attacks in the south
The Russian military also continued its attacks in southern Ukraine. A rocket hit an agricultural camp in the Odessa region on Saturday morning, a spokesman for the regional government wrote on Twitter. Two people were injured.
In addition, two people were killed in an attack on the Kharkiv region in the northeast on Friday. Two others were injured when a civilian target was fired upon by the Russian side, the Ukrainian news agency Interfax reported, citing rescue workers.
Zelensky vowed to believe in victory of Ukraine
The President of Ukraine Wolodimir Selenskij 100 days following the Russian invasion of his country, he vowed to believe in victory. There are three things his compatriots are fighting for: peace, victory, Ukraine, Zelensky said in his video address on Friday. This was recorded outdoors in front of his official residence in Kyiv. Russia’s President Wladimir Putin had ordered the attack on the neighboring country on February 24. So Saturday is the 101st day of the war for Ukraine.
“Exactly 100 days ago we woke up to a new reality,” Zelensky said in the speech. He described the experience of the war in 100 words that Ukrainians should have learned. These included terrible terms like rocket hits, ruins, deportation. Place names associated with war atrocities were added, such as Hostomel, Bucha or Mariupol, the names of Russian, Ukrainian and foreign weapon systems. But there are also positive words: reconstruction, return, liberation.
Before the attack, the Russian army had a reputation as the second strongest in the world, Zelensky said. “What’s left of her?” he asked: “War crimes, shame and hatred.” But the Ukraine existed, it exists and will exist.
break in negotiations
Kiev’s chief negotiator Davyd Arakhamiya said on Ukrainian television: “Negotiations should continue when our negotiating position is strengthened.” Above all, Ukraine will become stronger because “the weapons that are constantly being promised to us by international partners finally arrive in sufficient quantities.”
The faction leader of the presidential party Servant of the People led the Kiev delegation in talks with Russia in the first weeks of the war. However, the contact ebbed away when, following the withdrawal of Russian soldiers, atrocities in Kiev suburbs such as Bucha became known. Selensky only wants to negotiate once more when Russian troops withdraw to their pre-war positions. He also wants to speak directly to Putin, which Russia has so far refused to do.
Call for the end of the grain blockade
One consequence of the war is the loss of grain supplies from Ukraine, which threatens to lead to famine, especially in Africa. At a meeting with Putin on Friday, African Union (AU) President Macky Sall insisted on ending the blockade on exports. According to his interpretation of the conversation, Putin was ready to ensure the export of wheat and fertilizers to the African continent.
Putin denied any responsibility for the shortage of grain on the world market. The crisis had already begun before the war, which, according to official terminology in Russia, is called a special military operation. It is not his country that is preventing wheat exports from Ukraine, Putin said on television. Ukraine should remove the mines off its ports on the Black Sea coast. The Russian army will not use this for attacks, he promised.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Ukraine is ready to start exporting grain once more through the port of Odessa. But there is no guarantee from Russia that this will not be used for an attack. “We are looking for solutions with the UN and other partners.”