The blaze injured two workers, Gladkov said, and evacuated parts of the city near Ukraine’s northern border with Russia. It was not possible to immediately verify the allegation or the images that were released about the alleged attack. If confirmed, it would be the first known Ukrainian invasion of Russian airspace since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24. Ukraine’s Defense Ministry did not comment on the allegation, and Russian oil company Rosneft, which owns the warehouse, said it did not specify the cause of the fire. Asked by reporters on Friday about Belgorod, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kulembava said he could “neither confirm nor deny” the allegation that Ukraine was involved because it did not have enough information. This photo released by the press service of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations on Friday shows a burning oil depot in Belgorod. The governor of Russia’s Belgorod border region has accused Ukraine of flying helicopters on Russian soil and hitting an oil depot on Friday morning. (Press Service of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations / The Associated Press)
A Kremlin spokesman said the incident on Russian soil could undermine talks between Russian and Ukrainian officials, which resumed via video link on Friday. “Certainly, this is not something that can be seen as creating comfortable conditions for the talks to continue,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peshkov said when asked if the warehouse fire could be seen as an escalation of the war in Ukraine.

The goal of controlling the autonomous region is “unchanged”

Negotiations between Ukraine and Russia on Friday followed a meeting of Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Turkey on Tuesday, where Ukraine reiterated its willingness to abandon its bid to join NATO and proposed proposals to guarantee a neutral military regime from a country. The head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, wrote on social media that Moscow’s positions on maintaining control of the Crimean peninsula and expanding territory in eastern Ukraine held by Russian-backed separatists “are”. Residents carry food as they pass in front of a damaged apartment building in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine, on Thursday. (Alexander Ermochenko / Reuters)
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that conditions are not yet “ripe” for a ceasefire and that he is not ready to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky until negotiators do more work, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said by telephone. on Thursday with the Russian. leader. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it was still working on a complex for the emergency relief operation in Mariupol and out-of-town civilians, which has suffered weeks of fierce fighting over scarce water, food and medical supplies. “We are running out of adjectives to describe the horror suffered by the people of Mariupol,” ICRC spokesman Juan Watson told a UN briefing in Geneva on Friday. “The situation is dire and it is deteriorating, and it is now a humanitarian imperative to allow people to leave and to allow aid.”

The evacuation of Mariupol is limited to private cars

He said the group had sent three vehicles to Mariupol and a front line between Ukrainian and Russian forces, but that two trucks carrying supplies to the city did not accompany them. Dozens of buses set up by Ukrainian authorities to evacuate people had also not started approaching the dividing line, Watson said. On Thursday, Russian forces blocked a convoy of 45 buses trying to evacuate people from Mariupol after the Russian army agreed to a limited ceasefire in the area and only 631 people were able to leave by private car, the Ukrainian government said. Tombs are seen on Thursday next to an apartment building in the besieged southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine. (Alexander Ermochenko / Reuters)
Russian forces also seized 14 tonnes of food and medical supplies trying to reach Mariupol, said Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk. The city was the scene of some of the worst of the war. Tens of thousands of residents have been able to flee in recent weeks via humanitarian corridors, reducing the population from 430,000 before the war to about 100,000 last week. However, ongoing Russian attacks have repeatedly prevented aid and evacuation missions. “We do not see any real desire on the part of the Russians and their satellites to allow the people of Mariupol to be evacuated to Ukrainian-controlled territories,” Peter Andriushenko, an adviser to the mayor of Mariupol, wrote in a Telegram message on Friday. application. An elderly woman evacuated by Irpin lies on a stretcher on the outskirts of Kiev on Thursday. (Vadim Ghirda / The Associated Press)
In recent days, the Kremlin, in an apparent shift in its military objectives, has said that its “main goal” now is to gain full control of Donbas, where Mariupol is located. Donbass is the predominantly Russian-speaking industrial region of eastern Ukraine, where Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian forces since 2014 and have declared two regions independent republics. Western officials say there is growing evidence that Russia is using its de-escalation talks in Ukraine as cover to regroup, resupply and redeploy its forces for an escalating attack in the east.

Ukraine controls Tsornobil after the withdrawal of the Russians

Elsewhere, Russian troops left the heavily contaminated Chornobil nuclear site early Friday after regaining control of the Ukrainians, authorities said. Ukraine’s state-owned electricity company, Energoatom, said the withdrawal from Tsornobil came after Russian troops received “significant doses” of radioactivity from digging trenches in the forest in the blockade zone around the closed plant. The International Atomic Energy Agency said it could not independently confirm the allegation. A satellite image of the site of the abandoned Chernobyl nuclear power plant, where the worst nuclear disaster in the world occurred in 1986. Russian troops occupied the plant at the beginning of the invasion, but abandoned it this week. (Maxar Technologies / Reuters)
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said the Russians had behaved irresponsibly at the construction site for more than four weeks, preventing factory staff from carrying out their duties and digging trenches in contaminated areas. Kuleba told a news conference in Warsaw that the Russian government had exposed its soldiers to radioactivity, endangering their health. He said Ukraine would work with the UN Atomic Energy Agency to determine what the Russian occupation did and to mitigate any danger. IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi wrote on Twitter that he would visit the decommissioned plant as soon as possible and that his’s “help and support” mission to Chornobil “would be the first in a series of such nuclear safety and security missions in Ukraine.” I will start a mission #Ukraine . – @ rafaelmgrossi
Grossi was in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad on Friday for talks with senior officials on nuclear issues in Ukraine. Nine of Ukraine’s 15 operational reactors are currently in use, including two at the Russian-controlled facility in Zaporizhia, the agency said. A man cries outside the deportation center in Zaporizhzhya, Ukraine, on Thursday. (Emre Caylak / AFP / Getty Images)
Russian forces occupied the Chornobil site shortly after the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, raising fears that they would cause damage or disruption that could spread radioactivity. The workforce there oversees the safe storage of spent fuel rods and the wreckage of the reactor that exploded in 1986 with a concrete grave. Russian forces have subjected both Chernihiv, a besieged and besieged city in northern Ukraine, and the capital Kiev to continuous air and ground missile strikes, despite Moscow saying Tuesday it plans to reduce its military activity to the areas. Elsewhere, Ukrainian forces recaptured the villages of Sloboda and Lukashivka, south of the besieged northern city of Chernihiv and along one of the main supply routes between the city and the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, according to the British Ministry of Defense. CLOCKS NATO warns that Russian troops are being repositioned. Zelensky renews call for support:

NATO warns Russian troops to reposition, Zelensky again calls for support

Russia appears to be moving troops away from Kyiv and into the eastern Donbass region of Ukraine, according to NATO. The move comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reiterated urgent calls for immediate support in a speech to the Australian Parliament. 2:01
Ukraine has also continued to carry out successful but limited counterattacks in the east and northeast of Kiev, the ministry said. Ukrainian soldiers transport the body of a civilian killed by Russian forces over the damaged bridge in Irpin, near Kyiv, Ukraine, on Thursday. The more than a month-long war has killed thousands and displaced more than 10 million Ukrainians. their homes, including nearly four million from their home country. (Efrem Lukatsky / The Associated Press)
Western officials say they are increasing …