fighting in downtown Mariupol, Russian military says

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09:04 : It’s a little after 9 a.m., here are the main headlines:

• The Russian Ministry of Defense announces that the Russian army and its separatist allies are now fighting in the city center of Mariupol, a besieged port in southern Ukraine. Follow the situation in our live.

• Three presidential candidates took part in the “Elysée 2022” program on France 2 last night. Eric Zemmour opened the ball, followed by Anne Hidalgo, then Nicolas Dupont-Aignan. They made statements that deserved some verification. We come back to nine assertions.

• Reform of the RSA, “simplification” of the hospital, retirement at 65… Emmanuel Macron has unveiled his program for the presidential election, the first round of which is scheduled for 24 days. The outgoing president assesses the cost of his proposals at “50 billion euros” by 2027.

• A crisis exit protocol drafted by Corsican nationalists was submitted to the Minister of the Interior last night, franceinfo learned. This official document puts in writing the commitments of the State in recent days, while Gérald Darmanin ends his trip to the island today.

08:42 : The Russian Ministry of Defense announces that the Russian army and its separatist allies are now fighting in the city center of Mariupol, a besieged port in southern Ukraine.

08:26 : Tight to 25 in the 40 m2 of their shelter, Sergei, his family and his neighbors rationed their food when they were stuck in Mariupol: no electricity, no gas. They made fires outside to cook a little. The water also quickly ran out. “We did everything to find water, in abandoned wells… We also melted the snow, but we mostly took water from the heating system”he says.

8:25 : “Death was the only thought on our minds.” This is what this father told franceinfo who managed to flee Mariupol, a port city in southern Ukraine besieged by the Russian army. Sergueï, a medical examiner, was able to leave Mariupol under the bombs on March 16. He poses here with his wife. They are now with friends in Dnipro.

(JEROME JADOT / RADIO FRANCE)

08:13 : To measure the repercussions of these increases on the daily lives of French people, we calculated the average cost of fuel for one month of commuting by municipality. The following map represents the impact of the price increase over the past year.

(FRANCEINFO)

08:11 : The increase in the price of a liter of fuel, which exceeds two euros almost everywhere in France, weighs heavily on the budget of the French. But not everyone is affected in the same way depending on where they live. Franceinfo therefore investigated the data.

08:09 : Yesterday, on franceinfo, the mayor of Lviv sent a message to Emmanuel Macron: “The French president today has a great responsibility on his shoulders for the future of France, Europe and the world. With each passing hour, without a no-fly zone, Ukrainian citizens are dying . And these deaths will be on his conscience.”

07:51 : So far, the great city of Lviv has been spared the fighting. But the Russian army bombarded a Ukrainian military base in this region on Sunday, killing at least 30 people.

07:49 : The mayor of Lviv, a city in the west of the country, says that “missiles” Russians hit the airport area.

07:46 : The American agency Associated Press is the last international media to still have journalists on site. According to his account, the bombardments seem to have redoubled in intensity over the past ten days and are affecting many civilian buildings. To find out more, it’s here.

(EVGENIY MALOLETKA / AP)

07:40 : Some 300,000 people are still present in Maioupol, a strategic Ukrainian port, besieged by the Russian army. The bodies accumulate in the streets, and the inhabitants cannot flee. We tell the story in this article.

(EVGENIY MALOLETKA / AP)

06:27 : ?LIVE – ? Suspension of the Exomars mission ➡️ ”It’s a very beautiful mission that is in danger. There was a planned departure on a Russian launcher in the coming months, but it’s not possible”, says Philippe Baptiste, CEO of CNES. https://t.co/LbZynE7LMG

06:28 : The Exomars mission was originally planned for 2020 but was delayed by the pandemic. It is now seriously compromised, especially since the window of opportunity for the red planet only opens every two years. “It is a very beautiful mission which is endangered“comments on franceinfo Philippe Baptiste, CEO of the National Center for Space Studies.

06:28 : This is another consequence of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The European Space Agency announced yesterday the end of its cooperation with Russia and the Exomars mission is suspended. The organization “fully aligns with the sanctions imposed on Russia by its member states”, she wrote in a press release. The head of the Russian Space Agency said he regretted this decision. He called her a“very bitter event for all space enthusiasts” and “very regrettable”.

06:17 : Joe Biden is due to meet during the day with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to talk about the war in Ukraine. “President Biden (…) will make it clear to him that China will bear responsibility for any act aimed at supporting Russian aggression and that we will not hesitate to impose costs on him”warned Antony Blinken, the head of American diplomacy.

06:14 : On Wednesday, Joe Biden called Vladimir Putin a “war criminal”. But the White House spokeswoman then tried to play down the importance of these statements. “The president was speaking from his heart and from what you saw on TV, which is the barbaric actions of a brutal dictator”had insisted Jen Psaki.

07:26 : Joe Biden once again had undiplomatic words with regard to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. The US President called the Kremlin leader a “murderous dictator” and of “pure thug”. He said this yesterday at the “Friends of Ireland luncheon” hosted by Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi in Washington. Find more details in our article.

07:26 : It’s 6 a.m. and dust, let’s do a first reminder of the titles to start the day:

• Three presidential candidates took part in the “Elysée 2022” program on France 2 last night. Eric Zemmour opened the ball, followed by Anne Hidalgo, then Nicolas Dupont-Aignan. Here’s what to remember from the evening.

• Reform of the RSA, “simplification” of the hospital, retirement at 65… Emmanuel Macron unveiled his program for the presidential election. The outgoing president assesses the cost of his proposals at “50 billion euros” by 2027.

• New verbal escalation. Joe Biden raises his voice against Vladimir Putin and compares him to “a murderous dictator” and to “a pure thug”. During this time, Emmanuel Macron spoke again in the evening with Volodymyr Zelensky.

• The Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin assured in Corsica to engage “the word of the state” in his discussions with nationalist leaders about possible autonomy for the island. Justice has suspended the sentence of Yvan Colonna for “medical reason”.