Russian forces are withdrawing from the northeastern city of Kharkov, Ukrainian authorities say, while the wives of soldiers trapped in the besieged port of Mariupol have called on Chinese leader Xi Jinping to save them.
The Ukrainian army’s general staff said on Saturday that after a bloody battle, the Russians appeared to be leaving their positions around Ukraine’s second-largest city, 50km from the Russian border.
According to District Governor Oleg Sinegubov, the relentless shelling by civilians in the region was also halted on Saturday as Ukrainian forces launched a counter-offensive near the town of Izyum, 78 miles south of Kharkiv.
The head of Ukraine’s military intelligence, Major General Kirill Budanov, told Sky News that he believed that Russian progress would stop completely in the summer.
He said: “The turning point will be in the second half of August. Most of the active hostilities will end by the end of this year. As a result, we will restore Ukrainian power in all our territories that we have lost, including Donbass and Crimea.
Ukraine’s success in the northeast contrasts with the situation of other soldiers trapped at the Azovstal steel plant in the southeastern city of Mariupol, whose relatives have turned to China to persuade Vladimir Putin to allow them to cross Turkey safely.
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Speaking at a news conference in Kyiv on Saturday, Natalia Zaritska, the wife of Bogdan Sements, one of those trapped in sprawling steel mills, said: “Strong leaders cannot stand aside when there is evil.
“After all these negotiations, there is one person in the world whom Vladimir Putin would find difficult to deny. We hope that a strong and good China can make difficult decisions for good.
“We ask the esteemed Prime Minister of China Xi Jinping to express love and care for global values and Eastern wisdom and to join the process of rescuing the defenders of Mariupol.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said talks with Moscow to rescue a “large number” of wounded defenders and some medics from the Mariupol plant in exchange for the release of Russian prisoners of war were “very complicated”, adding that Kyiv used influential intermediaries.
Zelensky: Ukraine is gaining more ground again as Russia suffers “worst aviation losses in decades” – video
Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk told local television on Saturday that efforts were now focused on evacuating about 60 people.
Svyatoslav Palamar, deputy commander of the Azov Regiment, which makes up most of the plant’s other forces, said in a YouTube video that his soldiers were holding on.
He said: “Our enemy, backed by planes and artillery, continues to attack. They continue to attack our positions, but we continue to repel them. “
The development came when the G7 foreign ministers – the world’s seven largest economies – issued a joint statement saying they would not recognize the borders Russia is trying to redraw.
After three days of talks in northern Germany, ministers from the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States have warned they will expand sanctions against Russia, which will cripple its economy.
They said: “We will never recognize the borders that Russia has tried to change through military aggression, and we will maintain our commitment to supporting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, including Crimea, and all countries.
“We reaffirm our determination to increase economic and political pressure on Russia by continuing to act in unity.
They warned that the war in Ukraine was fueling a global food crisis and called on Moscow to unlock key ports and allow Ukrainian grain exports.
They said: “Up to 50 million people, especially in Africa and the Middle East, will die in the next few months.” Russia’s aggressive war has sparked one of the worst food and energy crises in recent history. vulnerable around the world. “
The G7 also called on China not to help Putin and “to refrain from manipulating information, misinformation and other means of legitimizing Russia’s aggressive war against Ukraine.”
Three weeks before Putin began his war in Ukraine, the Russian president signed a pact with his Chinese counterpart, saying there would be no restrictions on co-operation between the two countries.
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