Russian tanks at the gates of Kiev. These tanks arrived Thursday at the northeastern edge of the Ukrainian capital Kiev, which they threaten to encircle after having already reached its northern and western suburbs. Half of the population of the Kiev agglomeration fled in two weeks, according to the mayor of the capital Vitali Klitschko, who estimates the remaining population at “a little less than two million inhabitants”.
Failure of Franco-Russian negotiations. The heads of Russian and Ukrainian diplomacy failed Thursday to agree on a ceasefire in Ukraine during their first meeting since the start of the Russian army offensive. Sergei Lavrov and Dmytro Kuleba stuck to their guns during their talks in Antalya (Turkey). The Ukrainian minister said his Russian counterpart had assured him that Russia “will continue (its) aggression until we accept its demand to capitulate”. But Ukraine “will not surrender”, he claimed.
Zelensky accuses Moscow of an “attack” on a humanitarian corridor. The Ukrainian president on Friday accused the Russian army of preventing the evacuation of civilians from the surrounded towns of Mariupol and Volnovakha (southeast) and of having carried out an attack on the planned route of a humanitarian corridor. He added that around 100,000 people had been able to leave in the past two days from other Ukrainian towns plagued by fighting.