War in Ukraine, live: Volodymyr Zelensky accuses Russia of bombing evacuation corridors from Mariupol – Le Monde

Update on the situation in Ukraine The Russian army entered Ukrainian territory exactly three weeks ago, and after advancing on several fronts, the lines have stabilized. “Russian forces have not launched any large-scale attacks since March 4,” summarizes Michel Goya, former soldier and historian on his Twitter account. The American intelligence and defense services make the same observation: a halted progression, and therefore a massive use of missiles. According to sources quoted by the New York Times, Russia has fired more than 980 missiles since the start of the war. Mariupol besieged, bombed and deprived of humanitarian corridors. Ukraine accused the Russian air force of having targeted the Dramatic Theater in the city center, in which “more than a thousand” civilians had taken refuge, according to the town hall. “People were hiding there. Some were lucky to survive but unfortunately not all of them were lucky,” said the city’s mayor, Vadym Boichenko. No assessment has yet been given Images released by Ukrainian officials show the three-storey building, pulverized. Maxar Technologies, specializing in satellite imagery, released another photo, taken Monday according to it, where we see the word “children” written on the ground, in huge white letters and in Russian. AP Human Rights Watch said it could “not rule out the possibility of a Ukrainian military target in the theater area, but we know the theater housed at least 500 civilians.” Russia denies having bombed the place and accuses the far-right Ukrainian battalion Azov, on which it had already rejected the responsibility for the attack on a maternity hospital. Besieged, deprived of lasting humanitarian corridors and bombarded incessantly for sixteen days, the great port of southern Ukraine has suffered unimaginable destruction for its inhabitants. “Le Monde” was able to reach, on Wednesday by telephone, two residents who had just been evacuated. They would still be 300,000 to survive in terrible conditions: “Today, Mariupol is an open hell. Whole neighborhoods were razed. It is difficult to realize what is happening. The hospitals are destroyed, the schools. The bombs also crushed shelters where thousands of people were taking refuge. The city center is no more spared than the rest. A satellite image of burning buildings in a residential area northeast of Chernihiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, March 16, 2022. MAXAR TECHNOLOGIES / AP Air raids in Kharkiv, end of curfew in kyiv. The Russian army has been using the same tactics for several weeks – a gradual encirclement and a continuous barrage of artillery fire – in an attempt to take control of Ukraine’s second largest city, where at least 500 people have been killed since 24 February according to local officials. The capital should know the end of a curfew in place since Tuesday evening, after having suffered numerous artillery fire at the beginning of the week. On Thursday, debris from a missile fell on a residential building and killed one person. “The health system has become a military target”. The World Health Organization (WHO) says it has never seen so many military attacks on the health system as currently in Ukraine. She authenticated 43 attacks on medical facilities or healthcare workers. “It starts to become part of the strategy and tactics of war. This is completely unacceptable, it is against international humanitarian law,” said Michael Ryan, WHO emergency chief. The human toll. Nearly 700 civilians have been killed since the start of the war and more than 1,110 others injured, according to the UN. But these figures are very difficult to verify, especially when on the ground fighting or bombings are still taking place, the UN insists on the fact that its daily assessments are probably much lower than the reality. Nearly 1,300 Ukrainian soldiers were killed, according to the Ukrainian president, while Russia released, on March 2, only one and only assessment: 498 soldiers killed.