Zelensky appeals to Israel for help
In his latest appeal for help from abroad, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the Israeli parliament by video link and questioned Israel’s reluctance to sell its Iron Dome missile defence system to Ukraine, reports Reuters.
“Everybody knows that your missile defence systems are the best… and that you can definitely help our people, save the lives of Ukrainians, of Ukrainian Jews,” said Zelensky, who is of Jewish heritage.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has held numerous calls with both Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin to try to end the conflict.
Mariupol has suffered some of the heaviest bombardments since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb 24. Many of its 400,000 residents remain trapped with little if any food, water and power.
Burying his neighbours in a makeshift grave by the roadside, a man who identified himself as Andrei said they had died not by shelling but of ailments, stress and cold after weeks without access to medical help.
Fighting continued inside the city on Sunday, regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said, without elaborating.
Russia called on Ukrainian forces in Mariupol to lay down their arms, saying a “terrible humanitarian catastrophe” was unfolding.
It said defenders who did so were guaranteed safe passage out of the city and humanitarian corridors would be opened from 1000 Moscow time (0700 GMT) on Monday.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said over 7,000 people were evacuated from Ukrainian cities through humanitarian corridors on Sunday, more than half of them from Mariupol. She said the government planned to send nearly 50 buses to Mariupol on Monday for further evacuations.
