Situation on the ground, international reactions, sanctions: the point on the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.
Kramatorsk station: heavy toll
At least 50 people, including five children, were killed and around 100 injured on Friday when missiles were fired at Kramatorsk station (east), from where thousands of evacuees had been leaving for the rest of the country for several days.
Moscow immediately denied responsibility, saying it did not have the type of missile used, and accused kyiv of having “orchestrated” the strike to prevent civilians from fleeing. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced “unlimited evil” unleashed by Russia and “inhuman” methods. The head of diplomacy of the European Union Josep Borrell, “strongly condemned” a “blind attack”.
For French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, the facts constitute a “crime against humanity”
War in Ukraine: attack on Kramatorsk station kills at least 50
Biden accuses Russia of committing ‘horrific atrocity’ in Kramatorsk
US President Joe Biden on Friday accused Russia of committing a ‘horrific atrocity’ after at least 50 people, including five children, were killed in a bombing on Friday on Kramatorsk train station in eastern Russia. Ukraine.
“The attack on a Ukrainian train station is yet another horrific atrocity by Russia, beating civilians trying to evacuate and get to safety,” Joe Biden tweeted.
Curfew in Odessa
A curfew will be in effect from Saturday evening to Monday morning in Odessa, the major Ukrainian port on the Black Sea, in the face of the “threat” of missile strikes, local authorities announced.
After the bombing of the Kramatorsk railway station, “a threat of a missile attack looms in Odessa, April 10, 2022. That is why a curfew is imposed in the city and its region from 9 p.m. on April 9 until 6 a.m. on April 11, 2022,” the regional military administration said.
Ursula von der Leyen in Boutcha
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen arrived late Friday afternoon in Boutcha, a small town northwest of kyiv that has become a symbol of the atrocities of the war in Ukraine.
Ms. von der Leyen, who is accompanied by the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, went to see the mass graves dug in Boutcha to bury the dozens of civilians killed in the fighting. “Russia will sink into economic, financial and technological decay, while Ukraine is marching towards a European future,” she said during a joint press conference with Ukrainian head of state Volodymyr. Zelensky.
Sumy region “liberated”
The region of Sumy, bordering Russia in northeastern Ukraine, has been completely “liberated” from Russian forces, the head of the regional administration announced on Friday, adding, however, that the area was “not safe” and that demining operations were in progress.
With this departure of Russian troops from the Sumy region, Moscow has now completely evacuated northern Ukraine.
In Cherniguiv, a regional center near the Belarusian border which has been shelled for weeks by Russian troops, nearly 700 people have been killed in the bombardments, its mayor said on Friday.
London sanctions Putin’s daughters
After Washington and Brussels, the United Kingdom on Friday sanctioned the two daughters of Russian President Vladimir Putin and that of the head of diplomacy Sergei Lavrov, saying that he wanted to attack the “splendid lifestyle of the inner circle of the Kremlin”.
They are now prohibited from entering British territory, where any possible assets will be frozen.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has also announced that British military aid will be stepped up for Ukraine, with the dispatch of anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles.
Talks in Turkey
Russia and Ukraine are still “agreeing” to meet for negotiations in Turkey despite recent abuses on the ground, a senior Turkish official said on Friday.
The diplomatic aspect of the crisis shows no sign of progress since the last session of live talks between the two countries which took place on March 29 in Istanbul and allowed them “to discuss the most sensitive issues”, said he stressed, including the “neutrality” of Ukraine.
Putin aims for victory on May 9 (Macron)
Vladimir Putin will focus his attacks in Ukraine on the separatist areas of Donbass to seek a “victory” for May 9, the anniversary of the capitulation of Nazi Germany in 1945, estimated Friday his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron.
The worst in Borodyanka
Ukrainian authorities are struggling to evacuate civilians from eastern regions threatened by a Russian offensive, with President Volodymyr Zelensky saying the destruction in Borodyanka is even worse than that seen recently near the capital after forces left Russians. As Russia steps up its attacks in the south and east, kyiv — where European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU Foreign Minister Josep Borrell are expected on Friday — is seeing the real extent of damage in areas now abandoned by Moscow forces.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the destruction in Borodianka, near kyiv, was worse than in Boutcha, where images of dead bodies on the streets sparked international outrage. Twenty-six bodies have been extracted by Ukrainian rescue workers from the rubble of two apartment buildings in Borodianka, northwest of kyiv, Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova announced on Facebook on Thursday. In a video message Thursday evening, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky assured that the situation in Borodianka is “much more horrible” than in Boutcha. “There are more victims”.
Russian losses
But it is also to the east of the country, now a priority target for Moscow, that attention is focused. The Kremlin spokesman acknowledged Thursday that Russian forces had already suffered “significant military losses” in this region, citing a “huge tragedy”. Fearing an offensive against these regions, the Ukrainian authorities have again called on the civilian population to leave them. Russian forces have “damaged the railroad in Shastya. From now on, the evacuation will take place only by bus”, indicated the governor of the region of Lugansk, Sergei Gaïdaï.
To read : Maksim Levin, tribute in pictures to the photographer killed in Ukraine
“All the horrors we have known are likely to get worse. Do not sentence yourselves to death! Leave! The next few days will be the last chance” for an evacuation, he launched on Facebook. And in Donestk, the head of the regional military administration Pavel Kirilenko said that three evacuation trains had been temporarily immobilized after a Russian strike against a railway line.
“It’s falling everywhere”
Another new call concerned in particular the city of Severodonetsk, the most easterly held by Ukrainian forces, pounded by Russian troops and where AFP journalists saw civilians evacuated by buses on Thursday, while explosions rang out. regularly around its periphery. “It’s falling everywhere. It’s no longer possible,” says Denis, a forty-year-old as pale as a sheet, his face emaciated, who would be thought to be in his sixties. A “large number” of evacuees have already arrived in Dnipro, announced Thursday the mayor of this industrial city of one million inhabitants on the Dnieper, the river which marks the limit of the eastern regions of the country.
Accused of “war crimes” in Ukraine, Russia was the subject of an EU embargo on its coal on Thursday, the first time that the Europeans have hit the Russian energy sector, on which they are very dependent. The EU imports 45% of its coal from Russia for a value of 4 billion euros per year. This embargo will come into force at the beginning of August.
Brussels plans to ban exports to Russia up to 10 billion euros, new sanctions against Russian banks and the closure of European ports to Russian ships. At the same time, the EU is ready to release an additional €500 million to fund arms for Ukraine. For their part, the G7 countries have announced new sanctions, including a ban on all new investment in key sectors of Russia. Washington paved the way for punitive tariffs against Russia and Belarus, revoking their trade status on Thursday by a vote in Congress.
“Insult to humanity”
In a statement, Joe Biden said that “Russia’s lies do not hold up against the indisputable evidence of what is happening in Ukraine.” The indications of rape, torture, executions are an “insult to humanity”, he added. These initiatives follow the wave of indignation after the discovery of dozens of dead people, wearing civilian clothes and for some with their hands tied behind their backs, in the areas from which the Russian army withdrew and in particular in Boutcha , near Kyiv.
Ukraine and its supporters accuse Russian troops of being responsible for these “war crimes”. Russia denies any abuse, denouncing a Ukrainian “provocation”. Thursday evening, a Russian missile hit infrastructure in the Odessa region, the municipal council of this city in southern Ukraine said on Telegram, without immediately causing any casualties. In Mariupol (south-east), a port city besieged and devastated by the Russian army since the end of February and where some 100,000 inhabitants are still hiding, the “new mayor” proclaimed by the pro-Russian forces announced Thursday that “about 5,000 people” had died among the civilian population. “About 60 to 70% of the housing stock has been destroyed or partially destroyed,” added Konstantin Ivashchenko, appointed head of the city on Wednesday by Denis Pushilin, leader of the Donetsk separatists. The Ukrainian authorities have put forward much heavier tolls.
“Significant support” in NATO weapons
And to prepare to counter the expected offensive in the Donbass, kyiv is asking for help from the West. The Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs went to Brussels to request immediate deliveries of arms to his counterparts in the Atlantic Alliance. The Secretary General of the Alliance, Jens Stoltenberg, spoke of “significant support”, considering “preferable not to be too specific about the armaments that will be provided”. The diplomatic aspect of the crisis shows no sign of progress. Russia said on Thursday that Ukraine had backtracked on some of the proposals it made during talks in late March in Istanbul that Russia said it welcomed.
kyiv immediately responded, calling on Moscow to “reduce its degree of hostility” in the negotiations. And Mr. Kouleba accused his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov of becoming an “accomplice in the crimes” committed by the Russian army by justifying them.