Some civilians were finally evacuated from a vast Mariupol steel plant after a cease-fire on Saturday allowed a small group to leave the besieged complex, though Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky discounted much progress on broader negotiations.
, which encompasses parts of Luhansk and Donetsk regions and borders Russia. The governor of Luhansk said Saturday that shelling has damaged dozens of houses in recent days.The Ukrainian Defense Ministry said that troops have repelled more than a dozen attacks in Donetsk and Luhansk over the past 24 hours. It said earlier this week that Russian forces captured some urban settlements as they sought to expand their grip over the two provinces that make up the eastern Donbas region.
As the human toll continues to escalate, Zelensky said Ukraine would conduct a census to assess the number of civilians who have died or gone missing since Russia’s invasion. More than 7,000 people have been reported to Ukrainian police as Ukraine’s Red Cross also said that its office in Dobropillia, in the eastern Donetsk region, was bombed on Saturday.the organization said that eight of its offices in Ukraine had been damaged or destroyed since the invasion two months ago.
The situation in the plant’s bunkers has become increasingly dire as food and water supplies dwindle. While Ukrainian officials demand that That kind of blow would compound an already bleak economic picture in Russia. The country’s central bank projected the national economy would shrink by 8 to 10 percent this year, as the country suffers from international sanctions that have disrupted trade and frozen billions of dollars in reserves. In a statement Friday, the central bank said it cut its key interest rate to 14 percent and described lowering rates further in 2022 as a possibility.