Russian and Ukrainian forces battle for control of Mariupol after school is hit by rocket
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called on Israel to help him repel the Russian assault on his country.
In the latest in a series of appeals he has made for help from abroad, Zelensky addressed the Israeli parliament via video link and questioned Israel’s reluctance to sell its security system. Iron Dome missile defense in Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed Israeli politicians via video link. Credit:PA
“Everyone knows that your missile defense systems are the best…and that you can definitely help our people, save the lives of Ukrainians, Ukrainian Jews,” said Zelensky, who is of Jewish descent.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has had numerous calls with Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin in an attempt to end the conflict.
The Ukrainian port city of Mariupol has suffered some of the heaviest shelling since Russia invaded Ukraine late last month. Many of the city’s 400,000 residents remain trapped in the city with little or no food, water and electricity.
Fighting continued inside the city on Sunday (European time), regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said, without giving further details.
The Russian governor of Sevastopol, which Moscow annexed to Ukraine in 2014, said post captain Andrei Paliy, deputy commander of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, was killed in fighting in Mariupol.
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Capturing Mariupol would help Russian forces secure a land corridor to the Crimean peninsula that Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
The city council said on its Telegram channel over the weekend that several thousand residents had been “deported” to Russia over the past week. Russian news agencies said buses had transported hundreds of people Moscow calls Mariupol refugees to Russia in recent days.
Speaking to CNN, US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield called the deportation accounts “disturbing” and “unconscionable” if true, but said Washington does not had not yet confirmed.
Russian forces shelled an art school over the weekend where 400 residents were sheltering, but the number of casualties was not yet known, the Mariupol council said. Reuters could not independently verify the claims.
Russia has denied targeting civilians.
Reuters