Ukraine conflict day 61: Dispute over Mariupol ‘ceasefire’, U.S. pledges more aid

Russia’s defense ministry announced a “unilateral” ceasefire around the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol to allow a civilian evacuation from the industrial area that has been sheltering the remaining Ukrainian resistance in the port city.

However, Ukraine said Moscow had not agreed to its request for a humanitarian corridor to let wounded soldiers and civilians leave the Azovstal steel plant in the besieged port city of Mariupol. “Unfortunately, there are no agreements on humanitarian corridors from Azovstal today,” Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vershchuk said on Telegram.

Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin pledged more than $700 million in additional direct and indirect military aid for Ukraine, including $300 million to allow the country to purchase necessary weapons, during the first high-level U.S. visit to Ukraine since the start of the conflict.

Russia has warned the U.S. against sending more arms to Ukraine, Moscow’s ambassador to Washington told Russian state television.

Ukraine’s general staff said Russia was shelling its second biggest city, Kharkiv, in eastern Ukraine and towns and villages to the south but that Ukrainian forces had staved off assaults on three settlements. In the southern Mykolaiv region, governor Vitaliy Kim said the Ukrainian military had destroyed 13 Russian units.

Russia struck Ukraine’s Kremenchuk oil refinery with long-range missiles and hit military installations, the Russian defense ministry reported on Monday. Russian forces launched missile and bomb strikes on the positions of Ukrainian troops in the Azovstal steel plant, the main remaining Ukrainian stronghold in Mariupol, Ukrainian officials said.

In western Ukraine, Russian forces attacked rail infrastructure in the Lviv and Rivne regions, their governors said. Russian forces shot down two Ukrainian drones overnight in the Rylsky district on the border with Ukraine, Kursk region governor Roman Starovoyt said on Telegram.

A large fire broke out early on Monday at an oil storage facility in the Russian city of Bryansk, the emergencies ministry said, adding that no one was injured. There was no immediate indication that the fire was related to the military action in Ukraine. Russia fired rockets at two towns in Ukraine’s central Vinnytsia region on Monday, causing an unspecified number of deaths and injuries, regional Governor Serhiy Borzov reported.

Donetsk governor Pavlo Kyrylenko says five civilians were killed on Sunday and another five wounded in the eastern region as Ukrainians marked a sombre Orthodox Easter.

Meanwhile, Blinken says that Washington’s diplomats, withdrawn at the start of Russia’s invasion, will gradually return to Kyiv.

On the other hand, Ukrainian ombudswoman Lyudmyla Denysova says Moscow wants to force captured Ukrainian soldiers to donate blood to wounded Russian troops, comparing the alleged practice to Nazi actions during World War II.

 

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen arrives in India, where she will press leaders over the country’s neutral stance on the Ukraine conflict.

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe says it is “extremely concerned” after several of its Ukrainian members were believed to have been arrested in pro-Russian separatist territories in the country’s east.

British Minister Oliver Dowden says “it would be good to see more from France and Germany” to support Ukraine’s military effort.  He told the BBC the West should “continue to tighten the ratchet” on Russia.

It is pertinent to note that the number of Ukrainians who have fled the country since the conflict began two months ago is approaching 5.2 million, the UN refugee agency said Sunday. The total figure of 5,186,744 is an increase of 23,058 over Saturday’s data, the UNHCR said.

Greenpeace activists sought to block a tanker on Monday from delivering Russian oil to Norway, chaining themselves to the vessel in a protest against the conflict in Ukraine, the campaign group said.

German defense company Rheinmetall has requested approval to export 100 old Marder infantry fighting vehicles to Ukraine, a defense source told Reuters news agency on Monday, in what would be the first heavy weapons shipment from Germany to Ukraine.

The European Union is preparing “smart sanctions” against Russian oil imports, possibly an oil embargo, the Times newspaper said on Monday, citing the European Commission’s executive vice president Valdis Dombrovskis.

The U.S. wants Russia “weakened” so it cannot invade again and Ukraine can win the war if it has the right equipment, Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin said on Monday on returning from a trip to Kyiv.

“The first step in winning is believing that you can win. And so they believe that we can win,” Austin told a group of journalists after the visit with the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

The two, who met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, were the first high-profile U.S. officials to visit Ukraine since the Russian offensive began on February 24.

“We believe that we can win, they can win if they have the right equipment, the right support,” Austin said.

Austin and Blinken said U.S. diplomats will begin a gradual return to Ukraine this week and announced $700 million in additional military aid.

“We want to see Russia weakened to the degree that it can’t do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine,” Austin said.

Russia “has already lost a lot of military capability. And a lot of its troops quite frankly, and we want to see them not have the capability to very quickly reproduce that capability,” he added.

The U.S. has been a leading donor of finance and weaponry to Ukraine and a key sponsor of sanctions targeting Russia, but had not yet sent any top officials to Kyiv, while several European leaders had traveled there to underscore their support.

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