Heavy fighting near Kharkiv

Heavy fighting between Russian and Ukrainian troops appears to have broken out again in eastern Ukraine. Bombs are said to have fallen during an evacuation operation in the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol.

According to their own account, Ukrainian units have fended off an attack by Russian troops in new fighting for Kharkiv in the east of the country. Ka-52 combat helicopters were also deployed by the Russian side in the evening, regional commander Oleg Sinegubow was quoted as saying by Ukrajinska Pravda. “Our troops are holding their positions.”

The situation in the besieged Izjum, about 100 kilometers away, is difficult. There is no longer any connection to the city. All efforts to create a humanitarian corridor have so far been rejected by the Russian side.

Rocket attacks on military installations in Rivne

According to Ukrainian information, the Russian military also fired rockets at unspecified military installations in the vicinity of the city of Rivne in north-western Ukraine. Three rockets hit the region, said the regional military chief Vitali Kowalj of the Unian agency. “During an alarm in the evening, the enemy fired three times at an object of military infrastructure,” it said. “A commission is on site, the losses are determined.” Kowalj did not give any details.

The Russian military had already reported attacks in the region on Monday. According to the Ministry of Defense in Moscow, more than 80 fighters from the Ukrainian side were killed in a rocket attack at the Nowa Ljubomyrka military training area in the Rivne region. The information could not be independently verified.

People in Mariupol “under constant fire”

The situation continues to be catastrophic for the residents of the port city of Mariupol in southern Ukraine. According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, there are still 100,000 people in the city who have to endure the Russian siege “without food, without water, without medicine, under constant fire”. Before the start of the war, the city still had 450,000 inhabitants.

In a nightly video message, Zelenskyy said that on Tuesday it was possible to bring more than 7,000 people from Mariupol to safety in Zaporizhia, 250 kilometers northwest, via three escape routes. At the same time, he accused the Russian armed forces of “simply capturing” a group of refugees from Mariupol on one of the previously agreed escape routes. According to the Mariupol city administration, two “extremely powerful bombs” fell just as civilians were about to be evacuated.

Alleged humanitarian convoy hijacked

According to Zelensky, one of the humanitarian convoys near Manhush was “captured by the occupying forces”. Civil protection employees and drivers would be held “captive”. “We are doing everything we can to free them and unblock the humanitarian convoy,” Zelensky said.

Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova told the AFP news agency: “What I see now in Mariupol is not about war, but about genocide.” “War theaters have some rules, some principles. What we see in Mariupol has no rules at all.”

Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias had offered to bring humanitarian aid there personally, in coordination with the Red Cross, if the warring parties allowed it. Zelenskyy thanked him and said he “waited for the implementation of his plan in the coming days”.