Follow the evolution of the conflict in Ukraine throughout this day of Monday, April 18.
– Macron says he is ready to return to kyiv
Emmanuel Macron said on Monday he was ready to travel to the capital of Ukraine again, but on condition that he could bring something useful.
“I will go back to Kyiv, but I will go back to bring something useful, not just to show support,” said the president-candidate on France 5.
Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky has invited Emmanuel Macron to visit Ukraine so that the French President can see, he says, that Russian forces are committing “genocide”, a term that the French President refuses to use, unlike of US President Joe Biden.
– The bodies of 269 people found in the Irpin region
Ukrainian investigators carried out theexamination of 269 corpses at Irpinnear kyiv, since the city was recaptured from Russian forces in late March, a police official said on Monday.
The citywhich had around 62,000 inhabitants before the war, was at the heart of clashes with Russian troops before they withdrew from the northern regions of Ukraine to step up their offensive in the east.
In a cemetery on the outskirts of Irpin, dozens of new graves have been dug and covered with flowers. “To date, we have inspected 269 corpses,” Serhi Panteleiev, first deputy head of the police’s main investigative department, told an online news conference.
He indicated that forensic examinations were underway to determine the cause of death of many victimsshowing photos of mostly charred bodies.
He said seven sites in Irpin where civilians were allegedly shot had been inspected, without giving further details. Russia denies targeting civilians and rejected allegations that his troops committed war crimes in occupied areas of Ukraine.
– Sanctions on Russia weaken the West, says Putin
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that the sanctions decided by Western countries against Russia in connection with the situation in Ukraine had led to a “deterioration of the economy in the West”.
In a speech on the state of the Russian economy, he added that inflation in his country was stabilizing and demand had returned to normal.
Western countries have decided on unprecedented sanctions against Russia, its companies and its financial system since the start, on February 24, of what Moscow presents as a “special military operation” but which Kyiv considers an invasion.
Ahead of Vladimir Putin’s speech, Russian central bank governor Elvira Nabiullina said she was considering another cut in interest rates and said it would take about two years to bring inflation back towards the 4% target. that the authorities have set themselves.
Consumer price inflation in Russia reached 17% in March. The central bank had raised its main key rate to 20% on February 28, against 9.5% previously, after the fall of the ruble caused by the start of the conflict and the first Western sanctions, but it reduced it to 17% on April 8.
“We need to be able to cut the policy rate more quickly,” Elvira Nabioullina said in a speech to MPs on Monday. “We need to create the conditions to increase the availability of credit in the economy.”
The sanctions, she said, have so far mostly affected financial markets “but now they will start to affect the economy more and more.”
She said Moscow planned to initiate legal proceedings against the blocking of Russian assets, including gold and foreign currency belonging to Russian residents.
– “Powerful” Russian missile strikes in Lviv
Five “powerful” Russian missile strikes hit Lviv, a large city in western Ukraine usually relatively spared from the fighting, on Monday morning, announced its mayor, Andriï Sadovy, and an adviser to the presidency.
A resident of southwest Lviv told AFP he saw thick plumes of gray smoke rise into the sky behind apartment buildings.
Five powerful missile strikes at once on the civilian infrastructure of the old European Lviv. The Russians continue barbarically attacking Ukrainian cities from the air, cynically declaring to the whole world their “right” to… kill Ukrainians.
— Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M) April 18, 2022
The emergency services have not yet intervened on the spot and for the moment, it is difficult to make an assessment. But for the regional governor the strikes would have done at least 6 dead and 8 injured.
“There is a child among the victims”Maksym Kozitsky said on Telegram, adding that the strikes had hit military infrastructure and a tire garage, causing fires.
Located far from the front, Lviv and western Ukraine have rarely been targeted by bombardments since the start of the Russian invasion.
– The targeted Kyiv region
The Russian Ministry of Defense announced on Sunday that it had fired high-precision missiles at an ammunition factory near Brovary.
– Mariupol without humanitarian aid
“There are believed to be between 100 and 130,000 civilians remaining in Mariupol. They suffer under fire, without water or food. Russia has completely blocked all humanitarian aid in the city,” the deputy mayor of Mariupol told BFMTV.
“People survive. They share everything they have with each other. People look for water directly in wells, in the ground, and look for food in abandoned stores,” he explained. .
