- The EU presented the sixth package of sanctions against Russia, which provides for a total embargo on Russian oil, which will be implemented gradually over the next six months; the exclusion of other Russian banks from the Swift network, including Sberbank; the inclusion on the list of sanctioned Russian personalities of the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, many Russian soldiers, but also the wife, daughter and son of Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. These proposals will have to be approved by the Twenty-Seven to be applied.
- In Mariupol, the situation is still critical. Russia launched an assault with tanks and infantry on the Azovstal steelworks for the first time on Tuesday, according to one of the soldiers present in the last pocket of Ukrainian resistance in the city. The Kremlin on Wednesday denied launching the attack.
- In the Donetsk regionthe governor of the oblast, Pavlo Kyrylenko, reported twenty-one civilian deaths and twenty-seven injured. This is the heaviest toll in this area since April 8 and the attack on Kramatorsk station, which caused the death of fifty-seven people and injured one hundred and nine others.
- Explosions took place at Lvivin western Ukraine, according to several sources. Russian missiles hit the city in multiple places shortly before 7:30 p.m. (Paris time). A power plant was hit, the power supply was partially cut off in the country’s seventh city.
- The European Union struggles to toughen its economic sanctions against Moscow. The European Commission on Tuesday completed its proposal for a sixth package of sanctions against Moscow to cut off funding for its war effort against Ukraine. It provides for a gradual cessation of European purchases over a period of six to eight months, until the end of 2022, with an exemption for Hungary and Slovakia. The project has been sent to the ambassadors of the Member States who will begin to study it during a first meeting in Brussels on Wednesday.
- During a new telephone conversation between Emmanuel Macron and Vladimir Poutineon Tuesday, the Russian president estimated that “The West could stop these atrocities by (…) stopping the supply of arms to Ukraine”. Mr. Putin also claimed that kyiv “missed[ait] preparation for serious work” in the peace talks. For his part, Mr. Macron called on Russia to “to live up to its responsibilities as a permanent member of the Security Council” of the UN, according to a press release from the Elysée.
Read all our articles, analyzes and reports on the war in Ukraine
Decryption. Between Emmanuel Macron and Vladimir Poutine, an icy resumption of contact
Chronic. “After extremely cautious first weeks by Joe Biden’s administration, the turnaround is complete”
Report. In northern Japan, the port of Nemuro in the front line facing Moscow
Podcast. War crimes: how international criminal justice was born
Watch our live from yesterday on this link.
