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Russia used its newest Kinzhal hypersonic missiles for the first time in Ukraine on Friday to destroy a weapons storage site in the country's west, the defence ministry said.
"The Kinzhal aviation missile system with hypersonic aeroballistic missiles destroyed a large underground warehouse containing missiles and aviation ammunition" in the village of Deliatyn in the Ivano-Frankivsk region," the Russian defence ministry said Saturday.
Ukraine's President Zelenskiy called for meaningful talks with Russia to stop its invasion, as Moscow said it was "tightening the noose" around the key port of Mariupol.
Mykhailo Podolyak, Ukraine’s chief negotiator in talks with Russia, said Friday the talks could take weeks or longer as the two sides discuss security guarantees, a cease-fire, withdrawal of Russian troops and a resolution of disputed areas. Ukraine, he said, will not give up any territory.
Biden warned China's Xi of "consequences", which the White House said could include sanctions, if Beijing gave material support to Russia's invasion. Both sides called for a diplomatic solution to the crisis in its fourth week.
As the prolonged assault has reduced much of Mariupol to rubble, Ukraine's defence ministry said it had "temporarily" lost access to the Azov Sea, which connects to the Black Sea and would be a major loss for Ukraine. * "Russian forces have made minimal progress this week," Britain said. It said Russian attempts to surround Kyiv and Mykolaiv have been pushed back while heavy Russian shelling of encircled cities of Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Sumy and Mariupol was reported on Friday.
Fears of a bond default by Russia eased after $117 million of interest payments due this week started to reach international investors, promising to temporarily avert a lapse that would have injected even more uncertainty into world credit markets.
Ukraine lost access to the Azov Sea during Russia's siege of the southern port city of Mariupol, the Ukrainian General Staff said late Friday.
Ukraine’s interior minister said Friday that it will take years to defuse unexploded ordnances after the Russian invasion.Speaking to The Associated Press in the besieged Ukrainian capital, Denys Monastyrsky said that the country will need Western assistance to cope with the massive task once the war is over.
French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to lift the siege of Mariupol, allow humanitarian access and order an immediate cease-fire, Macron’s office said.
Six Western nations have accused Russia of using the U.N. Security Council to launder disinformation, spread propaganda, and justify its unprovoked attack on Ukraine. And the U.S. is again warning that Moscow’s claim that the U.S. has biological warfare laboratories in Ukraine “is really a potential false flag effort in action."
The U.N. rights office has reported 816 confirmed civilian deaths. The Ukrainian prosecutor general's office said on Saturday that 112 children have been killed so far. Ukraine's food supply chains are breaking down and the conflict is leading to "collateral hunger" around the world, the U.N. food aid agency warned. Border crossings from Ukraine have slowed but could rise again if conditions in the west of the country worsen, the U.N refugee agency said. The U.N. says 3.27 million have fled, with 2 million displaced inside the country. A humanitarian corridor for evacuations in Ukraine's Luhansk region will be opened on Saturday morning, regional governor Serhiy Gaidai said on Telegram.
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