The Telegraph
Ukraine morning briefing: Five developments as Russian forces attempt to storm Mariupol steel plant
Our Foreign Staff – April 23, 2022
Russian forces tried to storm a steel plant sheltering soldiers and civilians in the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol on Saturday.
The attack on Mariupol, the biggest battle of the conflict, has raged for weeks. Capturing the city is seen as vital to Russia’s attempts to link the eastern Donbas region with Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula Moscow seized in 2014.
1. Russia resumes assault on Mariupol steel works
Russia resumed its assault on the last defenders in a giant steel works in Mariupol, a Ukrainian official said, days after Moscow declared victory in the southern port city and said its forces did not need to take the factory.
Meanwhile, a new attempt to evacuate Ukrainian civilians from war-torn Mariupol failed, an aide to the city’s mayor said, blaming Russian forces. The official said 200 residents of Mariupol had gathered to be evacuated but the Russian military told them to disperse and warned of possible shelling.
2. Mother and baby among eight killed in Odesa attack
A mother and her baby daughter have been identified as two of the people killed by Russian missiles which hit a residential building in Odesa on Saturday.
Valeria Glodan and three-month old Kira were among eight people who died when Russian rockets hit buildings in the Black Sea Port city.
3. Anthony Blinken and Lloyd Austin to visit Kyiv
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will visit Kyiv on Sunday, the highest American delegation since the beginning of the war.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, who announced the visit, also issued a new call for a meeting with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin “to end the war”.
4. Zelensky criticises UN Secretary’s Russia visit as unjust
Volodymyr Zelensky criticised a decision by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to visit Moscow on Tuesday, instead of travelling first to Kyiv.
Mr Guterres will meet Mr Zelensky on Thursday, but the Ukrainian leader said there is “no justice and no logic” in his visiting Russia first.
4. A third of Russian gas to EU will be lost, says Ukraine’s Naftogaz
A third of Russian gas exported to the European Union could be affected because of the war, said the head of Ukraine’s state gas company Naftogaz.
“We estimate a third of the gas exported from Russia to the European Union via Ukraine will be lost if the [Russian] forces of occupation don’t stop disrupting the working of the stations in the recently occupied territories,” Yuriy Vitrenko wrote on Twitter.
5. Zelensky renews call for talks with Putin
President Volodymyr Zelensky issued a new call Saturday for a meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin “to end the war.”
“I think that whoever started this war will be able to end it,” Mr Zelensky said, adding he was “not afraid” to meet the Russian leader, who attended an Orthodox Easter service in Moscow.
But he again stressed that Kyiv would abandon talks with Moscow if its troops in Mariupol were killed.