Kyiv was preparing for its first military visit by two senior US officials as Russia continued its bombing of Ukraine, including a deadly strike in the port city of Odessa that nearly buried hopes of a truce for Orthodox Easter.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he would meet with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Defense Minister Lloyd Austin in Kyiv on Sunday. The White House declined to comment.
Speaking at a press conference, Zelenski gave some details about the logistics of the meeting, but said he expected concrete results – “not just gifts or cakes, we expect concrete things and concrete weapons.”
“As soon as we have [more weapons]”If there are enough of them, believe me, we will immediately regain this or that territory, which is temporarily occupied,” Zelenski said.
This will be the first high-level US trip to Kyiv since the start of the war on February 24. Blinken and Austin’s visit will come at a symbolic moment – the day the war enters its third month – and with fierce fighting continuing in the east of the country.
This also comes as the situation in the ruined port city of Mariupol remains grim. The latest of many attempts to evacuate civilians failed on Saturday, and the situation facing a combat unit of Ukrainian fighters hiding in tunnels under the scattered steel plant seemed increasingly desperate.
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A video emerged from inside the besieged Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, showing women and children saying they were “exhausted” and urgently needed to be evacuated to Ukrainian-controlled territory. In the video, an unnamed woman says she has spent 50 days underground since February 25, the second day of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Others say they found refuge in the plant in early March as Russian forces struck their apartments with artillery and air strikes.
“We want to see the sun”: Video shows children in the Azovstal bunker – video
The Ukrainian government is trying to create a humanitarian corridor that will allow civilians in the plant to get out safely. The extensive factory is the base for the Ukrainian Azov Battalion, part of the National Guard, which filmed the video.
Fighting continued across the country on Saturday. Ukrainian authorities say a series of Russian Tu-95 missiles fired from the Caspian Sea have killed at least five people in Odessa, including a three-month-old baby, and injured 18 others.
The Southern Air Force Command added that two missiles also hit residential buildings in the city.
“Five Ukrainians were killed and 18 wounded, and these are the only ones we managed to find,” said Andriy Ermak, head of Ukraine’s presidential office. “The death toll is likely to be high.
At a press conference on Saturday, Zelenski confirmed that a three-month-old baby was among those killed. “They killed a three-month-old baby,” he said. “The war started when this baby was one month old. Can you even imagine what is happening? They are just bastards. Just bastards. I have no other words to use in this context. They’re just bastards. ”
In Luhansk, eight people were killed in Russian attacks on Saturday, regional Governor Sergei Gaidai wrote in a post on social media.
On another front, near Kherson, a city in southern Ukraine under Russian occupation, two Russian generals were killed while another was in critical condition, according to the intelligence department of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense. Russian generals were allegedly killed after the Ukrainian military struck the 49th Russian Army command post near Kherson on Friday, according to the statement.
Ukrainian authorities on Saturday called on those celebrating Orthodox Easter, one of Ukraine’s biggest celebrations, to follow religious services online and observe curfew amid battles with Russian troops, despite the holiday, which usually draws crowds.
Reuters, AFP and the Associated Press contributed to the report
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