Dozens of civilians have left a besieged steel plant in the city of Mariupol, Russia said yesterday, as US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi voiced support for Ukraine’s “fight for freedom” during a visit to Kyiv.
Forty-six civilians left in two groups on Saturday from the area around the Azovstal plant — the last holdout of Ukrainian forces in the city, the Russian Ministry of Defense said.
The development raised hopes of a larger, long-awaited evacuation from the battered plant, where local fighters say they and hundreds of civilians are still sheltering.
Photo: EPA-EFE / Ukrainian Presidential Press Service
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a video on Saturday evening that Kyiv was “doing everything to ensure that the evacuation mission from Mariupol is carried out.”
Petro Andryushchenko, an adviser to Mariupol’s mayor, said on Telegram yesterday that there would be “radio silence on the evacuation situation.”
Thousands have been killed and millions displaced since Russia began its invasion on Feb. 24. Western powers have rushed to send military aid to Ukraine and imposed heavy sanctions on Russia.
Photo: Reuters
“We are visiting you to say thank you for your fight for freedom... Our commitment is to be there for you until the fight is done,” Pelosi said in a meeting with Zelenskiy.
Pelosi also said in a statement that “additional American support is on the way,” following US President Joe Biden’s announcement last week of a US$33 billion arms and support package.
The conflict is now concentrated in the east and south of Ukraine, although there have been Russian missile strikes across the country, mainly targeting infrastructure and supply lines.
On Saturday, Ukrainian authorities said a Russian missile strike had destroyed the runway of Odessa International Airport in the southwest of the country.
“Near Odessa, high-precision Onyx missiles destroyed a hangar at a military aerodrome housing weapons and ammunition from the US and European countries, and the runway was also destroyed,” the Russian defense ministry said yesterday.
Russia has moved to solidify its grip on areas it controls, and yesterday introduced the Russian ruble in the region of Kherson — initially to be used alongside the Ukrainian hryvnia.
Zelenskiy said he spoke on Saturday with French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson “on defense support for Ukraine and other efforts necessary to end the war.”
“I informed Boris about the current situation on the battlefield in the areas of active clashes, and in detail about the situation in our east, in Mariupol, in the south of the country,” he said. “All the leaders of the free world know what Russia has done to Mariupol, and Russia will not go unpunished for this.”
Meanwhile, the Swedish Armed Forces said on Saturday that a Russian AN-30 propeller plane late on Friday briefly entered Swedish airspace near the island of Bornholm.
Sweden and Finland are considering NATO membership following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Moscow has said that such a move would have consequences, without giving specifics.
The US government has signed defense cooperation agreements with Japan and the Philippines to boost the deterrence capabilities of countries in the first island chain, a report by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The main countries on the first island chain include the two nations and Taiwan. The bureau is to present the report at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The US military has deployed Typhon missile systems to Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture and Zambales province in the Philippines during their joint military exercises. It has also installed NMESIS anti-ship systems in Japan’s Okinawa
‘WIN-WIN’: The Philippines, and central and eastern European countries are important potential drone cooperation partners, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung said Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) in an interview published yesterday confirmed that there are joint ventures between Taiwan and Poland in the drone industry. Lin made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper). The government-backed Taiwan Excellence Drone International Business Opportunities Alliance and the Polish Chamber of Unmanned Systems on Wednesday last week signed a memorandum of understanding in Poland to develop a “non-China” supply chain for drones and work together on key technologies. Asked if Taiwan prioritized Poland among central and eastern European countries in drone collaboration, Lin
The Chien Feng IV (勁蜂, Mighty Hornet) loitering munition is on track to enter flight tests next month in connection with potential adoption by Taiwanese and US armed forces, a government source said yesterday. The kamikaze drone, which boasts a range of 1,000km, debuted at the Taipei Aerospace and Defense Technology Exhibition in September, the official said on condition of anonymity. The Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology and US-based Kratos Defense jointly developed the platform by leveraging the engine and airframe of the latter’s MQM-178 Firejet target drone, they said. The uncrewed aerial vehicle is designed to utilize an artificial intelligence computer
Renewed border fighting between Thailand and Cambodia showed no signs of abating yesterday, leaving hundreds of thousands of displaced people in both countries living in strained conditions as more flooded into temporary shelters. Reporters on the Thai side of the border heard sounds of outgoing, indirect fire yesterday. About 400,000 people have been evacuated from affected areas in Thailand and about 700 schools closed while fighting was ongoing in four border provinces, said Thai Rear Admiral Surasant Kongsiri, a spokesman for the military. Cambodia evacuated more than 127,000 villagers and closed hundreds of schools, the Thai Ministry of Defense said. Thailand’s military announced that
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