Russia accuses Ukraine of killing civilians
Russia on Monday accused Ukraine of killing civilians following a strike in the pro-Russian separatist city of Donetsk. According to a statement from the Russian Investigative Committee, “at least 23 civilians […]including children, were killed and no less than 18 people were injured”.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov claimed that the Ukrainian military fired a Tochka-U missile at a residential area. “The use of this kind of weapon against a city where there is no armed forces firing position […] is a war crime,” he said.
The Ukrainian army, for its part, has denied any action in this direction.
Negotiations continue
Negotiations between Russia and Ukraine resumed on Monday by videoconference. “We must stand firm and fight to win, to achieve a peace that Ukrainians deserve, an honest peace with security guarantees for our state, for our people. And to put them in writing during negotiations, difficult negotiations,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video.
The fourth round of talks between Ukraine and Russia will resume on Tuesday, reported Ukrainian negotiator Mykhailo Podoliak. “We are taking a technical break in the negotiations until tomorrow” to allow “additional work by sub-working groups and clarification” of certain terms, he said.
Russian strikes
Two people were killed Monday in Russian bombardments on kyiv which targeted a residential building and the Antonov aeronautical factory, according to the town hall of the Ukrainian capital.
In Kharkiv, a Russian bombardment killed two people, according to the regional prosecutor’s office. Nine people were killed in a strike by the Russian army against a television tower near Rivne, in the west of the country, according to local authorities.
The Russian army “does not exclude the possibility of taking full control of the large cities which are already surrounded”, warned the spokesman of the Kremlin, Dmitry Peskov.
More than 2.8 million refugees
More than 2.8 million people have fled Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion, according to the latest count published by the UN, which also lists around two million internally displaced people.
Some 160 cars were able to exit Monday, through a humanitarian corridor, from the city of Mariupol, besieged by Russian and pro-Russian separatist forces, according to the municipality.
Mariupol’s pregnant wife died
A pregnant woman photographed by the Associated Press in Mariupol following the Russian shelling of a maternity ward has died. The image of this future mother on a stretcher, her face pale and her hand resting on her bloody belly, had gone around the world.
Born by caesarean section, the baby showed no “signs of life”, said the surgeon in charge of childbirth, Timur Marin. Thirty minutes later, doctors declared the mother dead.
With Agence France-Presse