” L’Ukraine is ready for big battles. Ukraine must win them, including in the Donbass”, the eastern region of the country, said Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhaïlo Podoliak, quoted by the Interfax-Ukraine news agency on Saturday. “And, when that happens, Ukraine will have a stronger position in the negotiations, which will allow it to dictate certain conditions,” he added.
Earlier in the day, President Volodymyr Zelensky had underlined during a press conference with Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer, who visited kyiv: “We are ready to fight, and at the same time to seek diplomatic ways to stop this war. After withdrawing its troops from the kyiv region and northern Ukraine, Russia has made its priority the total conquest of Donbass, part of which has been controlled since 2014 by pro-Russian separatists.
Weapons for kyiv
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson paid a surprise visit to kyiv on Saturday and promised armored vehicles to Ukraine. He paid tribute to the Ukrainian army for “the greatest feat of arms of the 21stand century” which helped defend kyiv and defeat “Putin’s monstrous designs”, according to a statement from Downing Street. Russian President Vladimir Putin “suffered a setback. (…) He will intensify the pressure now in the Donbass and the East”, warned Boris Johnson.
“That is why it is so vital (…) that we, your friends, continue to offer whatever support we can,” he added, pledging to provide kyiv with armored vehicles and anti-ship missiles. Johnson and Zelensky also went to Khrechtchatyk Street, the main artery of kyiv, greeting the few onlookers present, then to the emblematic Independence Square. Boris Johnson is the first G7 leader to visit the Ukrainian capital, which was threatened with assault and shelled just a week ago, and where Volodymyr Zelensky has taken refuge since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24 , commanding the respect of the whole world.
“Other western democratic states must follow the example of the United Kingdom”, commented the Ukrainian president. “It is time to impose a total embargo on Russian hydrocarbons, to increase arms deliveries” to Ukraine. London, at the forefront of condemnations of the Kremlin’s policy, notably provided the Ukrainian army with precious anti-tank weapons from the start and did not hesitate to sanction the Russian oligarchs, whose massive presence gave a chic district of the British capital the nickname of “Londongrad”.
For his part, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that the Alliance was preparing plans for a permanent military force on its borders to prevent any further Russian aggression. “What we see now is a new reality, a new normal for European security. For this reason, we have asked our military commanders to provide options for what we call a reset, a long-term adaptation of NATO,” he said in an interview published Saturday by the British daily. Daily Telegraph. This new force will be, he added, a “long-term consequence” of the invasion of Ukraine ordered by Vladimir Putin.
Continued evacuations… and bombardments
Two days after the massacre at Kramatorsk station (east), where 52 civilians, including 5 children, who were preparing to flee, were killed in a strike attributed to a Russian missile, the evacuation of the population continued. Moscow has denied being responsible for the strike, going so far as to denounce a Ukrainian “provocation”. On Sunday, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said 4,532 civilians had been evacuated the day before. The majority left the Zaporizhia region, she added, adding that nearly 200 people were able to leave the besieged port city of Mariupol (south) and that more than a thousand fled Melitopol, Lysychansk, Severodonetsk, Rubizhne , Kreminna and Popasna, in the Lugansk region.
“The Russian enemy continues to prepare to intensify its offensive operations in eastern Ukraine and take full control of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions”, in Donbass, the general staff of the Ukrainian army on Saturday in a daily update on Facebook. In addition to continuing fighting to take control of the key towns of Mariupol in the south and Izium further north, “the enemy continues to strike with missiles civilian targets throughout Ukraine”, warned the Staff. Bombings left 5 dead and 5 injured in the Donetsk region, regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said on Telegram in the evening.
In Lysychansk, a small town in the Lugansk region, Mayor Olexander Zaika called on residents to leave as soon as possible. “The situation in the city is very tense, I ask you to evacuate. It becomes very difficult, enemy shells are falling everywhere,” he said in a message on Telegram.
And, awaiting a major Russian offensive, Ukrainian soldiers and members of the territorial defense were busy fortifying their positions and digging new trenches in the rural area of Barvinkove, in the east of the country. The edges of the roads were mined and anti-tank obstacles were installed at all crossroads.
War crimes
Seven missiles fell overnight from Saturday to Sunday in the Mykolayiv region, about 100 kilometers northeast of Odessa, the country’s third largest city and major strategic port on the Black Sea, according to the local military command. Threatened in turn with strikes, Odessa decreed a curfew from Saturday evening to Monday morning.
On Friday, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, visited kyiv and Boutcha, a small town near the capital that has become a symbol of the atrocities of the Russian invasion. “If this is not a war crime, what is a war crime? she had launched. “What Putin did in Boutcha and Irpin (another locality near kyiv, editor’s note) are war crimes that have permanently tarnished his reputation,” Boris Johnson said on Saturday. Dozens of corpses wearing civilian clothes, and some with their hands tied behind their backs, were found in Boutcha, near kyiv, after Russian forces withdrew.
Ursula von der Leyen announced on Saturday that an international collection had raised 10.1 billion euros to support Ukraine. Notwithstanding these exchanges of accusations, Ukraine announced on Saturday that it had carried out a new exchange of prisoners with Russia, allowing the release of 12 Ukrainian soldiers and 14 civilians.
President Vladimir Putin, whose decision to invade Ukraine shattered over fierce Ukrainian resistance, has scaled back his plans but wants to secure a victory in Donbass ahead of the May 9 military parade marking the square Red the Soviet victory over the Nazis, the culmination of the militaristic narrative he imposed in Russia, observers note.
Consult our file: War in Ukraine
