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Mariupol convoy turned back as Zelensky prepared for UN
Summary
A look back at 5 April 2022, when a humanitarian convoy failed to reach Mariupol and Ukraine's president readied an address to the UN Security Council.
What did Ukraine's diplomacy and its humanitarian efforts look like on 5 April 2022? On that day, the two ran in parallel: one convoy stalled on the road to Mariupol, while the president prepared to address the world's most prominent security forum.
A convoy turned back
According to Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk, an evacuation column heading for Mariupol was sent back by Russian forces. She said the turnaround complicated the humanitarian work already under way.
A message for the world
The day before, on 4 April 2022, it had been reported that Volodymyr Zelensky planned to speak to the UN Security Council on 5 April.
He had already been pressing the case for international attention. On 3 April 2022, in a pre-recorded address to the Grammy Awards ceremony in Las Vegas, he urged those present to tell the story of the war and the truth about it, on social media and on television.
Two tracks
Taken together, the reports from those three days show a country working on two fronts. One was the practical, dangerous task of moving civilians out of Mariupol. The other was the effort to keep the war in view of audiences abroad, from an entertainment ceremony to the Security Council.
