More than 3,000 people have been safely evacuated from the besieged city of Mariupol, the Ukrainian president said early on Saturday.
“Today, humanitarian corridors were working in three regions: Donetsk, Lugansk and Zaporizhzhia. We have managed to rescue 6,266 people, including 3,071 people from Mariupol,” Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video address Saturday.
Late on Friday, a reporter with the AFP news agency saw around 30 evacuation buses pull into the city of Zaporizhzhia, some of them carrying people who had escaped to Mariupol on their own and then were taken by bus to Ukrainian-controlled territory.
It was no immediately clear if Mr Zelensky was referring to the same people.
Meanwhile, the United States said it is providing Ukraine with supplies and protective equipment in case Russia deploys chemical or biological weapons.
The supplies follow intelligence of the US and Western allies suggesting Russia could deploy such weapons in Ukraine and might be planning a “false flag” operation to lay the groundwork, President Joe Biden’s press secretary Jen Psaki said.
Follow the latest updates below.
04:20 AM
Red Cross to try again to evacuate civilians from Mariupol
A Red Cross convoy travelling to the Ukrainian city of Mariupol will try again to evacuate civilians from the besieged port on Saturday as Russian forces looked to be regrouping for new attacks in the southeast.
The convoy was forced to turn around yesterday, said the Geneva-based organisation, saying it had become impossible to proceed.
03:51 AM
Retreating Russians leaving mines behind, Zelensky warns
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned his people early Saturday that retreating Russian forces were creating “a complete disaster” outside the capital as they leave mines across “the whole territory,” even around homes and corpses.
He issued the warning as the humanitarian crisis in the encircled city of Mariupol deepened, with Russian forces blocking evacuation operations for the second day in a row, and the Kremlin accused the Ukrainians of launching a helicopter attack on a fuel depot on Russian soil.
Ukraine denied responsibility for the fiery blast, but if Moscow’s claim is confirmed, it would be the war’s first known attack in which Ukrainian aircraft penetrated Russian airspace.
“Certainly, this is not something that can be perceived as creating comfortable conditions for the continuation of the talks,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, five weeks after Moscow began sending upwards of 150,000 of its own troops across Ukraine’s border.
03:35 AM
US to transfer Soviet-made tanks to Ukraine. reports the New York Times
The United States will work with allies to transfer Soviet-made tanks to Ukraine to bolster its defenses in the Donbas region, the New York Times reported on Friday, citing a US official.
The transfers, requested by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, would begin soon, the unnamed official said, according to the Times. The official declined to say how many tanks would be sent or from which countries they would come, the paper said.
The Pentagon declined to comment to Reuters. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The tanks would allow Ukraine to conduct long-range artillery strikes on Russian targets in the Donbas region of southeastern Ukraine bordering Russia, the official said, according to the Times.
It marks the first time in the war that the United States has helped transfer tanks, the newspaper said.
03:21 AM
Some Russian troops still in Chernobyl exclusion zone, Ukraine says
Some Russian troops were still in the “exclusion zone” around the Chernobyl nuclear power station on Friday morning, a day after ending their occupation of the plant itself, a Ukrainian official said.
Russian forces occupied the defunct power station north of Kyiv soon after invading Ukraine on Feb. 24 but Ukraine’s state nuclear energy company, Energoatom, said on Thursday they had left the plant and were heading towards the border with Belarus.
“Russians were seen in the exclusion zone this morning,” Yevhen Kramarenko, who heads the agency in charge of the exclusion zone, said in televised comments on Friday.
He did not say what the troops were doing or where they might be headed. He added that no Russian troops had been seen on the territory of the decommissioned nuclear power plant.
03:00 AM
US curbs exports to more Russian and Belarusian companies
The Biden administration announced on Friday a new round of export restrictions against Russia and Belarus, adding 120 entities, mostly companies with links to the military, to a list of those effectively blocked from receiving vital technology.
The additions to the Commerce Department’s entity list follow several similar actions taken by the United States to weaken the Russian military since President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Friday’s action aims to “degrade Russian and Belarusian defense, aerospace, maritime, and other strategic sectors in response to Russia’s brutal assault on the sovereignty of Ukraine,” the Commerce Department said.
02:48 AM
China tells EU it will pursue Ukraine peace in its own way
China offered the European Union assurances on Friday that it would seek peace in Ukraine but said this would be on its own terms, deflecting pressure for a tougher stance towards Russia.
Premier Li Keqiang told EU leaders that Beijing would push for peace in “its own way”, while President Xi Jinping said he hoped the EU would treat China “independently”, in a nod to Europe’s close ties with the United States.
The EU told Beijing during the virtual summit with Mr Li and Mr Xi not to allow Moscow to circumvent Western sanctions imposed over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“We called on China to help end the war in Ukraine. China cannot turn a blind eye to Russia’s violation of international law,” European Council President Charles Michel told a news briefing with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen after the first EU-China summit since Dec 30, 2020.
02:11 AM
Today’s top stories
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Liberated villagers weep with joy as Ukrainian soldiers pushed back humiliated Russian forces, days after Moscow announced it would reduce its operations around Kyiv in order to foster trust
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The Argentine government has triggered a row with the United Kingdom by accusing it of “double standards” for its backing of Ukraine against Russian aggression while refusing to come to the negotiating table over the Falkland Islands
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Vladimir Putin risks running out of viable tanks, missiles and fighter jets because the components they use are made in Ukraine, The Telegraph understands
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Radiation from the destroyed Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine has reportedly killed one Russian soldier after his unit camped in a toxic area known as the Red Forest
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The UN has recorded 3,257 civilian casualties since the start of the conflict in Ukraine, with 1,276 deaths.
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Russia continued withdrawing some of its ground forces from areas around Kyiv on Friday after saying earlier this week it would reduce military activity near the Ukrainian capital and the northern city of Chernihiv to promote trust at the bargaining table
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The US military has cancelled a test of its Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile that it had initially aimed only to delay in a bid to lower nuclear tensions with Russia during the war in Ukraine, the Air Force told Reuters on Friday
