Ukraine on Saturday asked Moscow’s strategic ally China to “condemn the barbarism” of Russia, which continues to bomb Ukrainian cities and use new weapons, such as a hypersonic missile.
Russian air strikes followed one another at a dizzying pace on Saturday in Mikolaiv, in the south of the country, where a bombing on Friday killed dozens of soldiers in a barracks, regional governor Vitali Klim said.
The governor has so far given no information about damage or possible victims from the latest incursions. As for the barracks bombing, witness estimates vary widely.
“No less than 200 soldiers slept in the barracks,” said a 22-year-old soldier, who came from another nearby post. Another soldier believed that the balance of the attack could be 100 dead.
The Russians “cowardly fired missiles at sleeping soldiers. Rescue operations continue,” Governor Klim said.
– Missiles –
In the west, the Russian Defense Ministry indicated on Friday that it had used “Kinjal” hypersonic missiles for the first time, to destroy an underground weapons depot. Russian President Vladimir Putin said the missile was part of an “invincible” arsenal.
“Ukraine has unfortunately become a testing ground for the entire Russian missile arsenal,” Ukrainian air force spokesman Yuri Ignat told Ukrainska Pravda.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, however, believes that the purely military bet will not resolve the conflict and could even be a double-edged sword for Putin, accused by NGOs and Western leaders of committing “war crimes”.
According to Zelensky, the negotiations are “the only chance Russia has to minimize the damage caused by its own mistakes”.
– Appeal to China –
His adviser Mijailo Podoliak urged China to project itself into the future, condemning “Russian barbarism”.
“China can be an important element of the world’s security system if it makes the right decision to support the coalition of civilized countries and condemn Russian barbarism,” tweeted Podoliak, who is part of the Ukrainian team of negotiators.
Since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, Kiev and Moscow have held several rounds of negotiations. The fourth and final started on Monday.
The head of the Russian delegation spoke on Friday night about a “conciliation” of positions on the issue of a neutral status for Ukraine – similar to that of Sweden and Austria – and advances in the demilitarization of the country. However, he also said there are “nuances” to discuss about the “security guarantees” required by Ukraine.
For some leaders, the end of the conflict will not normalize the international situation of Russia, the target of harsh Western sanctions for the “aggression” against Ukraine, a former Soviet republic.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said it would be a “mistake” to return to normal relations with Moscow even if the invasion ceases.
– Bodies among the rubble –
On the ground, the Russian Defense Ministry said it had destroyed radio and intelligence centers near Odessa, in Velikodolinske and Veliki Dalnik.
Ukraine, for its part, admitted on Saturday that it had “temporarily” lost access to the Sea of Azov, despite Russia’s de facto control of the entire coast since early March and the siege of the strategic port city of Mariupol.
According to the adviser to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, Vadim Denisenko, quoted by the Interfax-Ukraine agency, the situation is “catastrophic” in Mariupol. “The fight is for Azovstal,” a large steel mill on the outskirts of the city, he said.
The Russian army said on Friday it had managed to enter and fight in the city center alongside militias from the pro-Russian breakaway “republic” of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.
Ukrainian authorities accused the Russian air force of “deliberately” bombing the Mariupol theater on Wednesday, which Russia denied. In an air-raid shelter under this building there were “more than a thousand” people, mainly “women, children and the elderly”, according to the prefecture of this port on the Sea of Azov.
Zelensky said more than 130 survivors had been pulled from the rubble and that “rescue operations are continuing”.
A group of 19 children and teenagers aged between 4 and 17, most of whom are orphans, are “in great danger” after being locked up in a Mariupol clinic specializing in lung treatments, relatives and witnesses told AFP on Saturday.
According to these sources, those responsible for the children were unable to move them because of the bombing. The smallest live in cold rooms and many cannot be cleaned for two weeks.
Zelensky pointed out that, thanks to humanitarian corridors established in the country, more than 180,000 Ukrainians managed to escape the fighting, including more than 9,000 people from Mariupol.
Since February 24, more than 3.2 million Ukrainians have gone into exile, nearly two-thirds of them to Poland, sometimes just a step before continuing their exodus.
According to a March 18 count by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), at least 816 civilians died in the country and more than 1,333 were injured. The organisms believe, however, that the real number is higher.
Humanitarian needs are “increasingly urgent”, with more than 200,000 people without water in the Donetsk region and “severe shortages” of food, water and medicine, UNHCR spokesman Matthew Saltmarsh said on Friday.
Russia is seeking to tighten its siege on the capital Kiev, which since the beginning of the offensive has been abandoned by at least half of its 3.5 million inhabitants.
burx-elm/ob/mm/at/aoc/js/sag/ic
know more
+ Omicron: Unexpected symptom of infection in children worries medical teams
+ Mercadão de SP vendors threaten customers with fruit scam
+ Video: Mother is attacked on social media for wearing tight clothes to take her son to school
+ Horoscope: check today’s forecast for your sign
+ What is known about fluorone?
+ Trick to squeeze lemons becomes a craze on social media
+ ‘Monster Ichthyosaur’ is discovered in Colombia
+ One twin became vegan, the other ate meat. Check the result
+ See which were the most stolen cars in SP in 2021
+ Expedition identifies giant squid responsible for ship sinking in 2011
+ US Agency warns: never wash raw chicken meat
#Ukraine #bombs #urges #China #condemn #Russian #barbarism