Russia continues this Wednesday, April 20 its offensive in eastern Ukraine. The situation is currently critical in the city of Mariupol and the last entrenched Ukrainian soldiers have made a desperate appeal to the international community for rescue. Follow all the latest information live.
8:22 p.m.
The corridor to evacuate civilians from the besieged port of Mariupol in southeastern Ukraine on Wednesday “did not work”, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said, accusing the Russians of violating the ceasefire and block the buses.
“Unfortunately, the Mariupol humanitarian corridor did not work as planned today,” the official lamented in the evening after announcing Wednesday morning a “preliminary” agreement with Russia for this corridor, the first of this type since Saturday. .
5:55 p.m.
Ukraine’s membership of the European Union is “a priority”, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday at a joint press conference in kyiv with European Council President Charles Michel.
“It is a priority for our state, for the power of our people,” said Mr. Zelensky to the press, after a meeting with Mr. Michel.
3:43 p.m.
IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva on Wednesday urged countries to continue cooperation as some finance ministers decided not to attend some G20 sessions on Wednesday due to the presence of Russian officials.
“No country can solve its problems alone. It is obvious that cooperation must and will continue,” she said at a press conference. According to her, even if it “more difficult to cooperate when there are tensions, it is not impossible”. “I have no doubt that there will be substantial discussions” during this G20, she also underlined.
2:57 p.m.
A total of 1.1 million Ukrainians have returned to their country since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24, Ukrainian Border Guard Service spokesman Andriy Demchenko said on Wednesday.
12:23 p.m.
More than five million Ukrainians have fled their country since the Russian invasion, according to new figures released Wednesday by the UN on the largest refugee crisis in Europe since the Second World War.
According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), 5,034,439 Ukrainians have left their country since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24.
11:54
“History will not forget the war crimes” in Ukraine, said Wednesday the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, on a visit to Borodianka near kyiv, where civilians were victims of “massacres” committed by the Russians according to the Ukrainian authorities.
“In Borodyanka, as in Boutcha and so many other cities in Ukraine, history will not forget the war crimes that were committed here,” wrote Mr. Michel on Twitter, accompanying his message with a photo of hugging him a woman. “There can be no peace without justice,” he added.
In Borodyanka.
Like Bucha and too many other towns in #Ukraine
History will not forget the war crimes that have been committed here.
There can be no peace without justice. @ZelenskyyUa pic.twitter.com/9as6Qk4lGe
—Charles Michel (@CharlesMichel) April 20, 2022
10:28
Pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine said on Wednesday that five Ukrainian soldiers defending the last redoubt controlled by Kyiv forces in Mariupol (southeastern Ukraine) had laid down their arms and that 140 civilians had been evacuated .
“Five Ukrainian servicemen have laid down their arms and voluntarily left the Azovstal factory”, where Mariupol’s ultimate defenders are entrenched, the authorities of the self-proclaimed separatist republic of Donetsk, unrecognized, said in a statement. by the international community.
9:13 a.m.
Charles Michel, President of the European Council, the body representing EU member states, arrived in kyiv on Wednesday morning, he announced in a tweet, as Ukraine faces a new military offensive. extent of Russia in the East of the country.
“In kyiv today, in the heart of free and democratic Europe,” said Charles Michel, in a message accompanied by a photograph taken on a station platform in the Ukrainian capital.
8:09
An agreement has been reached with Russia on a humanitarian corridor to evacuate civilians from the besieged port of Mariupol in southeastern Ukraine, the first such agreement since Saturday, a Ukrainian official said.
“We managed to find a preliminary agreement (with the Russians) on a humanitarian corridor for women, children and the elderly,” Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on Telegram.
6:45 am
G20 finance ministers and central bankers are meeting on Wednesday in the shadow of the war in Ukraine, which risks paralyzing discussions and jeopardizing any progress on the implementation of the common framework to restructure the debt of the poorest countries .
This is the first time that the big moneymakers of the G20 have met since the invasion of Ukraine by Russia on February 24.
They had parted in Jakarta, Indonesia, on February 18, a few days before the start of the Russian offensive, promising to coordinate for a “stronger” global recovery.
1h00
The United States is set to approve a new military aid package for Ukraine amounting to $800 million, less than a week after an earlier announcement of the same amount, several sources reported on Tuesday. American media.
The details of this new package are still being worked out, according to CNN, which cites three senior Biden administration officials.
According to NBC News, this new installment is expected to include more artillery and tens of thousands of shells for kyiv in its war against Russia, as Ukraine faces a series of Russian strikes in eastern country.
