Ukraine forces fight to keep Mariupol; Russians likely exposed to radiation at Chernobyl: Live updates
Azovstal steel mill to lay down their arms passed without a mass surrender.
About 1,000 civilians, including women and children, were still trapped in the steel mill along with Ukrainian soldiers, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday.
Zelenskyy said Russia has stonewalled Ukraine’s attempts to negotiate a safe exit for them. “We are open to different formats of exchange of our people for Russian people, Russian military that they have left behind,” he said.
Ukraine also has tried to get Russia to agree on a humanitarian corridor to evacuate the 120,000 people who Zelenskyy said remain under siege in Mariupol.
Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk added the planned evacuation had failed because of Russia wouldn’t observe a cease-fire. “The humanitarian corridor didn’t work as planned,” she said.
shift in the fighting to eastern Ukraine, U.S. officials are also considering a new military aid package for Ukraine.part of the $800 million aid package approved last week, according to a senior Defense Department official.
U.S. troops have begun training about 50 Ukrainians to use the howitzers, said the official who was not authorized to speak publicly about military operations. The training will take about a week and is occurring outside Ukraine. Those Ukrainians will then train their own forces on the equipment.
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Latest developments:
►The U.S. unveiled another round of sanctions Tuesday targeting Russian officials and organizations tied to the Kremlin. One batch announced by the Secretary of State targeted more than 600 individuals involved in suppressing dissent, media and democracy in the region. Another announced by the Treasury Department targeted banks and networks being used to evade U.S. sanctions.
► More than 5 million refugees have fled Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion, according to a U.N. refugee agency’s latest tally as of Wednesday.
►Serhiy Haidai, the head of the Luhansk Regional Military Administration, told CNN on Wednesday that 80% of the region’s territory was under Russian control.
►Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said Wednesday the country would supply protective equipment like helmets and vests to Ukrainian rescue forces and civilian organizations. Though it has provided humanitarian aid, Israel has refused to supply Ukraine with weapons and other direct military assistance.
►Nuclear regulators have regained phone contact with operators of the Chernobyl power plant more than a month after contact was lost, the International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi said in a statement.
►Russian and Belarusian tennis players will be barred from competing at Wimbledon due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the event’s organizers said Wednesday.
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exposing themselves to harmful levels of radiation.
Thousands of tanks and troops rumbled into the forested Chernobyl exclusion zone in the earliest hours of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, churning up highly contaminated soil.
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For more than a month, some Russian soldiers bunked in the earth within sight of the massive structure built to contain radiation from the damaged Chernobyl nuclear reactor. A close inspection of their trenches was impossible because even walking on the dirt is discouraged.
Some soldiers even stole highly radioactive materials as souvenirs or possibly to sell.
“I think from movies they have the imagination that all dangerous small things are very valuable,” Valerii Semenov, the plant’s main security engineer, told The Associated Press.
Ukraine foreign ministry says four-day ‘humanitarian pause’ is necessary
The Ukrainian foreign ministry on Wednesday said a four-day “humanitarian pause” was necessary to evacuate civilians after the United Nations chief called for a brief halt to hostilities for Easter.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday called for the four-day pause beginning Thursday to observe Holy Week in the Orthodox Christian tradition. Guterres said it was even more necessary given the intensified attacks in eastern Ukraine this week
“We fully share the view that the humanitarian pause is necessary for the safe evacuation of thousands of civilians who wish to leave the dangerous zones of ongoing and possible hostilities, especially from the long-suffering Mariupol,” Ukraine’s foreign ministry said in a statement Wednesday.
– Ryan Miller
Read more about their efforts here.
– Grace Hauck
Odesa Jews celebrate a wartime Passover under curfew
Peskov didn’t give further details. He blamed Ukraine for the slow progress in negotiations, and claimed that Kyiv constantly deviates from previously confirmed agreements. “The dynamic of work on the Ukrainian side leaves much to be desired, the Ukrainians do not show a great inclination to intensify the negotiation process,” he said.
Ukraine presented Russia with its own draft last month in Istanbul, where the two sides held talks aimed at ending the conflict. It has been unclear how regularly the two sides have spoken to each other since then.
$800 million package approved last week that included howitzers. It comes as Russia has focused its forces in eastern Ukraine, where artillery and armored vehicles are expected to play a central role in the fighting.
The official, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said that more military aid will likely be sent to Ukraine in coming months. The U.S. artillery will come from existing stocks and not affect readiness, the official said.
When asked by a reporter Tuesday whether his administration would be sending more artillery to Ukraine, President Joe Biden responded, “yes,” but did not elaborate.
– Tom Vanden Brook
Victory Day celebrations on May 9, which is traditionally celebrated by the Baltic country’s sizable ethnic-Russian population to mark the end of World War II.
Among the banned symbols are the flags of the Soviet Union and Russia, USSR military uniforms and the black-orange Ribbon of Saint George worn in Russia to mark the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in WWII. The ban is valid until May 10 and applies to the capital, Tallinn, and its surrounding areas.
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Russia advancing in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukrainian officials say
Russian troops were advancing toward Zaporizhzhia with battles occurring within the region, Ukrainian officials said Wednesday.
The head of the Zaporizhzhia Regional Military Administration, Oleksandr Starukh, described the new advance as “a massive offensive,” according to state news agency Ukrinform. The city’s regional council also warned of the Russian advance, CNN reported.
Starukh said the area around the town of Polohy had worsened with daily attacks, Ukrinform reported, while the regional council said Russian troops were making advances in the direction of nearby Huliaipole and Pokrovske, CNN reported.
The city of Zaporizhzhia is part of a humanitarian evacuation route from Mariupol that deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk said would take take place Wednesday.
Mariupol mayor tells residents to leave besieged city
Remaining residents in the port city of Mariupol should leave as Russian forces encircle the last pocket of Ukrainian defense inside the Azovstal steel mill, Mayor Vadym Boychenko said Wednesday.
Ukrainian deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on Facebook a humanitarian corridor for women, children and older people had been agreed upon. Boychenko said buses, including one that that would pick up residents near the steel mill, would be used in the evacuation. Prior attempts relied on private cars as buses were unable to access to besieged city on the Sea of Azov.
“Do not be frightened and evacuate to Zaporizhzhia, where you can receive all the help you need — food, medicine, essentials — and the main thing is that you will be in safety,” Boychenko wrote in a statement issued by the city council.
More than 400,000 people lived in Mariupol before the Russian invasion, with at least half having since fled, Boychenko said. Russian shelling for weeks has left the city flattened and citizens without food or water.
Contributing: The Associated Press