War on Ukraine: Separatists continue to advance on Mariupol

Mariupol has been on fire for several days. According to the Kremlin, pro-Russian units are advancing in the Ukrainian port city. Meanwhile, the Russian military announced that it would build new escape corridors tomorrow.

According to reports from Moscow, pro-Russian units are still advancing in the Ukrainian port of Mariupol. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the militants, who declared themselves Donetsk’s “People’s Republic”, have advanced almost a kilometer since the end of the ceasefire.

There are no Russian soldiers in the city yet

Mariupol in the Sea of ​​Azov has been besieged for several days. According to the U.S. Department of Defense, the city was surrounded by Russian troops, but they were not in the city.

According to Ukrainian sources, the ceasefire promised by Russia was previously broken. “The ceasefire has been violated! Russian forces are now shelling the humanitarian route from Zaporizhia to Mariupol,” Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ole Nikolenko wrote at noon on Twitter. Since last Saturday, several attempts to evacuate people from the city of 440,000 have failed. Kiev and Moscow blame each other for failed expulsion attempts.

According to humanitarian aid workers, the situation in the port city will be catastrophic. Evan Watson, a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Geneva, said: “The situation is apocalyptic. In Mariupol, all supplies have been depleted.

Russia announces local ceasefire

In the evening, the Russian military announced on Wednesday that it would open several escape corridors in Ukraine. CET local ceasefires will apply from 08:00 a.m., Russian news agencies reported, citing a department of the Ministry of Defense responsible for humanitarian issues. It aims to bring the public to safety from trapped cities.

The first official evacuation routes for civilians were set up in the morning, mainly from the north-eastern summit. Large numbers of people have fled to safer areas around the Ukrainian capital, Kiev. Many more civilians are stranded in other cities in the north, such as Pucha or Mariupol.

The separatists are naming their own casualties

According to their own reports, separatists and Russian factions have won in various frontier factions in eastern Ukraine. Leonid Baseknik, president of the Luhansk People’s Republic, which recognizes Russia as independent, said the city of Bobasna had been captured and surrounded by Ukrainian forces. For the first time, separatists admitted their own losses. As Russia calls for war in Ukraine since the start of the “special operation”, 47 militants have been killed and 179 wounded in the “Donetsk People’s Republic”, according to local media reports, pro-Russian forces spokesman Edward Passurin in the Donetsk region. The Russian Defense Ministry did not provide any new information on its own casualties. Most recently, the number of 500 soldiers killed has been mentioned.

Ukraine, meanwhile, says three people have been killed in a landmine explosion on a road in the Chernihiv region. Ukrainian parliament’s human rights commissioner Lyudmila Denisova said three children had been injured. Three adults died at the scene and the children were taken to hospital with injuries of varying severity. The trap exploded as the victims drove the car over the bomb device.

Was anti-personnel mine used?

Denisova told the AFP news agency that this was the first time civilians had been killed by anti-personnel mines since the start of the Russian invasion nearly two weeks ago. Mines hidden under straw and debris were placed on the road by the Russian army. The use of such weapons against civilians is prohibited under international law and is a “crime against humanity,” Denisova said.

Meanwhile, the mayor of the attacked Ukrainian metropolitan area of ​​Kharkov accused Russian troops of deliberately shelling civilian infrastructure. “Kindergartens, schools, maternity wards and clinics are being fired upon,” Mayor Ihor Terekov told CNN in a translation. “If hundreds of civilian buildings were involved, it would not be an accident. It was a targeted attack.”