Macron hopes to “involve as many actors as possible in this operation” and wants the evacuation to begin in the coming days. French government officials spoke to the mayor of Mariupol on Friday. The 150,000 remaining residents lived there under “dramatic conditions”.
According to the Elysee Palace, France is in contact with the Ukrainian, Greek and Turkish authorities and international organizations. France required Russia to lift the siege on the city so people who wanted to leave might leave and people who wanted to stay might stay. Appropriate humanitarian aid geared to basic needs must be able to be provided under the conditions of international humanitarian law.
Numerous civilian casualties
According to the local authorities in Mariupol, more than 2,000 civilians have already been killed in the fiercely contested port city. According to information from Friday, 300 people were killed when a theater used as a shelter was shelled last week alone. According to Ukrainian sources, around 1,000 people had fled to the theater in the city center for fear of Russian air raids.
However, 2,800 people were able to escape from Mariupol on Friday with self-organized trips, the Ukrainian government said. Numerous vehicles were made available in nearby Berdiansk for the evacuation. In the past few weeks, escape corridors from the city had repeatedly been prevented. She is under particularly heavy fire, the destruction is serious. According to the Ukrainian authorities, around 7,330 people were able to escape from other cities on Friday. The number of people who fled the country rose to almost 3.8 million.
Russia hints at change of strategy
The war has now been going on for more than a month. Russia’s deputy chief of staff Sergei Rudskoy announced, despite reports of high casualties and a sluggish course of the war for Russia, that “the basic tasks of the first stage of the operation have been fulfilled”. They now want to focus on eastern Ukraine and “direct the main efforts towards achieving the main goal – the liberation of Donbass.”
Life in embattled Kyiv
In Ukraine itself, resistance to the Russian army continues unabated. ZIB correspondent Christian Wehrschütz has returned to the capital – he reports on the many human tragedies that the war in Kyiv has brought with it.
According to Western military experts, however, Russia is also reacting to the faltering advances on larger cities such as Kyiv, Kharkiv and Mykolaiv. A high-ranking representative of the US Department of Defense said in a briefing with journalists with regard to the Russian troops: “They are concentrated on the Donbass.” A Russian advance on the capital Kyiv is currently not to be observed. “They dig in, they build up defensive positions.” However, the Ukrainian military leadership still believes an attack is possible.
According to the Russian General Staff, 93 percent of the Luhansk region and 54 percent of the Donetsk region are no longer under Ukrainian control. The Ukrainian armed forces have lost a good quarter of their initially almost 60,000 soldiers in the area. This information cannot be independently verified.
Attacks continue
The battle for Mariupol continues, Rudskoy said. He also did not rule out further airstrikes on Ukrainian cities. According to the Pentagon, the Ukrainian army also launched an offensive to recapture the city of Kherson. The city should now be rated as a “contested area” once more. The Ukrainians are “resisting” there.
There was also recent shelling in Kharkiv, where police reported the deaths of at least four civilians in a medical facility from Russian shelling. Residents of the metropolis told the AFP news agency that cluster munitions had been used in Kharkiv. The attacks on civilian targets continue to cause severe criticism.
According to Ukraine, a rocket attack also hit the command center of the Ukrainian Air Force in Vinnytsia on Friday. The Russian armed forces fired six cruise missiles. Some were intercepted by the Ukrainian air defenses, others hit buildings and “did significant damage,” the command of the Ukrainian air force said in the messenger service Telegram. The Ukrainian air force and air defense have so far been able to prevent the Russian army from taking complete control of Ukrainian airspace.
