Day 24: Supersonic missiles and penetration into the center of Mariupol

On Saturday, Russia used Kinzhal-type supersonic missiles for the first time. These missiles have a range of up to 2000 kilometers, fly much faster than ordinary cruise missiles and are almost impossible to shoot down. The Russian armed forces have been testing the Kinzhal in maneuvers since 2018. The USA also has the same type of missile.

The target of the attack was, according to Russian sources, an underground storage of weapons and military equipment in the village of Delyatyn near the town of Ivano-Frankivs in southwestern Ukraine near the border with Poland.

Russian forces continued their systematic bombardment of Mariupol, Mykolaiv, Kharkiv and Chernihiv.

Russia Ukraine War

In Mariupol, which is completely destroyed, Russian soldiers reportedly penetrated into the city center where street fighting is taking place. The leaders of Mariupol claim that the Russians forcibly took thousands of people to Russia.

Southern front

Russian forces did not make significant progress on Saturday either, except in the south where they control the coast of the Sea of ​​Azov. Western military experts believe that Russian attacks will be concentrated on the southern front and directed towards Odessa on the Black Sea, because they do not have enough troops to encircle Kiev.

Russia Ukraine War

In the Black Sea, mines that have broken off are floating uncontrollably and pose a danger to all ships.

Zelensky's campaign against Nestle

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also addressed the demonstrators at the anti-war protests in the Swiss capital of Bern via video link. He was greeted by Swiss President Ignacio Cassis.

Zelensky criticized Switzerland for not blocking the bank accounts of some Russian oligarchs close to Vladimir Putin. Switzerland, which is not a member of the EU, applies mostly the same measures as the Union against Russia, but the country's banks are a world unto themselves.

Russia Ukraine War

In addition, Zelensky strongly criticized the fact that the Swiss Nestle did not withdraw from the Russian market. Nestle is the largest food concern in the world and the largest company in Switzerland.

Nestle is building a new factory in Surchin, and plans to build a factory in Vyazhniki, Russia. It supplies many places in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States with its products. The company also produces special food for the army, which it supplies to the armed forces of the USA and other countries, including the German army. In Germany, the question arises as to whether Nestle therefore also belongs to the arms industry.

OMV is not giving up Russian oil and gas

The Austrian company OMV, which has numerous gas stations in Serbia as well, continues full cooperation with Russia. He responded to the criticism in the Austrian newspaper "Standard" that Austria gets 80 percent of its oil and gas from Russia and that it cannot be replaced even in the medium term.

Supplying Kiev from the south

The German RTL reporter entered Kyiv from the south without any problems and showed that the city is not surrounded. Convoys with weapons and provisions also come from that side. In one square, many baby carriages were placed as a memorial for every child killed during the Russian invasion.

Fear of the Holodomor

The European Commission fears that a great famine may prevail in Ukraine. There are memories of a famine in the early thirties of the last century as a result of Stalin's policies when at least 4 million people died, historians do not agree on the number of victims. That's when the word "Holodomor" was born.

The areas affected by the famine were mostly inhabited by Ukrainian peasants who resisted the new Soviet economic policy, i.e. the disproportionate collective confiscation of privately acquired goods, which is why the Holodomor was publicly declared a "genocide of the Soviet-communist government" against the Ukrainian nation in 2003 for the first time in Ukraine.

On an elevation above the Dnieper River, there is a monument to the Holodomor - a bone-thin figure of an emaciated child and a tower in the shape of a candle.

The refugee crisis

Europe is getting ready to receive millions of Ukrainian refugees. So far, more than 3,2 million have escaped, and it is estimated that twice as many could come to EU countries.

Moldova Russia Ukraine War

Few today remember the largest single escape and persecution of people in history from 1944 to 1946. Between 12 and 14 million Germans were driven away or fled from the areas in Russia, which Germany occupied, and the east of Germany before the Red Army's onslaught to the west. In some parts of western Germany, there were more refugees than natives, and there were already severe shortages. The winter of 1945 to 1946 was particularly cold, there was talk of the "white death" and "black famine". Between 2 and 4 million people died from hunger and winter, no one had the need to count and record the victims.

Encounter in space

Three Russian cosmonauts have arrived safely at the International Space Station (ISS) in a Soyuz capsule, to continue a 20-year-old mission that Russia and the US continue to jointly carry out in orbit, despite tensions over Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The Russian cosmonauts were dressed in yellow overalls with blue stripes, which are the colors of the Ukrainian flag. Some Western media interpreted it as a sign of anti-war protest by Russian cosmonauts.

However, this has been denied, because "sometimes the color yellow is nothing but the color yellow." Apparently, these are also the colors of the technical university NE Bauman.

JH/Neue Züricher Zeitung/Al Jazeera/Le Mond/RTL/Die Zeit/Standard                

Read daily news, analysis, commentary and interviews at www.vreme.com