According to Kyiv’s mayor, nearly two million people have fled the Ukrainian capital as Russian forces advance.
“According to our information, one out of every two Kyiv residents has left the city,” Vitali Klitschko said on Ukraine television on Thursday.
According to citypopulation.de, a website that tracks population statistics around the world, the greater Kyiv area had a population of about 3.5 million people last year.
Russian forces have advanced to the city’s northeastern outskirts, with heavy battles for control of the main highway reported throughout the night. Despite heavy fighting, Moscow has made progress against the cities of Kharkiv in the east and Mykolaiv in the south.
Klitschko claimed that the capital had been “converted into a fortress.”
According to Kyiv’s mayor, nearly two million people have fled the Ukrainian capital as Russian forces advance.
“Every street, building, and checkpoint has been fortified,” he explained.
According to the mayor, two bombs exploded near two hospitals in a city west of Kyiv on Wednesday. Since the Russian invasion began two weeks ago, the World Health Organization has confirmed 18 attacks on medical facilities.
An air raid also struck a maternity hospital in Mariupol, killing three people, including a child, and eliciting widespread condemnation.
“What kind of country is this, the Russian Federation, that fears hospitals, fears maternity hospitals, and destroys them?” Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy inquired in a late-night televised address.
No health facility “should ever be a target,” according to UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric, who also called for a “immediate halt to attacks on healthcare, hospitals, healthcare workers, and ambulances.”
US Vice President Kamala Harris has called for an investigation into Russia’s actions in Ukraine, condemning “atrocities of unimaginable proportions” committed by Moscow’s forces.
The United Kingdom’s Minister for the Armed Forces, James Heappey, called the attack on the hospital “a war crime,” regardless of whether it was intentional or not.
According to Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, the Mariupol hospital was taken over by far-right fighters who were using it as a base. Photographs from the aftermath, on the other hand, showed pregnant women and children at the scene.
Meanwhile, a meeting between Lavrov and his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba in the Turkish city of Antalya on Thursday failed to produce concrete results.
The two sides discussed a 24-hour ceasefire in their highest-level talks since the war began, but no progress was made, according to Kuleba. He stated that Russia was still seeking “Ukraine’s surrender.”
“This is not going to be what they get,” he sai
Lavrov stated that Russia was ready for more talks, but he showed no signs of softening Moscow’s demands. He said that Russian President Vladimir Putin could meet with Zelenskyy, but only after further talks about Russia’s broader demands, such as Ukraine disarming and accepting neutral status.
Temporary ceasefires to allow vital food and medical supplies into besieged cities and residents to flee have frequently failed, with Ukraine accusing Russia of continuing its bombardment.
According to Zelenskyy, 35,000 people were able to escape from several besieged towns on Wednesday, and more efforts were underway on Thursday from towns and cities in eastern and southern Ukraine, including Mariupol, where aid agencies say 400,000 people have been trapped for more than a week with no food, water, or power.
The Mariupol city council posted a video of buses driving down a highway on Thursday, along with a note saying that a convoy bringing food and medicine was on its way, despite several days of failed attempts to reach the city.
“Everyone is working hard to get assistance to the people of Mariupol.” And it will come,” said Mayor Vadym Boychenko.
Temporary ceasefires to allow vital food and medical supplies into besieged cities and residents to flee have frequently failed, with Ukraine accusing Russia of continuing its bombardment.
According to Zelenskyy, 35,000 people were able to escape from several besieged towns on Wednesday, and more efforts were underway on Thursday from towns and cities in eastern and southern Ukraine, including Mariupol, where aid agencies say 400,000 people have been trapped for more than a week with no food, water, or power.
The Mariupol city council posted a video of buses driving down a highway on Thursday, along with a note saying that a convoy bringing food and medicine was on its way, despite several days of failed attempts to reach the city.
“Everyone is working hard to get assistance to the people of Mariupol.” And it will come,” said Mayor Vadym Boychenko.
Source: Aljazeera
