Turkey continues to maintain contacts with both Ukraine and Russia, and the primary task of its diplomacy is to achieve a settlement of the situation, the Anadolu agency quoted Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as saying.
“We maintain diplomatic contacts with both sides, discuss all proposals and support all initiatives aimed at establishing peace,” he said at a press conference following the NATO summit in Brussels.
Erdogan noted that Turkey maintains special relations with both countries.
“For this reason, the first task of Turkish diplomacy is to stop hostilities. Peace in Ukraine must be ensured according to a formula that will suit the two countries and the world community. It must be a stable and strong peace,” the Turkish President added.
Metinvest Mining and Metallurgical Group, owned by businessman Rinat Akhmetov, transferred $500,000 to a targeted charity fund for the purchase of protective ammunition and first-aid kits for the Territorial Defense Forces of Zapoprizhia.
“By uniting for the sake of defending the independence of Ukraine and Ukrainians, we are bringing victory closer. The army and the Territorial Defense Forces protect the civilian population, and we are trying to protect and support them in the struggle for state sovereignty, our freedom and independence,” head of the Metinvest Humanitarian Mission Coordination Center in Zaporizhia, director general of Zaporizhstal, Oleksandr Myronenko, who is quoted by the press service of the steel plant, said.
At the same time, it is noted that the Vadym Novynsky Foundation also transferred $500,000 in support of Zaporizhia Territorial Defense Forces.
The total contributions transferred to Zaporizhia Trust Charitable Fund will be used to purchase bulletproof vests, bulletproof helmets and NATO-standard first-aid kits for the defenders.
According to a press release, Metinvest Group has been supporting the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the Territorial Defense Forces in the cities where the company operates since the first days of the war. Since the beginning of hostilities, more than 35,000 anti-tank hedgehogs, as well as spiked chains against wheeled vehicles and anti-landing hedgehogs, have been made from Metinvest steel. With the support of the company, the construction of the city’s fortifications continues. Metinvest enterprises provide heavy special equipment and vehicles for the needs of defenders, as well as fuel, batteries and walkie-talkies.
Metinvest is a vertically integrated group of mining and metallurgical enterprises. Its enterprises are located in Ukraine – in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions, in European countries. In particular, in Bulgaria there is a Promet Steel plant with a capacity of 500,000 tonnes of rolled metal per year, in Italy – Metinvest Trametal and Ferriera Valsider with a total capacity of 1.2 million tonnes per year. In the UK, the company owns the Spartan UK plant, which can produce 200,000 tonnes of rolled steel per year.
The main shareholders of Metinvest are the SCM group (71.25%) of Rinat Akhmetov and Smart Holding (23.75%) of Vadym Novynsky, who jointly manage the company.
President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola said that the European Union should give Ukraine hope for a European perspective.
“Ukraine, more than ever before, now looks to the European Union as its destination. We must respond with honesty but also with the hope that they desperately need. Of course, every country must have its own path, which can be a complex one, but the European future of Ukraine should not be in doubt,” the head of the European Parliament said, speaking on Thursday at the European Council summit in Brussels.
“We must be ready, but more importantly we must be willing to do what is necessary to provide a future without fear for those arriving at our borders,” Metsola said.
According to her, the EU has an obligation to play a leading role in organizing these efforts.
“The face of Europe we must show must be one of open hearts and open homes,” the head of the European Parliament said.
In response to Belarus’ unfriendly actions against employees of Ukrainian diplomatic institutions in Minsk and Brest, Ukraine has taken a number of measures, in particular, reducing the number of staff of the Belarusian embassy in Ukraine to five people, Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Oleh Nikolenko has said.
In addition, the Foreign Ministry said that Ukraine is canceling the diplomatic accreditation of other employees of the Belarusian embassy. Their and the family members’ stay on the territory of Ukraine is declared undesirable.
In addition, Ukraine establishes for Belarusian diplomats after their return to the country a permissive regime of movement outside the 40-kilometer zone from the center of Kyiv, and also cancels the exequatur of the honorary consul of Belarus in Lviv.
“We warn the Belarusian authorities that any further unfriendly steps towards Ukraine will receive an immediate and decisive response,” Nikolenko said on his Facebook.
Earlier, the Belarusian authorities decided to expel some Ukrainian diplomats and close the Consulate General of Ukraine in Brest, the Belarusian Foreign Ministry said.
From February 24, 2022, when Russia started the war against Ukraine, until 24:00 on March 23, 2022, civilian casualties amounted to 2,685 people (in the report a day earlier – 2,571), including 1,035 dead (977), reports the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on Wednesday.
“UNHCHR believes that the real numbers are much higher, especially in government-controlled territory, and especially in recent days, as information from some places where there has been intense fighting has been delayed, and many reports are still awaiting confirmation,” it said.
According to him, this applies, for example, to Mariupol and Volnovakha (Donetsk region), Izium (Kharkiv region), Severodonetsk and Rubizhne (Luhansk region), Trostianets (Sumy region), where there are reports of numerous civilian casualties. They are subject to further verification and are not included in the above statistics.
“The majority of civilian deaths or injuries were caused by the use of explosive devices with a wide area of effect, including shelling from heavy artillery and multiple launch rocket systems, as well as rocket and air strikes,” the report says.
According to confirmed UN data, 214 men, 160 women, 28 boys and 14 girls died, while the sex of 48 children and 571 adults has not yet been determined.
Among the 1,650 injured, there are 28 girls and 23 boys, as well as 67 children, whose sex has not yet been determined.
Compared to the previous day, nine children were killed and ten were injured, according to the UN.
The office indicates that in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, as of midnight on March 24, there were 255 (224) dead and 646 (621) injured in government-controlled territory, and 56 (55) dead and 211 (202) injured in the non-controlled territory.
In other regions of Ukraine under government control (in Kyiv, as well as in Zhytomyr, Zaporizhia, Kyiv, Sumy, Odesa, Mykolaiv, Kharkiv, Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk, Cherkasy and Chernihiv regions), the UN recorded 724 (698) dead and 793 (771) injured.
