A Red Cross convoy traveling to the Ukrainian city of Mariupol will try again to evacuate civilians from the besieged port on Saturday as Russian forces looked to be regrouping for new attacks in the southeast.
Mariupol, encircled since the early days of Russia's five-week-old invasion, has been Moscow's main target in Ukraine's southeastern region of Donbas. Tens of thousands there are trapped with scant access to food and water.
The ICRC says its Mariupol operation has been approved by both sides, but major details were still being worked, out such as the exact timing and destination of the convoy, which would be an undetermined location in Ukraine. "An entire bus was shot out. We were on a bus for civilians. There were about 20 people on board, 14 people survived. Eight dead bodies," a woman who identified herself only as Yulia told Reuters Television.
Aiming to lower nuclear tensions with Russia, the US military canceled an intercontinental ballistic missile test that it had initially aimed only to delay, the Air Force told Reuters. After failing to capture a single major city, Russia has painted its drawdown of forces near Kyiv as a goodwill gesture in the peace negotiations. Ukraine and its allies say Russian forces have been forced to regroup after suffering heavy losses due to determined Ukrainian resistance.