A cautious hope for the final siege of Mariupol

For now, I can only tell you that we are doing everything we can to make it happenhe said after a meeting in kyiv with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

I will not make any other comments so as not to harm this possibility.he immediately added.

I trust and believe – like the relatives of those stuck in Azovstal – that the Secretary General and we will achieve a positive resultsimple comment by President Zelensky.

The Ukrainian capital was shaken by two Russian strikes, almost simultaneously with the MM. Guterres and Zelensky provided an update on their meeting.

The UN chief’s visit to kyiv follows his visit to Moscow on Tuesday for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Mr. Guterres then proposed creating a contact group bringing together Moscow, kyiv, the Red Cross and the United Nations to find ways to evacuate civilians from Mariupol.

In a press release published after this meeting, the UN confirmed that Mr. Putin had given his agreement “in principle” to this procedure.

The UN, however, did not give reference to a possible evacuation of the fighters buried in the massive Azovstal complex.

Before meeting with the head of state of Ukraine, Mr. Guterres visited three towns outside kyiv – Borodianka, Boutcha and Irpin – which had suffered badly from a brief Russian occupation at the start of the fighting.

He called on Moscow on Thursday to cooperate with the International Criminal Court’s investigation into possible war crimes and called the war astupidity in the 21st century.

Preparations are beginning

Before meeting MM. Zelensky and Guterres, the UN coordinator in Ukraine, Osnat Lurbani, announced that an attempt to evacuate the city of Mariupol was being prepared.

I am going to Zaporizhia to prepare for the expected evacuation of Mariupolhe wrote on Twitter.

Attempts organized by Ukraine to evacuate civilians from the port city have almost all failed so far. Most of the fugitives did so on their own, putting their lives in danger.

The strategic city of Mariupol, on the Sea of ​​Azov, is almost entirely controlled by the Russian army and the pro-Russian forces of the self-declared republic of Donetsk.

The last fighters and some civilians are now confined to the Azovstal complex, which has bomb shelters and an extensive network of tunnels.

In its latest daily report, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense retains Russian forces massively bombarded factory.

Mariupol 36th Marine Brigade commander Sergei Volynsky again called for help on Wednesday, noting that the Azovstal compound was home to 600 wounded soldiers and hundreds of civilians.

According to Ukrainian authorities, about 100,000 civilians are still in Mariupol, a city completely destroyed by the Russian siege launched at the start of the war, on February 24.

Municipal authorities in the city, which previously had more than 400,000 residents, estimate that at least 20,000 people have died there, a number that is impossible to verify.