First successes in evacuations from Mariupol

new York Russia continues its attacks in eastern Ukraine and in the port city of Mariupol unabated. There is now hope for a few people in the city: After an escape corridor had been negotiated for the civilians in the city, according to Ukrainian sources, the Reuters news agency reported in the afternoon that several buses had been broken into from a designated evacuation point.

According to Reuters, dozens of people had boarded the buses. The authorities of the coastal city had said they wanted to take about 6,000 people out of the city via a corridor. The convoy of vehicles is to drive via the city of Berdyansk to Zaporizhia, around 200 kilometers away. Around 100,000 people are said to be staying in Mariupol.

However, the corridors did not achieve the desired success. The governor of the Donetsk district announced in the late afternoon that fewer buses than planned had picked up the refugees. Not many people were brought to safety.

The commander of the remaining marines in Mariupol, Serhiy Wolyna, had already asked for an evacuation to a third country in the morning. He also indicated that he wanted to give up. So far, the Ukrainians had refused this.

The Ukrainian side is defending only one object, the Azovstal Steel Works, where there are civilians in addition to the military. The commander asked the military of the Mariupol garrison to take more than 500 wounded fighters and hundreds of civilians to safety in a third country. “This is our appeal to the world,” said Wolyna. “This could be the last appeal of our lives.”

The south-eastern Ukrainian port of Mariupol was completely surrounded by Russian troops on March 1, shortly after the start of the Russian war of aggression. The city and the port are largely considered to have been destroyed. Most recently, according to Russian information, around 2,500 Ukrainian fighters and 400 foreign mercenaries were holed up in the steelworks. According to Ukrainian reports, around 1,000 civilians are said to have sought protection there. Russia has issued ultimatums to Ukrainian troops there several times to surrender.

According to an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukrainian troops stopped the advance of Russian troops on the city of Sloviansk on Wednesday afternoon. The Russian units had come from the north-eastern city of Izyum, explained advisor Oleksiy Arestovych in a video speech. “They concentrated their forces there. They’re trying to make headway there, but so far they’re not succeeding.”

situation of the negotiations

Meanwhile, the Russian side said that the attacked neighboring country had been offered new negotiations in writing. “Now the Ukrainian side has been handed our draft document, which contains absolutely clear and polished formulations,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to the Interfax agency. He did not provide any information about the content.

When there could be new negotiations between Russia and Ukraine is still open. Peskov explained that there was no deadline for Kyiv to respond to the offer. But at the same time he made it clear that Moscow was dissatisfied with the pace of negotiations so far. “We have said several times that the dynamics of the work of the Ukrainian side leave much to be desired,” said Peskov. Now “the ball is on the side” of the Ukrainians.

Negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv began on February 28, four days after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an attack on Ukraine. So far, Russia has demanded, among other things, the neutrality of Ukraine and the cession of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions as well as the recognition of the Crimean Peninsula as Russian. Kyiv categorically refuses to give up its own territory.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he had no Russian documents on new talks. He hadn’t heard anything about it either.

New military aid to Ukraine

The Ukrainians are constantly demanding further military support from the West, including from the EU and Germany. Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) promised Ukraine medium- and long-term military aid on Wednesday.

First of all, the NATO allies would have to support Ukraine in the coming days and weeks, said the Green politician after a meeting with her Latvian counterpart Edgars Rinkevics in the capital Riga. But it’s not just about urgent needs. “It’s also about the next three months and also about the next three years. And Germany will be able to contribute more here,” she said.

The federal government has therefore made one billion euros available so that Ukraine can also procure more complex weapon systems. Germany can also provide the training for this.

For Germany, the delivery of armored vehicles is “not taboo, even if it sometimes sounds like it in the German debate,” stressed Baerbock. The federal government has already approved such deliveries. “But in the short term we don’t have anything that we can deliver really quickly and immediately.” Therefore, a “ring exchange” was agreed with the NATO and G7 partners, said the German Foreign Minister. Partners who could quickly deliver weapons of Soviet design received replacements from Germany.

New rocket

Amid the war, Russia tested its new Sarmat ICBM (NATO code name: SS-X-30 Satan 2) on Wednesday. The missile, which can be equipped with nuclear warheads, will massively strengthen Russia’s nuclear potential, the Defense Ministry said. No missile in the world can reach targets as far away as this one, it said. The Sarmat has a range of 18,000 kilometers. This would allow Russia to attack from both the North and South Poles and reach targets around the world.

According to the US Department of Defense, Russia gave the US advance notice of the missile test. Moscow has “duly notified the United States that it is planning an ICBM test,” as part of its obligations under the New Start nuclear disarmament treaty, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said in Washington on Wednesday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that there will be nothing in the world quite like the rocket for a long time. The weapon system has “the best tactical and technical properties and is able to overcome all modern means of missile defense,” said the Kremlin chief. “This is a truly unique weapon that will increase the combat potential of our armed forces and reliably protect Russia’s security from external threats.”

More Handelsblatt articles on the war in Ukraine

The missile was launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in the Arkhangelsk region on Wednesday afternoon, the Defense Ministry said. The non-nuclear warheads used for the test hit the Kura site on the Far Eastern Kamchatka Peninsula.

Russia put its nuclear weapons on increased alert eight weeks ago at the start of its war in Ukraine. The announcement was taken as a threat to the country’s nuclear arsenal.

With agency material

More: You can follow the latest developments in our news blog