Biden also used a speech in the Polish capital to loudly defend liberal democracy and NATO’s military alliance, and said Europe needed to prepare for a long battle against Russian aggression. In what was charged by the White House as the keynote speaker, Biden spoke in front of the Royal Castle, one of Warsaw’s landmarks that suffered severe damage during World War II. He borrowed the words of Polish-born Pope John Paul II and cited anti-communist Polish dissident and former president Lech Walesa as he warned that Putin’s invasion of Ukraine threatened to bring “decades of war”. “In this battle we must be clear. This battle will not be won in days or months,” Biden said. The crowd of about 1,000 included some of the Ukrainian refugees who have taken refuge in Poland and elsewhere amid the violent invasion. “We have to commit now, to be this fight for a long time,” Biden said. This is an updated story. An earlier version of this story can be read below. Russian forces have entered Slavutych, a Ukrainian town near the border with Belarus and home to workers at the Tsornobil nuclear power plant, the governor of the Kiev region said on Saturday. Residents responded with a month-long protest against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Governor Oleksandr Pavlyuk said the Russians had taken over a hospital and abducted the city mayor, but some media outlets later that day reported that the mayor had been released quickly. No claim could be independently verified. Slavutych is located north of Kiev and west of Chernihiv, outside the so-called blockade zone created around the power plant after the 1986 catastrophe. start of the invasion last month. Pavlyuk said Slavutych residents took to the main square holding Ukrainian flags. “The Russians opened fire in the air, they fired [stun] grenades in the crowd. “But the residents did not disperse,” Pavlyuk said. “On the contrary, more of them appeared.” CLOCKS Heavy smoke erupts after explosions in Lviv:
Explosions were heard in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv
Three bombs exploded Saturday in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, which has become a transit hub for fleeing Ukrainians. 2:54
Near Ukraine’s border with Poland, two rockets hit the outskirts of the western city of Lviv on Saturday, injuring five people, said regional governor Maksym Kozytsky. Residents were called to seek refuge from what appeared to be the first attack within the city limits.
“There have been three powerful explosions near Lviv. Everyone needs to stay calm and stay home,” city council official Igor Zinkevich said in a Facebook post.
Witnesses saw dense black smoke rising from the northeast side of the city, which was home to thousands of displaced people.
Lviv Mayor Andriy Ivanovich Sandovi said the strikes set fire to an industrial fuel storage facility and no residential buildings were hit.
CLOCKS See what happened in the 5th week of Russia’s attack on Ukraine:
See what happened in the 5th week of Russia’s attack on Ukraine
Ukraine rejected Russia’s request to hand over Mariupol in exchange for safe passage, and NATO allies held an emergency summit in Brussels. The following is a summary of events in Ukraine and how world leaders reacted from March 21 to 25. 6:46
As Russia continues to strike and encircle civilian populations, from Chernihiv and Kharkiv in the north to Mariupol in the south, Ukrainian authorities said on Saturday they could not trust Russian military statements on Friday suggesting the Kremlin was planning to mobilize its remaining force to destroy the entire eastern Donbass region of Ukraine from Ukrainian control.
“We can not believe Moscow’s statements because there are still many inaccuracies and lies on this side,” Markian Lubkivsky, an adviser to the Ukrainian defense minister, told the BBC. “It simply came to our notice then [Russian President Vladimir] “Putin is still the whole of Ukraine.”
CLOCKS Russia says the first phase of the operation in Ukraine has been completed:
300 dead in Mariupol theater, Russia says first phase of operation in Ukraine completed
Ukrainian authorities estimate that about 300 people were killed in a Russian airstrike on a Mariupol theater used as a bomb shelter. As the war enters its second month, Russia says the first phase of its invasion is largely complete, implying a change of strategy towards the “liberation” of the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. 2:20
South of Mariupol, Mayor Vadym Boichenko said the situation remained critical, with street battles taking place in the port city center. Mariupol has been under siege by Russian forces for more than three weeks, suffering from multiple waves of bombings that have cut off the city’s electricity and communications lines, as well as food and water supplies. From a population of 430,000 before the invasion, between 100,000 and 150,000 people remain.
Residents of Slavutych, Ukraine, protested on Saturday against the Russian invasion. (Reuters)
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on Saturday that civilians trying to leave Mariupol should leave in private cars, as Russian forces do not allow buses to pass through checkpoints around the city.
Ukraine and Russia have exchanged responsibilities when humanitarian corridors have been closed in recent weeks.
Comparisons with Aleppo
In a speech Saturday at the Doha Forum in Qatar, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy compared the destruction of Mariupol to the destruction of the Syrian city of Aleppo by combined Syrian and Russian forces in the civil war. CLOCKS Life among the ruins of war-torn Mariupol:
Life among the ruins of the war-torn Mariupol
This Reuters video shows some of the devastation in the besieged southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine, and how people are coping. 1:52
“They are destroying our ports,” Zelensky said, warning of dire consequences if his country – one of the world’s largest grain producers – could not export its food. “The absence of exports from Ukraine will hit countries around the world.”
Speaking via video link, he also called on energy-producing countries to increase their production so that Russia could not use its vast oil and gas wealth to “blackmail” other nations.
“They can do a lot to restore justice. The future of Europe depends on your efforts. I urge you to increase energy production to ensure that everyone in Russia understands that no country can use energy as a weapon and blackmail.” the world, “he said.
Chernihiv afraid to become the “next Mariupol”
Meanwhile, Chernihiv refugees fleeing the besieged city of northern Ukraine and arriving in Poland this week spoke of widespread disaster, with bombs leveling at least two schools in the city center and strikes hitting stadiums, museums and kindergartens. and many houses. On Friday, artillery shells made the rest of the Chernihiv pedestrian bridge impassable with the main route leading to the capital Kyiv, cutting off the last possible route for people to leave or food and medical supplies to enter. “In the basements at night, everyone is talking about one thing: Chernihiv becoming [the] next Mariupol, “said Ihar Kazmerchak, a 38-year-old resident of Linguistics. He spoke to the Associated Press on his cell phone amid intermittent beeps signaling that his battery was running low. The city is without electricity, running water and heating. In pharmacies, the lists of drugs that are no longer available are growing day by day.
Attacks on medical facilities
The Associated Press reports that it has independently documented at least 34 attacks on Ukrainian medical facilities by Russian forces. Accounting is part of the War Crimes Watch Ukraine project, a broader effort by AP and PBS Frontline. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights says at least 1,035 civilians, including 90 children, have been killed and another 1,650 injured since the start of the war a month ago. These numbers are considered countdown.
Biden concludes his visit to Poland
US President Joe Biden met with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba and Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov on Saturday in the Polish capital, Warsaw. It was his first face-to-face meeting with top Ukrainian officials since the start of the war. “President Biden said that what is happening in Ukraine will change the history of the 21st century and we will work together to ensure that this change is in our favor, in Ukraine, in the democratic world,” Kuleba told the Ukrainian national. TV right after. “Your freedom is ours,” Biden told Polish President Andrei Duda earlier, echoing one of the country’s unofficial mottos. According to UN figures, more than 3.7 million people have fled Ukraine since the start of the war, and two million of them are in Poland.
