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As fighting rages in Mariupol, Ukraine’s Zelenskiy calls for help from Israel

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© Reuters. General view of Barabashovo market after shelling fire, as Russia continues its invasion of Ukraine, in Kharkiv, Ukraine March 19, 2022. REUTERS / Oleksandr Lapshyn

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(Additional report on shelling from mayor of Kyiv; US Secretary of Defense for Hypersonic Missiles)

By Pavel Polityuk

LVIV, Ukraine (Reuters) – Russian and Ukrainian forces battled for the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol on Sunday, whose residents were stranded with little food, water and energy, while Ukraine’s President wailed called Israel for help to repel the Russian attack.

In the capital Kyiv, fires hit several homes and a shopping center in the Podil district late on Sunday, killing at least one person, the city’s mayor said.

In his latest appeal for foreign help, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy addressed the Israeli Parliament by video link and questioned Israel’s reluctance to sell the Iron Dome missile defense system. for Ukraine.

“Everybody knows that your missile defense system is the best … and you can certainly help our people, save Ukrainian lives, Ukrainian Jews,” said Zelenskiy, who is of Jewish descent. , speak.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has made several calls with both Zelenskiy and Russian President Vladimir Putin to try to end the conflict.

Mariupol has come under some of the heaviest shelling since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24. Many of its 400,000 residents are still stranded with little food, water and electricity. .

Burying his neighbors in a makeshift roadside grave, a man who identified himself as Andrei said they died not from shelling but from illness, stress and a cold after weeks. no medical help.

Regional Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko continued fighting inside the city on Sunday without elaborating.

Russia called on Ukrainian forces in Mariupol to lay down their arms, saying a “terrible humanitarian disaster” was underway.

It said guards doing so were guaranteed to get out of the city safely and that humanitarian corridors would be open from 1000 Moscow time (07:00 GMT) on Monday.

Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said more than 7,000 people were evacuated from Ukrainian cities through humanitarian corridors on Sunday, more than half of them from Mariupol. She said the government plans to send nearly 50 buses to Mariupol on Monday for further evacuations.

Russia and Ukraine have made agreements throughout the war on humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians, but still accuse each other of regularly violating those corridors.

Mariupol City Council said on Telegram on Saturday that several thousand residents had been “deported” to Russia in the past week. Russian news agencies say buses have carried hundreds of refugees from Mariupol to Russia in recent days.

US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield told CNN the deportation accounts are “disturbing” and “unconscionable” if true, but said Washington has yet to confirm them.

Russian forces bombed an art school on Saturday where 400 residents were sheltering, but the number of casualties remains unknown, Mariupol’s council said.

Reuters was unable to independently verify the claims. Russia denies targeting civilians.

On Saturday, Zelenskiy called the siege of Mariupol a war crime and “a horror that will be remembered for centuries to come.”

Greece’s consul general in Mariupol, the last EU diplomat to evacuate the city, said they were joining the ranks of places known to have been ravaged by wars.

“What I have seen, I hope no one will see,” he said.

SOME PROGRESSIONS

Capturing Mariupol would help Russian forces secure a land corridor to the Crimean peninsula that Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

Putin said that Russia’s “special operation” was aimed at disarming Ukraine and destroying dangerous nationalists. Western nations call this an aggressive war and have imposed sanctions aimed at crippling the Russian economy.

Ukraine and Western supporters say Russia’s ground forces made some progress last week, focusing instead on artillery and missile strikes.

Zelenskiy adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said Sunday there has been a relative lull over the past 24 hours, with “the fact that there have been no missile attacks on cities”. He said the front line was “practically frozen”.

However, late on Sunday, the mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, reported several explosions in the capital’s Podil district and said rescue teams were putting out a large fire at the shopping mall. He said at least one person was killed.

Reuters was unable to immediately verify the report.

The UN human rights office said at least 902 civilians had been killed as of midnight Saturday, although the real number is probably much higher. Ukrainian prosecutors said 112 children were killed.

The United Nations refugee agency says 10 million Ukrainians have been displaced, of which about 3.4 million have fled to neighboring countries such as Poland. Officials in the area say they are gaining the ability to comfortably house refugees.

Russia says it has launched cruise missiles from ships in the Black and Caspian Seas, as well as hypersonic missiles from Crimean airspace. Hypersonic missiles travel 5 times faster than the speed of sound and their speed, maneuverability and altitude make them difficult to intercept.

Russia deployed them for the first time in Ukraine on Saturday in an attack that it said destroyed an underground storage of missiles and aircraft ammunition.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told CBS News’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday that Putin may have used such weapons “because he’s trying to reset some momentum.” , but says he doesn’t consider them a game changer.

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, which like Israel has tried to mediate, said the sides were moving closer to agreement on “important” issues.

Kyiv and Moscow reported some progress last week on a political formula that would guarantee Ukraine’s security, while keeping the country outside NATO – a key Russian need – although each side accuses each other of the need. force the other side to pull everything.

In the southern city of Kherson, video seen by Reuters showed dozens of protesters, some wearing blue and yellow Ukrainian flags, chanting “Go home” in Russian at two military vehicles. Russian markings. The vehicles turned and left.

“I want the war to end, I want them (Russian forces) to leave Ukraine in peace,” said Margarita Morozova, 87, who survived the Nazi siege of Leningrad during World War II and lived in Kharkiv, eastern Ukraine, said. the past 60 years.

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