The day of the war at a glance
Setbacks for Kremlin troops in Donbass – More torture victims discovered near Kyiv
4/30/2022, 9:22 p.m
For the Russian military, the eastern offensive is not going smoothly. Despite fierce fighting, the Kremlin troops barely gain ground. According to the Ukrainian general staff, they are even losing strategically important locations. In Butscha, local residents discover more victims of torture, while the German government is hesitant about exchanging tank rings with Poland. The 66th day of the war at a glance.
Bodies found with signs of torture
A month after the withdrawal of Russian soldiers from the Kyiv area, Ukraine has reported the discovery of three more bodies with their hands tied and signs of torture near Bucha. The men found in a pit in the village of Myrozke were shot in the head, said the police chief of the Ukrainian capital, Andriy Nebytov.
According to Nebytow, the three men were blindfolded and some of them were gagged. According to the police chief, the corpses bore the marks of long torture and gunshot wounds on several parts of the body. The bodies found are the subject of international war crimes investigations. Moscow denies any responsibility for the killings.
20 civilians leave the steelworks in Mariupol
According to Ukrainian sources, 20 civilians left the fiercely contested Azov steelworks in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol to be taken to safety. The civilians, including women and children, were taken to an agreed location, “and we hope that they will be taken to Zaporizhia in Ukraine-controlled territory,” Azov regiment deputy commander Svyatoslav Palamar said in a statement Telegram published video. Russian agencies wrote of 25 evacuated civilians without giving further details.
Russian missile hits Odessa airport
Fierce fighting continued in eastern and southern Ukraine. A Russian missile hit Odessa airport. The runway was destroyed in the process, and there were no casualties, said Governor Maxym Marchenko.
According to Ukrainian sources, at least one person was killed and twelve others injured in heavy bombardments in Kharkiv on Saturday night. “The situation in Kharkiv is difficult,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. “But our military and intelligence have made important tactical gains.” According to the Ukrainian armed forces, they recaptured the “strategically important” village of Ruska Losowa north of Kharkiv. According to the Ministry of Defense in Kyiv, the soldiers brought more than 600 residents to safety.
US military sees Russia behind schedule
Despite gaining some ground in the Donbass, the US Department of Defense has said that the Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine is “behind schedule”. A high-ranking NATO representative also spoke of only “small” advances by the Russians in the region.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov blamed the West for the ongoing fighting. “If the US and NATO are really interested in a solution to the Ukraine crisis, then first of all they should wake up and stop supplying the Kiev regime with arms and ammunition,” he told the Chinese news agency Xinhua.
Washington and Paris deliver more heavy weapons
Washington is the main supporter of the Ukrainian military. The US has supplied heavy weapons to Ukraine on a large scale. French President Emmanuel Macron also promised Ukraine additional military and humanitarian aid. Paris supplies Kyiv with Caesar howitzers, among other things.
As the US government announced, the training of Ukrainian soldiers by the US military in Germany has now started. The training involves, among other things, operating howitzers and radar systems, said Pentagon spokesman John Kirby on Friday in Washington. The training takes place in coordination with Germany.
Panzer ring exchange with Poland: Scholz hesitates
According to information from the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung”, Poland offered Germany a ring exchange weeks ago: Poland is supplying Soviet main battle tanks to Ukraine and wants the Leopard 2 tank in return. But the federal government has still not decided on this, the newspaper wrote. The CDU member of the Bundestag Roderich Kiesewetter from the CDU sharply criticized this. “Every day counts,” he told the newspaper. “The unmistakable political will to supply Ukraine with heavy weapons has now been expressed with a clear majority in the Bundestag.”
Green vote for traffic light course
Anton Hofreiter from the Greens also criticizes the hesitant attitude of the federal government. It shouldn’t be repeated that “questions like this go unanswered for weeks like the ones in Poland now,” he said.
The Greens support the federal government’s line of support for Ukraine and the equipment of the Bundeswehr. The delegates of the state council in Düsseldorf passed a resolution in which the party committed itself to the delivery of heavy weapons and the planned special fund of the Bundeswehr. Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said that in view of the war “we bear responsibility and have to make decisions that we could not have imagined before”.
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