Summary
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- More than 6,600 Ukrainians were evacuated from besieged cities through eight humanitarian corridors on Saturday, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said.
- Thousands of residents of Mariupol have been taken to Russia against their will, where they have been “redirected” to remote cities in the country, the Mariupol city council has said.
- The UK ministry of defence said Russia has still failed to gain control of the skies over Ukraine.
- China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, says his country is “on the right side of history” as it continues to rail against sanctions imposed on Russia and deny it is considering supplying weapons to Moscow.
- Australia has banned the sale of alumina and aluminium ores to Russia, in an effort to limit Russia’s munitions production. Australian supplies 20% of Russia’s alumina.
- Poland has proposed that the EU implement a total ban on trade with Russia, the country’s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, said.
- Russia said it had used hypersonic weapons, which travel fast enough to evade detection by missile defence systems, to destroy an underground military depot in western Ukraine.
- Boris Johnson has come under heavy criticism for comparing the struggle of Ukrainians fighting to the British public voting for Brexit.
- Kyiv officials have reported that 228 people, including four children, have been killed in Ukraine’s capitol. Ukraine’s ministry of foreign affairs reported that 14,400 Russian personnel have been killed since the start of the war.
- Volodymyr Zelenskiy called for “meaningful, fair” peace talks to take place urgently. He told Moscow that Russian losses would otherwise be so huge it would take generations to recover. “Negotiations on peace, on security for us, for Ukraine – meaningful, fair and without delay – are the only chance for Russia to reduce the damage from its own mistakes,” he said.
- Zelenskiy also urged Switzerland to crack down on Russian oligarchs who he said are helping to wage war on Ukraine from the safety of “beautiful Swiss towns”.
- The southern city of Zaporizhzhia entered a 38-hour curfew beginning at 1400 GMT on Saturday (1600 local time) after the Ukrainian military ordered people to stay home until early on Monday.
- Aid agencies are being prevented from reaching people trapped in Ukrainian cities surrounded by Russian forces, the World Food Programme said.
- Ukraine may not produce enough crops to export if this year’s sowing season is disrupted by Russia’s invasion, the presidential adviser Oleh Ustenko has said.
- Ten humanitarian corridors were agreed on with Russia for the evacuation of citizens, deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk has said.
China’s foreign minister says the country time will tell that they stand on the right side of history over the Ukraine crisis.
Reuters reports the minister Wang Yi told reporters on Saturday China had “always stood for maintaining peace and opposing war, and that its position was “objective and fair, and is in line with the wishes of most countries”.
“Time will prove that China’s claims are on the right side of history,” he said according to a statement published by the ministry.
China’s government holds conflicting positions on the war. It has projected itself as a neutral power, saying it respects Ukraine’s sovereignty as well as Russia’s “security concerns”, and says it could mediate.
It has refused to condemn Russia’s actions or call it an “invasion”, has voted alongside it at international bodies, and the US has significant concerns it is considering supplying weapons to Russia (which Beijing denies). It has repeatedly objected to the use of economic sanctions against Russia.
“China will never accept any external coercion or pressure, and opposes any unfounded accusations and suspicious against China,” Wang told reporters on Saturday evening.
Wang’s comments followed a Friday video call between Joe Biden and Xi Jinping, during which Biden warned Xi of “consequences” if Beijing gave material support to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Xi told Biden the war in Ukraine must end as soon as possible and called on NATO nations to hold a dialogue with Moscow. He did not, however, assign blame to Russia, according to Beijing’s statements about the call, Reuters reported.
