War in Ukraine | Kyiv calls on China to “condemn Russian barbarism”

(Kyiv) Ukraine on Saturday called on Moscow’s strategic ally China to “condemn Russian barbarism” after new strikes – including with a new hypersonic missile touted by Vladimir Putin – that left dozens dead.

Sirens sounded on Saturday evening in Kyiv, according to social media, and Russian airstrikes again followed one another at a rapid pace during the day on Mykolaiv, a city in southern Ukraine where dozens of soldiers were killed. the day before in a strike against an army barracks, local governor Vitaliy Kim said on social networks.

He did not provide details on the extent of the damage or the number of possible victims.

In Mykolaiv, witnesses gave assessments varying from simple to double after the destruction by six rockets of this barracks.

“No less than 200 soldiers were sleeping in the barracks,” said a 22-year-old soldier interviewed on the spot, according to whom “at least 50 bodies were extracted”. Another soldier estimated that there could have been 100 dead.

The Russians “cowardly carried out missile strikes against sleeping soldiers. A relief operation is still ongoing,” Governor Vitaly Kim said in a video posted to Facebook on Saturday.

In the west of the country, the Russian Ministry of Defense claimed to have used brand new “Kinjal” hypersonic missiles, touted by Vladimir Putin, the day before to destroy an underground weapons warehouse.

“Ukraine has unfortunately become a testing ground for the entire Russian missile arsenal,” Ukrainian air force spokesman Yuri Ignat told the Ukrainska Pravda website.

1400 airstrikes

According to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, Russian troops, whose progress on the ground has been much more difficult than expected in the face of fierce Ukrainian resistance, have carried out 291 missile strikes and 1,403 air raids since the start of the invasion. February 24.

In Zaporozhye (west of Kyiv), the regional administration said a bombardment on Friday left nine dead and 17 injured. Seven people were also killed and five injured by Russian mortar fire in Makariv, about fifty kilometers west of Kyiv, according to the regional police.

The bombings have not ceased either in Kyiv, the capital and in Kharkiv, a large Russian-speaking city in the northwest, where at least 500 people have been killed since the start of the war, according to official Ukrainian figures. A man and a 9-year-old child were again killed there by shelling, local authorities said on Saturday.

In Mariupol, a port city in the south-east, surrounded and bombarded with its inhabitants for several weeks, Kyiv admitted having lost access to the Sea of ​​Azov. The Russian army said on Friday that it had succeeded in entering the city.

According to an adviser to the Ukrainian Ministry of the Interior, Vadym Denysenko, quoted by the Interfax-Ukraine agency, the situation there is “catastrophic”.

Families have recounted the corpses lying on the streets for days, hunger, thirst and the biting cold of nights spent in cellars with sub-zero temperatures.

A group of 19 children, most of them orphans, are “in great danger”, stranded in a sanatorium in the city – their guardians having been unable to recover them due to the fighting – said Saturday their relatives and witnesses to the AFP.

And “one of the most important metallurgical plants in Europe”, Azovstal, was “destroyed”, causing “enormous economic losses” for Ukraine, said a Ukrainian MP, Lesia Vasylenko, on her Twitter account.

The results of Wednesday’s bombardment of a theater where more than a thousand people had taken refuge in an underground shelter, which Kyiv accuses Moscow of having struck “knowingly”, was also still unknown on Saturday.

China and the “right decision”

Faced with the continuation of deadly bombardments, and dragging on negotiations, the Ukrainian presidency has urged China to take a stand.

China, Moscow’s strategic ally, is a permanent member of the UN Security Council and one of the major absentees, along with India, from the concert of condemnations and sanctions that have befallen Russia.

“China can be an important part of the global security system if it makes the right decision to support the coalition of civilized countries and condemn Russian barbarism,” tweeted Mykhaïlo Podoliak, an adviser to Mr. Zelensky and one of the participants in the meetings. negotiations with Russia.

US President Joe Biden spoke with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Friday to explain “the consequences if China provides material support to Russia”, according to the White House.

But Mr. Xi maintained the ambiguity, confining himself to stressing that military conflicts were “in no one’s interest”, according to Chinese television.

In New Delhi, it was Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida who urged India, a major buyer of Russian arms and oil, to step aside and condemn the invasion. His Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, refrained from mentioning Ukraine, and the joint statement was limited to a call for “an immediate cessation of violence.” »

President Zelensky, however, once again stressed that “negotiations on peace and security for Ukraine are the only chance for Russia to minimize the damage caused by its own mistakes”, in a video posted on Facebook, filmed by night.

Several waves of negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow have taken place since February 24. The fourth opened on Monday at the level of delegations negotiating by videoconference.

The head of the Russian delegation said on Friday evening that he saw a “rapprochement” of positions on the question of a neutral status for Ukraine and the demilitarization of the country.

But Ukrainian negotiator Mikhailo Podoliak stressed that the “statements of the Russian side are only their starting demands”.

Ukraine refuses a simple status of neutrality and demands “absolute security guarantees”.

For the head of British diplomacy, however, Liz Truss, these talks are only a “smokescreen” before a new offensive.

Russian “war crime”

The Ukrainian president said that 180,000 people had so far been able to flee from combat zones through humanitarian corridors.

“But the occupiers continue to block humanitarian aid, especially around sensitive areas. It’s a well-known tactic. […] It’s a war crime,” said Mr. Zelensky.

According to Ukrainian authorities, 6,623 people were evacuated through humanitarian corridors on Saturday, including 4,128 fleeing Mariupol and 1,820 fleeing Kyiv.

Since February 24, more than 3.2 million Ukrainians have taken the road to exile, nearly two-thirds of them to Poland, sometimes only a stage before continuing their exodus.

According to a count as of March 18 by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Ukraine, at least 816 civilians have been killed in Ukraine and more than 1,333 injured. He pointed out that this assessment was probably much lower than the reality.

Kyiv, the capital, has been emptied of at least half of its 3.5 million inhabitants. According to the town hall, 222 people – including 60 civilians – were killed there.

No overall assessment has been provided at this stage. Mr. Zelensky mentioned on March 12 the death of “about 1,300” Ukrainian servicemen, while Moscow only reported nearly 500 dead in its ranks on March 2.

Ukraine said it had “562 Russian prisoners of war”, and held them in accordance with international law, “like a civilized country”.

In a video link with Bern, Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday blasted companies like the Nestlé group that continue to operate in Russia. He called on Switzerland to freeze the assets of Russian billionaires and those close to the Kremlin.

Australia, for its part, announced in a government statement on Sunday an embargo on its exports to Russia of aluminum ore, a strategic material for the arms industry. Russia is 20% dependent on Australia for its aluminum needs, according to Canberra.