Fifty-seventh day of war in Ukraine. While Ukrainian forces continue to resist Russian attacks, Kiev has proposed to Russia a “special session of negotiations” in Mariupol, the port city on the Sea of Azov that has been besieged for weeks. “We are ready to hold a special negotiation session in Mariupol. To save our kids, (the battalion) Azov, the soldiers, the civilians, the children, the living and the wounded. Everyone, ”Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak wrote on Twitter. And while Zelensky says that “Moscow is not ready for peace”, the Turkish minister Cavusoglu urges: “Some NATO countries want a long war”.
Zelensky also spoke to European Council President Charles Michel about the EU’s support for Ukraine. Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden said weapons and ammunition will flow every day to help Ukrainians defend themselves from Russian aggression, US President Joe Biden said on receiving military leaders at the White House.
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00.40 – Army training with US howitzers started
Training of Ukrainian personnel on US 155mm howitzers began in a European country outside Ukraine. This was confirmed by a senior US defense official: this is a first step that will allow the Kiev army to use the newly supplied US artillery for the escalation of fighting in the Donbas region. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, further specified that the first of the 18 promised US 155mm howitzers arrived on cargo flights Wednesday and more are on the way. The artillery systems must be moved by land directly to Ukraine; the training of Ukrainian personnel – the official explained – is carried out on other 155 mm howitzers found in Europe.
00.15 – Johnson compares Putin to a crocodile
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson compared Russian President Vladimir Putin to a crocodile, saying he was pessimistic about the possibilities of negotiating with him to achieve peace in Ukraine. “How do you negotiate with a crocodile when it has your leg in its jaws? This is the difficulty that the Ukrainians have to face, ”he said during the flight that is taking him to India, quoted by the Guardian. “It is very difficult to understand how the Ukrainians can now negotiate with Putin, given his manifest lack of good faith,” said Johnson, for whom it is possible that Moscow “will launch another offensive against Kiev”.
00.05 – Biden, weapons and ammunition will flow every day
All weapons and ammunition will flow from the United States to help Ukrainians defend themselves from Russian aggression: this is the assurance given by the American president, Joe Biden, on receiving the heads of the armed forces at the White House. Biden explained “the training of about fifty Ukrainian soldiers in the use of Howitzer howitzers sent from Washington has begun”. The American president, said the spokesman of the White House, Jen Psaki, looks at the images of war arriving from Ukraine «with horror, with sadness and fear for the Ukrainian people, families, children, innocent civilians at risk. We are seeing people suffering at the hands of a dictator who is brutally hitting civilians, ”she added.
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