Kyiv, Ukraine – The President of Ukraine said he would meet with the Secretary of State and the US Secretary of Defense in Kyiv on Sunday.
President Vladimir Zelenski spoke about the plans at a press conference on Saturday. He did not immediately share more details about the visit of Anthony Blinken and Lloyd Austin.
The White House declined to comment on Saturday. The US State Department also declined to comment.
For weeks, Zelensky has called on Western allies to send more weapons to Ukraine to counter the Russian invasion.
___
KEY DEVELOPMENT OF THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR:
– Ukrainian counterattacks slow down Russia’s offensive in the east
– The Ukrainian village is facing Easter without a church
– Sanctions have hit the Russian economy, although Putin says otherwise
– Refugees in the Czech Republic make protective vests for volunteer fighters
– Possible mass graves near Mariupol, shown in satellite images
– The UN chief of rights sees a “terrible history” of violations in Ukraine
– Follow all AP stories about Russia’s war against Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
___
OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:
BERLIN – Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has dismissed criticism of his work as a lobbyist for Russian energy companies since leaving office in 2005, telling the New York Times: “I’m not doing mea culpa.”
In an interview with the newspaper published on Saturday, Schroeder also said that his longtime friend, Russian President Vladimir Putin, was interested in ending the war with Ukraine.
Schroeder reportedly criticized German officials, who are now criticizing his efforts to secure Russian energy supplies to Germany, saying “they have all agreed to this over the past 30 years.”
In an interview, he called the war in Ukraine a “mistake” and said atrocities should be investigated, but added that he did not believe Putin himself had ordered the killing of civilians, such as those allegedly carried out by Russian troops in Ukraine. Bucha.
Schroeder, who met with Putin in Moscow last month on a private peace mediation mission with Ukraine, said the Russian president was “interested in ending the war.”
“But it’s not that easy. There are several points that need to be clarified, “he was quoted as saying by the New York Times.
___
LONDON – The office of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he had promised more defensive weapons were on their way to Ukraine as he spoke to President Vladimir Zelensky by phone on Saturday afternoon, the last conversation between the two leaders, who talk to each other regularly.
The British leader told Zelensky that the United Kingdom was sending more weapons, including vehicles, drones and anti-tank missiles.
Johnson also confirmed to Zelensky that the United Kingdom will reopen its embassy in Kyiv next week. He also briefed the Ukrainian leader on new indications of British sanctions against members of the Russian military and told him that the British government was helping to gather evidence of war crimes.
The two also discussed the UK’s work on long-term security solutions and financial support with international partners.
“The prime minister concluded by reiterating the United Kingdom’s unwavering support for the people of Ukraine and pledging to continue working with international partners to provide the necessary assistance to help Ukraine defend itself,” a statement from Downing Street said.
___
Kyiv, Ukraine – An adviser to the Ukrainian president said five people, including a three-month-old baby, were killed in a rocket attack in the Black Sea port city of Odessa.
The head of the office of Ukrainian President Andriy Ermak provided the information on Saturday.
Earlier, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister said Russian forces had fired at least six cruise missiles into the city.
Anton Gerashchenko said in a Telegram post on Saturday that Ukrainian forces had managed to shoot down several missiles, but at least one had landed and exploded.
“Residents of the city heard explosions in different areas,” Gerashchenko wrote. “Residential buildings were damaged.”
___
HELSINKI – Hundreds of protesters from Latvia’s large Russian-speaking community took part in a large-scale demonstration in the Baltic capital, Riga, condemning the Kremlin regime and Moscow’s aggression against Ukraine.
Participants in Saturday’s rally, Voice of Russia Against the War, waved Ukrainian flags and posters reading “Stop the Genocide in Ukraine” and the “Full Russian Gas and Oil Embargo” on the central monument to freedom, Latvian public television LSM reported.
Organizers said the protest was aimed at demonstrating that many Russian-speakers in Latvia were not linked to Russian President Vladimir Putin. In a statement, they called Moscow’s actions “criminal.”
Ethnic Russians make up about 25% of the 1.9 million population in Latvia, a former Soviet republic. Adding other national groups, such as Belarusians and Ukrainians, the share of Russian-speakers is about 30% of all citizens.
Earlier this week, Latvia’s parliament unanimously declared the killing of civilians in areas of Ukraine occupied by Russian forces, including Bucha, Irpin and Mariupol, to be acts of genocide.
___
Kyiv, Ukraine – A high-ranking Ukrainian official has announced a curfew across the country for Orthodox Easter night.
Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, said in a video on Saturday that in the regions most affected by the invasion – Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Kherson – curfew will run from 7pm on Saturday to 5 p.m. I’m on Sunday night.
In other regions, including Kyiv, Odessa, Chernihiv and Lviv, curfews will run from 11pm on Saturday to 5am on Sunday.
___
Kyiv, Ukraine – An adviser to Ukraine’s presidential office says Russian forces are attacking a steel plant, the last stronghold of Ukrainian forces in the strategic port city of Mariupol.
Alexei Arestovich, an adviser to the head of Ukraine’s presidential office, said at a briefing on Saturday that Russian forces had resumed air strikes on Azovstal and were trying to storm it.
“The enemy is trying to completely suppress the resistance of the defenders of Mariupol in the Azovstal region,” Arestovic said.
Arestovich’s statement came two days after Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told President Vladimir Putin that all of Mariupol, with the exception of Azovstal, had been “liberated” by the Russians.
Putin has ordered the Russian military not to storm the plant and instead block it in an apparent attempt to stifle the remaining pockets of resistance there.
Ukrainian authorities estimate that about 2,000 of their troops are inside the plant, along with about 1,000 shelters in the facility’s underground tunnels.
Arestovich says Ukrainian fighters are still holding out despite renewed attacks and are even trying to counter them.
___
LVIV, Ukraine – Lviv Regional Governor Maxim Kozitsky has announced a curfew that begins on Orthodox Easter night.
Citing “new intelligence”, Kozicki said the curfew would run from 11pm on Saturday to 5am on Sunday, and then every day between those hours until another order was issued.
“Unfortunately, the enemy does not have such a concept as a major religious holiday,” Kozicki wrote. “They’re so brutal they don’t understand what Easter is.”
Kozicki said the church leadership supports the decision and that all churches in the region will postpone their Easter night services until the morning hours.
___
Kyiv, Ukraine – A video released by the Azov Regiment of the National Guard of Ukraine, part of a group currently hiding at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, shows women and children sheltered underground. Some of them hide in the tunnels of the plant for up to two months.
“We want to see a peaceful sky, we want to breathe fresh air,” a woman said in a video released Saturday. “You just have no idea what it means for us to just eat, drink some sweetened tea. For us, this is already happiness. “
Another young girl in the video says she and her relatives left home on February 27. They have not seen “neither the sky nor the sun” since. “We really want to get out of here safely so no one gets hurt,” she said.
Azov Deputy Commander Svyatoslav Palamar told the AP that the video was shot on Thursday. The content of the video cannot be verified independently.
According to Ukrainian authorities, about 1,000 civilians, including women and children, remain trapped in Azovstal along with Ukrainian troops hiding there.
___
Kyiv, Ukraine – Kharkiv Regional Governor Oleg Sinegubov said two people were killed and 19 others were injured in Russian shelling.
Sinehubov told the Telegram news agency on Saturday that Russian forces had fired on the region’s civilian infrastructure 56 times in the past day.
Kharkiv, which is close to the front line, is facing repeated shelling by Russian forces.
___
Kyiv, Ukraine – Efforts to evacuate civilians to safer areas will continue in Ukraine on Saturday, country officials said.
Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk told the Telegram news app that there would be a new attempt to evacuate women, children and the elderly from the strategic port city of Mariupol, which has been besieged by Russian forces for weeks and largely reduced to smoldering rubble. bombing.
Earlier this week, the Kremlin announced that Mariupol had been “liberated”, with the exception of the Azovstal steel plant, the last pocket of resistance where Ukrainian troops were hiding.
Vereshchuk said that “if everything goes according to plan”, the evacuation in Mariupol will begin at noon on Saturday. Many previous attempts to evacuate civilians from the city have failed.
Luhansk Oblast Governor Sergei Haidai told the Telegram that an evacuation train would depart from the eastern city of Pokrovsk on Saturday. Residents of Donetsk …
Add Comment