‘Time is running out’ for trapped Ukrainians, Red Cross warns; US, Chinese officials meet: Live Ukraine updates
The Red Cross is warning of a “worst-case scenario” for hundreds of thousands of civilians in the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol unless the parties agree to ensure their safety and access to humanitarian aid.
The agency said in a statement that hundreds of residents of Mariupol are “facing extreme or total shortages of basic necessities like food, water and medicine.”
The dark warning came amid revelations that a pregnant Ukrainian woman and her unborn child had died, days after images were seen around the world of her being rushed on a stretcher to an ambulance amid the devastation of a maternity hospital bombing in Mariupol. The images epitomized the horror of Russian attacks on innocent Ukrainian civilians.
The Red Cross statement described Mariupol as overwhelmed by “dead bodies – of civilians and combatants – that remain trapped under the rubble or lying in the open where they fell. Life-changing injuries and chronic, debilitating conditions cannot be treated. The human suffering is simply immense.”
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‘EVERYTHING WE CAN’:Polish border city throws its doors open to Ukrainians fleeing war
The agency called on the parties to agree on the terms of a cease-fire, routes for safe passage, and to ensure the deal is respected. It offered to act as a neutral intermediary in negotiations.
will meet with senior Chinese foreign policy adviser Yang Jiechi in Rome on Monday. China has called for a peaceful settlement in Ukraine but has rejected sanctions against Russia.
► At least 2.8 million Ukrainians have fled the country, the U.N. refugee agency said. Over 1.7 million of them exited through Poland.
►Europe saw tens of thousands of people rallying Sunday in protest of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
►American photojournalist Brent Renaud was killed Sunday in Ukraine when Russian soldiers opened fire on a car in Irpin, a town 30 miles outside the capital of Kyiv.
Much at stake for China in talks with US
National security adviser Jake Sullivan will meet with Chinese foreign policy adviser Yang Jiechi in Rome on Monday.
The White House emphasized that Monday’s discussion will cover a range of topics. But it’s the first high-level, in-person talks between the U.S. and China since Russia invaded Ukraine last month
As the war enters its third week and civilian casualties mount, Beijing has tried to stay on the sidelines. But President Xi Jinping could play a pivotal role – either in bolstering Russia militarily and economically or pressing Putin to stand down.
“Defining moment for Xi, China and 21st century,” tweeted Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations. Helping Russia would open China up to substantial sanctions and it would become a pariah, Haass wrote. Refusing would “keep open the possibility of at least selective cooperation” with the U.S. and the West. Read more here.
– Maureen Groppe
despite repeated escalated attacks by Russia in Ukraine.
So far, Zelenskyy’s requests have gone unanswered by the Kremlin. During his nightly address to his nation, Zelenskyy said Sunday that his delegation has a “clear task” to do everything to ensure a meeting between the two presidents, the Associated Press reports.
Zelenskyy said there are daily discussions between the two countries via video conference. He said the talks are necessary to establish a cease-fire and more humanitarian corridors. He said those corridors have saved more than 130,000 people in six days.
The humanitarian convoy to the besieged city of Mariupol was blocked Sunday by Russian forces. Zelenskyy said they would try again Monday.
Dmitry Peskov, Russia’s negotiator and President Vladimir Putin’s press secretary, confirmed the daily talks, the BBC reports.
In a video posted on social media and in a subsequent tweet, Mykhailo Podolyak, Ukraine’s negotiator and a Zelenskyy adviser, said Russia was beginning to engage constructively.
“Russia now much more adequately perceives the world around it,” Podolyak said. “It is much more sensitive to the position of Ukraine, which has been proven in battlefields, and in Ukraine’s actions in terms of protecting its interests.”
Pregnant woman, baby both die after bombing
A pregnant woman and her baby have died after Russia bombed the maternity hospital where she was meant to give birth, the Associated Press reports. Images of the woman being rushed to an ambulance on a stretcher seen around the world epitomize the horror of an attack on humanity’s most innocent.
In video and photos shot Wednesday by AP journalists after the attack on the hospital in the besieged city of Mariupol, the woman was seen stroking her bloodied lower abdomen as rescuers rushed her through the rubble, her blanched face mirroring her shock at what had just happened. It was among the most brutal moments so far in Russia’s now 19-day-old war on Ukraine.
The woman was rushed to another hospital, yet closer to the frontline, where doctors labored to keep her alive. Realizing she was losing her baby, medics said, she cried out to them, “Kill me now!”
Surgeon Timur Marin found the woman’s pelvis crushed and hip detached. Medics delivered the baby via cesarean section, but it showed “no signs of life,” the surgeon said.
Then, they focused on the mother.
“More than 30 minutes of resuscitation of the mother didn’t produce results,” Marin said Saturday.
“Both died.”
‘Russian TV channels’ will begin broadcasting soon, says new mayor of Russian-occupied Melitopol
The newly installed mayor in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city Melitopol said “Russian TV channels” would be broadcasting in the region soon. Galina Danilchenko said in a televised video Sunday claimed there was “a great deficit of trustworthy information being circulated,” as the decision for the broadcasting, according to CNN.
Her televised address was later posted on social media by pro-Russian Telegram channels and by the Ukrainian-controlled Zaporozhye regional administration.
Danilchenko was installed as mayor after elected mayor Ivan Fedorov was detained by armed men on Friday. The prosecutor’s office for the Russian-backed separatist region of Luhansk later accused Fedorov of terrorism offenses.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called for Federov’s immediate release, saying his “abduction” was a “crime against democracy.”