Ukrainian soldiers barricade themselves in the huge Azovstal steel mill of this port at the southern tip of the Donbass, which has been transformed into a martyr’s city after nearly two months of Russian shelling and siege. They refuse to surrender and the deputy commander of the Azov battalion, Sviatoslav Palamar, asks via Telegram messages for “security guarantees” from the “civilized world” to get out. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says they are carrying about 1,000 civilians, women and children “and” hundreds of injured.
“not a fly goes by”
In this context: “I find the proposed attack on the industrial zone inappropriate. I order it to be canceled,” Putin said during a meeting with his defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, broadcast on Russian television. “We have to think […] For the life and health of our soldiers and our officers, we must not enter these catacombs and crawl underground,” the Kremlin captain confirmed. “Seal off this entire area so that no fly can get through,” he added. After several ultimatums from the Russian army, he also called on the fighters to surrender, promising them that they would “save their lives” and “be treated with dignity”.
Kiev had previously made a proposal. “We are ready to hold a “special negotiation session” in Mariupol. To save our boys, (the battalion) Azov, soldiers, civilians, children, the living and the wounded. Everyone,” Mykhaïlo Podolyak, an adviser to the Ukrainian presidency and one of the negotiators with Russia, pleaded on Twitter on Wednesday evening.
civilian buses
Local authorities fear that more than 20,000 people have died in Mariupol, from the fighting as well as from the lack of food, water and electricity. The Russian army has been in control of much of the city for days and has even brought Western journalists there.
While evacuations of civilians during the siege were rare and difficult to organize, Ukraine’s First Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on Thursday that four buses carrying civilians had been able to leave the city.
They head towards Zaporijjia, a journey of about 200 km that can sometimes take several days due to the many checkpoints that have to be crossed in this region of southeastern Ukraine where the fighting continues. Other bus departures were expected during the day.
Failure of the Humanitarian Corridor
In the east, Ukraine’s defense ministry reported Wednesday morning of “attempted attacks” on the towns of Sulyguivka and Dibrivné, in the Kharkiv (east) region, as well as on Rubizhné and Severodonetsk, in the Lugansk (east) region. “The situation is getting more complicated every hour,” Lugansk governor Sergii Gaïdaï wrote on Telegram, renewing his call for civilians to evacuate. “Make sure you’re safe […]† To go! “, He wrote.
A senior US Department of Defense official also said Russia has increased its military presence in eastern and southern Ukraine.
European support
“This new phase” of the war, as the head of Russian diplomacy Sergei Lavrov described it on Tuesday, promises to be fierce. Especially since Ukraine now receives heavy weapons that Westerners could not supply before.
During a visit to Kiev, where he met Mr Zelensky, European Council President Charles Michel assured that the EU “will do everything possible to [l’Ukraine] and make sure Ukraine wins the war.”
