The humanitarian situation is worsening in major Ukrainian cities, still under fire from Russian strikes since the announcement of the invasion ordered by Vladimir Putin more than three weeks ago.
Since February 24, more than 3.2 million Ukrainians have taken the road to exile, nearly two-thirds of them to Poland, sometimes only a stage before continuing their exodus.
10:35 a.m.: Ukrainian President Zelensky addresses Israelis on Sunday
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has highlighted his Jewish heritage in his quest for support against Russia’s invasion of his country, addresses Sunday by videoconference to the Knesset, the Parliament of Israel, a country that is trying to mediation between Moscow and kyiv. Over the past few days, President Zelensky has multiplied his interventions by videoconference addressing foreign parliaments in order to multiply and strengthen support for Ukraine in the face of the Russian invasion.
In Israel, his speech in the Knesset, scheduled for 6:00 p.m. (5:00 p.m. HB) according to a spokesperson for the Parliament, is awaited by the political class and the population in a country which has more than a million citizens from the former -USSR.
The Jewish state adopted a cautious position after the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, asserting privileged ties with the two countries, especially since the United States, Israel’s historic ally, supports the Ukraine, and that Russia has soldiers in Syria, a neighboring country of the Jewish state.
In this context, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is trying to mediate between Ukraine and Russia. Mr. Bennett also went to Moscow to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin, shortly after the start of the invasion of Ukraine, and multiplied telephone conversations with Mr. Zelensky.
10:10 am: A school serving as a refuge bombed in Mariupol
The Russian military bombed an art school serving as a refuge for several hundred people in Mariupol, southeastern Ukraine, local authorities charged on Sunday, adding that civilians were trapped under the rubble.
“Yesterday (Saturday), the Russian occupiers dropped bombs on the G12 art school located on the left bank of Mariupol, where 400 Mariupol residents — women, children and the elderly — had refugees”, declared the municipality of this port city besieged by the forces of Moscow.
“We know that the building was destroyed and that peaceful people are still under the rubble. The death toll is being clarified,” she added in a statement posted on Telegram.
These statements could not immediately be independently verified.
8:50 am: Russia says it used hypersonic missiles again
Russia claimed on Sunday, for the second day in a row, that it used hypersonic missiles in Ukraine, this time to destroy a Ukrainian army fuel reserve in the south of the country.
“A large reserve of fuel was destroyed by ‘Kalibr’ cruise missiles fired from the Caspian Sea, as well as by hypersonic ballistic missiles fired by the ‘Kinjal’ aeronautical system from the airspace of Crimea,” said the Department of Defense in a statement.
The ministry added that the strike occurred in the Mykolaiv region, but did not specify the date. According to the ministry, the destroyed target was “the main source of fuel supply for Ukrainian armored vehicles” deployed in the south of the country.
The “Kinjal” (“dagger” in Russian) hypersonic ballistic missiles and the “Zircon” cruise missiles belong to a family of new weapons developed by Russia and which its President, Vladimir Putin, describes as “invincible”, because they are supposed to able to evade enemy defense systems.
On Saturday, Moscow had already announced that it had fired “Kinjal” missiles in Ukraine the day before. If this shot were proven, it would be the first known use in real combat conditions of this system tested for the first time in 2018.
On Sunday, Russia’s Defense Ministry also claimed that Moscow-fired “high-precision missiles” had hit a Ukrainian special forces training center in the Zhitomir region, 150 km west of Kiev.
6:04 am: Ukraine bans pro-Russian parties
Ukraine’s National Security Council has suspended the work of a number of pro-Russian parties, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced in a video message posted overnight from Saturday to Sunday. These include two parties that sit in parliament.
This decision will be valid as long as martial law applies in the territory. “The activities of these politicians, aimed at division or collaboration, will not succeed, but (on the contrary) will cause a severe reaction (on our part)”, declared the Ukrainian head of state.
04:40: One of Europe’s largest steelworks damaged in Mariupol
The Azovstal steel and metallurgical plant in Mariupol, one of the largest in Europe, was heavily damaged by shelling, Ukrainian officials said on Sunday. “One of the largest metallurgical plants in Europe is destroyed. The economic losses for Ukraine are immense,” said MP Lesia Vasylenko, who posted a video on her Twitter account showing thick columns of smoke rising of an industrial complex.
Another lawmaker, Serhiy Taruta, wrote on his Facebook page that Russian forces, besieging Mariupol, “virtually destroyed the factory”.
Azovstal Managing Director Enver Tskitishvili said in a video message posted on Telegram that his company took precautionary measures at the plant from the start of the Russian invasion on February 24 to prevent any damage to the plant. ‘environment.
“The coke oven batteries no longer represent a danger to the lives of the inhabitants. We have also shut down the blast furnaces properly,” he said.
“We will return to the city, rebuild and resurrect the business,” he promised, without specifying the extent of the damage.
2:10 am: kyiv calls on Beijing to “condemn Russian barbarism”
Ukraine on Saturday called on China, Moscow’s strategic ally, to “condemn Russian barbarism” after new strikes – including with a new hypersonic missile touted by Vladimir Putin – which left dozens dead.
01:50: More than 260 civilians killed in Kharkov since the invasion
At least 266 civilians, including 14 children, have been killed in fighting around the city of Kharkov, authorities in Ukraine’s second-largest city said on Saturday evening. The city in northeastern Ukraine, besieged by the Russians, had nearly one and a half million inhabitants before the war. According to the Ukrainian news agency Unian, it is still the target of bombardments. On Saturday evening, several homes were reportedly destroyed, according to reports that could not be independently verified.
01:45: Call for help from the mayor of Chernihiv
The mayor of the northern town of Chernihiv has issued a heartbreaking plea for help as his town is surrounded by Russian troops. “Indiscriminate artillery bombardments continue on inhabited areas, killing peaceful people,” denounced Vladyslav Atroshenko.
According to the mayor, the city of nearly 300,000 inhabitants, located not far from the Russian and Belarusian borders, is facing a humanitarian disaster. “There is no electricity, no water, no heating and the city’s infrastructure is completely destroyed.”