Dead and injured in rocket attacks on Lviv

Dusseldorf According to the Ukrainian general staff, Russia has started the expected offensive in the east of the neighboring country. “Signs of the start of the offensive in the eastern operational zone are being identified,” the general staff said in Kyiv on Monday evening. The Kharkiv and Donetsk regions were highlighted. Advances towards Barvinkove and Sloviansk in the Donetsk region are expected from Izyum in the Kharkiv region.

The governor of the Luhansk region, Serhiy Hajdaj, also spoke of Russian attacks. “The control of the city of Kreminna has just been lost. Street fights are taking place.” Evacuation of the small town is no longer possible. “The situation is getting worse every hour.” In Kreminna, of the 18,000 inhabitants before the war, around 4,000 are said to be holding out.

There was also heavy fighting around the cities of Rubishne and Popasna. The Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych had previously informed about Russian advances in the direction of Hulyaipole in the Zaporizhia region in the south-east. Around 10,000 Russian soldiers are said to be in action.

The Russian Defense Ministry said on Monday that it had destroyed 16 military installations in the regions around Kharkiv, Zaporizhia, Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk and in the port of Mykolaiv. A total of 315 military targets in Ukraine were attacked by artillery during the night. There were also airstrikes on 108 locations where Ukrainian troops were concentrated.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his daily video address that the bombing of downtown Kharkiv killed five and wounded 15. “This is nothing but premeditated terror.”

In the debate about the delivery of heavy weapons, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) is coming under increasing pressure when it comes to heavy weapons deliveries. Vitali Klitschko, Kiev’s mayor, therefore clearly criticized Germany on Monday afternoon: “We need the heavy weapons from Germany immediately. Every delay costs lives,” he told the “Bild” newspaper. These would include battle tanks, artillery pieces or attack helicopters.

Selenski warned against restraint in view of the Russian major offensive. “Those who have the weapons and ammunition we need and who are holding back their aid must know that the fate of this battle depends on them too. The fate of people who can be saved,” he said in his daily video address.

Drama in Azovstal Steel Plant

While Germany is still discussing arms deliveries, Russia continued its airstrikes on Ukraine. Rocket fire in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv killed seven people, the first civilian casualties in the western Ukrainian city, Mayor Andriy Sadovy said. Eleven people were injured.

There are different statements about the number of rockets, it is reported of four or five impacts. Military objects are said to have been hit, but also civilian objects such as a tire service and a hotel. Lviv has been the target of air raids in the past. There are several military facilities in the vicinity of the city, and it is considered an important transshipment point for arms shipments from the West.

Russian airstrikes have increased by more than 50 percent, said Defense Ministry spokesman Olexander Motusyanyk. Increasingly, parts of the infrastructure are the target.

Heavy fighting continues in eastern Ukraine. Russia had threatened the remaining Ukrainian troops in Mariupol with annihilation. The militants let another ultimatum from Russia elapse until Sunday noon. They refused to lay down their arms. Ministry spokesman Motusianyk described the situation as “extremely difficult”. However, Mariupol is not yet fully under Russian control.

A situation report by British intelligence said Moscow’s attacks on populated areas in Mariupol were similar to Russian actions in Chechnya in 1999 and Syria in 2016, and contradicted the Russian Defense Ministry’s statement at the start of the war that the country was not attacking cities or the Ukrainian people wool.

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The Ukrainian General Staff reported on Sunday evening Russian missile and bomb attacks. Tu-22M3 supersonic bombers were also used. Prime Minister Denys Schmyhal told US broadcaster ABC that the city had not fallen.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba reported on the US broadcaster CBS that their own troops were “basically surrounded” by Russian troops. Several thousand Ukrainian fighters are said to have holed up in the Azovstal steelworks. According to local authorities, numerous civilians are also on the contested site of the plant, which also includes underground facilities.

No escape corridors and no success in negotiations

According to the Kremlin, no further progress is in sight in the negotiations between Russia and Ukraine to end the war. The dynamics leave a lot to be desired, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday, according to the Interfax agency. Ukraine often changes its position and does not show any particular consistency when it comes to voting issues. The Kremlin’s war of aggression is therefore being continued, which Russia in turn is declaring in its own propaganda language as a “military special operation”.

Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Iryna Vereshchuk called on Russia on Monday to quickly allow civilians to escape. The parties could not agree on this for the second day in a row. “For security reasons, the decision was made today not to open any humanitarian corridors,” Vereshchuk said on Monday.

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Long negotiations had been held the day before without any result. She accused the Russian side of shelling escape routes. Most recently, almost 1,500 people reached safe areas via such routes on Saturday.

After the withdrawal of Russian troops from the greater Kyiv area, the military is currently concentrating on conquering areas in the south and east. The main goal is the capture of Mariupol. This would be Russia’s first major conquest since the invasion began on February 24.

Almost five million refugees from Ukraine

According to the UN, more than 4.9 million of Ukraine’s former 44 million population have fled since the Russian invasion began. In addition, more than seven million people have been displaced across the country.

With more than 2.8 million, most people from Ukraine have fled to safety in neighboring Poland. But border guards reported that on Sunday they again counted more entries into Ukraine than exits from the neighboring country to the east.

The federal police have so far identified 357,253 refugees from Ukraine in Germany. The Federal Ministry of the Interior announced this on Twitter on Monday. However, the actual number is likely to be higher because there are no fixed controls at the borders and people with Ukrainian passports can stay in the EU for 90 days without a visa.

With agency material from dpa and Reuters

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