The fighting continues into the night. Reports of the shelling of a research reactor in Kharkiv sparked new concerns about radioactive pollution. An overview of the current situation.
It’s day 12 since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Russian troops continue the fighting with undiminished intensity, numerous people flee the country. An overview of what happened during the night and a view of the day:
Russian air raids on Kharkiv continue
The Russian army continued its airstrikes on Ukraine’s second largest city, Kharkiv, on Monday night. According to Ukrainian sources, the television tower was damaged. The television broadcast was temporarily canceled, said the head of the regional military administration, Oleh Synyehubov, according to the Unian agency.
According to the Ukrainian domestic secret service SBU, a research center with nuclear material was fired at in Kharkiv with rocket launchers. The authority warned that a hit in the research reactor could, in the worst case, trigger an environmental disaster. According to the Itar-Tass agency, the Russian Ministry of Defense claimed that the Ukrainian secret service wanted to blow up the facility. There was no independent information at first.
Meanwhile, according to the Ukrainian general staff, Russian troops concentrated their attacks on Kharkiv in the east of the country, Sumy in the north-east and Mykolaev in the south.
Hundreds of thousands of people need immediate evacuation from Kyiv
According to the Ukrainian Presidential Office, if the war continues, several hundred thousand Ukrainians will have to be evacuated from their cities immediately. There are already several dozen cities in eight regions in the country where the humanitarian situation is catastrophic, the online newspaper Ukrajinska Pravda reported, citing the Office of the President.
The office also accuses Russia of using humanitarian corridors as an excuse to strengthen its own military positions. A deadly attack on fleeing civilians was documented on Sunday, killing a family with two children.
Focus Mariupol
The Russian army continued to besiege the strategically important port of Mariupol on the Sea of Azov in the south-east of the country, where a second attempt to evacuate civilians failed on Sunday.
Originally, the evacuation from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. (local time; 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. CET) had been agreed. According to media reports, only 300 people should have left the city, tens of thousands were planned. Ukraine and Russia accuse each other of violating the ceasefire.
Mariupol Mayor Wadym Boichenko spoke on Ukrainian television of a “humanitarian blockade” by Russian units. He pleads for a corridor to be built to bring the elderly, women and children out of the city of around 440,000.
Shots fired in Mariupol: The port city was supposed to be evacuated twice, but the attempts failed. (Source: Evgeniy Maloletka/AP/dpa)
Selenskyj criticizes the silence after further threats of an attack from Moscow
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has criticized the lack of international reactions to Moscow’s threat to attack buildings belonging to the arms industry in his country. “Think of the invaders’ sense of impunity,” said Zelenskyy in a video message released on Sunday evening. Russia can announce its “planned atrocities” because there is no reaction. He emphasized that thousands of people work in the factories, some of which were built decades ago, that they are located in cities and hundreds of thousands of people live near them.
Last OSCE monitors leave Ukraine
The last international OSCE monitors are temporarily leaving Ukraine, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) announced. At the beginning of last week, several members of the team of around 500 people were still stuck in contested Ukrainian cities such as Kharkiv and Cherson. On Tuesday, a Ukrainian worker died in the shelling of Kharkiv while trying to get supplies for her family.
Civilians in the city of Irpin near Kyiv: The UN has so far registered 364 civilians killed. (Source: Carlos Barria/Archyde.com)
Reports of Russian shelling on fleeing civilians
Irpin, a small town near Kyiv, also came under fire over the weekend. Russian troops have there a report by the “New York Times” reportedly fired mortar shells at a bridge over which civilians were attempting to flee. Local journalist Lynsey Addario reports that at least three people were killed. According to Mayor Oleksandr Markushin, a total of eight people died.
According to the New York Times report, several hundred people had gathered at the site to flee over a makeshift bridge. Some Ukrainian soldiers were also present to help the fugitives. When the shelling began, people tried to get to safety. According to the journalist Addario, two children and their mother died, the father was seriously injured. According to other reports, the man also died a short time later.
The corpses of people lie in the street: the Russian troops continued shelling the encircled towns. (Source: Diego Herrera Carcedo/AP/dpa)
According to the UN, at least 364 civilians have been killed in the war so far, including 41 children. According to American figures, hundreds of Russian soldiers die every day. There were no US figures on Ukrainian losses.
Worry about possible air raid on Odessa
The French President Emmanuel Macron showed in his recent phone conversation with the Russian head of state Wladimir Putin concerned about a possible imminent attack on the port city of Odessa. This is announced by the Paris Presidential Office. Even Selenskyj accused Russia of preparing to bomb the historic Black Sea port of Odessa. The southern Ukrainian city with almost a million inhabitants has so far been largely spared the fighting.
Odessa prepares for Russian attack. (Source: Le Pictorium/imago images)
“Fastest Growing Refugee Crisis Since World War II”
After more than a week of war, more and more Ukrainians are fleeing their homeland – especially to EU countries. According to current estimates by the UN refugee agency UNHCR, more than 1.5 million people have already fled. “This is now the fastest growing refugee crisis since World War II,” UNHCR said in a statement. According to border guards, around 964,000 refugees have arrived in neighboring Poland alone since the beginning of the war.
In Germany, too, the number of Ukrainian war refugees continued to rise significantly over the weekend: According to the Ministry of the Interior, the federal police registered 37,786 Ukrainian refugees across Germany by Sunday, almost 10,000 more than the previous day. After his meeting with EU Commission President von der Leyen, Chancellor Scholz praised European solidarity: “It is good and not a matter of course that all EU states take in children, women and men together, quickly and unbureaucratically.”
A Ukrainian soldier carries a child as millions of people flee Ukraine. (Source: Le Pictorium/imago images)
Lindner wants to help companies in need of existence because of sanctions
Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner wants to help companies that are threatened with bankruptcy due to sanctions against Russia. “Targeted help for companies whose existence is at risk is conceivable,” said the FDP boss to the editorial network Germany. “But we will not be able to compensate for lost profits,” emphasized the finance minister.
Netflix stops Russia business
After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Netflix shuts down operations in Russia. A few days ago, the video streaming giant announced that, contrary to regulations, it would not make any Russian TV channels available via the platform. Now the US group is pulling the plug: In view of the situation, the service will be suspended, said a Netflix spokeswoman. Existing customers will still be able to watch the service until the next monthly payment is due.
Tiktok restricts features in Russia
Tiktok limits service in Russia after a law change faces jail time for statements that deviate from the official account of the war in Ukraine. Users in Russia will no longer be able to stream live and upload new content to the video service. In view of the new legal situation, there is no other choice, Tiktok wrote on Twitter. Spreading alleged misinformation about Russian forces can be punished with up to 15 years in prison under Friday’s law change.
That will be important on Monday
A third round of negotiations is planned between negotiators from Ukraine and Russia, the time and exact location were initially open. Ukraine’s genocide lawsuit against Russia is before the International Court of Justice in The Hague. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visits Lithuania and Latvia during his trip to Eastern Europe. On the evening of European time, the UN Security Council is to discuss the humanitarian situation in Ukraine.