UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday visited theaters in the suburbs of Quetta, Putsa, Irfin and Borodiana, while Moscow continues its offensive in the east and south of Ukraine.
The EU on Wednesday accused the EU of “blackmailing” Russia for its part in halting gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria, while Westerners continue their efforts to arm Ukrainians against Russia.
The UN leader arrived in Ukraine from Moscow, where he appealed to Vladimir Putin to call for a “ceasefire” as soon as possible.
But on the ground, Russian forces have stepped up their offensive, especially in the Kharkiv and Donetsk regions in the east of the country, Ukrainian forces said Thursday morning.
Kyiv accused Russian forces of carrying out massacres in Boutcha, Irpin and Borodianka after dozens of public-dressed bodies were found in these areas occupied and abandoned by the Russian military.
On April 2, in Boutcha, AFP journalists discovered the horror: a street full of corpses. After a mission in the city, 50 civilians were documented for “murder, some of which were briefly executed.”
On Wednesday, Canadian lawmakers passed a resolution condemning Russia’s “genocidal actions against the Ukrainian people” and said “there is clear and abundant evidence of legitimate and massive war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
– “Russian threat” –
On Wednesday, Britain called on Ukraine’s allies to “have the courage” to increase their military assistance, arguing that the war in Ukraine was “our war” and that victory in Cuba was a “strategic imperative for all of us”.
“Heavy weapons, tanks, planes – we have to do everything we can to dig up our stock and increase production,” British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said in a speech in London on Wednesday evening.
The Russian president, for his part, again warned against any outside intervention in the conflict in Ukraine, promising a “quick and lightning” response.
Meanwhile, Moscow is trying to target military aid, and the Russian Defense Ministry confirmed on Wednesday that “a large number of foreign weapons and ammunition bunkers supplied to Ukrainian forces by the United States and European countries have been destroyed.
However, the governor of the region came out with a firm denial: “No ammunition and ammunition depot has been damaged in Zaporozhye”, to which the affected factory has been “inactive for six years”.
An adviser to the Ukrainian interior minister said on Tuesday that Russian troops were firing bridges and railway bombs to slow Western arms supplies to Ukraine after the destruction of a strategic bridge connecting the country with Romania.
Continuation of the Russian offensive –
Russian forces, which have stepped up their offensive in Donbass for two weeks, announced on Wednesday that they had launched airstrikes on 59 Ukrainian targets.
At the same time, the Ukrainian military, for its part, has rarely recognized Russian advances in the east, the Kharkiv region and the Donbass, the mine bed has been partially controlled by pro-Russian separatists since 2014.
Kyiv acknowledged that the Russians had taken over vast areas from north to south, suggesting that Moscow still wanted to take the mate in a larger pocket in the hands of the Ukrainians.
In a statement on Wednesday, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksi Resnikov said, “We have very difficult weeks.
According to him, the Russian military, “already aware of its strategic defeat, will try to inflict as much suffering as possible on Ukrainian soldiers”, he insisted.
Launched on February 24 in Kherson (south), the first major city to be captured by Russian forces after the invasion of Ukraine – the Ukrainian military says the occupiers fired tear gas at Ukrainian protesters chanting “+ Kerson Ukraine!” In a statement. Demonstrators were “injured and arrested”, the same source added.
– ‘Save Mariupol Garrison’ –
In Kharkiv, about 5 km from the front line of the northern and eastern districts, the shelling killed at least three people and injured 15, Governor Oleg Sinekopov said.
In the strategic port city of Mariupol, at the southern tip of the Donbass, the besieged and devastated area was confirmed by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense in its daily report that “the enemy is blocking our units in a massive bombardment near the Azovstal factory.”
Sergei Volina, commander of the 36th Mariupol Marine Regiment, again called for help, claiming he had 600 wounded soldiers and hundreds of civilians with him.
“My message today is: Save Mariupol Garrison, carry out an evacuation operation for us. People will die here (…) civilians will die with us (…) The city is almost destroyed from the surface of the earth,” he pleaded in a telegram.
According to Ukrainian Presidential Adviser Oleksiy Arestovich, “Russian invaders’ efforts are concentrated around Slovyansk, Kramatorsk and Mariupol.”
Attempts are being made to persuade Vladimir Putin to release them. “The public is first, but we are engaged in the task of expelling our soldiers,” he said.
– “United” EU in the face of Russian gas weapons –
In economic terms, the Russian group Gazprom announced on Wednesday that it had suspended all gas supplies to Bulgaria and Poland, confirming that the two countries had not paid in rubles since Vladimir Putin’s request in March.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen condemned the “gas threat” and confirmed that Russia’s two gas-dependent member states, the EU and NATO, are now being supplied by “neighbors in the European Union”.
On Wednesday evening it was announced that the European Ministers in charge of energy would meet in an “extraordinary session” on Monday, May 2, by the French Minister for Climate Change, Barbara Pompey.
These events come at a time when many principals are concerned about the risk of a conflict in the Transdniestria, a pro-Russian separatist area in Moldova, following a series of alleged eruptions of kyiv to Moscow.
On Wednesday, officials in the separatist territory said they had opened fire from Ukraine, a border village where a large Russian military ammunition depot is located.
To help Ukraine, the European Commission on Wednesday proposed a one-year suspension of all tariffs on goods imported from this country into the EU. The proposal has yet to be approved by the European Parliament and the 27 member states.
President Volodymyr Zhelensky welcomed the plan, accusing Russia of “trying to create a global price crisis” and “disrupting” the global food market.
burx-cn / ob / at
“Coffee trailblazer. Social media fanatic. Tv enthusiast. Friendly entrepreneur. Amateur zombie nerd.”
More Stories
Gaza Finance City at the pinnacle of Africa’s financial hubs
America is the first market for Moroccan handicrafts
In infodemic times it’s good to think about fact-checking