Russia uses hypersonic missiles for first time in Ukraine as troops enter central Mariupol ⁰

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made a fresh appeal for talks with Moscow in a video posted to Facebook on Saturday. “This is the time to meet,” he said, adding that: “Otherwise, Russia’s losses will be such that several generations will not recover.”

China should make the “right decision” and join other nations in condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Ukraine’s negotiator Mykhailo Podolyak said on Twitter on Saturday.

Ukraine hopes to open 10 humanitarian corridors on Saturday for the evacuation of citizens, according to Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk.

Russian forces backed by Chechen fighters broke through the defences of the besieged city of Mariupol and are now inside the city, which has been under Russian shelling for days.

The Russian military said it had used a Kinzhal hypersonic missile for the first time in combat during its offensive in Ukraine. The Russian defense ministry said on Saturday the “hypersonic aeroballistic missiles destroyed a large underground warehouse containing missiles and aviation ammunition” in the village of Deliatyn in the Ivano-Frankivsk region.

Ukrainian human rights ombudswoman Lyudmyla Denisova said on Friday that 130 people had been rescued so far from the rubble of a theatre in Mariupol after a Russian air strike hit the building, where hundreds of people had been sheltering from the war. Rescuers are still searching for survivors.

Kyiv city authorities on Friday said 222 people have been killed in the capital since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began.

The UNHCR has said that more than 3.25 million Ukrainians had fled across the border since the war began on February 24, with more than 2 million crossing the Polish border. The UN children’s agency said around half of those who have fled are children.

Source: France 24