War in Ukraine: new meeting between the delegations to negotiate a ceasefire

Kharkiv is today a city very different from the one that was once the capital of Ukraine. The central square is a sea of ​​rubble, glass and dust, while the schools and the University gradually disappear with each missile.

In the sky, covered with smoke, skydivers can be glimpsed of Russian troops dropping shells on state buildings and public schools and universities.

The City Hall and its iconic Orthodox Cathedral they don’t even distinguish between empty structures of a city dominated by the gray of war. The bright colors of the holy temple are already history.

Russia and Ukraine have been located at a new meeting on the Belarusian border after a week of conflict in which deaths are already numbered in the thousands. This same night, another six people have died, two of them children, by a bombing in the Ukrainian city of Izium, in the Kharkov region, according to the city’s deputy mayor, Volodymyr Matsokin. The attack occurred against a multi-storey apartment building..

The advance to the east continues beyond Kharkov. The Kremlin troops claim to have largely seized the Azov sea coasta strategic area.

Kherson and Mariupol, to the south, try to resist Putin’s troops. However, Russia claims to have the first city under control and to have blocked the second. The mayor of Kherson, Ihor Kolijaiev, has assured that the Ukrainian flag continues to fly over the city, and that “for it to continue to be so, certain requirements must be met”.

Thus, he has called the citizens to “not provoke” the tanks Russians and has acknowledged that he has held talks with the Kremlin troops at the local City Hall: “We do not have Ukrainian armed forces in the city, only civilians and people who want to live here”.

Pro-Russian militias in Donbas they also tighten the fence around Mariupol. According to the Russian Armed Forces, the towns of Vinográdnoye, Sartana and Vodianóye are already under their control.

The city, with half a million inhabitants and one of the largest ports in Ukraine, already experiencing “serious problems with the supply of water and electricity” as a result of the siege, as indicated by the spokesman for the Donetsk militias, Eduard Basurin, in an interview with a Russian television channel.

Meanwhile, Kyiv stands tall against Putin’s missiles. At least four strong explosions have been heard in the capital in the middle of the night. A projectile would have hit near the central station of the capital, a very popular place for civilians trying to flee the war after the Kremlin encouraged to leave the city due to imminent bombing.

Even so, Russian troops have not managed to surround Kievand the large convoy that has been heading for the capital for more than 48 hours remains stranded awaiting food and fuel supplies.

This Wednesday, for the first time in seven days of military offensive, Russia has admitted the death of 498 Russian soldiers in war, in addition to 1,597 soldiers wounded, according to Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashénkov. A figure that Ukraine estimates much higher. The Ukrainian president, Volodímir Zelenski, has assured in a new video message to the population that they are “about 9,000 Russian soldiers those who have died in a week”.

economic sanctions they are also provoking reactions from the Russian oligarchs to the war in Ukraine. In full pressure for Romás Abramovich to be personally sanctioned, the Russian tycoon has assured that he will put the Chelsea football club up for sale after 19 years in charge, and will use the profits to help the victims of the war in Ukraine.

UNHCR ensures that more than a million refugees have fled from Ukraine in this week of conflict. The director of the United Nations refugee agency, Filippo Grandi, has assured that “for many millions more, inside Ukraine, it is time for the weapons to fall silent so that life-saving humanitarian assistance can be provided.”