Ukraine has offered Russia talks next to the vast Azovstal metallurgical complex in Mariupol, the Ukrainian presidency announced on Sunday (April 24th). “We invited the Russians to hold a special session of talks right next to the Azovstal site”said during a briefing an adviser to Volodymyr Zelensky, Oleksiï Arestovitch, adding “wait for response” of the Russian delegation. In this city largely under Russian control, Ukrainian fighters and civilians are still entrenched. SFollow our live.
The UN has called for a truce “immediate” in Mariupolto allow the evacuation of some 100,000 civilians still stuck in this Ukrainian port almost entirely controlled by the Russian army. “There needs to be a pause in the fighting now to save lives. The longer we wait, the more lives will be at risk”said the UN coordinator in Ukraine.
US officials expected in kyiv. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken are expected in kyiv on Sunday. They must discuss the deliveries of American weapons to Ukraine, had specified the day before Volodymyr Zelensky. The Ukrainian president would like them “even heavier and more powerful” against the Russian army.
“It will take fifty years to demine” Ukraine, estimated Perrine Benoist, the Director of Armed Violence Reduction for the NGO Handicap International. According to an official of the demining services of the Ukrainian Civil Security, explosive devices still active are present on almost half of the country’s territory.
Heavy fighting in the south and east of the country. On Saturday morning, the Russian army said it carried out 1,098 strikes with artillery and rockets in 24 hours. “They literally bomb everything, (…) all the time”, wrote the governor of the Luhansk region on Telegram, calling on the population to evacuate. Six civilians were killed by strikes in this area.