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A Ukraine military officer leading the last holdouts in rocket-battered Mariupol pleaded for help evacuating civilians and wounded soldiers as the Russian invasion roared into its 11th week with no end to the carnage in sight.
Capt. Sviatoslav Palamar, deputy commander of Ukraine’s Azov Regiment, said in a video statement Thursday from the bunkers of a sprawling steel mill that the “wounded soldiers are dying in agony” due to the lack of medical care.
“We call on the world community to evacuate civilians, and I personally appeal to (Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy),” Palamar said, adding that bodies of the dead should be removed so that “Ukrainians can say goodbye to their heroes.”
Earlier, Zelenskyy said more than 340 civilians had been evacuated from the steel plant serving as the last stand for his military in the city. Elsewhere, Ukrainian forces claimed gains in some territory in the south while repelling Russian attacks in the hotly contested Donbas.
“Due to the successful actions of Ukrainian defenders, Russian enemy lost control over several settlements on the border of Mykolayiv and Kherson regions,” the Ukraine military said Thursday in its daily war update. “Eleven enemy attacks were repulsed in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts over the past 24 hours.”
Donetsk and Luhansk are home to separatists and were recognized as republics by Russia days before the war broke out.
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Latest developments:
►Zelenskyy launched global initiative United24, including a fundraising platform for making one-click donations from anywhere in the world in support of Ukraine.
►Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, who has expressed support for Russia in the war and whose country has been used as a staging ground for Russian troops, said he hadn’t expected the Russian offensive to “drag on this way.”
►More than 300 civilians have been evacuated from Mariupol and four other towns to Ukrainian-held Zaporizhzhia, the United Nations said.
►Russian troops have broken into the territory of the Azovstal steel mill, Ukraine’s final holdout in the besieged city of Mariupol, the commander of the main force defending the mill said.
Ukraine accuses Russia of stealing grain
As the price of food around the world surges due to difficulty in obtaining Ukrainian grain, authorities in Ukraine accuse Russian invaders of stealing grain and farm equipment. Ukraine’s deputy agriculture minister, Taras Vysotskiy, claimed “several hundred thousand tons of grain in total were taken out of the Zaporizhzhya, Kherson, Donetsk and Luhansk regions.”
Emine Dzheppar, first deputy minister of Foreign Affairs, put the total amount of grain stole by Russia at 400,000 tons, or about one-third of all reserves in the region.
“They force farmers to transfer agricultural machinery to ‘collective farms’ ownership, just like it was in the USSR,” Dzheppar tweeted. “Those who refuse to cooperate are threatened with physical violence and confiscation of grain and equipment.”
$300 millions superyacht seized in Fiji
Authorities in Fiji executed a U.S. warrant “freezing” a superyacht valued at over $300 million allegedly owned by a Russian oligarch, the U.S. Justice Department announced Thursday. A judge in Fiji permitted seizure of the 348-foot-long Amadea pending legal challenges from oligarch Suleiman Kerimov, sanctioned for alleged money laundering. The seizure was coordinated through the Justice Department’s KleptoCapture, a task force dedicated to enforcing the sweeping sanctions and economic countermeasures imposed in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“This ruling should make clear that there is no hiding place for the assets of individuals who violate U.S. laws. And there is no hiding place for the assets of criminals who enable the Russian regime,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland. “The Justice Department will be relentless in our efforts to hold accountable those who facilitate the death and destruction we are witnessing in Ukraine.”
Ukrainian blogger accused of treason is arrested, freed on bail in Spain
Pro-Russian Ukrainian blogger Anatoly Shariy, accused of treason by his home country, was detained in Spain before being freed on bond. Ukraine’s security services announced the arrest on Thursday and said there was reason to believe Shariy “was acting on behalf of foreign entities.” Shariy, a frequent critic of Ukraine’s government, tweeted Tuesday that “my only crime is that I have exposed you thieves too little.”
“This detention is another testimony to the fact that every traitor of Ukraine will sooner or later receive the deserved punishment,” the Ukraine agency said in a social media post. “It is irreversible.”
Visiting refugees:First Lady Jill Biden to meet Ukraine refugees near war zone: ‘They are not forgotten’
Kherson shows signs of long-term Russian control
“If we don’t go now … we go never,” Danets, 22, told USA TODAY by phone on Monday from Romania, just over two weeks after she fled by car. Read more here.
– Chris Kenning
Belarus announces start of military exercises
Belarus announced it was starting military exercises Wednesday, insisting it had no plans to threaten any neighbors. Russia used Belarus as a staging ground in its invasion, and the U.S. government has wanted citizens not to travel to Belarus and closed its embassy there due to its involvement in the invasion. The military exercises would assess the readiness and capability of the country’s armed forces, and the military’s ability to operate on “unknown terrain in a rapidly changing situation,” the Belarusian Defense Ministry said.
It said the maneuvers “do not threaten the European community in general and any neighboring countries in particular.”
Contributing: The Associated Press
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