© KEYSTONE/AP/Efrem Lukatsky
Ukraine is ready to fight the “big battles” in the east of its territory, now a priority target for Moscow, according to Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhaïlo Podoliak. “Ukraine must win them, including in the Donbass,” he added.
“When that happens, Ukraine will have a stronger position in the negotiations, which will allow it to dictate certain conditions,” said Podoliak, quoted by the Interfax-Ukraine news agency on Saturday.
Earlier in the day, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky underlined during a press conference with Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer, who visited kyiv: “We are ready to fight and at the same time seek diplomatic ways to stop this war.
After withdrawing its troops from the kyiv region and northern Ukraine, Russia has made its priority the total conquest of Donbass, part of which has been controlled since 2014 by pro-Russian separatists.
Continuation of evacuations
Two days following the massacre at Kramatorsk station, where 52 civilians who were preparing to flee were killed in a strike attributed to a Russian missile, the evacuation of the population continues in eastern Ukraine.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on Sunday that 4,532 civilians had been evacuated the day before. The majority of them have left the Zaporizhia region, she added. Nearly 200 people were able to leave the besieged port city of Mariupol (south) and more than a thousand fled Melitopol, Lysychansk, Severodonetsk, Rubizhne, Kreminna and Popasna in the Luhansk region.
“The Russian enemy continues to prepare to intensify its offensive operations in eastern Ukraine and take full control of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions” in Donbass, the general staff of the Ukrainian army on Saturday in a daily update on Facebook.
In addition to the continued fighting to take control of the key towns of Mariupol in the south and Izium further north, “the enemy continues to strike with missiles civilian targets throughout Ukraine”, warned the Staff.
Seven missiles fell overnight from Saturday to Sunday in the Mykolayiv region, regarding 100 kilometers northeast of Odessa, the country’s third largest city and major strategic port on the Black Sea, according to the local military command. Threatened in turn with strikes, Odessa, decreed a curfew from Saturday evening to Monday morning.
