To On the occasion of the Easter weekend in Orthodox land, calls for a truce in Ukraine seem to remain a dead letter, especially in Mariupol. At issue: a persistent dialogue of the deaf between kyiv and Moscow. The war will enter its second month on Sunday, but the second phase of the “special operation” launched by Moscow has just begun this week. “One of the objectives of the Russian army is to establish total control over Donbass and southern Ukraine,” asserted a senior Russian military official.
Russian troops withdrew from the Kyiv and northern region and Ukraine at the end of March. They already occupy a large part of the east and south of the country. It is now a question of ensuring a land corridor towards the Crimea and another leading to Transdniestria, a pro-Russian Moldavian region where there is a Russian garrison. The Ukrainian authorities for their part have obtained in recent days a more substantial aid in armaments from the West. They continue to ensure that they can push the Russian army out of their soil, but also demand an Easter truce. This was “rejected” by Moscow, according to Volodymyr Zelensky. A new attempt to evacuate civilians (children, women and the elderly) from the port of Mariupol will take place from 12 noon on Saturday.
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Ukraine at war until 2023?
European Council President Charles Michel has asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to guarantee humanitarian corridors in Mariupol, a strategic port in the south-east largely destroyed by several weeks of bombing, and almost entirely under Russian control. The Kremlin for its part affirmed at the end of this interview that kyiv refused the surrender of the last Ukrainian soldiers present in the industrial zone of Azovstal, while the Russian army said it was ready to observe a truce “at any time”. on this site to allow the evacuation of civilians and the surrender of combatants.
Moscow had assured that it had “liberated” Mariupol. Ukrainian fighters “hold on” in the Azovstal factory where civilians are also entrenched, according to kyiv. President Putin has ordered a siege, without assault, of this immense metallurgical complex. For its part, the UN has listed a series of actions by the Russian military that may fall under “war crimes”. Several humanitarian corridors in Mariupol were canceled at the last minute, with Moscow and Kyiv blaming each other for the failures. But truce or not, the capitals are expecting a conflict that will last. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Friday described as “realistic” the possibility that the war in Ukraine could last until the end of 2023 because of Russia’s determination to continue its “appalling” offensive.
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