The representative of the Russian Ministry of Defense, Lieutenant General. Igor Konashenkov said Russian ships and aircraft fired rockets Sunday to hit the facility, which he said was used to refuel Ukrainian troops near Mykolaiv. Konashenkov also said that the Russian strikes destroyed ammunition depots in Kostiantynivka and Khresyshche. In an audio message posted by the Italian news agency ANSA, Italian photographer Carlo Orlandi said Odessa woke up to military sirens at 5:45 a.m. Sunday, immediately followed by the sound of bombs falling on the port by two aircraft. Describe a column of dark smoke that emerged from targets and flames from buildings. “What we can see is a dense screen of dark smoke and one explosion after another,” Orlandi said. Men walk in Odessa on Sunday as smoke rises in the background after the bombing. (Petros Giannakouris / The Associated Press)
With Mariupol east of Odessa being targeted by Russia, Ukraine insists it has gained a foothold in other parts of the country, prompting troops to retake territory north of the capital Kiev as Russian forces withdraw. “Ukraine has gained invaluable time, time that allows us to thwart the enemy’s tactics and weaken its capabilities,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said late Saturday. Residents of the besieged southeast coast of Ukraine were expecting a possible evacuation on Sunday as Zelensky spoke of Russia’s insistence on occupying Mariupol, another key port city. He said the campaign had weakened the Russian military and created opportunities for his army.

Conditions are still miserable in Mariupol

In Mariupol, however, surrounded by Russian forces for more than a month and brutalized by some of the worst attacks of the war, conditions remain miserable and escape prospects uncertain. About 100,000 people are believed to remain in the Sea of ​​Azov city, less than a quarter of its pre-war population of 430,000, and dire shortages of water, food, fuel and medicine still persist. Many more in Mariupol are waiting for the promises to be fulfilled to help them reach safety. Among those trying to evacuate residents was the International Committee of the Red Cross, which had not yet arrived in the city on Saturday, a day after local authorities said it had been blocked by Russian forces. Some residents escaped on their own, including Tamila Mazurenko, who arrived in Zaporizhia, a city still under Ukrainian control that has served as a hub for other evacuations. “I have only one question: Why? she said about the test of her city. “Our normal life was ruined. And we lost everything. I have no job, I can not find my son.” Mariupol is located in the predominantly Russian-speaking area of ​​Donbass, where Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian troops for eight years. His arrest would create an unbroken land corridor from Russia to Crimea, which Moscow occupied from Ukraine in 2014.

“We can only have peace by fighting”

As Ukrainian troops moved cautiously to retake territory north of Kiev, the country and its Western allies said Russia was building strength in eastern Ukraine. Where Russian troops are retreating, Ukraine has said it will continue its attacks, bombing and targeting them as they withdraw. “Peace will not be the result of any decisions made by the enemy somewhere in Moscow. There is no reason to hold out empty hopes that they will simply leave our land. We can have peace only by fighting,” Zelensky said. Although the geography of the battlefield has changed, little has changed for many Ukrainians for more than five weeks in a war that has driven more than four million people to flee the country as refugees. CLOCKS Residents are struggling to escape from Mariupol:

The inhabitants are struggling to escape from Mariupol

Only about 3,000 residents managed to escape from Mariupol in the latest attempt to build a humanitarian corridor outside the Ukrainian city that has been under siege by Russian forces for weeks. 2:21
Zelensky claimed that as Russian troops moved, they left mines around houses, abandoned equipment and even the bodies of the dead. These allegations could not be independently verified, but the Ukrainian troops heeded the warning. In Bucha, northwest of Kiev, Associated Press reporters watched as Ukrainian soldiers, backed by a column of tanks and other armored vehicles, used cables to pull corpses from a long distance, fearing they might be trapped. Locals said the dead – the AP counted at least six – were civilians killed without provocation by departing Russian troops. In cities and towns around Kyiv, signs of fierce fighting were everywhere after the Russian rearrangement. Damaged armored vehicles from both armies were found on roads and fields along with scattered military equipment.

“Everyone can contribute to victory”

Ukrainian troops were at the entrance to Antonov Airport in the suburb of Hostomel, demonstrating control of a runway that Russia had tried to invade in the early days of the war. Inside the complex, the Mriya, one of the largest aircraft ever built, was damaged under a hangar with holes from the February attack. “The Russians could not build one and so they destroyed it,” said Oleksandr Merkushev, the mayor of nearby Irpin. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks from Kyiv, Ukraine late Saturday. (The Associated Press of the Ukrainian Presidential Press)
The head of the Ukrainian delegation to the talks with Russia said that the Moscow negotiators had informally agreed to most of the draft proposal discussed during face-to-face talks in Istanbul this week, but no written confirmation had been given. However, David Arahamia told Ukrainian television that he hoped the draft had been developed enough for the two countries’ presidents to meet to discuss it. Even when hopes for Ukraine emerged in some places, Zelensky said he expected the cities from which Russian forces were leaving to endure missile and rocket fire from afar and the fighting in the east to be intense. In his speech Saturday afternoon, he called on his people to do everything they can to ensure the country survives, even to act as simply as they do good to one another. “When a nation is defending itself in a war of extermination, when it comes to the life or death of millions, there are no trivial things; and everyone can contribute to a victory for all,” he said. “Some with weapons in their hands. Some working. And some with warm words and help at the right time. Do what you can to stand together in this war for our freedom, for our independence.”