The French president, Emmanuel Macronand the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholzhad a telephone conversation with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. During the phone call, which lasted about 75 minutes, Macron and Scholz asked Moscow for an immediate truce and the start of a diplomatic solution to the conflict. But Putin “has not given any signal of the will to suspend the war”, which is why – according to sources from the Elysée – he will have to take note of even heavier sanctions. For his part, the Russian president accused the Ukrainian forces of “human rights violations” and urged his interlocutors “to influence the Kiev authorities so that such criminal acts are stopped”. Lies, according to the Elysée. The French president and the German chancellor have called on Putin to stop the siege of Mariupol, where the situation is humanly unsustainable. The press release from Scholz’s spokesperson also refers to some contents of the phone call on which the three leaders agreed to remain silent.
The first Ukrainian military death toll
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, announced for the first time the losses of the army: about 1,300 soldiers died in the fighting against the Russians. While there are 1,582 civilian victims since the beginning of the war. The Russian army continues to attack in areas of Ukraine where attempts are made to evacuate civilians via humanitarian corridors. After twelve days of siege, Mariupol, a strategic port on the Sea of Azov, is without water, gas, electricity or communications. Russian forces are blocking Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, despite efforts to create humanitarian corridors around it. As they get closer and closer to the capital: according to the British Ministry of Defense, the bulk of the Russian ground forces are now located 25 kilometers from Kiev. For two days the attack has also moved to the West, on the cities of Lutsk and Ivano-Frankivsk, and in central Ukraine, where Russian forces have targeted Dnipro.
Is Putin the new Stalin? This is how the Russian president became similar to the Soviet leader
by Enrico Franceschini
Melitopol in the square for the release of the mayor
In Melitopol, in the south of the country, hundreds of people took to the streets to protest and demand the release of the mayor of the city, Ivan Federov, who was kidnapped yesterday by the Russian army. According to the Ukrainian online newspaper Ukrainian Rule, during the demonstration the Russian forces stopped and took one of the organizers, Olga Gaisumova, to an unknown place. While the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, announced in a video that Fedorov is alive “but they are torturing him to declare his support for Russia”.
Odessa, the tragedy of the older Jews: “We escaped Hitler, now with Putin we relive the same terror”
by our correspondent Giampaolo Visetti
Zelensky’s proposal to Bennett: “Negotiations with Putin in Israel”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has proposed to Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett to hold talks between Russia and Ukraine in Jerusalem. According to The Jerusalem Post newspaper, Zelensky hopes for Bennett’s positive influence on the talks and believes that Israel can guarantee the security of the Ukrainian delegation. The Ukrainian president has specified that he is not referring to technical meetings, but to talks between the two leaders. “I told him that Israel, Jerusalem in particular, could be the right place,” Zelensky explained in a video posted on his Telegram channel. A few hours later the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, referred to the negotiations between the Russian and Ukrainian delegation that took place via videoconference, without providing further details.
The head of Ukrainian nuclear power: “The power plants are at risk of radiation”
by our correspondent Fabio Tonacci
The alarm for the international space station
Western sanctions against Russia could cause the International Space Station (ISS) to fall. Reason that prompted the head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, to request its revocation. Rogozin explained that the operations of the Russian spacecraft supplying the ISS will be interrupted by how many measures, consequently affecting the Russian segment of the station which helps to correct its orbit. The risk is that of a ditching or a landing of the station on the earth. By publishing a map of the places where the ISS could fall, he stressed that this is unlikely to happen in Russia: “The populations of other countries, especially those led by warmongers, should think about the price of sanctions against Roscosmos”. A few hours earlier Rogozin had posted on his Twitter profile a short fragment of an episode of the cartoon Tom & Jerry to express his point of view on the conflict. In the video, Tom is seen beating Jerry with a rolled-up newspaper, while the mouse rings a bell in vain to invoke the help of a large hound. Superimposed writings explain that Tom represents Russia, Jerry the Ukraine and the mastiff represents NATO.