Ceasefire for humanitarian corridor in Mariupol

New York, Dusseldorf After more than a week of war, Ukraine is under massive pressure and blames the West. The most important events of the night at a glance.

According to the Ukrainian army, Russian troops are continuing their offensive against Ukraine with air support and the use of high-precision weapons. According to a report by the Ukrainian army published on Saturday night, the main efforts of the Russian side are to surround the cities of Kyiv and Kharkiv.

Russian troops also continued to try to reach the administrative borders of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions in order to create a land corridor from the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula to the separatist areas. The defense forces of Kiev continue to repel the “enemy offensive” and inflict defeats on the attacking troops.

The city of Mariupol with 440,000 inhabitants was also under pressure. Russian troops continued to identify weaknesses in the defense of the city of Mariupol, the sources said. Mayor Wadym Boitschenko spoke on Telegram on Saturday night of a “blockade” and said he hoped for a humanitarian corridor out of the city.

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The Russian military then announced a ceasefire on Saturday morning for just such corridors in Mariupol and also for the city of Volnovakha. The cessation of fire will come into effect at 8 a.m. (CET) so that civilians can leave the encircled cities, the Russian Defense Ministry said, according to the Interfax agency. “The humanitarian corridors and routes out have been coordinated with the Ukrainian side,” the ministry said in Moscow.

Block of flats in Mariupol

The civilian population should be allowed to leave the city on Saturday morning.

(Photo: via REUTERS)

The mayor had spoken of a city blockade. Ukrainian forces would not have let the “invaders” into the city even on the ninth day of the war. The city has been suffering from “relentless attacks” from the Russian side for five days. Residents previously said they had virtually no water, electricity or gas.

On the other hand, the Russian agency Tass, referring to representatives of the LNR, reported on Saturday night that the Ukrainian army fired on two settlements in the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic (LNR) three times within 24 hours. Details on possible victims or damage are not yet available.

Neither the information from the Ukrainian side nor the Russian reports could be independently verified.

Third round of negotiations between the warring parties

The announced third round of negotiations on a ceasefire is expected to take place again this weekend in Belarus. An exact date was not initially given.

The Russian government spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to the TASS agency, that Moscow is concerned with security guarantees. He hopes that Ukraine will accept the Russian demands during the negotiations. Among other things, Putin has set the goal of deposing the Ukrainian leadership.

President Zelensky warns: ‘If Ukraine falls, we all fall’

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky bitterly reproaches NATO for not wanting to get involved militarily in the conflict. In a live broadcast of solidarity demos in Europe, Zelensky warned of the war’s impact on the entire continent: “If Ukraine falls, everyone will fall.”

Video address by President Zelensky

About 2,000 people had gathered in Frankfurt.

(Photo: AP)

He was disappointed that NATO refused to enforce a no-fly zone over the war zone, as Ukraine had recently demanded. The alliance gave the green light for further bombing of Ukrainian cities and villages, he said in his video address.

The Western alliance rejects the suggestion because it could entail direct participation in hostilities. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg made this clear again on Friday.

Zelensky called on those gathered in Frankfurt, Paris, Bratislava, Vilnius, Prague and Tbilisi, among others, to observe a minute’s silence for the men, women and children, soldiers, police officers and civilians who have died since Russia attacked the eastern European country . According to the police, a good 2,000 people had gathered in Frankfurt, many of them with Ukrainian flags or clothing in the Ukrainian national colors of yellow and blue.

Demonstrators on the Römer in Frankfurt

Signs of solidarity with Ukraine and protest against the war.

(Photo: Reuters)

The President of Ukraine called on the people of Europe: “Don’t be silent, take to the streets, support Ukraine.” over the darkness.” The President said goodbye with a fist raised in combat and the words “Glory to Ukraine”.

The refugee situation is getting worse

The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) has expressed concern about the food situation for the civilian population in Ukraine. “The situation for the people in Ukraine has worsened dramatically as a result of the bitter fighting,” said Martin Frick, director of the WFP in Germany, according to the Funke media group. Food and drinking water could become scarce in some places in Ukraine.

The priority of the UN organization is now to establish supply routes to Kyiv and the epicenters of the conflict before the fighting escalates further. It’s a race against time.

Railway station in Kyiv

A man bids farewell to his daughter and wife, whom he put on a westbound train from Kyiv to Lviv.

(Photo: AP)

In Germany and other EU countries, however, more and more refugees are arriving to escape the war. According to estimates by the UN refugee agency UNHCR, more than 1.25 million people had fled by Friday. The migration researcher Gerald Knaus told the editorial network Germany that Europe had to be prepared for up to ten million refugees.

Major international media stop working in Russia

Reliable information about the war is likely to become even more sparse. Because in response to a new media law in Russia, several international broadcasters and agencies are partially or completely ceasing their work on the territory of the Russian Federation, including the US television channel CNN, the British BBC, the Canadian channel CBC and the US news agency Bloomberg.

“Given this situation, and concerned about the risk to our journalists and staff in Russia, we have temporarily suspended our on the ground reporting in Russia while we seek clarification on this legislation,” the BBC said via Twitter on Friday evening. Together with other media, they are working “for a free press and unhindered access to correct, independent journalism in Ukraine and Russia”.

Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait said the amendment to the law appeared to aim to turn any independent journalist into a criminal. This makes it impossible “to continue any semblance of normal journalism in the country”.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed several laws on Friday evening further restricting freedom of expression in Russia and curtailing independent media reporting. Up to 15 years in prison are threatened for spreading alleged “false information” about the Russian armed forces. Penalties also threaten those who publicly “denigrate” the army.

Since last week, media in Russia have been banned from using terms such as “attack”, “invasion” and “declaration of war” in reporting on the war against Ukraine. Moscow describes the war as a military “special operation”.

In the Ukrainian war zone, on the other hand, journalists are in danger. A television crew from British broadcaster Sky News came under fire near Kyiv on Friday.

This is how the Handelsblatt is currently reporting on the Ukraine war:

S&P Dow Jones removes Russian stocks from stock market indexes

Russia is becoming more and more isolated on the financial markets in view of its war against Ukraine and the sanctions it has imposed as a result. On Friday, the US financial services provider S&P Dow Jones announced in New York that it would remove shares from Russia-based or listed companies from its indices.

The company, which belongs to the large financial group S&P Global, is responsible for the leading US indices Dow Jones and S&P 500, but also for a whole range of emerging market portfolios. S&P Dow Jones now wants to isolate Russia from this and only determine data for six existing indices that only include Russian stocks.

The measures should take effect next Wednesday. S&P Dow Jones cited the recent sanctions against Russia and restricted market access as the reason. The index operator Nasdaq and other financial data service providers such as MSCI and Bloomberg had previously announced that they would remove Russian stocks from their indices.

More: Snakes like in the Soviet era – the war has arrived in the everyday life of the Russians

With agency material

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