The war in Ukraine is entering its third month on Sunday, April 24, and the prospects for a truce seem very slim in a context that is still tense and deadly. At least eight people were killed and at least 18 others were injured in Russian strikes on Saturday on the southern port city of Odessa, according to a report provided by President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“Seven missiles targeted Odessa”said the Ukrainian leader, including one who “hit an apartment building” and “two who were shot” by the air defense system. A previous report reported six dead, including a 3-month-old baby.
“The war started when this baby was 1 month old. Can you imagine what is happening? » Mr. Zelensky said. “They’re just bastards. …I have no other words for it, just bastards,” he added to the place of the Russians, during a press conference organized in a metro station in the heart of the Ukrainian capital.
The Russian army, for its part, claimed to have aimed with “high precision missiles” a logistics terminal at the military airfield near Odessa housing weapons delivered to Ukrainian forces by the United States and European countries.
In addition, in the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine, six civilians were killed, victims of Russian strikes near the village of Girské, the regional governor announced in the evening. “Throughout the day, the municipality of Girské suffered heavy Russian strikes”explained Sergeï Gaïdaï.
First American diplomatic visit to Kyiv
On the diplomatic front, Mr. Zelensky announced that he will meet, on Sunday in kyiv, the American Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, as well as the American Defense Minister, Lloyd Austin. This will be the first official visit by US government officials to Ukraine since the war began. Volodymyr Zelensky clarified that the discussions would focus on US arms deliveries to kyiv.
“Last week, the signals, the messages, the steps, the deadlines, the numbers – I’m talking about the weapons of the United States – everything improved”he congratulated himself, saying to himself ” grateful “ towards the American administration, even if he would like “even heavier and more powerful weapons” to face the Russian army. Poland has already supplied 1.6 billion dollars (1.5 billion euros) in weapons to Ukraine, said its Prime Minister, Mateusz Morawiecki.
At the same time, Volodymyr Zelensky again called to meet with Vladimir Putin “to end the war”. In this context, the Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, an active supporter of the Russian President, asked to pray for a “lasting peace” but without mentioning a truce, while calls for a ceasefire for the Easter weekend of Orthodox Christians had multiplied.
Dreading ” Provocation “ During ceremonies that usually attract crowds, the Ukrainian authorities on Saturday called on the faithful to follow religious services online.
Mariupol’s despair
Heavy fighting continues in the east of the country and dozens, if not hundreds, of Ukrainian civilians and soldiers remain trapped in Mariupol, a city devastated by weeks of bombardment.
A new attempt to evacuate civilians to the city of Zaporizhia has failed, said a deputy mayor of this strategic port city in southeastern Ukraine. According to Petro Andryushchenko, some 200 residents had started to gather to be evacuated when they were ” scattered “ by the Russian army. Some were then reportedly forced to board buses bound for a locality occupied by the Russians, 80 km to the north. Several humanitarian corridors have already had to be canceled in Mariupol, which Russia claims to have “liberated”. Moscow and kyiv blamed each other for these failures.
Regarding the fate of Ukrainian fighters entrenched for several weeks in the Azovstal metallurgical complex in Mariupol, Mr. Zelensky warned on Saturday that kyiv would abandon negotiations with Moscow if they were killed. He also said ” ready “ to “an exchange of our soldiers who defend Mariupol”under “any size”to go out “those people who find themselves in a horrible situation, surrounded”.
Women and children also sheltering inside the steel plant described their desperation, in a video posted on Saturday. “We want to see peaceful skies, we want to breathe fresh airsaid a woman. You just have no idea what it means to us to just eat, drink sweet tea. For us, it is already happiness. »
Forces from Moscow already occupy much of the east and south of the country. It is now about“ensure a land corridor” to Crimea and access to Transnistria, a pro-Russian Moldavian region where there is a Russian garrison, detailed General Rustam Minnekayev.
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