At least one person was killed and eight others injured in new Russian attacks near the south-eastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhia on Tuesday evening.
(Photo: dpa)
Kyiv According to the will of the Russian besiegers, the Ukrainian soldiers trapped in the Mariupol steelworks are not allowed to leave the premises. The Russian military has rejected any proposal for the unhindered withdrawal of the besieged fighters from the Azovstal plant, President Volodymyr Zelensky said, according to the Ukrajinska Pravda newspaper on Tuesday.
“The defenders of Mariupol remain there, they continue resistance on the territory of Azovstal,” said Zelenskiy. Kyiv continues to use all available diplomatic means to enable the soldiers to be rescued. Russia insists on surrender of Azovstal defenders.
Zelensky previously stated that Ukraine currently does not have the heavy weapons needed for a successful push to liberate Mariupol. On Tuesday, the defenders reported heavy shelling by Russian troops. The area had been attacked from the air all night long, the deputy commander of the Azov regiment, Svyatoslav Palamar, told Ukrayinska Pravda. There are many seriously injured. They urgently need to be brought to safety.
Most recently, several hundred civilians were evacuated from the site with the mediation of the UN and the Red Cross. Contrary to recent reports about the complete evacuation of all civilians from the Mariupol plant, regional administrator Pavlo Kyrylenko said on Monday evening that there were still 100 people there who were not combatants.
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Zelensky praises “superhuman strength” of Ukrainian troops
Zelensky praised the courage and sacrifice of his country’s troops in the fight against the Russian army. “I am grateful to all our protectors who are defending themselves and showing truly superhuman strength to drive off the invaders’ army,” he said in his daily video address Tuesday night. And that in the fight against the “once the second strongest army in the world”.
Despite further successes on various fronts, Selenski did not want to allow euphoria and “excessive emotions” to arise. “There is no need to create an atmosphere of specific moral pressure when certain victories are expected on a weekly and even daily basis,” he warned.
Baerbock: “We will hold the perpetrators accountable”
The Ukrainian President referred to reports of success from his general staff, which reported on Tuesday about territory gains in the vicinity of the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. The occupiers would be “gradually” expelled from the region. According to the Ukrainian military, several towns were recaptured. The information could not initially be verified independently.
“The Armed Forces of Ukraine are doing everything to liberate our country and our people,” said Zelensky. “All our cities will be liberated – Kherson, Melitopol, Berdyansk, Mariupol and all others.”
US House of Representatives approves billions in aid package for Ukraine
The House of Representatives in Washington has approved an aid package for Ukraine requested by US President Joe Biden by billions of dollars and passed it by a large majority. In the parliamentary chamber on Tuesday evening (local time), 368 MPs from both Biden’s Democrats and the opposition Republicans voted for the bill. The 57 votes against came from the ranks of Republicans. The package is worth almost $40 billion (€38 billion). The Senate still has to approve it.
Biden had asked Congress for $33 billion. In the package that has now been increased, around half of the total sum goes to defense.
The US government had previously launched several large packages of support for Ukraine. Since the beginning of the war at the end of February, the United States has promised or delivered weapons and ammunition worth more than 3.7 billion US dollars (around 3.5 billion euros) to the former Soviet republic.
Amnesty Secretary General: Putin hates Ukrainians
According to the Secretary General of the human rights organization Amnesty International, the Russian leadership around President Vladimir Putin has a “hatred” against all Ukrainians. “There are statements, comments and appearances by Putin and other Russian leaders that show how they ignore and hate the Ukrainian people, in which they talk as if Ukraine does not exist,” Agnès Callamard said on Ukrainian television on Tuesday. “And it is precisely these statements that we will use as part of the evidence when we discuss the issue of genocide.”
The violence used in this war was due to the systems thinking created by the leadership. “Violence becomes the main mode of action, it is tolerated and sometimes even glorified… There is no control and this creates the conditions for violent behavior, there is a regime of impunity…” Callamard was quoted as saying by Ukraine’s Unian agency.
This is how the Handelsblatt reports on the Ukraine war:
There is no evidence that the military leadership demands torture or murder from the soldiers. “But we have evidence that the leadership is not stopping these crimes. So they repeat themselves over and over again,” said Amnesty Secretary-General.
Amnesty’s mission in this war is to provide the world with information on the extent and nature of crimes being committed by Russian troops in Ukraine. “We want to show that this war is not only a Ukrainian problem or a problem of Europe and NATO. Russian aggression is a problem for the whole world,” Callamard was quoted as saying.
In the past few days, Callamard and a delegation have visited the Kyiv suburbs, where dozens of civilians have been victims of Russian violence.
Map of combat operations (as of May 8, 2022)
Several casualties in the shelling of Zaporizhia
At least one person was killed and eight others injured in new Russian attacks near the south-eastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhia on Tuesday evening. According to the regional administration, mainly residential buildings in Orekhovo were hit, Ukrajinska Pravda reported. Because of the intensity of the shelling, the delivery of humanitarian aid to the town was temporarily interrupted. The information could not be independently verified.
That’s going to be important today
Ukrainian soldiers will be trained on the Panzerhaubitze 2000 in Germany from Wednesday. The future crews of the weapon system and technical specialists are to be instructed in training at the Bundeswehr Artillery School in Idar-Oberstein, as the German Press Agency learned from government circles in Berlin. Bundesliga club Borussia Mönchengladbach welcomes the Ukrainian national soccer team to a special benefit game in the evening.
More: You can follow the latest developments in our news blog