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Kyiv under fresh 35-hour curfew, Ukrainian ministers meet Biden in Poland
Russia-Ukraine war: Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said, in an online post, the decision on curfew was taken by the Ukrainian military, without giving further details.
A fresh and longer curfew will be imposed on the Ukrainian capital Kviv from Saturday evening until Monday morning, mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
In an online post, Klitschko said the decision on a 35-hour curfew was taken by the Ukrainian military, without giving further details. "The military command decided to reinforce the curfew. It will start from 8:00 pm Saturday and last until 7:00 am on Monday," he said on Telegram.
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He said shops, pharmacies, gas stations and public transport will not be operating during the curfew.
Over a month into Russia’s war on Ukraine, Kyiv’s suburbs continue to suffer massive bombardments. Russian forces took control of a town where workers at the defunct Chernobyl nuclear plant lived, governor of Kyiv region Oleksandr Pavlyuk said, while fighting was reported in the streets of the besieged southern port of Mariupol.
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Russian bombs destroyed the main bridge of the northern city of Chernihiv over the Desna River on the road leading to Kyiv two days ago. On Friday, artillery shells rendered the remaining pedestrian bridge impassable, cutting off the last possible route for people to get out or for food and medical supplies to get in.
Britain's defence ministry said Russia continued to besiege a number of major Ukrainian cities, including Kharkiv, Chernihiv and Mariupol.
Meanwhile, Joe Biden met two Ukrainian ministers in Poland's capital Warsaw in the first face-to-face talks between the US president and top Kyiv officials since Russia's invasion began.
Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov made a rare trip out of Ukraine in a possible sign of growing confidence in the fightback against Russian forces. AN AFP report said Biden was seated at a long white table between US secretary of state Antony Blinken and US defence secretary Lloyd Austin, facing Kuleba and Reznikov. There were Ukrainian and US flags in the background.
Earlier in the day, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a surprise video appearance at Qatar’s Doha Forum, calling on the energy-rich nation and others to increase their output of energy "so everyone in Russia understands that no one can use energy as blackmail". He said Russia was threatening (indirectly) the world with its nuclear weapons. "They are bragging that they can destroy with nuclear weapons not only a certain country but the entire planet," Zelenskyy said.
