(Finance) – Despite Moscow’s announcement of a reduction in military activity in the region, on the 37th day of the war in Ukraine
Russian air raids a Kiev And Chernihiv. After days of unsuccessful attempts, in the south of the country the approximately 170,000 civilians trapped in the battered Mariupol still remain in stalemate. Over 3 thousand people managed to get out of Mariupol today and as many were evacuated from other cities but the massive evacuation of civilians attempted by the Red Cross failed. The International Committee of the Red Cross reported that today it was “impossible” to proceed with theMariupol evacuation because “the ICRC team, which includes three vehicles and nine people, did not reach Mariupol and was unable to facilitate the safe passage of civilians”. A new attempt to rescue civilians has been announced for tomorrow.
Today took place a new round of video-link talks but diplomatic pressure on the Russian President Vladimir Putin to make a qualitative leap in the negotiation through a direct meeting with the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. The Turkish President Recep Tayyp Erdogan, during a telephone conversation with Putin he reiterated the offer to host a meeting between the Russian leader and Zelensky. He had made the same offer to his Ukrainian counterpart yesterday.
Sunday – as announced on Secretary General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres – the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, the British Martin Griffiths, he will be in Moscow on Sunday to try to achieve a “humanitarian ceasefire” in Ukraine. “On Sunday he will be in Moscow and then he will go to Kiev”, said Guterres, recalling that he had recently entrusted him with the mission of “seeking a humanitarian ceasefire in Ukraine”. “This means – continued Guterres – that we do not give up the prospect of stopping the fighting, whether in Yemen, in Ukraine, anywhere in the world. Both the Russian Federation and Ukraine have agreed to receive him for his mission to obtain a cessation humanitarian fire “.
In the morning the Kremlin denounced a Ukrainian air attack on 8 oil depots in Belgorad in Russia, not far from the border with Ukraine, causing a huge fire. “It is clear that this cannot be seen as something that will create the right conditions for the continuation of the negotiations,” commented the Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov.