The Ukrainian rescuers continued this Friday the rescue of 130 people trapped under a theater in Mariupol (southeast) bombarded by Russian forces, who fired missiles in the vicinity of Lviv, in the west of the country, until now little affected by the war.
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More than 130 people rescued from Mariupol theater, bombed by Russia
The Occidental countries They are trying to increase the pressure so that Russia puts an end to this conflict in the middle of Europe, which has brought out tensions between powers that have not been seen since the end of the Cold War.
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US President Joe Biden warned his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, of the “consequences” that the Asian country will have to face “if it provides material support to Russia while it carries out brutal attacks against Ukrainian cities and civilians.” reported the White House.
Xi stressed for his part that “a conflict is not in anyone’s interest,” Chinese television said.
More than 130 people were rescued from the bombed-out Mariupol theater on Wednesday, but “hundreds” remain under the rubble, Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky said.
According to a preliminary balance published by the Municipal Council of this strategic Black Sea port, the bombing of the theater left one seriously injured, but no fatalities.
Zelensky promised that the rescue operations would continue “despite the bombing.”
The Russian Ministry of Defense announced that its troops, supported by forces from the pro-Russian separatist area of Donbas (east), had entered Mariupol.
Russian troops “narrow the siege and fight the nationalists in the center of the city,” said the spokesman for the Russian Ministry.
Taking Mariupol would allow Russia to ensure territorial continuity between its forces from Crimea and the militias from Donbas.
The Mariupol mayor’s office said the situation is “critical”, with “uninterrupted” Russian bombing and “colossal” damage. According to initial estimates, 80% of the city’s homes were destroyed.
Ukrainian authorities on Wednesday accused Russian aircraft of having “deliberately” bombed the building housing hundreds of refugees. Russia denied those attacks and attributed the bombing to Ukrainian nationalist militias.
Along the same lines, Putin told French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday that Ukrainian forces are guilty of “numerous war crimes”, especially in the Donbas region, and that Russian troops are doing “everything possible”. to prevent civilian deaths, the Kremlin reported.
The Russian president also participated in a massive rally in a Moscow stadium, to celebrate with a triumphant tone the eighth anniversary of the annexation of Crimea, a Black Sea peninsula until 2014 under Ukraine’s sovereignty.
bombings in the west
The vicinity of the Lviv (Lviv) airport, in western Ukraine, was hit by Russian missiles, taking the conflict to an area little touched so far, close to Poland, a NATO and European Union (EU) country. ).
The Russian Defense Ministry said the attack targeted a fighter aircraft repair plant.
In the suburbs of kyiv, one person was killed in the shelling of his building and a school and a playground were also shot at, according to authorities in the Ukrainian capital.
A body covered by a sheet lay near a huge crater left by the explosion that shattered the school’s windows, AFP reporters said.
“Scary,” said Anna-Maria Romanchuk, a 14-year-old student at the school, with trembling lips.
About half of kyiv’s 3.5 million people have fled the city, where, according to the mayor’s office, 222 people – including 60 civilians – have been killed since the Russian invasion began on February 24.
The bombing also continues in Kharkov, the country’s second largest city, where at least 500 people have been killed since the war began.
According to the Ukrainian emergency service, Russian shots hit “a higher educational establishment” in Kharkov and “two neighboring residential buildings”, causing one death and 11 wounded.
Until now, no global balance of the conflict has been disclosed, although Zelensky mentioned on March 12 the death of “about 1,300” Ukrainian soldiers. Moscow had reported almost 500 casualties in its ranks ten days earlier.
According to the March 16 count by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Ukraine, at least 780 civilians – including 58 children – have been violently killed in Ukraine and more than 1,250 wounded since the beginning of the invasion.
To date, more than three million Ukrainians have fled the country, most to Poland, where more than two million migrants had already arrived by Friday, according to Polish border guards.
“Closeness” in negotiations, according to Russia
At the moment there are no signs that Russia is preparing to cease its offensive, despite the open dialogue between the belligerents.
In a conversation with the German head of government, Olaf Scholz, Putin accused Ukraine of “delaying” the negotiations by presenting “unrealistic” proposals.
However, shortly after the head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinski, gave part of a “rapprochement” of positions on Ukraine’s status of neutrality and progress in the country’s demilitarization, Russian agencies reported.
Russia wants Ukraine, a former Soviet republic, to become a neutral and demilitarized country. The Ukrainian authorities, who now do not rule out the idea of neutrality, demand the designation of countries as guarantors of their security.
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