Ukraine

The evacuations in Ukraine will resume on Thursday after they were halted on Wednesday due to violations of the agreements. Russia and Ukraine have agreed on nine evacuation routes in the east of the country.   The so-called corridor in the east of Luhansk cannot open until Russia stops bombing, says Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk. Other essential routes are in the cities of Mariupol, Berdyansk, Tokmak and Enerhodar. The evacuation routes give people the option to leave regions where there is heavy fighting. According to Ukraine, Russia has already violated the agreements about the routes several times, including by temporarily ceasing fire in the region.

The air-raid shelter under the theatre in Mariupol bombed by Russia on Wednesday is said to be intact. This is apparent from unconfirmed messages on social media and is confirmed by Serhiy Taruta, the former governor of the Donetsk oblast.   There are said to have been about 1,000 to 1,200 people in the building when it was bombed on Wednesday, and it is not clear if everyone was in the shelter at the time. The people from the shelter are currently being evacuated. Most of the people inside the building survived the attack, Ukrainian MP Dmytro Garin said. "The building is destroyed, but there are more than 1,000 women and children in the shelter, in the basement. We received confirmation a few minutes ago that the bomb shelter is intact, and that the people survived. We don't know ...

Nerves in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv are tense. According to the Ukrainian army, Russia has started raising funds to storm the city. This is according to the report of the general staff, which was published on Facebook on Monday.   At 7 o'clock UK time, a ceasefire will go into effect to evacuate the civilians. What will happen next is of great concern to observers. The encirclement of Kyiv is slowly nearing completion. Russian troops are massively present near the city limits while at the same time trying to gain full control over the towns of Irpin and Butja, which are just outside Kyiv. From there, it's a few more miles to the northwestern city boundary. According to the report, Russian units also want to gain tactical advantage by reaching the eastern suburbs of Kyiv through Br...

Russian troops enter the Ukrainian port city of Mykolaiv for the first time. The regional governor reports that fighting takes place in several places in the southern city.   "Let's not get nervous," Governor Vitali Kim said in a video message. Nearly half a million people live in Mykolaiv. The city is located tens of kilometres west of Kherson. Kherson was the first major city to be captured by Russian forces earlier this week. Russia is also carrying out an offensive on the other side of Mykolaiv, for example, near Odesa's city. Ukraine is under attack from several sides. In the south, the Russian army has advanced from Crimea.

The Russian army may be moving very quickly through Ukraine, but the Ukrainians are also hitting back: they bombed a military airport on Russian territory on Friday morning.   The Russian airbase in Millerovo is located about 16 kilometres from the Ukrainian border, near the economically important city of Rostov-on-Don. On Friday morning, Ukrainian missiles hit the airbase. At least, that is apparent from unverified images on social media. According to Georgiy Tuka, a former Ukrainian army officer and now head of his own militia, these are Tuchka-U missiles. At least 137 Ukrainians and 800 Russian soldiers have so far been killed in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.