“Do everything you can to get our people to leave the Russian language, because the Russian language will now only be associated with you, with your explosions and your murders, your crimes,” Zelensky said in a passionate video call late Saturday. . Zelensky’s comments followed a speech in Warsaw by US President Joe Biden, in which he said of Putin: “For God’s sake, this man can not stay in power.” Speaking at a news conference in Jerusalem on Sunday, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said Biden’s view was that “Putin cannot be authorized to wage war or attack Ukraine or anyone else.”
The US is not seeking regime change
He said the United States had repeatedly said that “we do not have a strategy for regime change in Russia or anywhere else on this issue.” “In this case, as in any case, it depends on the people of that country. It’s up to the Russian people,” Blinken said. CLOCKS Biden says Putin “can not stay in power”
Biden says Putin “can not stay in power” in fiery speech about Ukraine
US President Joe Biden concluded his speech in Warsaw by saying, “In the name of God, this man can not remain in power,” referring to Vladimir Putin. A White House official later said Biden was not seeking regime change in Russia. 0:29
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has led to a war of attrition in many parts of the country, with civilian casualties rising as Moscow seeks to strike subdued cities from established positions.
Russian missiles hit the city of Lviv in western Ukraine on Saturday, reminding Moscow that it was willing to strike anywhere in Ukraine despite its claim that it was focusing its attack on the east of the country.
3 rockets in Lviv, says a witness
Early Sunday, a chemical odor was still in the air as firefighters in Lviv sprayed water on a burned-out section of an oil rig hit by the Russian attack. A security guard at the scene, Yaroslav Prokopiv, said he saw three rockets hit and destroy two oil tanks, but no one was injured. CLOCKS Explosions were heard in the western Ukrainian city of 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
“The third blow threw me to the ground,” he said.
Repeated airstrikes by Russia have shaken the city, which has become a haven for some 200,000 people who have been forced to flee their cities. Lviv had largely escaped the onset of the invasion, although rockets hit an aircraft repair facility near the main airport a week ago.
In the dim, bomb-filled shelter under a block of flats a short distance from the site of the first explosion, Olana Ukrainets, a 34-year-old IT professional, said she could not believe she had to hide again after leaving the northeastern city of Kharkiv. one of the most bombed cities of the war.
People are in underground shelters after the explosions in Lviv in western Ukraine on Saturday. (Nariman El-Mofty / The Associated Press)
“We were on one side of the road and we saw it on the other side,” he said. “We saw a fire. I said to my friend, ‘What is this?’ Then we heard the sound of an explosion and the breaking of glass. We tried to hide among buildings. I do not know what the target was.”
Chernihiv was surrounded
Two cities on opposite sides of the country are experiencing some of the worst at the moment, Chernihiv in the north — strategically located on the road from the Belarusian border to the capital, Kiev — and Mariupol in the south, a key port city in the Sea of Azov. Both are surrounded by Russian forces, but still hold on. Chernihiv has been under attack since the early days of the invasion and last week, Russia destroyed the main vehicle bridge leading out of the city and made a nearby pedestrian bridge impassable, cutting off the last route for civilians to flee or for food and medicine be introduced. The remaining residents of Chernihiv are terrified that every explosion, bomb and body found in their streets will trap them in the same macabre trap of inevitable murder and destruction. “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 list of drugs that are no longer available is growing day by day.
Drinking water in proportion
Kazmerchak starts his day in long queues for drinking water, with 10 liters per person. People come with empty bottles and buckets to fill when water trucks go around.
“The food is over and the bombing and the bombing is not stopping,” he said.
More than half of the city’s 280,000 residents have already fled and hundreds left have been killed, said Mayor Vladyslav Atroshenko.
People stand in front of a Ukrainian national flag as they watch dark smoke and flames rise from an airstrike in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on Saturday. (Aleksey Filippov / AFP / Getty Images)
“Russian forces bombed low-lying residential areas in” absolutely clear weather “and” deliberately destroyed urban infrastructure: schools, kindergartens, churches, apartment buildings, and even the local football stadium, “Atroshenko told Ukrainian television.
Refugees from Chernihiv that escaped the siege and arrived in Poland this week spoke of widespread and devastating disaster, with bombs leveling at least two schools in the city center and strikes also hitting the stadium, museums and many homes.
They said that with utility companies stalling, people were taking water from Desna to drink and that strikes were killing people while waiting in line for food. Volodymyr Fedorovych, 77, said he escaped shortly after a bomb fell on a line of bread in which he had been standing a few moments earlier. He said the blast killed 16 people and injured dozens, blowing hands and feet.
Tired of being scared
The siege is so intense that some of those trapped can no longer muster the strength to fear, Kazmerczak said.
“The destroyed houses, the fires, the corpses in the streets, the huge aircraft bombs that did not explode in the yards no longer surprise anyone,” he said. “People are just tired of being scared and they don’t always go underground.”
The British Ministry of Defense said on Saturday that it does not expect a postponement for the citizens of the bombed cities of Ukraine soon.
Igor, 47, is one of the remaining residents of Mariupol who lives in a basement in the besieged city. Seen here on March 25 sitting in a courtyard. (Alexander Ermochenko / Reuters)
“Russia will continue to use its heavy firepower in urban areas as it seeks to reduce its own already significant losses, at the cost of further civilian casualties,” the ministry said in a statement.
Previous bombings of hospitals and other civilian facilities, including a theater in Mariupol where Ukrainian authorities say a Russian airstrike believed to have killed 300 people last week, have already sparked war crimes allegations.
The invasion has driven more than 10 million people from their homes, almost a quarter of Ukraine’s population. Of those, more than 3.7 million have fled the country altogether, according to the United Nations. Thousands of civilians are believed to have lost their lives.
