The battle is still ongoing. The port city of Mariupol, in southern Donbass, “continues to resist Russia, despite everything the occupiers say”, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday, April 21, in a video address. Russians “can only delay the inevitable, the moment when the invaders will have to leave our territory, in particular Mariupol”, he added. Shortly before, Moscow had assured that it had “released” the city, with the exception of the resistance pocket of Azovstal. According to kyiv, the Russian army does not have enough troops to surround the factory where the last fighters have taken refuge. Follow our live.
kyiv accuses Moscow of having hampered the evacuations. Three civilian evacuation buses from Mariupol arrived in Zaporizhia, a large city in southeastern Ukraine, on Thursday. Ukrainian officials say they wanted to evacuate many more civilians, but accuse Russian forces of targeting a road used by people fleeing the fighting. “Dear inhabitants (…) we will not give up trying to get you out of this”said Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshuk.
Independence referendums in Kherson and Zaporizhia? the Ukrainian president accuses Russia of trying to organize a fake independence referendum in the regions it occupies in the south of the country. He asked residents not to provide any personal data requested by the Russian forces. “It’s not just to conduct a census. (…) It’s not to give you humanitarian aid of any kind. It’s actually to tamper with a so-called referendum on your land , if the order to organize this comedy comes from Moscow”according to him.
New arms deliveries in sight. US President Joe Biden announced $800 million in new military aid for Ukraine on Thursday. This envelope includes “heavy artillery weapons, dozens of howitzers, 144,000 munitions as well as drones”, he pointed out. Germany also assured that Ukraine would receive, “in the next few days”heavy weapons, including tanks, from Eastern European partners.