Ukraine, Zelensky: "No negotiations without Azovstal defenders"

war in Ukraine It can only be ended by means”Diplomats“While negotiations between Moscow and Kiev are on hold, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview with a Ukrainian TV channel. The war will be ‘bloody, it will be fought, but it will certainly end with diplomacy,'” Zelensky said. Azovstal has fallen. After 86 days of resistance that marked the fate and imagination of war, the steel industry has become a symbol of defense Mariupol Ukraine is no longer a bunker. “We’re going to bring them home,” Zelensky said. “That’s what we should do with our partners who took responsibility. The army told the boys to get out and save their lives.” Then the Ukrainian president explained that the resumption Negotiations With Russia, it will depend a lot on whether the Russians will save “the souls of the defenders of Mariupol”. At the moment, “a lot” depends on the results of the prisoner exchange, which should include the fighters who left the Azvostal steel plant. About the leader of pro-Russian separatists in Donetsk Denis Pushlin, The trial of Ukrainian fighters from Azovstal prisoners before a Russian court in Moscow is “inevitable”.Because it is “the request of the citizen and society.”

Ukraine, the last group of soldiers to leave the Azovstal lands

The Russians may have overestimated the number of Ukrainian defenders evacuated from Azovstal to maximize the number of Russian prisoners of war who could be replaced by Ukrainian soldiers or to avoid embarrassment in terms of admitting that they had laid a siege for months. Against only “hundreds” of Ukrainian soldiers: says the American Institute for the Studies of War (ISW) of the US Army. US military experts also noted that Russian soldiers “recaptured some positions taken by the Ukrainian counter-offensive north of Kharkiv.” Finally, they noted that “Russian forces may be preparing for a larger Ukrainian counterattack and a protracted conflict on the southern axis.”

The Russian Foreign Ministry has published a list of nearly 1,000 US citizens who are banned from entering RussiaThe Russian Interfax news agency reported that the list includes 963 citizens, including President Joe Biden. This action was taken in response to US sanctions against Russia.

Finland and gas
Meanwhile, Russia provided natural gas to Finland Finnish state-owned energy company Gasum said after the Scandinavian country refused to pay the supplier to Gazprom in rubles. “The supply of natural gas to Finland under the Gazum supply contract has been stopped,” the Finnish company said in a statement, adding that gas will now be supplied from other sources via the Baltic Pipeline connecting Finland with Finland.

dispute
Russia will study the “possibility” of an exchange of prisoners with Ukraine between the fighters of the Azov regiment and the pro-Russian oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk, who was captured last month in a 007 raid in Kyiv.

The number of civilian deaths in the past 24 hours in the Russian bombing of the eastern Lugansk region has risen to 13. This was announced by the head of the Regional Military Administration Sergei Gaidai, citing the BBC. Twelve people were killed in the city of Severodonetsk, a strategically important center for the Russians because its control would allow Russia to turn west and connect with Russian forces pushing southeast of Izyum.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in the latest update posted on Facebook, adding that “in the near future, it is expected that the concentration of forces in the Kharkiv direction will be reinforced with units of the 1st Tank Army of the Western Military District.” “The bombing continues along the entire line of contact,” continues the General Staff, noting that in the Volyn and Polsky directions in northern Ukraine, “the situation in general has not undergone significant changes. There is an increase in the security system . Electronic intelligence and electronic warfare in the areas bordering Ukraine The threat to launch missile and air attacks on Ukrainian targets from the territory of Belarus remains.”

A coal mine caught fire due to Russian bombing in the southeastern region of Ukraine, in Lysechhansk, causing casualties and injuries, according to the report of the Lugansk Regional Military Administration citing UNIAN.

The Russian Armed Forces destroyed a training base for special operations units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces near Odessa. This was announced by the Russian Defense Ministry, as reported by Interfax. “Rocket and artillery forces hit 77 command posts, 602 troop concentration areas and military equipment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, including a training ground for special operations units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces with personnel near Lake Sasek in the Odessa region,” said a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense. Igor Konashenkov.

“By closing our ports, Russia is putting millions of people at risk of starvation. Together with its partners, Ukraine has established two alternative land routes to deliver food exports and save Africa and other regions from starvation. Russia must end the blockade to allow a full and free export ”: said Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro in Tweet on Twitter Coleba.