Status: 04/03/2022 06:33
After Ukraine reported recapturing the Kiev region, Russian troops appear to be retreating further. There should also be less airstrikes. Kiev’s chief negotiator also reported on Moscow’s commitments in the negotiations.
After the withdrawal of Russian troops from the area around the Ukrainian capital Kiev, Ukraine reports a decrease in Russian attacks. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said the intensity of Russian air and missile attacks was decreasing. Moscow continues to withdraw units from northern Ukraine. In a Facebook post, he said Russian forces were laying mines on roads and in some settlements.
President Volodymyr Zelensky now expects an increase in Russian attacks in the east and south of the country. “What is the purpose of the Russian army? They want to conquer both Donbass and southern Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said in a video message in the evening. Moscow now wants to “keep control of large areas occupied there,” said Ukrainian presidential adviser Mikhailo Podoliak. In order to counter Russian plans, the defense of the Ukrainian armed forces towards the east will be reinforced, Zelenskyj announced in the evening. “And knowing full well that the enemy has reserves to increase the pressure.”
conflicting parties as source
In the current situation, information about the course of the war, bombing and casualties provided by official bodies of the Russian and Ukrainian conflict parties cannot be directly verified by an independent body.
Again people can flee from Mariupol
At the same time, Ukrainian units were chasing retreating Russian troops north of Kiev and near Chernihiv, Zelensky said. “They shoot them. They destroy everyone they can.” Furthermore, the battle for the “heroic” port city of Mariupol means that large Russian units are tied up.
According to Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, 765 residents managed to flee there on Saturday, mostly in their own vehicles. Iryna Vereshchuk said people from Mariupol arrived in the town of Zaporizhia, about 230 kilometers to the northwest.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said on Saturday that a team of three vehicles and nine staff were planning to go to Mariupol to evacuate the city’s residents. On Friday, the Red Cross failed in an attempt to do so because it had not received assurances that the route was safe. From Mariupol, it was said that the Russians had blocked access to the city.
Escape corridors for stranded ship crews
For today, the Russian military announced the opening of escape corridors for foreigners in the port cities of Mariupol and Berdyansk. As Major General Mikhail Mizintsev said in the evening, according to the TASS agency, foreigners can leave the port city of Mariupol towards Berdyansk.
Foreigners living in the occupied port city of Berdyansk can also leave the area – overland via Crimea or to Ukrainian-controlled areas. Most of the foreigners are crew members of cargo ships that have been blocked in both ports since the beginning of the war. The Ukrainian leadership was asked to ensure the safety of the escape corridors.
Shaded in white: Russian army advance. Shaded in green: Russian-backed separatist areas. Crimea: annexed by Russia. Image: ISW/04/02/2022
Ukraine reports recapture of Kiev region
In the battle for the capital Kiev, Ukraine’s deputy defense minister announced Saturday that Ukrainian troops had regained control of the entire region.
The Kiev suburb of Bucha is also back in Ukrainian hands. The small town was seriously damaged by the fighting, Mayor Anatoly Fedoruk told the AFP news agency. The streets are full of corpses. Local residents reported that civilians were killed by Russian soldiers without any apparent provocation.
Chief negotiator reports Moscow concessions in talks
At the diplomatic level, Ukrainian chief negotiator David Arachamia reported progress: In peace talks with Russia, Moscow “orally” agreed to Kiev’s main demands, Arachamia said on Ukrainian television. Only with regard to the status of the Crimean Peninsula, annexed by Russia in 2014, there is still no agreement. In the negotiations, however, Moscow accepted that a referendum on Ukraine’s neutral status demanded by Russia was “the only way out of this situation”.
Arachamia also spoke of a possible meeting between Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin in the near future. The drafts of the relevant documents are already so advanced that a “direct conversation between the two heads of state” is possible. If the meeting takes place, it will likely be in Turkey, Ankara or Istanbul.
In recent weeks, Zelenskyi has repeatedly called for direct talks with Putin to end the war of aggression that Moscow began on February 24. The Kremlin has so far rejected this, pointing out that Putin is demanding a concrete basis – in the sense of preliminary negotiations concluded – for this meeting.