Explosions in Lviv near Poland – fighting for Mariupol

Dusseldorf The western Ukrainian metropolis of Lviv (Lemberg) has been rocked by multiple explosions for the first time since the war began more than two weeks ago. A reporter from the German Press Agency reported several detonations on Sunday morning. An air alert was triggered. People have been asked to stay in emergency shelters. The explosions could also be heard in Poland, as a reporter from the German Press Agency from Przemysl reported.

The Lviv regional military administration announced that the military base in Yavoriv, ​​not far from the border with Poland, had come under rocket fire: “The occupiers launched an airstrike on the International Center for Peacekeeping and Security.” According to initial information, eight rockets were fired. It was initially not explained whether the center, less than 25 kilometers from the border, was hit.

According to Ukrainian sources, Russian units are still trying to storm the city of Mariupol. This was announced by the Ukrainian General Staff in a report published on Facebook on Sunday night. Pro-Russian separatists had recently advanced into the eastern outskirts with the support of Russian troops, according to the Ukrainian armed forces. The Russian Ministry of Defense had also reported that several parts of the city had been taken.

A Russian offensive is also imminent in the city of Sievjerodonetsk with 100,000 inhabitants in the Luhansk region, the general staff report said. Moscow earlier announced on Saturday that the pro-Russian separatists had reached the city. In the Donetsk region, Russian units were also preparing an offensive on the small town of Wuhledar. According to Ukrainian information, around 200 people were evacuated from this on Saturday.

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In the south of the country, Russia is also not giving up attempts to launch an offensive against Kryvyi Rih, the industrial city and hometown of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the report said. The attempts have so far been unsuccessful. However, the Russian troops are looking for weak points in the defense of the Ukrainian security forces and are building up forces for the operation against the city with over 600,000 inhabitants.

According to Ukrainian media reports, the Ascension Monastery was damaged during fighting in the eastern Ukrainian city of Sviatohirsk in the Donetsk region. This was reported by the Internet newspaper “Ukrajinska Pravda” on Sunday night. Accordingly, an aircraft bomb detonated around 50 meters from the entrance to the monastery late on Saturday evening. Virtually all windows and church facilities were destroyed to varying degrees by the blast.

Mariupol

Civilians are still stuck in the city on the Azov Sea.

(Photo: AP)

Several of the injured were taken to the Svyatohirsk hospital, the rest were treated in the monastery, it said. There are no dead. The latest general staff report from the Ukrainian army on Saturday night mentions fighting in the area. Russia was conducting offensive operations near Izyum and later attempted to advance toward Sloviansk. The Ascension Monastery of Sviatohirsk is located roughly in the middle of the two cities. This information was not independently verifiable.

Aid convoy apparently looted on the way to Mariupol

According to Ukrainian information, around 13,000 people were evacuated from several cities in the country on Saturday. That’s almost twice as many as on Friday, said Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Wereschuk. However, nobody managed to leave the besieged city of Mariupol. Of the 14 agreed corridors, only nine were passable. There should be another attempt on Sunday.

Seven civilians, including a child, were killed when they tried to flee Peremoha, northeast of Kyiv, along with hundreds of others, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said. Several people were injured when the convoy came under fire. The group had to turn back, the ministry said. The information could not be verified independently.

Around 60 children with cancer from the Ukraine were taken to various clinics in a special train from the Polish border. Helpers carried some of the young patients in their arms, on stretchers or pushed them in wheelchairs to a train equipped with medical equipment that left the border town of Medyka on Saturday.

>> Read also: All current developments in the news blog

“Some of them need oxygen, need some other form of intensive care,” said Dominik Daszuta, an anesthetist from a Warsaw hospital who was on board. According to him, 120 children with cancer have already been transported by train.

According to Ukrainian sources, Russian soldiers looted an aid convoy on the way to Mariupol. Another was stopped, said a Ukrainian source who declined to be named.

In the port city in south-eastern Ukraine, which was besieged by Russian troops, residents have been waiting for days for aid convoys with food and water to reach them and take some of them to safety. But the route is shot at again and again. The city itself was also heavily bombed on Saturday. Satellite images from the Maxar company show fires in parts of Mariupol and extensive damage to numerous buildings and roads.

Zelensky threatens Ukrainian supporters of Russia

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky threatened possible collaborators and supporters of Russia in Ukraine. Anyone who is tempted by offers from the Russian occupiers is signing their own verdict, he said in a video message published on Sunday night. “The verdict is to follow more than 12,000 occupiers who could not understand in time why Ukraine should not be attacked.”

Most recently, the Ukrainian side said that more than 12,000 Russian soldiers had been killed in the war in Ukraine. This cannot be verified independently. Ukrainian forces have inflicted the largest casualties on the Russian army in decades, Zelensky said. 31 Russian battalions were put out of action. Now Moscow is sending new troops.

Ukraine war

President Volodymyr Zelensky regularly addresses the nation.

(Photo: dpa)

In his statements, Zelensky referred to recent events in the Russian-occupied territories of the Kherson region in the south of the country. There, Russia is trying to “repeat the sad experience of creating pseudo-republics”, blackmailing local politicians, putting pressure on MPs and looking for someone to bribe to create a “Kherson People’s Republic”.

But he also mentioned the Russian-occupied city of Melitopol. According to Kiev, the mayor of the city in the Zaporishcha region was kidnapped on Friday. On Saturday, local MP Halyna Danilchenko announced in a video message that a “Committee of People’s Deputies” would be set up to govern the city, writes Ukrayinska Pravda. She called demonstrators against the Russian troops “extremists”.

Zelensky also told Russia and possible supporters of Moscow that Ukraine will not forgive anyone, will not forget and will find everyone and hold them accountable.

After the stubborn military resistance of the Ukrainians, Zelensky sees the first changes in Russia’s position. “Now they have started talking about something – and not just making ultimatums,” he told international journalists in Kyiv on Saturday. The 44-year-old says he is happy with it, as it is the first time in over two years that Moscow has been willing to engage in dialogue.

NATO chief: The next few days will probably bring greater hardship

A good two weeks after the start of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, NATO expects the fighting and the humanitarian emergency to further intensify. “We are horrified to see the increasing number of civilian casualties and the senseless destruction by Russian forces. The people of Ukraine are resisting the invasion with courage and determination, but the coming days are likely to bring even greater hardship,” General Secretary of the military alliance Jens Stoltenberg told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper.

Stoltenberg said his message to Russian President Vladimir Putin was clear: “End this war, withdraw all forces and commit to diplomacy.”

This is how the Handelsblatt reports on the Ukraine war:

Stoltenberg dismissed as absurd claims by the Russian government that the US had secretly operated laboratories for the development of biological weapons in Ukraine. “Now that these false claims have been made, we must remain vigilant because it is possible that Russia itself could plan chemical weapons operations under this fabrication of lies,” he said. That would be a war crime.

Stoltenberg again rejected calls for NATO to enforce a no-fly zone over Ukraine. That would mean that Russian forces would have to be attacked. “And that would risk a direct confrontation and an uncontrollable escalation. We have to end this war and not expand it further.” NATO is a defensive alliance. “We are not looking for a conflict with Russia,” he said. The military alliance founded in 1949 now includes 30 countries.

Motorists protest with a parade against rising fuel prices

With a parade of almost 500 vehicles, motorists protested against the increased fuel prices in Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein on Saturday evening. The cars covered a distance of about 35 kilometers in a convoy from Hamburg-Allermöhe to Wedel (Pinneberg district) in Schleswig-Holstein, as a spokesman for the Hamburg situation center said early Sunday morning. This resulted in significant obstacles to private transport. The protest was peaceful.

Gas station board on the border with Poland

Some motorists are protesting because of the high fuel prices.

(Photo: dpa)

The SPD parliamentary group wants the federal government to take on more debt if necessary in view of the consequences of the Ukraine war and rising energy prices. Group deputy Achim Post told the German Press Agency in Berlin: “What is necessary to master the current challenges and future tasks must also be made financially possible.” About the climate and transformation fund and the previously planned net borrowing of 100 billion euros, there is scope for this, which “if necessary” could also be expanded.

>> Read also: The energy industry fears a gas supply stop

“The key yardstick at this time of unprecedented probation is not primarily abstract budgetary targets, but the specific tasks and priorities that need to be addressed,” Post said. “The preparation of the budget and financial planning this year is taking place against the background of truly extraordinary challenges – be it the war in Ukraine, the critical situation with energy prices or the persistence of the pandemic.”

In the coming week there will be important budgetary decisions, Post said. On Wednesday, the cabinet intends to adopt the second government draft for the 2022 federal budget and the financial plan for the coming years. The previous government had decided on a first draft.

In Berlin and other major German cities, tens of thousands of people want to protest again on Sunday against Russia’s war in Ukraine. In the capital, the organizers’ alliance of trade unions, churches, peace groups and environmental protection initiatives registered 100,000 participants.
With agency material

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