Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday his campaign in Ukraine is proceeding as planned and will not end until Kiev stops fighting, as efforts to evacuate the heavily bombed city of Mariupol failed for the second day in a row.
Putin made the comments in a telephone conversation with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, who has called for a ceasefire in a conflict that the United Nations says has created Europe’s fastest-growing refugee crisis since World War II. .
Russian media said Putin also spoke for nearly two hours on Sunday with French President Emmanuel Macron, who has remained in regular contact but, as with other international efforts, has yet to persuade Moscow to call off a campaign that is now in its eleventh day.
Mariupol authorities had said on Sunday they would make a second attempt to evacuate some of its 400,000 residents, after the Ukrainian coastal city endured days of shelling that has left people trapped without heat, electricity and water.
However, the ceasefire plan failed, as it did on Saturday, with each side blaming the other for the situation.
Putin told Erdogan that he is ready to talk with Ukraine and its foreign partners, but that any attempt to drag out the negotiation will fail, according to a Kremlin statement. Turkey said Erdogan called for a ceasefire to ease humanitarian concerns.
Kiev renewed its call on the West to tighten sanctions beyond existing efforts, which have hit Russia’s economy. He also requested more weapons, including a request for Russian-made aircraft, to help repel Russian forces.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said Washington was “very, very actively” considering how it could replenish aircraft for Poland if Warsaw decided to supply its warplanes to Ukraine, speaking on a trip to neighboring Moldova.
-“They are destroying us”-
Moscow describes the campaign it launched on February 24 as a “special military operation” and says it has no plans to occupy Ukraine, which was once part of the Soviet Union under Moscow’s rule, but now looks to the West for the joining NATO and the European Union.
“They are destroying us,” Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko told Reuters in a video call, describing the plight of the city of 400,000. “They don’t even give us a chance to count the wounded and the dead because the bombardment doesn’t stop.”
Russia, which denies targeting civilian areas, has sent troops and equipment to Ukraine. A huge Russian convoy on a highway north of Kiev has made limited visible progress in recent days, though the Russian Defense Ministry on Sunday released footage showing some tracked military vehicles in motion.
In the capital, Ukrainian soldiers bolstered their defenses by digging trenches, blocking roads and collaborating with civil defense units as Russian forces shelled nearby areas.
“Positions are prepared, we have set them up and we are just waiting to meet them here,” a soldier said in a video released by Ukraine’s armed forces. “Victory will be ours.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian rockets destroyed the civilian airport in the capital of the central-western region of Vinnytsia on Sunday. He also said that Russia is preparing to bomb another southern city, Odessa.
“Rockets against Odessa? This will be a war crime,” he stated.
The World Health Organization said there had been several attacks on Ukrainian health facilities during the conflict. The attacks caused deaths and injuries, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a Twitter message, but gave no details.
“Attacks against health facilities or workers violate medical neutrality and are violations of international humanitarian law,” he said.
-Increased sanctions pressure-
Ukrainians continued to arrive in Poland, Romania, Slovakia and other countries. UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said more than 1.5 million people have fled in Europe’s fastest-growing refugee crisis since World War II.
The agency has said the number could reach 4 million in July.
British military intelligence said on Sunday that Russian forces are targeting populated areas in Ukraine, comparing tactics to those Russia used in Chechnya in 1999 and Syria in 2016. However, it said Ukrainian resistance is holding back the advance.
Putin says he wants a “demilitarized,” “denazified” and neutral Ukraine, and on Saturday compared Western sanctions “to a declaration of war.”
The West, calling Putin’s reasons for invading the country unfounded, has tightened sanctions and stepped up efforts to rearm Ukraine, sending everything from Stinger missiles to anti-tank weapons.
However, Washington and its NATO allies have resisted Ukraine’s calls to create a no-fly zone for fear the conflict could escalate beyond Ukraine’s borders.
Western sanctions have pushed many companies to stop investing in Russia, while some Russian banks have been excluded from global financial payment systems, driving down the ruble and forcing Moscow to raise interest rates.
Adding to the pressure, US payment companies Visa Inc and Mastercard Inc announced the suspension of credit card operations in Russia.
Source: Gestion
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