Russian President Vladimir Putin has invited volunteers to participate in Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine. “If you see that there are people who want on a voluntary basis, especially not for money, to come and help people living in the Donbas, well, you need to meet them halfway and help them get to the combat zone,” Putin said at the Security Council meeting, as quoted by Sputnik. Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said that many volunteers are ready to help people in Donbas, including 16,000 people from the Middle Eastern countries.
This comes as a Pentagon official on Thursday said the Russians have moved about 5 km closer to Kyiv since Wednesday and are now about 40 km east of the city.
There are multiple lines of advancements toward Kyiv, with the assessed intent of encircling the Ukrainian capital. However, their progress to do so hasn’t been effective, the official said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that around 40,000 people had been evacuated from a number of Ukrainian cities on Thursday but accused Russian forces of targeting a humanitarian corridor in the city of Mariupol.
“One of the main tasks for us today was the organization of humanitarian corridors: Sumy, Trostyanets, Krasnopillya, Irpin, Bucha, Hostomel, Izyum. Within this day, we have already managed to evacuate almost 40,000 our people, to give them security in Poltava, Kyiv, Cherkasy, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro, Lviv,” Zelenskyy said in a video address on his Telegram channel. He said humanitarian aid, food and medicine were delivered.
Mariupol and Volnovakha, however, remain completely blocked, CNN quoting Zelenskyy reported, adding that despite Ukrainian officials’ best efforts to make the corridor work, “Russian troops did not cease fire.”
Regardless of this, Zelensky said he still decided to send a convoy of trucks carrying food, water and medicine.
“But the invaders started a tank attack exactly in the area where this corridor was supposed to be. Corridor of life. For the people of Mariupol,” the President said, CNN reported.
Earlier on Thursday, local authorities in the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol said Russian forces had begun dropping bombs on the “green corridor” designated to evacuate Mariupol residents, CNN reported.
Meanwhile, a Russian delegation discussing the terms of peace with its Ukrainian counterpart has made its proposals in the form of a legal document during the latest round of talks between Russia and Ukraine, said the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday.
Taking to Twitter, the Russian MFA wrote, “During the latest round of talks in Belarus the Russian delegation made highly specific proposals, this time in the form of a legally binding draft document. The Ukrainian delegation said they would take them to Kyiv for discussion.”
The third round of talks between Russia and Ukraine took place on Monday. Russian and Ukrainian negotiators on Monday failed to achieve significant results during their third round of peace talks held in Belarus. Mykhailo Podolyak, a member of the Ukrainian delegation, said that there was some small progress in improving the logistics of humanitarian corridors in Ukraine.
“The third round of negotiations has ended. There are small positive subductions in improving the logistics of humanitarian corridors… Intensive consultations have continued on the basic political block of the regulations, along with a ceasefire and security guarantees,” Podolyak tweeted.
On the sixteenth day of the war between Russia and Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks with Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko to discuss Ukraine and Western sanctions.
Putin said that there had been some progress in Moscow’s talks with Ukraine, but provided no details, reported Sputnik. “There are certain positive shifts, negotiators on our side tell me,” Putin said in a meeting with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko, adding that talks continued “practically on a daily basis”.
Putin did not elaborate but said in the televised remarks that he would go into more detail with Lukashenko.
Meanwhile, Lukashenko said that Ukraine planned to attack not only Donbas but also Belarus.
The Belarusian leader said that he brought a map which shows from where Ukraine planned to attack Belarus, reported Sputnik.
“And if six hours before the operation there had not been a preventive strike on the positions—four positions, I will now show the map, I brought it—they would have attacked our troops of Belarus and Russia … we did not unleash this war, our conscience is clear. It’s good that we started,” Lukashenko said.
“They were not only preparing to attack the Donbas, they lined up positions to strike at Belarus,” Lukashenko added.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs shared the details of the losses that the Russian Armed Forces have incurred noting that more than 12,000 Russian troops have been killed with 353 Russian tanks being destroyed since the Ukraine war began.
According to the MFA data, 1,165 armoured vehicles of different types, 57 aircraft, 83 helicopters, 125 artillery pieces, and 58 MLRs were hit during the combat. Furthermore, the destroyed facilities also include 60 cisterns, 558 vehicles, 3 vessels, 7 UAVs, and 31 Russian anti-aircraft warfare systems. As per the latest update, two Ukrainian soldiers were killed and six injured as Russia shot missiles at a military airbase in Lutsk, western Ukraine, said The Kyiv Independent.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case against Facebook parent company Meta Platforms accusing the company’s employees of “illegal calls for murder and violence” against Russian citizens, according to a statement the committee published on Friday.
Meta, the parent company of social networks Facebook and Instagram, is planning to allow the publication of calls for violence against Russians in response to the invasion of Ukraine, media reports said on Friday. The Investigative Committee’s statement said, citing the policy change, “A criminal case has been initiated in the Main Investigation Department of the Russian Investigative Committee in connection with illegal calls for murder and violence against citizens of the Russian Federation by employees of the American company Meta, which owns the social networks Facebook and Instagram.”
“These actions contain signs of crimes under Articles 280 and 205.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation—public calls for extremist activities; assistance to terrorist activities,” the statement reads, reported CNN.
Earlier, Meta spokesperson, Andy Stone in a statement, said, “As a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine we have temporarily made allowances for forms of political expression that would normally violate our rules like violent speech such as ‘death to the Russian invaders.’ We still won’t allow credible calls for violence against Russian civilians.”
REFUGEES
Filippo Grandi, head of the UN’s refugee agency, said that the number of people fleeing Ukraine has now reached 2.5 million, estimating that about two million people are displaced inside Ukraine.
He said that the UN’s Refugee Agency needs about US$500 million for its emergency work in Ukraine and neighbouring countries, adding that so far it has received over US$300 million of which almost US$200 million is from individuals, companies, and foundations. Calling the war senseless, Grandi in a tweet wrote, “the number of refugees from Ukraine—tragically—has reached today 2.5 million. We also estimate that about two million people are displaced inside Ukraine. Millions forced to leave their homes by this senseless war.”