruslan Stefanchuk said sabotage groups are preparing attacks on three MPs without naming the potential victims. For his part, Putin said Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) had dismantled a terrorist group plotting to assassinate a well-known pro-government TV journalist, Vladimir Soloviev.
“Of course they’re going to deny it now, but the facts and evidence are undeniable,” he added. According to Tass, the attack was planned by neo-Nazi groups on behalf of Ukrainian secret services. Soloviev is considered very close to Putin, which is why the “anti-oligarch” measures introduced in various European countries joined him: in Italy, several villas on Lake Como worth around 8 million euros were confiscated.
