Ukraine’s war ended with decision on EU membership

The fate of Ukraine is being played out in Brussels, where twenty-seven people are considering nominations for membership of the European Union on Thursday, the most symbolic milestone in nearly four months since the occupation by the Russian military.

Meanwhile, Russian forces continue to tighten their grip on the Donbass, in the twin cities of Lisitshansk and Severodonetsk.

The pocket of Ukrainian resistance surrounding these two strategic industrial cities is increasingly tightly surrounded by the Russians, who were destroyed by artillery wars in the Lukansk region.

“As we fight fiercely for the EU’s positive decision on Ukraine’s candidacy, we fight every day to provide modern weapons,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zhelensky stressed on Wednesday evening.

“We are waiting for a major European decision in the evening,” said the man, who did not stop for weeks to repatriate a former member of his former Soviet republic to the “European family.”

He will continue his “telephone marathon” with European leaders on Thursday to reach a consensus on yes.

He can count on the support of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who accepted kyiv’s request and called on European leaders “on occasion.”

The European executive also issued a positive comment on Ukraine’s candidacy a few days ago, with France, the rotating chairman of the EU Council, pointing out that a “total consensus” had emerged between the twenty-seven on the issue. .

– “Destroy All Donbass” –

“Lyssychansk subject to fire by artillery and air strikes”, according to the last point of the governor of the Lugansk region Serguiï Gaïdaï on Wednesday evening.

“They want to gradually destroy all of the Donbass. Completely. Lyssytchansk, Sloviansk, Kramatorsk … They want to transform all the cities into Mariupol,” declared President Zelensky, the martyred city of war, from Wednesday to Thursday night.

The two cities of Lisitsansk and Chevroletonetsk are a major step in the Russian conquest of the entire Donbass, which has been conducted mainly since 2014 by the Russian-speaking Basin and partly by pro-Russian separatists.

In Lysytchansk, an AFP team on Wednesday saw Ukrainian soldiers digging a trench in a central street and setting up barricades with barbed wire and branches.

Further north, Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city, was captured by Ukrainians and bombed daily, with the streets appearing to have been evacuated by their citizens on Wednesday, another AFP group said.

“So many people are gone. On this city street, 50 km from the Russian border, 19-year-old Roman Bohlia testifies to a pink hello kitty sweatshirt and ear diamond.

Two grain storage terminals in the Ukrainian port city of Mykolayiv were hit by a Russian shelling on Wednesday, their operators told AFP.

“The invaders attacked Mykolaiv with seven missiles,” President Zelensky confirmed, reporting five injuries in his last video message overnight from Wednesday to Thursday.

According to the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW), Russian forces may have recaptured the eastern bank of the Inholetz River, which is located between Ukraine, which is still under Ukrainian control, and further east of Kerson, occupied by the Russians.

The ports of Mykolaiv and Odessa have been blocked since the beginning of the conflict, which until then has blocked maritime transport of agricultural raw materials, Ukraine’s main export route.

– “Plan Marshall” –

The European summit is followed by the G7 and a third of NATO, with US President Joe Biden taking part. The question of financial assistance for kyiv should be at the center of the discussions of these three meetings.

A senior White House official promised on Wednesday that the G7 summit in Germany this weekend would “formulate concrete plans to increase pressure on Russia and show our collective support for Ukraine.”

The White House insisted that Volodymyr Zhelensky would intervene during these two meetings.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholes on Wednesday called for a multi-billion-euro “marshal plan” for the reconstruction of Ukraine from Berlin.

In addition, the Reporters Without Borders (RSF), a media protection body, will file a complaint after the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Wednesday released a report stating that Ukrainian photojournalist Max Levine and a soldier who accompanied him may have been “executed” and tortured by Russian soldiers during the march.

burx-dth / ybl