Negotiations On Hold Until Tuesday; Zelensky To Address U.S. Congress On Wednesday

MUKACHEVO, Ukraine – Negotiations between Ukraine and Russia are on hold until Tuesday, after the talks resumed following recent attacks on a military facility 15 miles from the border of NATO member Poland that threatened to widen the war. Unrelenting fighting has obstructed efforts to provide relief to besieged Ukrainian cities, including the port of Mariupol, and in the capital, officials said a residential building in Kyiv’s Obolon district was struck by Russian shelling, forcing residents to flee as firefighters tried to extinguish the flames and rescue those trapped inside.

Ukrainian officials had projected a more optimistic tone for the talks than on previous, fruitless occasions. Shortly before 5 p.m. local time Monday, Mykhailo Podolyak, a Ukrainian negotiator and presidential adviser, said in a message posted on Twitter that the talks had taken a “technical pause” until Tuesday, adding: “Negotiations continue . . . ”

Illustrating the invasion’s toll on civilians, an injured, pregnant mother depicted in a photo that showed the tragedy of maternity hospital bombing in Ukraine has died with her baby.

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk announced the opening of 10 humanitarian corridors, around Kyiv and the eastern Luhansk region. Ukrainian authorities were also trying to facilitate the movement of a humanitarian convoy carrying food and medicines to Mariupol that was unable to reach the city Sunday because of intense fighting. Hundreds of thousands of people in Mariupol are isolated by Russia’s blockade and running out of food, water and basic supplies.

Meanwhile, in a letter to U.S. lawmakers, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will deliver a virtual joint address to Congress on Wednesday. “Congress, our country and the world are in awe of the people of Ukraine,” they wrote.

Ukraine is also set to dominate the agenda when U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan meets with China’s top diplomat, Yang Jiechi, in Rome on Monday.

U.S. officials said Moscow has turned to China for military equipment and aid since the Russian invasion began more than two weeks ago. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Monday called the U.S. allegations “fake news.” A Russian presidential spokesman also denied that Moscow asked China for weapons.

The residential building in Kyiv’s Obolon district that was struck by Russian shelling Monday, according to the Ukrainian State Emergency Service, forced residents to flee as firefighters tried to extinguish the flames and rescue those trapped inside.

Officials said the explosions killed at least one person and injured several more.
Photos taken Monday showed residents climbing out from the rubble as thick plumes of smoke escaped blackened windows and doors. At least 70 people were evacuated, officials said.

A video recorded by the State Emergency Service showed rescue workers moving burned-out vehicles and using ladders to reach elderly residents trapped inside their apartments high in the building. Emergency workers also helped evacuate pets.

In the Kurenivka neighborhood, the wreckage of a rocket also landed in a street on Monday, killing one person and injuring six others, according to the mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko.

The new humanitarian corridors are set to evacuate people from eight cities to Brovary and Bilohorodka, two suburbs of Kyiv; and from three cities in the Luhansk region of Ukraine to Slovyansk, in the region of Donetsk, according to Vereshchuk.

Vereshchuk did not say whether Russian forces have agreed to these humanitarian corridors, and there was no acknowledgment of her announcement from Moscow as of midday local time.

Zelensky said Sunday that more than 130,000 people were evacuated from cities across Ukraine in the past six days. But without agreement from Russia on humanitarian corridors, many evacuation attempts have failed. A train set to take people from the east to the west of Ukraine was hit by debris during Russian shelling Saturday, killing one conductor and injuring another, an official in Donetsk said.

Vereshchuk said Monday that Ukrainian forces would “finally” attempt to free a convoy bound for Mariupol with food and medicine, which she had said could not leave nearby Berdyansk on Sunday due to Russian bombardments.

Mariupol has been surrounded by Russian forces for 10 days, leaving many residents stranded without access to food, water or electricity amid freezing temperatures. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called it “the worst humanitarian catastrophe on the planet” on Friday.

(c) 2022, The Washington Post · David L. Stern, Kareem Fahim, Rachel Pannett, Jennifer Hassan 

{Matzav.com}