War

As Russia has rejected the Easter truce, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that hopes for peace still exist. In a new video released last night, the Kyiv leader contradicted the Kremlin’s claims about the conquest of Mariupol and said that the city continues to resist. According to the mayor, there are still 100,000 people in the city, who are “in the hands of one man – Vladimir Putin.”
Volodymyr Zelensky has contradicted President Vladimir Putin’s claims that the strategically vital port city of Mariupol fell to the Russian military on Thursday, Reuters reports.Putin appeared on Russian state television along with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to announce that he was canceling the order to storm the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, where the remaining Ukrainian forces were besieged in the city, adding that he now plans to seal it. ” so that not a single fly can enter or leave ”.Putin also reiterated his call for the besieged Ukrainian fighters to lay down their arms and surrender if they are to escape alive. Zelenski contradicted the Kremlin’s claims that Mariupol is not yet a completely lost cause.“The situation is difficult, the situation is bad,” Volodymyr Zelensky told reporters in Kyiv on Thursday, but there were still ways to liberate the city. “There is a military way of training and we are preparing for it,” the Ukrainian president said. Western aid is needed for this, he said.Deputy Prime Minister Irina Veresciuk said, according to The Guardian that no humanitarian corridors will be opened in Ukraine today. “Due to road hazards, no humanitarian corridor will be opened today, April 22nd. I appeal to all those who are waiting for the evacuation: be patient, please wait! ”, she wrote on Telegram.After three consecutive days without evacuations, four buses with 80 people evacuated from Mariupol arrived in Zaporozhye on Thursday.Russia fired rockets on the island of Hortita in the city of Zaporozhye, Kyiv Independent reports, quoting the regional military administration. Eight civilians were injured in the attack. Hortița is a natural island on the Dnieper River, 12 km long and 2.5 km wide, in the town of Zaporozhye. According to Ukrainer.net, the island is of great historical and cultural importance for Ukraine.Russian forces continue to partially block Kharkov, the Ukrainian military was quoted as saying by the BBC. Russian units were trying to break through the front south of the city of Yazum in the Kharkov region to surround Ukrainian troops in the Donbas region, the statement said. Ukraine also repulsed 10 attacks in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions on Thursday, the army added. Russian troops have intensified attacks in eastern Ukraine over the past 24 hours, especially in the areas of Zarechynya, Rubyni, Popasnaia, Novotoshkovsky and Marinka, according to the Ukrainian army. Ukraine also said it had shot down 15 Russian planes in the past 24 hours. The BBC could not independently verify these statements.Ukraine also says it has intercepted talks by Russian soldiers about killing prisoners of war UPDATE 08.55 Ukraine’s military intelligence services say they have intercepted communications from Russian forces about an order to kill Ukrainian prisoners of war in the town of Popasna in the Lugansk region, where Russian attacks are now concentrated, CNN reports. “The Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine received an audio interception of a conversation of the occupiers, which refers to the order to kill all prisoners of war of the Armed Forces of Ukraine who are in captivity in the Popasna area (Lugansk region) , ”Wrote the Ukrainian military intelligence services on Twitter.