It is feared that as many as 60 people were killed when a bomb hit a village school in eastern China. Ukrainethe regional governor said on Sunday as Russian forces continued to shell the last Ukrainian resistance in the devastated southeastern port of Mariupol.
Luhansk region governor Serhiy Gaidai said the school in Bilohorivka, which sheltered about 90 people, was hit by a Russian bomb on Saturday, causing it to catch fire.
v A view shows an explosion at an Azovstal Iron and Steel Works factory during the Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine, May 8, 2022. (REUTERS)
“Thirty people were evacuated from under the rubble, seven of whom were injured. Sixty people were likely killed,” Gaidai wrote on Telegram’s messaging app, adding that two bodies had been found.
Reuters was unable to immediately verify his account. There was no response from Moscow to the report.
Ukraine and its western allies have accused the Russian armed forces of targeting civilians in the war, something Moscow denies.
In Mariupol, the deputy commander of the Azov regiment, entrenched in the sprawling Azovstal steel mill, begged the international community for help in evacuating wounded soldiers.
A Ukrainian soldier walks in front of a school bombed during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, in Kostyantynivka, Ukraine’s Donetsk region, May 8, 2022. (REUTERS)
“We will continue to fight as long as we live to fend off the Russian occupiers,” Captain Sviatoslav Palamar said at an online press conference.
As fighting raged, now in its third month, and authorities in the eastern region of Kharkov reported more casualties from Russian shelling, leaders of the Group of Seven Industrialized Countries vowed on Sunday to deepen Russia’s economic isolation and launch a campaign against it. Kremlin linked elites.
US President Joe Biden and other G7 leaders held a video call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a show of unity ahead of Russia’s Victory Day celebrations on Monday.
Ukrainian soldiers ride an armored vehicle on their way to the front lines, amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in Bakhmut in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, May 8, 2022. (REUTERS)
The G7 said it was determined to phase out or ban Russian oil and denounced President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
“His actions bring disgrace to Russia and the historic sacrifices of its people,” the group said in a statement, referring to Soviet Russia’s role in defeating Nazi Germany 77 years ago.
Washington also unveiled another round of sanctions targeting more executives and companies as part of a wide-ranging effort to isolate Russia and limit resources used to advance the war. It also announced a new policy of visa restrictions on more than 2,500 Russian military officials and Russian-backed troops in Ukraine, according to a fact sheet from the foreign ministry.
In the Ukrainian-controlled city of Zaporizhzhya, about 230 km (140 miles) northwest of Mariupol, dozens of people who had fled the city and nearby occupied territories waited to register in a parking lot set up for evacuees.
american first lady Jill Biden gives flowers to Olena Zelenska, wife of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, outside a public school in Ukraine’s Uzhhorod, May 8, 2022. (REUTERS)
“There are still a lot of people in Mariupol who want to leave but can’t,” said history teacher Viktoria Andreyeva, 46, who said she had only just reached the city after leaving her bombed-out house in Mariupol with her family in mid-April.
“The air feels different here, free,” she said in a tent where volunteers offered food, basic supplies and toys to the evacuees, many who were traveling with small children.
In an emotional speech on Sunday before Victory Day, as Europe commemorated Nazi Germany’s formal surrender to the Allies in World War II, Zelenskiy said evil had returned to Ukraine with the Russian invasion, but his country would prevail.
Putin says he launched a “special military operation” on Feb. 24 to disarm Ukraine and rid it of Western-fueled anti-Russian nationalism. Ukraine and its allies say Russia has started an unprovoked war.
Emergency services help a fire near burning rubble after shelling hit a school building in Bilohorivka village, Luhansk, Ukraine, May 8, 2022. (REUTERS)
Mariupol is key to Moscow’s efforts to connect the Crimean peninsula, occupied by Russia in 2014, with parts of the eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk that have since been controlled by Russian-backed separatists.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin said on Telegram that he was visiting Mariupol, the country’s highest-ranking government official, who set foot in the city after weeks of Russian bombing.
According to the Russian Ministry of Defense TV channel Zvezda, Khusnullin, who is responsible for construction and urban development, visited the commercial port there and said it should serve to deliver building materials to restore the city. .
A number of Western officials, including US First Lady Jill Biden, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, a German head of parliament and the Norwegian Foreign Minister arrived in Ukraine on Sunday to show support. For the first time since the invasion, a team of American diplomats also arrived in Kiev.
A man cycles in front of a school bombed during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, in Kostyantynivka, Ukraine’s Donetsk region, May 8, 2022. (REUTERS)
Putin sent Victory Day messages to separatist leaders in Luhansk and Donetsk, saying that Russia fought shoulder to shoulder with them and compared their combined efforts to the war against Nazi Germany. “The victory will be ours,” Putin said in a Kremlin press release on Sunday.
Russia’s efforts were thwarted by logistical and equipment problems and by many casualties under fierce resistance.
Putin will preside over a parade in Moscow’s Red Square on Monday of troops, tanks, missiles and intercontinental ballistic missiles, and deliver a speech that could provide clues about the future of the war.
The Russians “have nothing to celebrate tomorrow,” US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield told CNN. “They failed to beat the Ukrainians. They failed to divide or divide the world NATO†
