Ukraine Russia Conflict: Russia blocking evacuation of wounded fighters from Mariupol steel plant

Russia is not allowing wounded Ukrainian fighters to be evacuated from the Azovstal steelworks. Pavlo Kyrylenko, the Donetsk region’s governor, said Russia was also not allowing humanitarian corridors to be established to evacuate civilians in the region.

Mariupol city council earlier warned that the lives of the 100,000 residents who remain in the besieged city may be in danger from disease due to “the lack of centralized water supply and sewerage, the decomposition of thousands of corpses under the rubble, a catastrophic shortage of drinking water and food”.

Meanwhile, Russia on 24th February launched the war on Ukraine. And, according to the latest updates Vladimir Putin has warned any countries attempting to interfere in Ukraine would be met with a “lightning-fast” response from Moscow. Russia has warned other EU customers may be cut off from Russian natural gas supplies if they refuse to pay in roubles. However, the  White House denounced Russia’s move to cut off energy supplies to Poland and Bulgaria. Press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters at a daily briefing on Wednesday: “Unfortunately this is the type of step, the type of almost weaponising energy supplies that we had predicted that Russia could take in this conflict.” Commenting on this Volodymyr Zelenskiy described Russia’s actions as amounting to “energy blackmail” against Europe in his nightly national address. Zelenskiy said Russia’s decision to cut off gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria shows “no one in Europe can hope to maintain any normal economic cooperation with Russia”.