Survivors rescued from Ukrainian theater hit by Russian air strike

“We hope that they are alive but so far we have no information about them,” she said during a local television interview.

The assistant mayor of Mariupol Vadim Boychenko declined to comment on the rescue efforts in the theater or provide the number of casualties.

Efforts to sort out debris and rescue survivors are hampered by the fact that rescue services have been decimated by Attack on the city.

In a statement, former governor Sergei Taruta said it could be difficult to get medical treatment for the injured, because “so many doctors have been killed.”

Ukrainian civilians took refuge in the theater of operations as Mariupol was relentlessly bombarded by Russian forces seeking to advance along the southern coast of Ukraine.

Moscow I’ve always craved Mariupol It is strategically located 35 miles west of the Russian border on the Sea of ​​Azov. The Russian Defense Ministry denied that its forces launched an air strike on the theater of operations.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, Russian missiles hit an aircraft repair facility in the western part of the country on Friday, hitting a long-range target far from the battlefield. Attacks on other cities continued.

The Ukrainian air force said six cruise missiles were launched from the Black Sea. Two planes were intercepted to prevent them from reaching the target near the airport in the western city of Lviv.

A building was destroyed, according to the mayor of Lviv, Andrei Sadovy, who said that work on the facility had been suspended before the strike. One person was injured, and rescue workers at the site were putting out the flames, said Maxim Kozytsky, head of the Lviv Regional Military Administration.

The attack near Lviv comes less than a week after a Russian air strike on a Ukrainian military training center in a western district about 10 miles from the Polish border. Lviv is about 50 miles from the border. The Polish immigration authorities said Friday that the number of people who have fled from Ukraine to Poland It has now exceeded two million.

Most fighting between Russian invading forces Ukrainian forces are concentrated in the east and south. At least one missile hit an apartment building in the eastern city of Kramatorsk yesterday night, killing two people and injuring 16 others, said Pavlo Kirilenko, head of the regional military administration in the eastern Donetsk region.

Artillery shelling and small arms fire were heard in the outskirts of the capital, Kyiv, during the night. A Russian missile, reportedly shot down by Ukraine’s air defense forces, landed in a downtown district, injuring six people with flying glass pieces.

Standing by the crater next to burned-out apartment buildings, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said one person was killed and four children were among the wounded. “These are the results of this appalling situation,” he said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his forces captured Russian conscripts on the battlefield. He said that Russia has made no effort to recover its prisoners of war, and some of them refuse to return. Mr. Zelensky said in his evening address that he would not publicly discuss his strategy on ceasefire talks.

“Work in silence more than television or radio or

Facebook

He said… I think that’s true.

Russian President

Russian President Vladimir Putin

She spoke Friday with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, stressing that the Ukrainian leadership is doing everything in its power to delay talks on a ceasefire by “making more and more unrealistic proposals,” according to the Kremlin’s account of the phone call.

“Nevertheless, the Russian side is ready to continue the search for solutions in line with its well-known principled approaches,” the statement read.

The call, which lasted just under an hour, focused on efforts to end the war in Ukraine, according to the German government. During the call, Mr. Shultz stressed the urgent need for a ceasefire, an improvement in the humanitarian situation, and progress in the search for a diplomatic solution to the conflict.

Mr Zelensky spoke to Germany’s parliament on Thursday, the latest in a series of appeals to Western governments for more support, as European nations weigh in sending more military equipment to Kyiv.

In the United States, President Biden Talking to the leader of Chinaon Friday, in an effort to deter Beijing from engaging deeper with Moscow in its war effort.

“We believe that China in particular has a responsibility to use its influence … to defend the international norms and principles that it claims to uphold,” Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said Thursday.

“Instead, we fear that China will move in the opposite direction by refusing to condemn this aggression, while seeking to portray itself as a neutral arbiter,” Mr. Blinken said, adding that the United States was concerned that Beijing was considering “helping Russia directly.” . military equipment for use in Ukraine.

Australia also expanded its sanctions against Russia on Friday to 11 additional banks and government entities, as well as billionaires Oleg Deripaska and Victor Vekselberg. Secretary of State Maris Payne said the majority of Russia’s banking assets are now covered by the sanctions, as are all entities that deal with Russia’s sovereign debt.

– Alan Collison and Ivan Gershkovic contributed to this article.

write to Isabel Coles at [email protected] and Brett Forrest at [email protected]