Ukraine live update: Zelensky calls for mass evacuation; The Red Cross has tracked down from the prison explosion site

Hundreds of thousands of civilians living in eastern Ukraine were ordered to evacuate their homes this weekend after months of relentless Russian bombing that destroyed the infrastructure needed to provide heat and electricity.

While the Ukrainians had stabilized their defenses in eastern Ukraine and the Russians had not made significant progress for weeks, Russian shelling of towns and villages continued to kill. daily civilian deaths.

President Volodymyr Zelensky, talking to the whole country in his overnight addressurged the hundreds of thousands of people – including tens of thousands of children – living in the Donetsk region to move quickly.

“The sooner this is done, the more people leave the Donetsk region, the less time the Russian army will have to destroy,” he said.

This is the first time the Ukrainian government has issued such a broad directive. Doing so before winter, it both seeks to give people time to move and tries to prevent an uncontrollable crisis later.

Protecting civilians also takes up valuable resources, taxing besieged emergency teams. Mr. Zelensky said the government will help people logistically and financially.

Ukraine’s president’s feelings sound raw when he condemns killed Ukrainian prisoners of war in an explosion at a detention facility in the Russian-occupied Donetsk province for mass murder.

“Everybody is guilty – who approved, who organized, who released these people, who knew about it – will all be found,” he said, calling on the US State Department. Ky declares Russia a sponsor of terrorism. Both the House and Senate expressed support for such a move, but Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken resisted adding Russia to a list that now includes North Korea, Syria, Cuba and Iran.

The Kremlin says Ukraine killed its own soldiers being held in a Russian prison camp with a US-made precision missile. The Pentagon on Friday said there was no evidence to support that claim and that a growing number of Ukraine’s allies were turning their noses at Russia.

Satellite images released by Maxar Technologies on Saturday show the attack site and the charred ruins of the barracks where soldiers died. Ukrainian officials said the images were not consistent with a missile attack. The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said its analysts could not confirm the cause but “it is more likely that Russian forces are responsible.”

International Committee of the Red Cross say on sunday that Russia had not granted them access to the site, adding that this was an obligation under the Geneva Conventions.

The site is a few miles from the front line in Donetsk, where fighting intensified after a brief pause in July after the Russians took control of almost all of the neighboring province of Luhansk.

The Russians control about 60 percent of Donetsk province, and Ukrainian officials have warned that Moscow will step up efforts to capture the rest of the province as it moves forward with its plans. annexing part of Ukraine.

The Ukrainians said on Sunday morning that they thwarted several Russian attacks east of Bakhmut overnight and caused heavy damage. According to the National Police, Russian rockets and bombs hit 23 towns and villages in Donetsk overnight, hitting 42 residential buildings, four wheat fields and agricultural machinery, markets, and tensions. news, manufacturing plants, transformers, garages and power lines, according to the National Police.

At the same time, Russia is trying to fortify its defensive positions in the area south of Kherson as the Ukrainians continue to target Russian supply lines, cutting off Russian forces west of the Dnipro River from the rest. of the occupying army.

Late on Saturday, the Ukrainians said they had crashed into a railway bridge over the Dnipro. Not all of the Ukrainian military’s claims can be independently verified, but video and satellite images have confirmed several attacks on Russian strongholds and transport links.

Russian government accused On Sunday, Ukraine launched a drone strike against the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol, which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014 and staged. for invasion.

The Ukrainian government did not immediately acknowledge the assault. On Sunday, Russia celebrated Navy Day, intended to show off the strength of its fleet.

Russian President Vladimir V. Putin participated in a naval parade in St.Petersburg on Sunday, saluting Russian ships and submarines from a speedboat.

In his opening remarks to the parade, Putin said Russia’s interests stretch and spread, from the Arctic Circle to the Baltic Sea, and it will protect them wherever they are threatened.

“We will make sure to protect them firmly and by all means available,” he said.