Russia has lost all illusions about relying on the West and Moscow will never accept a view of the world dominated by a United States that wants to act like a global sheriff, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday.
At the same time, Russian missiles struck an area near the airport of the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, the mayor said.
Moreover, over 350,000 people are sheltering in the besieged southern port of Mariupol, officials said, while Russia’s defence ministry said separatists with help from Russia’s armed forces were “tightening the noose” around the city.
These are the latest news from the war-torn area:
* Rescuers are combing the rubble of a theatre in Mariupol bombed on Wednesday for survivors. Russia denies striking it. Italy said it will rebuild it. Read full story
* The governor of the northern Chernihiv region said 53 civilians had been in killed in the past 24 hours. The dead included a U.S. citizen as he waited in a bread line, his family said. Russia denies targeting civilians.
* The U.N. said it had recorded 780 confirmed civilian deaths since the invasion began, and 3.2 million have fled.
* Ukraine hopes to evacuate civilians through nine humanitarian corridors from cities and towns on the front line of fighting, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.
* Russia’s invasion has largely stalled on all fronts in recent days amid heavy losses, British military intelligence and the Ukrainian armed forces said.
(Reuters)