Kyiv (dpa-AFX) – During the Ukraine war, the city of Mariupol, which was besieged by Russia, tried again on Sunday to bring civilians to safety via a humanitarian corridor. According to Ukrainian accounts, people have been sitting there for days without electricity or heating, and there are said to be many dead and thousands injured. For its part, Russia reported military successes in eastern Ukraine. But the economic pressure on Moscow is growing: Mastercard and Visa are stopping international credit card payments with Russia.
Rescue from Mariupol?
After more than a week of war, Russia and Ukraine had already agreed on a temporary ceasefire for the southern Ukrainian port of Mariupol and a small town in the area on Saturday to let people flee. But the ceasefire was broken and the evacuation failed. Mariupol Mayor Wadym Boitschenko then spoke on Ukrainian television of a “humanitarian blockade” by Russian units. He is pleading for a corridor to be built to take the elderly, women and children out of the city of around 440,000 people.
There was a new attempt on Sunday morning, as the city administration announced. Accordingly, a fire break of several hours was agreed again in order to start the evacuation from 11:00 a.m. German time. The pro-Russian separatists of the “Donetsk People’s Republic” announced shortly thereafter that the first 300 people had left the city. According to Ukraine, it is also hoping for a humanitarian corridor for Kharkiv.
Ukraine reports military pressure on Kyiv
In addition to Mariupol, the Ukrainian general staff still sees the main focus of the Russian attackers in the encirclement of the capital Kyiv, the metropolis of Kharkiv in the east and the city of Mykolaiv in the south. Russian units attempted to enter the south-western outskirts of Kyiv, approaching the highway to Boryspil, where Kiev’s international airport is located. Russia is also planning to take over the Kaniv hydroelectric power plant around 150 kilometers south of Kyiv on the Dnipro River.
In Moscow, the Ministry of Defense reported the advance of the Russian army and the separatists it supports in eastern Ukraine. Russian forces and pro-Russian separatists took control of more than a dozen towns. At the same time, the Russian side reported Ukrainian attacks on the self-declared People’s Republics of Luhansk and Donetsk.
The information provided by both sides cannot be independently verified.
“We must go outside!”
Russian President Vladimir Putin said the goal of the invasion, which began on February 24, was to completely capture the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Putin speaks of a “special military operation”. According to Russia, it has destroyed more than 2,200 objects of military infrastructure, but also admitted hundreds of dead soldiers in its own ranks.
In a new video message, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy called on his compatriots to resist Russian troops. “We must go outside! We must fight! Whenever there is an opportunity.” As in Cherson, Berdyansk or Melitopol, people should go outside “and drive this evil out of our cities”.
Israel tries to mediate
Attempts at international mediation in the war currently seem to be of little use. Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett was in Moscow on Saturday for three-hour talks with Putin and then with Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin. Afterwards, the German government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit only said that the common goal remained to end the war in Ukraine “as quickly as possible”. “We will work on that with all our might.”
Bennett’s office announced on Sunday that the prime minister had called Zelensky for the third time in 24 hours. There were no details. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who spoke to Putin on Sunday, is also a mediator. Chancellor Scholz wanted to consult with EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Sunday.
Economic pressure on Russia
The USA, the EU and other western partners had imposed tough sanctions on Russia since the beginning of the war. Another blow from the private sector followed: the world’s two largest credit card providers, Visa and Mastercard, suspended international business with Russia. Visa said cards issued in Russia would soon no longer work abroad. Mastercard made a similar statement. In Russia itself, however, people should continue to be able to pay with their cards and withdraw money, as the Russian Sberbank announced.
Tens of thousands of Ukrainian refugees in Germany
Before the war, tens of thousands of people continue to flee across the Ukrainian borders to the European Union every day. Poland alone counted around 922,400 refugees from the neighboring country by Sunday morning, while 37,786 were registered in Germany, according to the Ministry of the Interior. However, the number could be much higher because there are no border controls.
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) said in the “Bild am Sonntag” that people would be admitted regardless of nationality. The vast majority of the refugees are Ukrainians. In addition, there were people from other countries who had a right of residence in Ukraine. She cited Indians who studied in Ukraine as an example. Faeser called the European cooperation in caring for the refugees “historic”.
The Saxon Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer (CDU) called for better coordination within Germany. The Governing Mayor of Berlin, Franziska Giffey, also called for help from the federal government on ZDF, since the capital is the main port of call for the refugees and is reaching its limits./vsr/DP/zb