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LAST UPDATE | 17 Apr 2022
A SERIES OF strikes in Ukraine’s second-largest city of Kharkiv in the north east of the war-scarred country left at least five dead and 13 injured, a regional health official said.
Maksym Khaustov, the head of the Kharkiv region’s health department confirmed the deaths following a series of strikes that AFP journalists on the scene said had ignited fires throughout the city and tore roofs from buildings hit in the attacks.
A Russian ultimatum for the last remaining Ukrainian forces in Mariupol to surrender expires today, with Moscow poised for a major strategic victory in the southeastern port city.
In Kyiv, renewed Russian air strikes hit an armaments factory, despite Moscow shifting its military focus to gaining control of the eastern Donbas region and forging a land corridor to already-annexed Crimea.
“During the night, high-precision, air-launched missiles destroyed an ammunitions factory near the settlement of Brovary, Kyiv region,” Russia’s defence ministry said, the third such air strike near the capital in as many days.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk urged Russian forces to allow evacuations from Mariupol, which Moscow’s forces claim to have brought under their control, though Ukrainian fighters remain holed up in the city’s fortress-like steelworks.
Moscow on Saturday issued an ultimatum to the fighters, urging them to lay down their arms by 6am Moscow time (4am Irish time) and to evacuate before 1pm.
Evacuations are paused
It comes as the evacuation of civilians from the war-scarred east of the country for a day after Kyiv and Russian forces failed to agree terms.
“As of this morning, April 17, we have not been able to agree with the occupiers on a ceasefire on the evacuation routes. That is why, unfortunately, we are not opening humanitarian corridors today,” Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk wrote in a statement on social media, referring to Moscow’s forces.
Ukrainian authorities have urged people in the eastern Donbas area to move west to escape a large-scale Russian offensive to capture its composite regions, Donetsk and Luhansk.
They have also recently accused Russian forces of targeting evacuation infrastructure, including busses and a train station in Kramatorsk where more than 50 people were reported killed in Russian strikes.
Mariupol
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that peace talks with Moscow will be scrapped if the last Ukrainian troops in the besieged port city of Mariupol are killed.
The fresh bloodshed in Ukraine’s capital and the mounting pressure on Mariupol came as Austria’s chancellor, the first European leader to meet with Vladimir Putin in person since the invasion began, said he thought the Russian president “believes he is winning the war”.
The attacks on Kyiv ended weeks of relative calm in the city.
Smoke rose from the Darnyrsky district in the southeast of the capital after what Moscow said were “high-precision long-range” strikes on an armaments plant, killing one person and wounding several others.
A heavy police and military presence was deployed around the factory, which was badly damaged.
“Our forces are doing everything possible to protect us, but the enemy is insidious and ruthless,” Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
Kyiv regional governor Oleksandr Pavliuk said there were at least two other Russian strikes on the city on Friday and that civilians thinking about returning should “wait for quieter times”.
Nevertheless, families and off-duty soldiers were out in the parks of central Kyiv yesterday, bringing a semblance of normality to the once bustling city.
“It’s the first time we’ve been back in the city centre… It’s really making me happy to see people out and about,” 43-year-old vet Nataliya Makrieva told AFP.
Zelenskyy warning
The devastated city of Mariupol has become a symbol of Ukraine’s unexpectedly fierce resistance since Russia’s invasion began on 24 February.
Russian officials now say they are in full control there, though Ukrainian fighters remain holed up in the city’s fortress-like steelworks.
“Their only chance to save their lives is to voluntarily lay down their arms and surrender”, Russian defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said yesterday.
As the Russian forces close in, Zelenskyy issued a warning.
“The elimination of our troops, of our men [in Mariupol] will put an end to any negotiations,” Zelenskyy told the Ukrainska Pravda news website.
We don’t negotiate neither our territories nor our people.
The peace talks already appeared moribund, having produced little since they began, and Putin said days ago he believed they were at a “dead end”.
Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer, who met Putin on Monday in Moscow, said he thinks the Russian president believes the war is necessary for his country’s security.
“I think he is now in his own war logic,” Nehammer said in an interview with NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’, portions of which were released yesterday. “I think he believes he is winning the war.”
‘No home to return to’
Ukrainian President Volodymyr @ZelenskyyUa tells CNN's @jaketapper in an exclusive interview in Kyiv that Ukraine must "stand our ground" in the Donbas region. "It can influence the course of the whole war." #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/mtwxqhz9tC
— State of the Union (@CNNSotu) April 17, 2022
The Ukrainian leader said on Friday that between 2,500 and 3,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in the conflict, compared to 19,000-20,000 Russian dead.
Russia has said its losses were far smaller.
Zelenskyy said that around 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been wounded.
Russia has so far detained around 1,000 Ukrainian civilians and captured 700 soldiers, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said, while Ukraine has captured around 700 Russian soldiers.
Russia’s apparent new focus on seizing the eastern Donbas, where Russian-backed separatists control the Donetsk and Luhansk areas, would allow Moscow to create a land corridor to occupied Crimea.
Ukrainian authorities have urged people in the region to quickly leave ahead of what is expected to be a large-scale Russian offensive.
In Geneva, the UN refugee agency warned that many of the nearly five million people who have fled Ukraine will not have homes to return to.
“For so many, there is no home to return to since it’s been destroyed or damaged, or is located in an area that is not safe,” said Karolina Lindholm Billing, UNHCR’s representative in Ukraine.
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No words – RIP Mariupol…..
@Colum Cusack: put it into context lad, if ireland was in a war we’d welcome the IRA with open arms. Nearly every country has some sort of IRA. the azov are a tiny minority
@Colum Cusack:
The heroes of the Azov regiment are indeed a fine bunch of lads. They volunteered to risk their lives protecting the security of Ukraine, and many of them have died fighting Russian nationalists in eastern Ukraine for the past 8 years.
@Sean Murphy: why should it be under Russia control, it’s not Russia land..
@Colum Cusack: have some respect for people fighting for their freedom and way of life, Azoz makes up a tiny fraction of fighters , if you can’t respect them don’t comment at all
You have to admire Zelensky. He is prepared for his country to be destroyed rather than sort this situation out with Russia.
@Munster1: How do you purpose he sort the situation with Russia out?. Surrender and let Russia who take over his country. Russia shouldn’t be in Ukraine. If Russia were interested in sorting out the situation they would leave Ukrainian territory. Simple.
@Munster1: you are right. Churchill did the same. He should have just surrendered to Hitler. Every country in Europe should just welcome the Russian army in to their country and hand over their women to the Russian soldiers.
@Michael Nolan:
Ukraine didn’t join NATO. So by your logic, Russia should withdraw.
@Michael Nolan: Funny Ukraine couldn’t have joined NATO even if it wanted to. You can join NATO while having ongoing border disputes which Ukraine had. For Ukraine to have joined NATO it would have had to give up any territorial rights to the Donbass region and recognise it as an independent state. Then and only then could NATO have considered letting them join.
@Munster1: they’d kill him immediately, it’s personal for Putin, his family and himself on top murder list. If Russians take over people will disappear as in past any one who opposes this regime. Ukraine isn’t an angel either but it takes so long to change over from Soviet system to a better way
@Michael Nolan: they didn’t join Nato…
@Michael Nolan:
You are Russian sympathetic, as evidenced by your criticisim of Ukraine and defence of Russian actions.
Ukraine has the right to join NATO whether Russia likes it or not. Furthermore, they have not joined NATO. This “NATO expansion” argument is boIIox. So are you.
@David Bourke: you are correct about him.. just Russian propaganda and lies..
@Michael Nolan: So you seem to believe. But if you actually check out the requirements to join NATO you’ll find a country cannot join NATO when it will detract from the security of the Alliance. Georgia cannot join NATO for the very same reason. Ukraine was not about to and could not join NATO. You saying they were on the way doesn’t make it true.
@Michael Nolan: Your point is completely flawed but I think you know that.
@David Bourke: you’re more than sympathetic to Russia. Every article on the invasion you’re in the comments defending them, and sayin it’s Ukraine’s own doing
@David Bourke: you’re a sack and probably just part of a russian social media team
@Michael Nolan: ‘half educted person’. Heh. Btw it’s moot, not mute.
@Roy Dowling: something I actually agree with
@Michael Nolan: Finland, Sweden … should russia demand the same, or do they deserve to be invaded if they don’t bow dow ???
@Michael Nolan: A demand that they had no right making to a sovereign state. It would be like the UK telling us get out of the EU or else.
That’s admirable? I wonder how the people feel.
Slava ukrainia
@Phil Swan: shocking stuff Phil makes me feel so emotional , people that want to be connected to west not locked behind another iron curtain, fighting for their way of life, we should remember our own fight for freedom
@Phil Swan: Phil an all out war could spell the end of mankind. Russia are not the military force they thought they were. When people start losing they resort to plan B. Just like Assad did when he resorted to chemical weapons.
@Colum Cusack: you are speaking from the classic Russian propaganda book. The Ukrainian deserve everything they get because they have a few bad eggs. I am sure there were a few bad Jewish people in Europe in the 1930s
@Peter McGlynn: Funny up until recently Sinn Fein were supporters of Putins Russia, the same Russia , that political opposition members would be jailed or vanish, brought in Anti LGBT+ laws. And many other human rights violations. But hey a quick clear out of the internet history and a sudden u turn after Russias invasion make years of support just vanish right? You can’t really have a go at Joseph and not have a go at SF..
Reply to some comments about Zelensky and media. I hate war and all it brings where good men and women carry out terrible deeds.Wartime situation with an invading Russian army Zelensky has to use his powers to consolidate resources in the war effort vs the Russians. Sadly a free Ukrainian news media is a casualty but a desperate situation needs media censorship to complement the war effort .At least the international news media companies are free to report on the Ukrainian war situation. reporters will serve as a counterweight against Russian misinformation and Ukrainian war propaganda. Zelensky won’t touch foreign news organizations in Ukraine unlike his opponent Putin who had a law passed to punish anyone in Russia with 10 years imprisonment for contradicting Russian war propaganda.
@Joseph Mc Dermott: putting up statues dedicated to a man that killed 100s of thousands of Jews and creating a national holiday in his name. Banning Russian language books. Criticising Israel for bringing up the topic.
The sanctions against Russia should remain in place until such time ax they have vacated Ukraine to the state it was in prior to invasion.
@D Writer: Sadly, I can’t see Russia doing anything other than trying to gain as much territory and hold onto it as possible. Ukraine won’t go back to pre-invasion boundaries and there’s little the West could do about it directly.
@David A. Murray: if the sanctions are kept in place until this condition is met, it would render any and all invasions not worth the risk. Ever.
Still not attacking civilians eh Russia?
@Roy Dowling: Roy “but what about Iraq” Dowling. This is about Russia and Ukraine. You seem incapable of keeping on topic. All you are doing in muddying the waters and justifying Putins actions because other countries did bad things in the past. I can’t think of a single country with a clean history. Can you?
But this is not history – this is here and now. Please stop justifying Putins actions. Did I agree with the second Iraq war. No. But two wrongs don’t make a right and this is about Russia not what happened 20, 30, 40 years ago. Just like the British when they talk about Brexit can’t stop bring up irrelevant parallels of the second world war and Germany trying to take over Europe through the EU.
@Roy Dowling: it’s actually millions and 300,000, children
@John Comerford: Assad resorted to the warmonger Putin who flattened Aleppo and Homs with chemical, cluster and barrel bombs, as you well know.
@Pablo: So you’ve no sympathy for the hundreds and thousands of innocent civilians killed in the invasion in 2013 simply because there country invaded another country 13 year previous. So let’s say China invaded the Japan tomorrow killed hundreds and thousands of innocent Japanese civilians you’re care factor would obviously =0 as you know the Japan have previously invaded other countries and you wouldn’t be one for double standards would you?.
@Joseph Mc Dermott: indeed. 400 men in an army of 200,000 hardly qualifies as branding the entire military as Nazis?
@Brendan Cahill: Ignore that ilinformed Rooskie plank.
@Colum Cusack: Russian misinformation campaign continues to do its dirty work, plenty Putin fanboys on here.
@Roy Dowling: Did Iraq invade Kuwait ???
@Roy Dowling: Lets just leave the talk of justification by the side … but what i will say is it might be easier to get some sympathy if your country hadn’t already invaded another.
… oh no poor me, i got invaded after I invaded some other country .. care factor = 0
How can the world sacrifice Ukraine . We know what’s happening ? Each war the world does the same we cry on our couch but let the invaders do their worst . We know the acts happening there . Putin had a daughter a paediatrician how can he not be human . We are watching and what ?. Visits by politicians don’t help . We are letting a bully carry out mass death . I also don’t see how normal Russians have turned so quickly in to What is there now
Red line crossed long time ago , there are Ukrainians deported to Russia ,to so called filtrations camps .
The Russians are raining down destruction on the cities and millions have been forced to leave it is already a humanitarian disaster.
@Colin Keogh: hypocrisy is a terrible trait Colly..but easily seen through ..
@Colum Cusack: fighting and dying for their city. Fine bunch of heros alright.
@Phil Swan: bringing up the useless 20 year war in Iraq is hardly doing wonders for the argument that Europe and US should intervene. Afghanistan is a cautionary tale.
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