After a nearly two-month siege, it looked like the strategic Ukrainian port of Mariupol was about to fall into the hands of the Russians, who were intensifying their attacks to the east and south of the country.
“Perhaps we are living our last days, if not the last hours,” said the commander of the Ukrainian soldiers besieged in Mariupol, a strategic port city in southeastern Ukraine.
“The enemy is ten times bigger than us,” Sergey Volina from the 36th Marine Brigade wrote on Facebook. “We appeal to all world leaders and ask them to help us. We ask them to use the extraction procedure and transfer us to the territory of a third country.”
The Ukrainian Defense Ministry said yesterday morning that the Russian army is “concentrating the bulk of its efforts on capturing the city of Mariupol and continuing the offensive in the area of the Azovstal metallurgical plant.”
Russia did not directly comment on the events. But pro-Moscow separatists in the Donetsk region, where Mariupol is located, said five Ukrainian soldiers defending the steel plant had laid down their arms and that 140 civilians had been evacuated.
On Tuesday, Russia called on the defenders of Mariupol to stop resisting after the first warning on Sunday. Control of the city would allow him to link the Crimean peninsula, which he annexed in 2014, to two breakaway republics in the Donbas.
Fighting in eastern Ukraine has intensified since Monday evening. Following a series of strikes announced by Moscow on Tuesday, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry reported on Wednesday morning an “attempt to attack” the towns of Solizivka and Debrevny in the Kharkiv region, as well as Rubezny and Severodonetsk in the Luhansk region.
The governor of the region, Sergio Gaidai, once again called on civilians to leave. “The situation is getting more and more complicated by the hour,” he wrote on the Telegram app.
A senior US Department of Defense official said Russia has stepped up its military presence in eastern and southern Ukraine and is currently deploying a total of 76 battalions.
AFP journalists reported that the bombardment also intensified in the south, which is another front. Shelling intensified in the villages of Malaya Tokmachka and Orekhov, 70 kilometers southeast of Zaporozhye.
For his part, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that he was monitoring the implementation of the plan for the liberation of the separatist republics of Donetsk and Lugansk regions in eastern Ukraine, drawn up by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who recognized their independence.
In addition, according to the Pentagon, Ukraine received combat aircraft and parts to strengthen its air force in the face of Russia, without specifying their number or the countries that provided them.
Following US President Joe Biden’s announcement last week of sending howitzers last week, Tuesday’s statement came as Russia launched a new offensive in the Donbas, reflecting a change in the position of the Westerners, who have refused to supply Ukraine with heavy weapons for more than a month to avoid escalating the conflict.
“Ukrainians have more combat aircraft at their disposal today than they did two weeks ago,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters.
“Without going into details about what other countries are offering, I can say that they have received additional aircraft and parts to increase their fleet,” he added.
It appears to be a Russian-made MiG-29 that Kyiv has demanded since the beginning of the conflict and is owned by only a few countries in Eastern Europe.
Poland offered to move such planes through the US base in early March, but the US objected, fearing that Moscow would see this as NATO’s direct cross-border involvement in the conflict.
Kirby did not name the countries that supplied the aircraft, but hinted that they were indeed Russian-made aircraft. He said that “other countries that have experience with this type of aircraft have been able to help them acquire more of them.”
He said the United States facilitated the shipment of spare parts to Ukraine but did not send aircraft.
Video meeting: increasing pressure on the Kremlin
French leaders Emmanuel Macron, Britain’s Boris Johnson, Germany’s Olaf Scholz, Romania’s Klaus Iohannis, Poland’s Andrei Duda, Italy’s Mario Draghi, Canada’s Justin Trudeau and Japan’s Fumio Kishida have reached “broad consensus on the need to increase pressure on the Kremlin.” ” the Italian government said.
A British government spokesman said Boris Johnson “informed other leaders of his visit to Kyiv this month.”
He added that the British prime minister “stressed the urgent need to provide additional military assistance to Ukraine in the face of a major Russian offensive in the Donbas and ongoing attacks elsewhere.”
For her part, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki confirmed that the meeting participants “in particular reaffirmed their commitment to continuing military, economic and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine.”
Czech Republic: Repair of heavy equipment for Ukraine
And the Czech Defense Ministry said on Tuesday that Czech arms companies would repair Ukrainian heavy military equipment following a request recently filed by Kiev authorities.
Initially, companies belonging to the Czechoslovak CSG group will repair T-64 medium tanks in service with Ukrainian forces, but in the future this process may include BRD and BRDM armored vehicles and the intervention of Czech companies Others, the ministry said. statement.
Kyiv announced the consent to the evacuation of civilians
An agreement has been reached with Russia on a humanitarian corridor to evacuate civilians from the besieged port of Mariupol in southeastern Ukraine, the first of its kind since Saturday, a Ukrainian official said.
“We have reached an agreement in principle (with the Russians) on a humanitarian corridor for women, children and the elderly,” Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said in a telegram.
Civilians are being evacuated through this corridor to the city of Zaporozhye (south).
“Given the catastrophic situation in Mariupol, today we are concentrating our efforts in this direction,” Vereshchuk said.
Charles Michel: History will not forget war crimes
European Council President Charles Michel, who visited Borodinka near the Ukrainian capital Kyiv yesterday, said that history will not forget war crimes in Ukraine as civilians were victims of a “massacre” perpetrated by the Russians, according to the Ukrainian authorities. .
“In Borodinka, as in Bucha, and in many other Ukrainian cities, history will not forget the war crimes committed here … there is no peace without justice,” Michel tweeted, accompanied by a photo of him hugging a woman.
Norway supplies anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine
Norway has donated about 100 French-designed anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine, which is at war with Russia, the Norwegian government said yesterday.
The Norwegian Ministry of Defense said in a statement that the missiles delivered were Mistral launchers with approximately 100 missiles still on board Norwegian Navy ships.
Mistral missiles have been manufactured since the late 1980s by the Matra Defense Group, which later merged into the giant European group MBDA.
Mistrals are very short range surface-to-air missiles.