Lrussian forces on Tuesday (April 12th) maintained their pressure on the strategic port city of Mariupol, which Ukrainian soldiers are desperately trying to defend, and in eastern Ukraine, where kyiv expects a major offensive soon. The noose is tightening on the last Ukrainian troops defending Mariupol, besieged for more than 40 days by the Russian army, largely destroyed and where the humanitarian situation is dramatic.
According to the Ukrainian presidential adviser, Mykhaïlo Podoliak, on Twitter, “Ukrainian soldiers are surrounded and blocked” in the city where “tens of thousands” of people died there and “90% of the houses” were destroyed. “Today will probably be the last battle (…) because our ammunition is running out,” the 36 wrote on Facebook on Monday.and brigade of the National Navy of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, which fights in this city in the south-east of the country. “For more than a month, we fought without resupplying ammunition, without food, without water”, doing “the possible and the impossible”, added this unit, specifying that “half” of its members are wounded.
The city’s deputy mayor Sergei Orlov, however, told the BBC that “the fighting for Mariupol continues”. “The Russians have temporarily occupied part of the city. Ukrainian soldiers continue to defend the center and south of the city, as well as industrial areas,” he said. According to Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhaylo Podolyak, “tens of thousands” of people died there and “90% of the houses” were destroyed, he wrote on Twitter, adding that “Ukrainian soldiers are surrounded and blocked” .
The Russians have been besieging Mariupol for weeks, the capture of which would allow them to consolidate their territorial gains on the coastal strip along the Sea of Azov by connecting the regions of Donbass to the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Moscow in 2014. The leader pro-Russian separatists from Donetsk Denis Pushilin said on Monday that his forces had completely conquered the port area of Mariupol.
“The attack will take place very soon”
Volodymyr Zelensky said he took “very seriously” the chemical weapons threats to Mariupol brandished by the Russian camp. He was referring to a statement on Monday by Eduard Basurin, spokesman for the self-proclaimed pro-Russian republic of Donetsk (DNR), who spoke of the possible use of chemical weapons by Russian troops to drive out Ukrainian fighters defending the Azovstal factory. , the city’s large industrial complex, on the coast. The Ukrainian Azov regiment for its part claimed that a Russian drone had dropped a “toxic substance” there on soldiers and civilians. “No chemical weapon was used by the DNR forces in Mariupol,” denied Edouard Bassourine to the Interfax agency.
The United Kingdom has announced that it is trying to verify information on the possible use of chemical weapons by Russian forces in Mariupol, after the Ukrainian regiment Azov claimed that a Russian drone had dropped a bomb there. “poisonous substance” on soldiers and civilians. “Reports indicate that Russian forces may have used chemical agents in an attack on the population of Mariupol. We are urgently working with our partners to verify the intelligence,” British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said on Twitter on Monday evening.
Any use of such weapons “would constitute a brutal escalation in this conflict and we will hold (Russian President Vladimir) Putin and his regime to account”, she added. Petro Andryushchenko, an adviser to the mayor of Mariupol, pointed out on Telegram that “information about the chemical attack is not currently confirmed”. So did Pentagon spokesman John Kirby, who said Monday evening that Washington was aware of reports of a chemical attack in that city, but could not confirm them.
While Moscow has made the total conquest of the Donbass its priority objective, kyiv has announced that it expects, in the short term, a major offensive in this region, bordering Russia, part of which has been controlled since 2014 by separatists. prorussians. “According to our information, the enemy has almost completed its preparation for an attack on the east. The attack will take place very soon,” warned Ukrainian Defense Ministry spokesman Oleksandre Motouzianik.
“A crucial moment in the war”
In Washington, a senior Pentagon official confirmed that Russian forces are strengthening around the Donbass, and in particular near the strategic city of Izium. Analysts believe that Vladimir Putin, mired in the face of fierce Ukrainian resistance, wants to secure a victory in this region before the May 9 military parade in Red Square marking the Soviet victory over the Nazis. “The battle for the Donetsk and Lugansk regions is a crucial moment in the war,” Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak said on Telegram.
“For Ukraine, this is an opportunity to deprive Russia of the possibility of continuing its aggression by defeating its army. “For the West, this is also a fundamental battle, because our victory depends on the speed of decision-making on armaments,” he added. “The battle for Donbass will last for several days, and during these days our cities could be completely destroyed”, predicted for his part on Facebook Serguiï Gaïdaï, the Ukrainian governor of the Lugansk region, in Donbass, calling again on the civilians to leave the area. According to him, “the Mariupol scenario can be repeated in the Lugansk region”.
New penalties under consideration
On the diplomatic level, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer, the first European official to visit Moscow since the invasion of Ukraine, met Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday and said he was “pessimistic” about his “logic of war “. “We should have no illusions. President Putin has massively entered into a logic of war and he is acting accordingly” in the hope of recording “a rapid military success”, he added.
In Luxembourg, European Union foreign ministers on Monday began considering a sixth sanctions package against Moscow, which will not, however, affect oil and gas purchases. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky continues to ask all his European interlocutors “for the adoption of powerful sanctions”. He is calling for a halt to oil and gas purchases and the supply of heavy weapons to resist the announced offensive in the Donbass region (East).
Consult our file: War in Ukraine
