A steel mill as a last resort in the besieged city of Mariupol

Not only soldiers, but also women and children are hiding at a factory site in Mariupol. Ukraine demands an escape corridor from Russia.

Kyiv. Azovstal steel mills in Mariupol have been fighting for days. Not least because many Ukrainian soldiers are holed up here and refuse to surrender to Russian forces. But it should not be limited to the soldiers who took refuge here to escape the attacks of Russian troops. He adds that many civilians also fled to the site Irina Vereshuk. So Ukraine’s deputy prime minister is calling on Russia to allow escape corridors from Mariupol and from the site of steel plants in the coastal city. According to Vereshock, a corridor for women, children and other civilians should be quickly established.

And on Monday, as the day before, there were no escape corridors for civilians in the disputed areas. “For security considerations, the decision was made today not to open any humanitarian corridors,” Vereshock said Monday. Ukraine’s Defense Ministry spokesman, Alexander Motosianik, said Russian air strikes have now increased by more than 50 percent. Increasingly, parts of the infrastructure are also becoming targets for attacks. In any case, according to the spokesman, the situation in Mariupol is “extremely difficult”.

According to Ukrainian sources, Russian forces are preparing for their new offensive in the Donbass. “In the eastern theater of operations, the armed forces of the Russian Federation are completing the formation of an offensive force,” the Ukrainian General Staff said in its report on the situation on Monday. The governor of the Luhansk region, Serhiy Hagdayi, reported that Russian troops had advanced to Kremena. According to Ukrainian sources, this city, which has been in the fight for a month and a half, is the epicenter of the fighting.

The Russian military is currently trying to find out the weaknesses in the Ukrainian defense lines with individual attacks. The Russian armed forces launched more attacks on cities in Donbass on Monday evening. The Ukrainian General Staff stated that “the enemy is making major efforts in the Lyman, Krymina, Popasna and Rubysh regions, and is also trying to impose its full control over Mariupol.”

Casualties in a missile attack on Lviv

But in addition to eastern Ukraine, the west of the country is now increasingly affected by attacks. According to Ukrainian sources, Russian missiles hit the city of Lviv on Monday morning. At the same time, there were “five violent missile attacks on the civilian infrastructure of the ancient European city of Lviv,” Mikhailo Podolyak, an advisor to President Volodymyr Zelensky, wrote on Twitter. At least six people were killed and at least 11 injured. At least one civilian target was said to have been hit.

The Russian side said that the armed forces used Iskander missiles to attack four depots of weapons and military equipment in Ukraine. In addition, according to the Russian news agency TASS, three Ukrainian military aircraft and eleven drones were shot down. The Russian army has hit a total of 315 targets since the evening.

So the fight continues unabated. A possible solution to the conflict through negotiations does not appear to be in sight at the moment. The Kremlin says there is no progress. The Kremlin spokesman said the dynamics leave much to be desired Dmitriy Peskov According to Interfax on Monday. Peskov claimed that Ukraine often changes its position and does not show any particular consistency on voting issues. However, there are still contacts and negotiations will continue at the expert level.

burning ship pictures

So the “special military operation”, as called by the Kremlin, will continue. It’s going according to plan, Pesco said. He also confirmed that after the sinking of the Russian warship Moskva in the Kremlin, photos of a burning ship were seen, which are now circulating for the first time on the Internet. “Yes, we have already seen those pictures; but to what extent they are authentic and consistent with reality, we cannot say.” (ag.)

(“Die Presse,” print edition, April 19, 2022)