What happened in the last few hours in Ukraine

On the 35th day of the war initiated by Russia against Ukraine, this is the key data at 14:00 on Wednesday, March 30:

Russia intensifies its attacks on the Donbas. Five days after Russia announced that its troops would focus on Donbas, a region held in part by pro-Russian separatists since 2014, attacks by Moscow forces against this area have intensified. This Wednesday, Moscow bombed the residential area of ​​Lisichansk, a city in the east of the country of about 100,000 in the pro-Russian Lugansk region. The Ukrainian governor of the Donetsk region, Pavlo Kyrylenko, has also stated that the situation is difficult in all cities along the front line separating the territory controlled by the Ukrainian Government from the territory controlled by the separatists, with the bombing of Moscow troops.

Chernihiv was bombed after Russia’s pledge to reduce military activity in the area. The governor of the Chernihiv region in northern Ukraine said on Wednesday that he did not see a decrease in Russian strikes despite Moscow’s pledge to reduce military operations in the area. Moscow announced on Tuesday that it would “radically” reduce military activity around the capital, Kyiv and the besieged city of Chernihiv after the first advances in negotiations in Istanbul with the Ukrainian delegation.

Russia noted that there was no progress in negotiations with Ukraine. Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov informed the media on Wednesday of the results of talks held the previous day with Ukraine in Istanbul. Peskov has made it clear that there has been no progress in negotiations, though he noted some “positive” points in the conversation. Peskov thus lowered expectations made the day before by the head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinski, who for the first time alluded on Tuesday about a possible “agreement” between Moscow and kyiv after negotiations he described as “constructive”.

UNHCR increased the number of refugees to more than four million. The United Nations refugee agency on Wednesday raised the number of Ukrainian refugees who have fled the country to more than four million. More than half, 2.3 million people, have fled to Poland. The United Nations confirmed that it was the fastest exodus in Europe since World War II.

kyiv and Moscow agreed to open three humanitarian corridors. The governments of Ukraine and Russia have agreed to open three humanitarian corridors this Wednesday to evacuate civilians, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister, Irina Vereshchuk explained. kyiv, for its part, has requested that 97 safe evacuation routes be put in place and the withdrawal of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, as there is a danger that nearby munitions will explode. This Tuesday, about 1,600 people managed to leave besieged Mariupol, next to the Sea of ​​Azov, and other cities it encircled.

The United Nations appointed a committee to investigate possible war crimes. The United Nations has appointed a committee of human rights experts to investigate possible war crimes and other violations of international law committed during the Ukraine conflict. This committee, chaired by Erik Mose of Norway, has the mandate to “investigate all complaints of violations and violations of human rights, as well as violations of international humanitarian law and related crimes in the context of the aggression against Ukraine by the Russian Federation,” the organization said in a statement. a statement.

In this picture, by Alexander Ermochenko, a boy sits in front of a residential building damaged by a shooting in the city of Donetsk on Wednesday.