New York, Dusseldorf New hope in Ukraine for civilians in the embattled cities: Kyiv and Moscow want to enable hundreds of thousands to flee on day 14 of the war. Russia announced a ceasefire until 8 p.m. CET on Wednesday morning. Ukraine agreed to six escape routes agreed with Moscow.
Above all, the evacuation of Mariupol has been the subject of struggle for days. Several attempts since Sunday had failed, and agreed ceasefires had not lasted. On Wednesday morning, the Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Wereshchuk spoke of new escape corridors that civilians can use to escape to safety.
People from Mariupol and Enerhodar should therefore be taken to Zaporizhia in southeastern Ukraine. Other routes lead from Volnovakha to Pokrovsk and from Sumy to Poltava. According to Wereshchuk, escape corridors are also planned for the city of Izyum in the east and for several small towns north of Kyiv. According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, people from the capital are also to be brought to safety. Selenski spoke of around 18,000 people.
At the same time, in his daily television speech, he called on the international community to set up a no-fly zone. Russia uses missiles, planes and helicopters “against civilians, against our cities, against our infrastructure”. It is the duty of the world to respond. If she doesn’t do this, according to Selenski, the country faces a “humanitarian catastrophe”.
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According to Zelensky’s foreign policy adviser Ihor Zhovkva, Ukraine has not ruled out discussing the country’s possible neutrality in negotiations with Russia. In the ARD “Tagesthemen”, the consultant called for a direct conversation between Selenski and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The war events
According to Ukrainian sources, Russia has carried out airstrikes on residential areas in eastern and central Ukraine. Authorities reported dead again on Wednesday night – including children – and many injured in attacks in the Schytomyr and Kharkiv regions, among others. The information is not independently verifiable.
A Ukrainian soldier stands near the fin of a Russian Su-34 bomber lying in a damaged building.
(Photo: dpa)
The British Ministry of Defense said on Twitter that fighting was continuing north-west of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, but that Russian troops had not achieved a breakthrough there. Ukraine’s air defenses, on the other hand, have had some successes and are probably preventing Russia from “gaining control of the airspace”.
The Russian armed forces have apparently shut down the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the shelling of which caused a worldwide uproar recently. This was announced by the operator of the Ukrainian state electricity network. A line from Chernobyl to the capital Kyiv was severed – presumably by the shelling.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba tweeted that the international community should demand a ceasefire from Russia so repairs can be made at the site.
>> Read about this all current developments in our news blog.
Combat operations north of Kyiv currently prevented all repair work. According to the authority, 210 technicians and security staff have been on duty for almost two weeks because there have been no shift changes under Russian control. Although they have water and food, their situation is getting worse and worse.
However, the Foreign Ministry in Moscow announced that the Russian military operation was proceeding strictly according to plan. He does not aim to overthrow the Ukrainian government. Instead, Moscow wants to achieve its goals of a neutral status for Ukraine through talks and hopes that the next negotiations with Ukraine will make progress.
Sanctions against Russia are having an effect
Meanwhile, Russia is coming under increasing economic pressure. Rating agency Fitch pushed its rating for the country’s creditworthiness even deeper into junk territory. The credit rating will be reduced by six levels to “C” from previously “B”, said Fitch. This threatens a default by Russia, which may not be able to meet some of its debt obligations.
Russia’s economy has been battered by Western sanctions, and the Russian ruble has continued to plummet.
(Photo: Reuters)
The President of the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), Marcel Fratzscher, also expects Russia to become insolvent. Due to Western sanctions, there is a high risk that Russia will not service its debts to international creditors, Fratzscher told the German Press Agency. Some German investors would also suffer from a default.
>>Read more: Diary from Ukraine – “War and death have come close to us”
The West has imposed sanctions targeting the Russian financial system and the central bank in Moscow in particular. The EU Council Presidency announced on Wednesday that the assets of other oligarchs will be frozen and Belarusian banks will be excluded from the Swift communications network. US President Joe Biden had previously imposed an import ban on Russian oil and gas.
The Kremlin, in turn, announced tough countermeasures that went in all directions. The Russian news agency RIA quoted the head of the department for economic cooperation at the foreign ministry, Dmitry Birichevsky, as saying: “Russia’s reaction will be quick, deliberate and sensitive to those it affects”.
Confusion about Polish fighter planes
Meanwhile, the West is discussing a possible delivery of Polish fighter jets to Ukraine. Poland had suggested handing over the planes to the United States – probably in order to somehow bring them to Ukraine with a stopover at the Ramstein base in Germany. The US government, in turn, considers this to be unfeasible.
The President of Ukraine spoke via video link to MPs in the British House of Commons about the current situation in Ukraine.
(Photo: dpa)
The Polish proposal poses “difficult logistical challenges” and there are “serious concerns” about the geopolitical dimension, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said. At a Senate hearing, a top State Department diplomat, Victoria Nuland, described Poland’s previously apparently uncoordinated offer as a “surprising move.”
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From the point of view of Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, the decision on the transfer of the fighter jets ultimately lies with NATO. Despite Washington’s clear skepticism about this plan, the Polish Prime Minister said on Wednesday that this option would have to be agreed within the transatlantic military alliance.
“That’s why the decision is in the hands of the Americans, it’s in the hands of NATO,” said Morawiecki, according to a translator, after a meeting with Austria’s Chancellor Karl Nehammer in Vienna.
The Austrian Chancellor also urged caution on this issue. “The prudent approach of the NATO countries and also the United States of America is preventing a world war,” said Nehammer.
US Vice President Kamala Harris travels to Poland on Wednesday, where she also wants to talk to Polish President Andrzej Duda and Prime Minister Morawiecki on Thursday. The issue of combat aircraft should also be discussed. Harris also announced that he would meet with war refugees from Ukraine.
According to border guards, 1.33 million refugees from the neighboring country have arrived in Poland since the start of the war in Ukraine. On Tuesday alone, 125,800 people crossed the border, the authority said on Twitter on Wednesday. About 93 percent of the refugees are Ukrainian citizens.
The mayor of the eastern Polish city of Przemysl, near the border with Ukraine, told the PAP news agency that his city is currently experiencing a slight drop in the flow of refugees. Most recently, around 35,000 refugees arrived within 24 hours, and the number has been between 40,000 and 45,000 in the past few days.
The Polish-Ukrainian border crossings at Medyka and Korczowa are located near Przemysl. The city’s railway station also has Russian broad gauge tracks. Trains from Odessa, Lviv and other Ukrainian cities arrive there.
The US Department of Defense has described Poland’s proposal to lease fighter jets as “untenable”.
(Photo: AP)
With agency material.
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