Ukrainian soldiers and civilians are waiting in the plant in the southern port city of Mariupol.
(Photo: Reuters)
Dusseldorf The US Department of Defense sees the recent Russian attacks in eastern Ukraine only as a sign of a major Russian offensive. “We understand these attacks are a prelude to major offensive actions that the Russians are planning,” a senior Pentagon official said in Washington on Tuesday.
Even if there is already intensified fighting on the ground southwest of Donetsk and south of Izyum, Russia is still in the process of expanding logistical capacities and bringing units into the country from outside Ukraine.
In the past 24 hours, Russia has brought two more tactical battalions into the country. There are now 78 of these units in the country. Such battalions usually consist of about 600 to 1000 soldiers.
According to Ukrainian information, the expected large-scale offensive by the Russians has already been going on for a day. President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video message on Monday evening: “We can now state that Russian troops have started the battle for Donbass, for which they have been preparing for a long time.” Russia’s Foreign Minister Lavrov confirmed on Tuesday morning that the next phase of the war propagated as “special operations” has begun.
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According to Ukraine’s chief negotiator Mykhailo Podoliak, it is difficult to say when peace talks with Russia could resume. “Of course, against the background of the Mariupol tragedy, the negotiation process has become even more complicated,” he wrote to Reuters. No direct negotiations have taken place since March 29.
Russia disagrees on evacuated civilians
In the southeastern Ukrainian port of Mariupol, which has been contested for weeks, another ultimatum by Russian troops passed without result on Tuesday afternoon. “No one used the new humanitarian corridor formed around Azovstal for civilians,” Alexei Nikonorov, a spokesman for the pro-Russian separatists, told Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti.
Overview of the situation in Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.
However, Russian television reported that 120 civilians had left the steelworks. The Russian Ministry of Defense had maintained until the very end that there were no women, children or other civilians in the steelworks. According to Ukrainian media, around 1,000 civilians are said to be holding out there.
At noon, the Russian military allegedly ordered a two-hour ceasefire for the steel mill. The Ukrainian fighters were asked to lay down their arms and leave the plant. In addition, they should also bring out civilians. The approximately 2,500 Ukrainian soldiers again refused to lay down their arms.
Meanwhile, fierce fighting is also going on elsewhere in Ukraine. In the southern Ukrainian region of Zaporizhia, the authorities are reporting heavy fighting around the small town of Polohy. “The men are holding the defensive line, but the enemy is attacking massively,” said the regional governor Olexander Staruch.
The Ukrainian General Staff announced that in the Donbass, the small town of Marjinka was again under the control of Kiev. “In the direction of Donetsk in the area of the city of Marjinka, the enemy suffered high losses as a result of a counterattack by our forces and retreated.” The Ukrainian units have regained control of the town, according to the General Staff situation report. There was no information on the status of the small town of Kreminna not far from Sievjerodonetsk, which Russian units are said to have penetrated the day before.
Belgium and the Netherlands supply heavy weapons
In view of the Russian offensive in the Donbass, Belgium and the Netherlands have announced the delivery of more heavy weapons to Ukraine. Now you have to take the next step and deliver heavier material, said Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Tuesday in Ghent at a joint press conference with his Belgian counterpart Alexander De Croo.
The city is destroyed by Russian missiles and bombs.
(Photo: IMAGO/Xinhua)
Belgium and the Netherlands would work together with other partners. Rutte did not say which countries these are. The Netherlands had previously announced that it would supply armored vehicles to Ukraine. Rutte spoke of the prodigious scale of Russian violence in eastern Ukraine and in places like Mariupol.
De Croo called the violence in Donbass an “absolute low point” for Europe. According to the Belgian head of government, sanctions against Russia can be tightened even further. These would certainly have an effect. “But this takes more time.” Ministers from both countries met on Tuesday in the Flemish city for joint government talks.
The USA and the British government also announced that they would be supplying more artillery pieces to Ukraine. “This is going to be an artillery conflict,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson told MPs in London.
Read more about the Ukraine war here:
In Germany, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) commented on the Russian offensive in the east after a video conference with EU and NATO partners. He promised to provide money so that Ukraine can buy weapons from the German arms industry. However, the head of government continues to reject the export of tanks.
With agency material
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