As artillery fire, sirens and explosions were heard in some cities on Friday, the United Nations sought to mediate the evacuation of civilians from the increasingly infernal ruins of Mariupol, where the mayor said the situation inside the steel plant had become the latest. port of the southern city. the fort is terrible. Citizens “beg to be saved,” said Mayor Vadym Boichenko. “There, it is not a matter of days, it is a matter of hours.” In other developments:

A former U.S. Marine was killed while fighting alongside Ukrainian forces, his family said, in what would be the first known American death in the war. The United States has not confirmed the report. The mayor of the city of Popasna in eastern Ukraine, Nikolai Hanatov, says two buses heading there to evacuate residents have been shot down and that contact with drivers has been lost. Ukrainian forces are destroying people accused of helping Russian troops. In the Kharkiv region alone, nearly 400 have been detained under anti-cooperation laws introduced after the February 24 invasion of Moscow. International sanctions imposed on the Kremlin over the war are crushing the country. Russia’s central bank has said Russia’s economy is expected to shrink by as much as 10 percent this year and the outlook is “extremely uncertain”.

Only small gains for Russia

It was difficult to get a complete picture of the unfolding battle in the east, because air raids and artillery barricades have made the movement of journalists extremely dangerous. Both Ukraine and Moscow-backed rebels fighting in the east have also imposed severe restrictions on reports from the battle zone. But so far, Russian troops and separatist forces appear to have made only small gains. Partly because of the strength of the Ukrainian resistance, the U.S. believes the Russians are “at least several days behind where they wanted to be” as they try to encircle Ukrainian troops in the east, said a senior U.S. defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity. anonymity to discuss the US military assessment. A crew member pushes 155mm missiles destined for Ukraine on a C-17 aircraft for transfer to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Friday. (Alex Brandon / The Associated Press)
As Russian troops try to move north from Mariupol to advance on Ukrainian forces from the south, their progress has been “slow and uneven and certainly not decisive,” the official said. The British Ministry of Defense offered a similar assessment, saying that it believes that Russian forces in Ukraine are likely to suffer from “weakened morale”, along with a lack of skills at the unit level and “inconsistent air support”. Russian forces “were forced to merge and redeploy exhausted and disparate units from failed advances in northeastern Ukraine,” the ministry said in a tweet Saturday as part of a daily report on the war. He did not say on what basis he made the assessment.

100,000 are believed to have been trapped in Mariupol

In the bombed-out city of Mariupol, about 100,000 people are believed to have been trapped with little food, water or medicine. An estimated 2,000 Ukrainian defenders and 1,000 civilians were at the Azovstal steel plant. The Soviet-era steel plant has a huge underground network of warehouses capable of withstanding air raids. But the situation has become more dire after the Russians dropped “bunker busters” and other bombs. “The locals who manage to leave Mariupol say it is hell, but when they leave this fortress, they say it is worse,” said the mayor. UN spokesman Farhan Haq said the group was in talks with authorities in Moscow and Kyiv to establish a safe passage. This time, “we hope there is a little humanity in the enemy,” the mayor said. Ukraine has blamed the failure of several previous evacuation attempts on the ongoing Russian bombing. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Saudi television network Al-Arabiya that the real problem was that “humanitarian corridors are being ignored by Ukrainian supranationals.” Moscow has repeatedly claimed that right-wing Ukrainians are blocking evacuation efforts and using civilians as human shields. CLOCKS Russian missiles strike Kyiv, fighting intensifies in eastern Ukraine:

Russian missiles strike Kyiv, fighting intensifies in eastern Ukraine

Russia fired rockets at the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, during a visit by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. On the eastern front, Russian troops are trying to encircle and defeat Ukrainian forces hit by heavy fighting. 2:34
In further comments released Saturday by China’s official Xinhua news agency, Lavrov said Russia had evacuated more than a million people from Ukraine since the start of the war, including more than 300 Chinese civilians. Ukraine has accused Moscow of forcibly sending Ukrainians out of the country. Lavrov also said that Russian and Ukrainian negotiators were discussing “almost every day”, but blamed “war rhetoric and inflammatory actions by Western supporters of the Kiev regime” for disrupting the talks. Fighting broke out from Kramatorsk to Sloviansk, two towns about 18 kilometers apart in Donbas. Columns of smoke rose from the Slovyansk region and neighboring cities. At least one person was injured in the bombings.

Zelensky: “Russia wants to empty this territory”

In a video overnight, Zelensky accused Russia of trying to destroy Donbass and all those living there. The constant attacks “show that Russia wants to empty this territory of all people,” he said. “If the Russian invaders are able to carry out their plans, even in part, then they have enough artillery and aircraft to turn the whole of Donbas into stones, as they did with Mariupol.” Cleaning crews are preparing to work at the site of the explosion in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Friday. (Emilio Morenatti / The Associated Press)
Ukrainian troops in the Luhansk region of Donbass repulsed an attack by Russian airborne troops and killed most of their unit, the governor said. “Only seven of the intruders survived,” Governor Serhiy Haidai told the Telegram on Friday. The claim could not be immediately confirmed. He did not say where the attack took place, but said Russian forces were preparing for an attack on Sheverodonetsk.

Living in buildings with open holes

In a neighborhood on the outskirts of Kharkiv that is regularly bombed by Russian forces, some residents remain in their apartments, even though the buildings have charred holes. There is no running water or electricity and so they gather outside to cook on an open flame. Ukrainian reservists living in a neighborhood cellar say the Russians hit the buildings with rockets, artillery and tanks. “A tank can come a short distance and launch all its ammunition into residential areas. It does not care where. And it is impossible to know where it will fire,” said Vladislav, who like others in the unit would only give the his first name. “There is nothing here but residential buildings, schools and kindergartens.” Most of the reservists had jobs as civilians before the war started and said they took up arms when the Russians invaded. “When your city is destroyed, when people close to you are killed, there is no other choice,” said a reserve named Ihor. Another reserve, nicknamed Malysh, expressed his frustration that he could not do more to stop the Russian advance. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, right, and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres hold a press conference during their meeting in Kyiv on Thursday. (Office of the President of Ukraine / The Associated Press)
“I took the weapons, but unfortunately I can not catch flying missiles with my bare hands and throw them back,” he said. In the nearby village of Ruska Lozava, hundreds of people were evacuated after Ukrainian forces recaptured the city from the Russian occupiers, according to the regional governor. Those who took refuge in Kharkov spoke of miserable conditions under the Russians, with little water or food and no electricity. “We were hiding in the basement. It was horrible. The basement was shaking from the explosions. We were screaming, crying and praying to God,” said Ludmila Bocharnikova.