Meanwhile, Russian forces are trying to advance in the strategic Donbass region in eastern Ukraine, which has been partially controlled by pro-Russian separatists since 2014 and where Moscow has made its main goal since the departure of its troops. around kyiv at the end of march.

However, they are struggling in the face of intense resistance by Ukrainian forces. The latter, which is counter-attack in the Kharkiv region, will soon reach the Russian border, Ukrainian Interior Ministry adviser Vadim Denissenko said on Ukrainian television.

Following the meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Berlin, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said that the individual Alliance countries would not give up their efforts, specifically in terms of military assistance to Ukraine.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kouleba, who met with his American counterpart Antony Blinken on Saturday in Berlin, welcomed the data created Germany’s decision to provide kyiv with its first heavy weapons in a video posted on its Facebook account on Sunday.

” The day I arrived in Berlin, Ukrainian soldiers were trained to use German 155mm self-propelled artillery. Soon these self-propelled howitzers will hit the enemy. A precedent has been set. The psychological obstacle [à la fourniture d’armes lourdes à l’Ukraine] has succeeded. “

After decades outside military alliances, Finland announced a few hours earlier that it would formally apply to join NATO ahead of a landmark meeting in neighboring Sweden for a likely simultaneous application of two countries. direct result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine launched on February 24.

This is a historic day. A new era is dawning, said Finnish President Sauli Niinistö, whose country shares a 1,300 -kilometer border with Russia. On Saturday, he called Vladimir Putin to inform him of this decision, which the Russian president describedmistake.

Moscow has previously threatened retaliation military-technicalwithout specifying which, and, on the night of Friday to Saturday, stopped providing electricity to Finland, or approximately 10% of this Nordic country’s consumption.

In Sweden, the leadership of the ruling Social Democratic Party approved a candidacy for NATO on Sunday night, a historic change for this formation. Then Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said that the joint candidacy in Finland was best for sweden and for his safety.

These applications are proof that aggression doesn’t pay offcriticized Atlantic Alliance Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg for making sure NATO was ready to strengthen security guarantees for these two countries.

Meron din daw good hope that the Alliance countries had found a compromise with Turkey, expressing its hostility to the accession of Sweden and Finland.

Russia’s missiles against military installations

On the ground, four Russian missiles destroyed military installations in western Ukraine, in the Yavoriv district, very close to the Polish border, without causing any casualties, the Lviv region governor announced on Sunday, Maxim Kozytsky, in Telegram.

Ukrainian forces also destroyed two cruise missiles in the Lviv region, which have largely remained untouched since the Russian aggression began, the governor added.

Moscow also announced that Russia’s missiles from high accuracy was targeted at night two Ukrainian command points and four artillery ammunition depots near Zaporijjia, Paraskovievka, Konstantinovka and Novomikhaïlovka, in the Donetsk region.

Russia’s air force destroyed two missile launchers and a radar system in the Sumy region, in the northeast. And Russia’s air defense systems destroyed 15 of Ukraine’s drones, according to Moscow.

Russia’s offensive has lost momentum

However, if Moscow counts its achievements, British military intelligence services estimated on Sunday that there had been a Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine. lost momentum.

According to them, Russia has suffered huge losses and is in serious danger of going bankrupt in its attempt to occupy the east of the country.

Failed the troops of Moscow made great success in the territory, which great delay their battle plan, according to these sources.

So far, Russia is likely to lose a third of the ground combat force it created in February.these resources were added. Under current conditionsthey judge faint and Russia significantly accelerated its rate of development next month.

Situation very difficult in the Donbass

However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stressed that the situation in the Donbass remained very difficultkasi Russian troops are trying to achieve at least one victory there.

Welcoming Ukraine’s victory in the Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday night, he said he expected that in the battle against the enemy is not far awaypromised to organize one day Eurovision in a Mariupol free, peaceful and rebuilt in allusion to the martyr city of south-eastern Ukraine, where the last Ukrainian warriors were buried in Azovstal steelworks.

We are preparing for major offensives in Severodonetsk and around the Lysychansk-Bakhmut axis, says Serguiï Gaïdaï, Ukrainian governor of the Lugansk region, which forms together with the Donetsk mining basin of the Donbass. The governor, however, described an increasingly critical humanitarian situation.

Two civilians were killed at night by drowsiness in Severodonetsk, but their bodies were not discovered until noon due to intense fighting, according to Mr. Gaïdaï.

” The Lugansk region continues to be under raging fire […]. There is absolutely no gas, water or electricity. “

The Russians were particularly trying for three weeks, without success, to cross the Severskyi Donets river at the level of the village of Bilogorivka.

In this almost deserted village, an AFP group saw roads full of abandoned military equipment. Only three charcoal -covered corners remain in a school bombed last week, a strike that kyiv describes as one of the worst crimes committed by Russian forces since their invasion of Ukraine began, with 60 civilians in good condition. ka.

In Vilkhivka, another liberated village near Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city near the Russian border, the scars of fighting violence seen by Ukrainians pushed the Russians towards their border and recaptured the villages occupied since the beginning of the invasion is everywhere.

According to residents, the battle for the recapture of the village took place at the end of March, but the Ukrainian army banned access to the area until a few days ago.

Symbol, the inscription Nandoon si Azovwith the symbol of the Ukrainian regiment resembling the Nazi swastika, is attached to one of the tanks next to Z painted there by Russian troops.

Dozens of houses in this village with approximately 2000 inhabitants were consumed by shells, explosions or fire. The streets were full of debris, bullet casings and other bullet debris.

Kyiv said its troops had killed nearly 20,000 Russian servicemen. On March 25, Moscow said its forces had killed at least 14,000 Ukrainian servicemen. But both figures are widely believed to be inflated and cannot be verified by the AFP or independent observers.