Zelenskyy: Russian 'war machine' will target other European countries
Prime Minister Boris Johnson and attendees applaud after Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed them by video link during a meeting of the leaders of the the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF), a coalition of 10 states focused on security in northern Europe, at Lancaster House in London.
In a live address to Western leaders this morning, Ukrainian president Volodymr Zelenskyy warned the Russian “war machine” will target them if it is not stopped.
Zelenskyy thanked countries who have “taken a moral stance” against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, in particular the UK prime minister Boris Johnson “for his leadership”.
He told leaders: "We can stop Russia. We can stop the killing of people. It will be easier to do it together, to stop the destruction of democracy and stop it now on our land. Because else, they will also come to you."
The number of people killed in airstrikes on the Ukrainian capital on Tuesday morning has risen to four, according to Kyiv’s mayor Vitali Klitschko.
A series of Russian strikes hit a residential neighbourhood in Kyiv on Tuesday morning, igniting a huge fire and prompting a frantic rescue effort in a 15-storey apartment building. Emergency services earlier said two people were killed.
The Artem weapons factory in central Kyiv was also hit, with footage taken by a local resident showing smoke coming from the roof. Outside kiosks nearby, shopkeepers and helpers swept up glass and other debris from the impact of the explosions.
Russia said on Monday that it planned to attack Ukrainian arms factories in retaliation for what it said was a Ukrainian strike on the separatist-controlled city of Donetsk, and urged workers and local residents to stay away. Ukraine denied launching an attack.
In response to the attacks, Kyiv's mayor has announced a 35-hour curfew starting at 8pm.
"Today is a difficult and dangerous moment," mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
He called on men who took wives and children to the relative safety of the west of the country earlier in the conflict to return to the capital to fight. Some have done so already, he and his brother Wladimir told Reuters in a recent interview.
Meanwhile, civilians trapped in the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol are “essentially being suffocated with no aid”, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
People in Mariupol are “facing the impossible choices of how to feed their families and themselves and are trapped”, an ICRC spokesperson said today.
The Red Cross is hoping to organise the evacuation of civilians in two convoys of some 30 buses out of the north-eastern Ukrainian city of Sumy and their passage to a safe area, Ewan Watson said.
The planned operation out of Sumy would be carried out with the Ukrainian Red Cross but was not yet under way, he said.
We are moving towards Sumy with a view to facilitate safe passage of civilians out, we are hoping that does take place as planned.
He noted there had been delays with similar evacuations from Mariupol, where he said people are “essentially being suffocated in this city now with no aid”.
Reuters reports that Turkey’s foreign minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, said he hoped to evacuate Turkish citizens from Mariupol on Tuesday or Wednesday, after a phone call with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.
He told reporters: "The conditions for the evacuation of our citizens from Mariupol are emerging. We expect good news today or tomorrow."
Fourteen thousand eight hundred Turkish citizens had been evacuated from Ukraine so far amid Russia’s invasion, Çavuşoğlu added.
Earlier on Tuesday, Turkish defence ministry sources said Ankara was awaiting approval from Russian authorities for the Mariupol evacuation, pending a security evaluation.
The sources said landmines in the area had been cleared, and work is continuing to open humanitarian corridors and for buses to enter the city.
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