kyiv, under curfew, is determined to resist the advance of Russian troops, who are also maintaining a strong siege on Mariupol. The city in southeastern Ukraine was attacked on Tuesday with two “super powerful bombs”, according to local authorities. US President Joe Biden expressed fear that Moscow would go to great lengths, resorting to chemical or biological weapons. Western powers, reluctant to get directly involved in the conflict, announced that they will strengthen their economic sanctions once morest Russia next Thursday, while the Russian government spokesman, Dmitri Peskovsaid your country has not yet reached any of the military objectives in Ukraine.
Third day of curfew in kyiv
Sandbags to block some accesses, anti-aircraft sirens and explosions in the distance are part of the usual scene in the kyiv region, with a large part of its 3.5 million inhabitants displaced by the invasion that began on February 24. All shops are closed in compliance with the curfewthe third since the start of the war, and the order is that everyone stay home and go down to the “shelters as soon as the sirens start to sound”according to the mayor and former boxing world champion Vitaly Klitschko.
“In the worst case we will die, but we will never give up”Klitschko added in remarks to the Council of Europe. Maxim Kostetskyi, a 29-year-old lawyer from kyiv, sees the curfew as a break. “We don’t know if the Russians will keep trying to surround the city, but we feel much safer, morale is high,” said this member of a volunteer unit.
At least one person was killed in a drone attack on a kyiv scientific institute this Tuesday, official sources indicated. Military rescuers removed a body covered with a plastic sheet from the seven-story building that houses the Institute of Superhard Materials, in the northwest of the capital.
Super powerful bombs in Mariupol
The situation is worse for weeks in Mariupolin the southeast of the country, where more than 200 thousand people are trapped without water or electricity. The city is a key plaza because it would serve as a bridge between Russia’s forces in Crimea and Moscow-controlled territories in northern and eastern Ukraine.
For days there have been humanitarian corridors to try to evacuate the besieged population, but the situation remains desperate and the town was described by Human Rights Watch as “a frozen hell full of corpses and destroyed buildings.” “Two super powerful bombs fell on the city”indicated the local authorities without providing any immediate balance.
According to the Ukrainian government, the outlook is also critical in Kherson, in the south of the country and occupied by Russian soldiers, where nearly 300,000 people are regarding to run out of food and medicine. “The humanitarian situation is rapidly deteriorating. Newborns and seriously ill patients constitute the population at special risk,” the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The United Nations reported that it has already confirmed the death of 953 civilians since the start of the war, 78 of them children. But the real figure would be “considerably higher” due to the delay in verification and the lack of data from key areas such as Mariupol.
“More substantial” negotiations
One of the actors who offered to mediate to stop the conflict is Pope Franciswho communicated by phone with the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, to address the situation in the country. “We would appreciate the mediating role of the Holy See to put an end to human suffering” in Ukraine, Zelensky wrote on Twitter, who also informed the pope regarding “the difficult humanitarian situation and the blockade of humanitarian corridors by Russian troops.”
The Kremlin considers that the negotiations between both parties should be “more energetic, more substantial”, according to its spokesman Dmitri Peskov. While, The United States and its European allies announced that they would unveil more sanctions once morest Russia on Thursday. It will be within the framework of the visit that the US president, Joe Biden, will make to Europe. On Thursday he will participate in an extraordinary NATO summit and a G7 meeting in Brussels.
Biden assured that it is “clear” that Russia is considering the use of chemical and biological weapons in Ukraine and warned of a “severe” response from the West if it decides to do so. “His back is once morest the wall,” Biden said of Russian President Vladimir Putin, recalling that Russia recently accused the United States of stockpiling chemical and biological weapons in Europe.
Russia contemplates using nuclear weapons
In parallel, the Russian government spokesman, Dmitri Peskovsaid on Tuesday that his country contemplates the possibility of using nuclear weapons if it is faced with an “existential threat”. In an interview with the US channel CNN, Peskov replied that “if there is an existential threat, then it might be”, when asked under what circumstances the Kremlin would use its nuclear potential.
The possibility of unleashing a nuclear conflict that would lead to World War III is one of the most recurrent arguments used by the US government to reject direct participation in the war in Ukraine. Russia and the United States are the two countries with the largest nuclear arsenal, although seven other countries also have nuclear weapons: China, France, the United Kingdom, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea.
In the same interview with CNN, Peskov acknowledged that Putin “has not yet achieved” any of his military goals in Ukrainealthough he assured that the military operation in the Slavic country is taking place “in strict compliance with the plans and goals set in advance.”
