Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, has warned that Russia is concentrating and planning “strong strikes” in the country’s south, particularly besieged Mariupol, where a second effort to evacuate inhabitants from the destroyed city will be attempted on Friday.

As US President Joe Biden authorized the release of a record amount of strategic oil reserves to help relieve the country’s increasing oil costs, Russia threatened to cut off gas supplies to Europe if payments were not made in rubles.

Over a month into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Vladimir Putin’s army have shelled cities like Mariupol, killing at least 5,000 people.

Russia declared this week in peace negotiations that it would reduce strikes on the capital, Kyiv, and the city of Chernigiv, but Ukrainian and Western officials ignored the commitment, claiming Moscow’s soldiers were just regrouping. Zelensky stated in a late-night presentation, “This is part of their tactics,”