Lviv: The mayor of the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol says those hiding at a massive steel mill are running out of food, water and medicine.
Vadym Boichenko described the situation at the Avozstal steel plant as dire. The steel mill is the last position held by Ukrainian fighters, who also are with civilians.
The Soviet-era facility has a vast underground network of bunkers able to withstand airstrikes. But the situation has grown more extreme after the Russians dropped a series of so-called “bunker-buster” bombs and unguided munitions.
“Locals who manage to leave Mariupol say it is hell, but when they leave this fortress, they say it is worse,” Boichenko said, according to a translator. “They are begging to get saved.”
He added: “There, it’s not a matter of days, it’s a matter of hours.”
Boichenko said he hoped a cease-fire would allow those inside the steel mill to safely leave. Russia earlier offered a truce that was rejected by Ukrainians, who said Moscow previously broke other agreements.
“We hope there’s a slight touch of humanity in the enemy,” the mayor said.
Boichenko spoke Friday in a government-organized video conference.
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OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:
MOSCOW — The head of the Russian Central Bank says the outlook is “extremely uncertain” as the country’s economy is expected to contract by up to 10% this year.
International sanctions and falling consumer demand are squeezing the economy as inflation rises.
The Central Bank cut its key interest rate from 17% to 14% Friday and predicted the economy would shrink by between 8% and 10% this year.
“The current situation is extremely uncertain. Simultaneously, supply trends and the factors driving aggregate demand are also changing dramatically,” Central Bank head Elvira Nabiullina said.
The Central Bank said annual inflation was 17.6% as of April 22 and forecast it would rise to between 18% and 23% by the end of the year.
“After a temporary surge, consumer demand is decreasing in real terms, accompanied by a rise in households’ propensity to save. The decline in imports due to the introduction of external trade and financial restrictions is outstripping the decline in exports,” the Central Bank said in a statement.
“Despite the gradual change in the country and commodity structure of exports and imports as new suppliers and sales markets emerge, businesses are experiencing considerable difficulties in production and logistics.”
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JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo says that both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin have agreed to attend the G20 summit to be held in Bali in November.
Widodo, the current chair of the G20 group, made the remarks in a televised statement Friday in which he said that he had telephone conversations this week with Zelenskyy and Putin. He said he urged both leaders of Ukraine and Russia to end the war through negotiations.
“I reiterated the importance of ending the war immediately,” he said. “I also emphasized that peaceful efforts should continue and Indonesia is ready to contribute to these peaceful efforts.”
He said that he invited Putin and Zelenskyy to the G20 summit as the war in Ukraine has a major impact on the global economy.
“We understand that the G20 plays the catalyst role in the recovery of the global economy,” Widodo said.
Widodo said that he has rejected the Ukrainian leader’s request for arms but instead will send humanitarian aid.
“The mandate of Indonesia’s constitution and the principles of our foreign policy prohibit us from providing arms assistance to other countries,” Widodo said. “However, we are ready to provide humanitarian aid to Ukraine.”
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KYIV, Ukraine — The Ukrainian men’s national soccer team will return to the field for the first time since the Russian invasion when it plays a friendly against German club Borussia Mönchengladbach on May 11 ahead of a crucial World Cup qualifier.
The Ukrainian soccer association said Friday it will assemble the team for a training camp in Slovenia starting Monday.
Bundesliga club Gladbach said the proceeds from the game would go to charity efforts focused on Ukraine and Ukrainians abroad and that citizens of the country would get free entry.
Ukraine’s national team hasn’t played since November and had to postpone its World Cup qualifying playoff game against Scotland from March to June 1 because of the war. The winner will face Wales on June 5 for a place at this year’s World Cup in Qatar.
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MADRID — The Spanish government said Friday that its largest shipment of military equipment to Ukraine so far is on track for delivery after a ship carrying 200 tons of material has docked at a port in Poland.
Spain’s defense ministry confirmed the ship’s arrival in Poland. Spanish newspaper El País, citing Polish port authorities, said the vessel had docked at the port of Gdynia, where the material would be unloaded and transported some 700 kilometers (435 miles) to a logistics base in Ukraine.
The shipment includes 30 trucks, several special heavy transport vehicles and 10 smaller vehicles that will be used to transfer the military material to Ukraine, according to Spain’s prime minister.
The shipment to Ukraine on the Spanish ship Ysabel, a 149-meter (489 feet) vessel, was announced last week by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez during a visit to Kyiv to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. “This is the largest shipment made up to now, more than doubling what we have sent so far,” he added.
Prior to the shipment on the Ysabel, Spain had sent 1,370 anti-tank grenade launchers, 700,000 machine-gun cartridges as well as an armored ambulance and medical material to Ukraine.
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WARSAW, Poland — Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, says that the war has not changed her husband, but only revealed his qualities, including a determination to prevail, to the world.
Zelenska, speaking in an interview with the Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita published Friday, also says she has not seen her husband President Volodymr Zelenskyy since Russia invaded Ukraine.
“Since February 24, I have been seeing my husband just like you — on TV and on video tapes of his speeches,” she said.
She accused Russia of trying to carry out a genocide against the Ukrainian people, expressed her sympathy with all those who have been forced to flee their homes.
“I wish I could hug each of them. It is easy to imagine the difficult path they went through, escaping from basements or bunkers in Mariupol, from firing from Kharkiv, from the occupied Kyiv region, and even from Lviv or Odesa, which were also under fire from Russian missiles,” she said in the interview.
The newspaper, making clear that it interviewed Zelenska remotely and not revealing her location, asked her if the war had changed her husband.
“The war has not changed him,” she replied. “He has always been a man you can rely on. A man who will never fail. Who will hold out until the end. It’s just that now the whole world has seen what may not have been clear to everyone before.”
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LONDON — Tens of thousands of troops from NATO and other north Atlantic nations will take part in a series of military exercises across Europe in the coming weeks as western countries seek to deter Russian aggression.
The exercises, backed by aircraft, tanks, artillery and armored assault vehicles, will take place in Finland, Poland, North Macedonia and along the Estonian-Latvian border. They will include troops from NATO and the Joint Expeditionary Force, which includes non-NATO members Finland and Sweden.
“The scale of the deployment, coupled with the professionalism, training and agility of the British Army, will deter aggression at a scale not seen in Europe this century,” Lt. Gen. Ralph Wooddisse, commander of the U.K.’s field army, said in a statement.
The deployments will begin this week in Finland, where troops from the U.S., Britain, Estonia and Latvia will participate in Exercise Arrow to improve their ability to work alongside Finnish forces.
Also this week, some 4,500 troops will take part in Exercise Swift Response, which will include parachute drops and helicopter-borne assaults in North Macedonia. The operation will include forces from U.S., Britain, Albania, France and Italy.
Next month, 18,000 NATO troops, including forces from Britain, France and Denmark, will take part in Exercise Hedgehog along the Estonia-Latvia border.
In late May, about 1,000 British soldiers will join troops from 11 other nations for Exercise Defender in Poland.
“The security of Europe has never been more important,” U.K. Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said. “These exercises will see our troops join forces with allies and partners across NATO and the Joint Expeditionary Force in a show of solidarity and strength in one of the largest shared deployments since the Cold War.”
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BERLIN — The German government has strongly criticized the Russian missile strike on Kyiv during the U.N. Secretary-general’s visit to the Ukrainian capital Thursday.
Germany “condemns the Russian missile attack on Kyiv, while Secretary-General (Antonio) Guterres was there simultaneously for talks, in the sharpest possible manner,” government spokesman Wolfgang Buechner told reporters in Berlin Friday.
The attack “reveals before the eyes of the world community once more that Putin and his regime have no respect whatsoever for international law,” he added.
The US-funded broadcaster Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty says one of its journalists was killed by the Russian missile strike. Ten people were wounded in the attack, including at least one who lost a leg, according to Ukraine’s emergency services.
AP