Situation in the evening – Heavy fighting for the city of Kherson

new York Will the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson go back into Ukrainian hands? According to the US Department of Defense, Ukrainian forces are fighting to retake the city. Cherson is now to be rated as a “contested area” again, meaning that the Russians have lost control of the city.

Kherson, at the beginning of the Dnipro Estuary Delta, is a strategically important port city, a senior Pentagon official said. If the Ukrainians manage to recapture the city, it would complicate the Russian attack on the nearby city of Mykolaiv. It would also make a possible ground offensive in the direction of the eastern port city of Odessa much more difficult, he said. A possible recapture of Cherson would be “a significant development” for the war in southern Ukraine.

The Russian military took Cherson earlier this month. About ten days ago, Moscow reported the capture of the entire district.

In the capital Kyiv, too, the situation seemed to be turning in favor of the Ukrainians. Ukrainian troops managed to recapture several positions and villages in the vicinity of Kyiv. According to the Ukrainian military, a large-scale attack by Russian troops on Kyiv is still possible.

To this end, the enemy is continuing to pull together strong forces, said Ukraine’s army chief of staff Olexander Grusewitsch on Friday. In addition, according to the findings of the reconnaissance in the Caucasus Republic of Dagestan, special units are being prepared for this mission. This information cannot be independently verified.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Friday night that its forces would now focus on taking control of the entire eastern Donbass region – but launched a missile attack in the west.

The headquarters of the Ukrainian Air Force in Vinnytsia in the west of the country was fired at by several Russian cruise missiles during the night. Some of the six rockets were shot down as they approached, the rest hit the building, the Air Force leadership said on its Facebook page. This resulted in “considerable damage” to the infrastructure.

A photo on the Facebook page showed severe destruction. No information was given about possible victims of the attack in the late afternoon. The investigations and salvage work continued.

Russia continues to restrict press freedom

Meanwhile, in Russia, President Vladimir Putin has enacted new laws further restricting the work of media representatives. A new law will punish those who spread false news about Russian government employees abroad with up to 15 years in prison, the Interfax news agency reports.

She quoted a senior MP as saying the new law was necessary because people were spreading untrue news about Russian embassies and other Russian entities abroad. Many media companies have already withdrawn their employees from Russia for security reasons.

Russia tightly controls coverage of the war in Ukraine. It does not speak of a war, for example, but of a “special operation”.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky believes the Russian leadership has spent tens of billions of dollars on propaganda. “You all know very well what a huge state propaganda system Russia has built up,” he said in a video message on Saturday night. “Probably no one in the world has ever spent such huge sums on lies.”

However, Ukraine issues a warning in the event of reports of arms deliveries or military actions to Ukraine. These would play into the hands of the Russian side and help them “target actions more precisely,” Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maljar said.

It has already happened that “well-intentioned reports or reports published out of gratitude” about arms purchases or deliveries have led to either contracts being terminated or deliveries being prevented. “And so today, under conditions of war, we are trying to prevent any information leaking out about the aid we’re receiving,” she said.

Corridors bring thousands of people to safety

Meanwhile, there is a ray of hope for the people in the heavily contested Ukrainian port of Mariupol: France wants to launch a humanitarian campaign with Turkey and Greece to rescue people from the heavily contested eastern Ukrainian port in the short term. This was announced by President Emmanuel Macron on Friday evening after the EU summit in Brussels.

When planning the international rescue operation for the citizens of Mariupol, there are already concrete talks with the mayor and coordination with Ukrainian President Zelenskiy, Macron said in Brussels. An agreement is now also necessary with Russia, whose troops have been besieging the city for weeks.

Zelenskyj described the situation in Mariupol in a video speech as “absolutely tragic”. Russian military did not allow humanitarian aid to the residents. “So far this week we have managed to evacuate just over 26,000 civilians from the heavily contested city.

According to Ukrainian information, a total of 7,331 people were able to leave embattled cities via escape corridors on Friday. Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said 2,800 people self-organized to escape from Mariupol, which is under particularly heavy shelling.

The British government has promised help for people in surrounded cities. £2 billion in food will be made available to residents of trapped cities. “The local demand in Ukraine is great. Many people are stuck in basements in the encircled areas with no access to food or water,” said Alice Hooper, the UK Foreign Office’s humanitarian aid adviser, in a statement. 25 truckloads of dried food, canned goods and water are to be transported from warehouses in Poland and Slovakia to Ukraine’s most vulnerable cities.

That’s going to be important today

On the second day of his visit to Poland, US President Biden will give a speech in Warsaw on Saturday on the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. The appearance at the Warsaw Royal Castle is planned for the late afternoon between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m., according to the US Embassy in the Polish capital. Demonstrations against the war are planned across Germany on Saturday.

With agency material.

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