Ukraine’s president urged civilians
on Saturday to evacuate the frontline Donetsk region, the scene of fierce
clashes with the Russian military, as Kyiv called on the Red Cross and UN to
gain access to its soldiers being held by Moscow’s forces.
The eastern Donetsk region has faced the brunt of Russia’s offensive since
its assault on Kyiv failed weeks into the invasion launched on February 24.
President Volodymyr Zelensky warned in his daily address that thousands of
people, including children, were still in the region’s battleground areas,
with six civilians killed and 15 wounded on Friday, according to the Donetsk
governor.
“There’s already a governmental decision about obligatory evacuation from
Donetsk,” Zelensky said, underscoring authorities’ calls to leave the
besieged region in recent weeks.
“Leave, we will help,” Zelensky said. “At this stage of the war, terror is
the main weapon of Russia.”
Official Ukrainian estimates put the number of civilians still living in the
unoccupied area of Donetsk at between 200,000 and 220,000.
A mandatory evacuation notice posted Saturday evening said the coming winter
made it a matter of urgency, particularly for the more than 50,000 children
still in the region.
“They need to be evacuated, you cannot put them in mortal danger in the
winter without heating, light, without the ability to keep them warm,” Kyiv’s
Ministry of Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories said in a
statement.
Zelensky, in his address, also once more pressed the international community,
especially the United States, to have Russia officially declared a “state
sponsor of terrorism”.
He reiterated the call a day after a jail holding Ukrainian prisoners of war
in Kremlin-controlled Olenivka was bombed, leaving scores dead, with Kyiv and
Moscow trading blame.
On Saturday, Ukrainian human rights official Dmytro Lubinets said on national
television he had asked the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
and the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission to go to Olenivka.
The ICRC has made a request but has not yet obtained authorisation from the
Russians, he said.
– ‘Egregious provocation’ –
Russia’s defence ministry accused Kyiv of striking the Olenivka prison with
US-supplied long-range missiles, in an “egregious provocation” designed to
stop captured soldiers from surrendering.
It said Saturday that the dead included Ukrainian forces who had surrendered
after weeks of fighting off Russia’s brutal bombardment of the sprawling
Azovstal steelworks in the port city of Mariupol.
The defence ministry said 50 Ukrainian prisoners were killed and 73 were
taken to hospital with serious injuries.
“All political, legal and moral responsibility for this bloody massacre of
Ukrainians lies with Zelensky personally, his criminal regime and Washington,
which backs them,” it said.
Zelensky laid the blame squarely on Russia.
“This was a deliberate Russian war crime, a deliberate mass murder of
Ukrainian prisoners of war,” he said.
Members of the Azov regiment were among those who surrendered at Azovstal.
Azov regiment commander Mykyta Nadtochiy said he considered the attack on the
jail to have been “an act of public execution”.
– Gazprom cuts off Latvia –
Also on Saturday, Russian energy giant Gazprom suspended gas supplies to
Latvia, in the latest tightening of gas provision to European Union states,
which have accused Russia of squeezing supplies in retaliation for Western
sanctions imposed over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Conexus Baltic Grid confirmed to Latvia’s LETA news agency that Gazprom had
informed it of the suspension of deliveries, but said other suppliers were
continuing them.
“Today, Gazprom suspended its gas supplies to Latvia… due to violations of
the conditions” of purchase, the company said on Telegram.
Latvia’s Economy Minister Ilze Indriksone told LETA that his country “was not
counting on natural gas flows from Russia.”
Gazprom drastically cut gas deliveries to Europe via the Nord Stream pipeline
on Wednesday to about 20 percent of its capacity. It had reduced gas flows to
Europe twice in June.
The Russian state-run company had earlier announced it would choke supply to
33 million cubic metres a day — half the amount it has been delivering since
service resumed last week after 10 days of maintenance work.
Gazprom cited the halted operation of one of the last two working turbines
for the pipeline due to the “technical condition of the engine”.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has blamed EU sanctions for the limited
supply.
The EU this week agreed a plan to reduce gas consumption in solidarity with
Germany, where the Nord Stream pipeline runs to, warning of Russian
“blackmail”.
– Grain fields set alight –
Russian strikes continued to rain down on Ukrainian towns and cities on
Saturday.
Ukrainian authorities said Russian bombardments targeting the south and east
of the country had left one dead in southern Mykolaiv and one dead in eastern
Bakhmut.
The death toll from a strike on a Mykolaiv bus stop on Friday climbed to
seven after two men died in hospital, he added.
In the eastern city of Kharkiv, three Russian S-300 missiles struck a school,
mayor Igor Terekhov said on Telegram, adding that the main building was
destroyed.
A Ukrainian spokesman said his country’s forces had set fire to grain fields
around Mariupol so they could not be used by the Russians.
“The Mariupol resistance forces set fire to the fields with grain so that it
would not be stolen by the occupiers,” Sergiy Bratchuk, a spokesman for the
Odessa regional military administration said.BSS/AFP