The Red Cross was en route to the besieged city of Mariupol on Friday to attempt evacuations while Ukraine and Russia resumed talks to end the war.
The Red Cross team of three cars carrying nine staff members was to lead a convoy of about 54 Ukrainian buses and several private vehicles out of the city, said an International Committee of the Red Cross spokesperson.
Meanwhile, the two warring nations met by video link to hammer out a peace deal to bring the war, which began on Feb. 24, to an end.
Here’s a round-up of what’s happening on Friday.
After receiving permission from Ukraine and Russia, the Red Cross was on its way to Mariupol to hopefully begin evacuations, spokesperson Ewan Watson said.
Watson stressed the organization was still working out some key details, like the exact timing as well as the destination, which will be an undetermined location in Ukraine.
Maxar satellite imagery shows before and after photos published on March 29 of a residential area in Mariupol damaged in ongoing fighting. – Satellite image ©2022 Maxar Technologies
The Red Cross was not allowed to take humanitarian aid, and it left without the medical and other supplies it had pre-positioned in the nearby city of Zaporizhzhia, he said, adding the Red Cross was working to change that.
“The situation is horrendous and deteriorating. It is now a humanitarian imperative that people be allowed to leave and aid supplies be allowed in,” Watson said.
Earlier this week, Mariupol’s mayor said roughly 170,000 residents were trapped there with no power and limited supplies. The city, which had a population of roughly 400,000 before the war started, has been a strategic focus of Russia and has suffered near-constant bombardment.
Russia’s barrage has caused at least $10 billion in damage to infrastructure, according to a preliminary estimate by Mariupol authorities.
Ukraine and Russia resumed peace talks, but in an online format, Ukraine’s presidential office said, referencing key negotiator Mykhailo Podolyak. It did not provide further details.
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Delegations from the two countries held talks in Turkey on Tuesday, after which Podolyak said he felt optimistic.
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Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday that Moscow was preparing its response to Ukraine’s proposals at Tuesday’s talks.
On Tuesday in Istanbul, the Ukrainian delegation proposed the country would declare itself neutral — dropping its bid to join NATO, as Moscow has long demanded — in return for security guarantees from a group of other nations, potentially including Canada.
Russia pointed its finger at Ukraine as being responsible for attacking a fuel depot in Russia earlier in the day. Ukraine’s foreign minister said he could not confirm or deny reports of Ukrainian involvement in the strike as he did not have military information.
The governor of Russia’s Belgorod region accused Ukraine of flying helicopter gunships into Russian territory targeting the fuel depot, in what, if confirmed, would be the first attack of its kind. It was not immediately possible to verify the report.
Volunteers of the Territorial Defence Units receive military training on the outskirts of Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine on March 31.
Andrea Carrubba/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said President Vladimir Putin was briefed about the incident, and added the strike could jeopardize the peace talks.
“Of course, this cannot be perceived as creating comfortable conditions for continuing the talks,” Peskov said, adding that everything was being done to prevent disruptions in fuel supplies in the city.
Ukrainian forces were pushing back Russian troops northeast and northwest of the capital Kyiv, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
Political adviser Oleksiy Arestovych also said Russian forces were now trying to encircle the northern city of Chernihiv.
A Ukrainian serviceman takes a selfie photograph standing on a destroyed Russian tank after Ukrainian forces overran a Russian position outside Kyiv on March 31.
Vadim Ghirda/AP
After promising to scale back operations near Kyiv and Chernihiv to “increase mutual trust and create conditions for further negotiations,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday that Russia is instead redeploying forces to the eastern Donbas region.
Late last week, Russia said it would shift its military focus to the Donbas region, where fighting has been ongoing for eight years between Russian-backed rebels and Ukrainian armed forces.
— with files from The Associated Press and Reuters
© 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
