Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the only way out of the war will be through diplomacy — in addition to a Kyiv win on the battlefield. “Russia doesn’t want to return anything,” he said.
“Victory will be bloody,” Zelensky said on Ukrainian TV, and “the end will certainly be in diplomacy.”
Zelensky said the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine is facing an “extremely difficult” situation as Russian forces concentrate on the east after Kyiv gave up its defense of Mariupol and Moscow claimed total control of the port city. Two cities are under severe assault, Zelensky said: Slovyansk, near Kramatorsk, and Severodonetsk, the easternmost city still in Ukrainian hands.
A delegation of U.S. diplomats is set to travel to The Hague on Sunday for talks with allies “regarding our responses to atrocities committed in Ukraine” and in other conflicts, and on efforts to “bring the perpetrators of atrocities to justice,” the State Department said in a news release. Ukrainian authorities have put three captured Russian soldiers on trial for war crimes, and the Biden administration is supporting steps by the Ukrainian prosecutor general to investigate Russia’s actions in the war.
Here’s what else to know
Updates from key battlefields: Strikes on Severodonetsk; Russia eyes Slovyansk
Severodonetsk: Officials in this key city, the easternmost under Ukrainian control, are bracing for a major, drawn-out battle as experts anticipate a Russian bid to take control of it. “Significant Russian offensive operations are confined” to near Severodonetsk, the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, reported Friday, adding that Russian forces made “marginal gains” to the north, west and south of the city. Luhansk governor Serhiy Haidai said that “the Russians are destroying Severodonetsk, like Mariupol.”
Kharkiv region: At least seven people were wounded, including an 11-year-old, in a Russian missile strike in Lozova, President Volodymyr Zelensky said, referring to the violence as “absolute evil.” At least 1,000 apartments, 11 educational institutions and a cultural center were damaged in the attack, according to the city’s mayor. Regional governor Oleh Synyehubov said the strike was deliberate. Russian forces had sought to encircle the city of Kharkiv, the second-largest in Ukraine, but have been forced to retreat after Ukrainian troops mounted a successful counteroffensive.
Donetsk region: Russian forces aiming to surround Ukrainian troops and capture the Donetsk and Luhansk regions have moved toward the city of Slovyansk. The Russians have tried to erect a pontoon bridge over the Severskyi Donets river and have conducted artillery strikes, according to the Institute for the Study of War. Moscow’s forces killed seven civilians and injured 10 others in the region Saturday, according to the head of the Donetsk Regional Military Administration.
Mariupol: The last of the fighters at the Azovstal steel plant have surrendered, the Russian Defense Ministry said, marking the end of the resistance in the southeastern port city. Ukraine has not verified the plant’s capture.
Odessa region: A Russian missile struck an infrastructure facility in the region, causing a fire, Odessa regional military administration spokesman Serhiy Bratchuk said on Telegram. No one was hurt.
