Russia announced on Friday that it plans to control all of southern and eastern Ukraine, after nearly two months of offensive that has brought its troops into the UN spotlight for possible “war crimes.”
“Since the beginning of the second phase of the special operations, one of the goals of the Russian army is to maintain full control over the Donbass and southern Ukraine,” said General Rustem Minnekayev, Deputy Commander of the Central Military District of Russia.
“This will provide a land corridor to Crimea,” he added, of the Ukrainian peninsula that Moscow annexed in 2014.
He said the conquest of southern Ukraine would also help separatists in Moldova’s Transnistria region, where “we also saw cases of repression against the Russian-speaking population.”
Moldova’s pro-Western government immediately summoned the Russian ambassador and expressed “deep concern” at these statements.
Russian President Vladimir Putin launched an offensive against Ukraine on February 24 to defend the Russian-speaking population in the east of the country.
the pain of Mariupol
Putin claimed on Thursday that although the vast industrial complex Azovstal remains under Ukrainian resistance control, the strategic southeastern city of Mariupol has been captured after nearly two months of fighting.
“The success of the Russian offensive in the south depends on the fate of Mariupol,” regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenk told AFP, adding that there are about “300 civilians” in Azovstal.
Authorities estimate that around 20,000 people died in Mariupol due to bombings or the lack of water, food and electricity in the middle of winter.
Putin said he would “guarantee the lives of Ukrainian soldiers, nationalist fighters and foreign mercenaries if they lay down their weapons”, but that the Ukrainian government “does not allow this possibility”.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense, meanwhile, said it was willing to accept a humanitarian ceasefire in this region and offer civilians the option to travel to Russian or Ukrainian-controlled areas.
However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia rejected the ceasefire offer during the Orthodox Easter holiday.
European Council President Charles Michel urged Putin to implement humanitarian corridors in Mariupol and other Ukrainian cities.
Three civilian buses managed to get from Mariupol to the safer parts of Ukraine, but this Friday the humanitarian corridor could not be guaranteed for security reasons.
EU diplomacy chief Josep Borrell complained that Russia was not responding to Ukraine’s efforts to seek a diplomatic solution to the evacuation of civilians.
But Putin assured that European leaders were betting on a military solution to the conflict.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov assured that negotiations are at a standstill and that Russia is waiting for a response from Ukraine to a proposal made five days ago.
“War Crimes”
The UN on Friday accused the Russian military of actions that “could constitute a war crime”.
“The Russian Armed Forces indiscriminately bombarded residential areas, killed civilians and destroyed hospitals, schools and other civilian infrastructure in acts that could constitute war crimes,” said Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. in Geneva.
Shamdasani did not rule out that the Ukrainian side also violated humanitarian law, but “most violations are attributed to Russian forces”.
He announced in early April that UN investigators, who were part of a mission in Ukraine, had concretely documented “the killing of 50 civilians, some of them extrajudicial executions”, in the city of Bucha, near Kyiv. .
The Kremlin has announced that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will travel to Russia next week, where he will be received by Putin. It will be the first meeting between the two since the attack began.
“The alleged referendum”
With the fighting intensified in the east and south, around Kyiv, authorities continue to exhumation and forensic examinations of bodies found in several cities following the withdrawal of Russian troops.
A government source reported that 1,020 civilian bodies were delivered to morgues in the Kyiv region. “Everything is being investigated,” said Oleksandr Pavliuk, the region’s military commander.
In a video released Thursday night, Zelensky also accused Russia of preparing a referendum in areas under its control in southern Kherson and Zaporizhzhia to pressure its residents to provide personal information to the occupying forces.
“If the order to stage this parody comes from Moscow, it is to falsify a so-called referendum on its territory,” he warned.
In 2014, such a referendum, which was declared invalid by Kyiv and Western powers, justified Russia’s annexation of Crimea. Later, pro-Moscow rebels in Donetsk and Lugansk cast similar votes to declare their independence.
In finance, the International Monetary Fund warned on Friday that Russia will experience 20% inflation and energy exports will fall due to the sanctions imposed by Western powers over its invasion of Ukraine.
And in the afternoon, the Russian Ministry of Defense acknowledged for the first time the loss of life in the sinking of the main Russian warship “Moskva” on April 14.
The ministry said that “one soldier was killed and 27 crew members were declared missing”, and 396 more were evacuated, according to Russian news agencies.
Russia claims that the explosion of ammunition on the ship caused it to sink, while Ukrainian forces claim that the ship was sunk by a missile attack.
source: Noticias
