Situation on the ground, international reactions, sanctions: the point on the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.
Russian strikes during Guterres visit
kyiv was the target of strikes on Thursday evening, in the middle of a visit by the UN Secretary General. Antonio Guterres “is safe” but “shocked”, said a spokesman, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the bombings were aimed at “humiliating the UN”.
The mayor of the capital, Vitali Klitschko, confirmed “two strikes” on the Chevchenkovsky district and the Ukrainian foreign minister denounced “a heinous act of barbarism”.
A little earlier, Antonio Guterres had gone to Boutcha and Irpin, in the suburbs of the capital, theaters of abuses attributed to the Russian army by the Ukrainians. The UN is doing “everything possible” to evacuate civilians stuck in the “apocalypse” of Mariupol (south), a Ukrainian city destroyed by fighting with Russian forces, he said in particular.
Call for the creation of a TPI
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) called on Thursday for the creation of an “ad hoc international criminal tribunal (ICC)” to try “the perpetrators of the crime of aggression against Ukraine”.
The Prosecutor General of Ukraine announced today that ten Russian soldiers had been indicted for alleged war crimes in the Ukrainian town of Butcha, and that they would be the subject of a search for their arrest and bring to justice.
And in an interview with German media Deutsche Welle, Iryna Venediktova pointed out that Ukrainian investigators had identified “more than 8,000 cases” of alleged war crimes since the start of the Russian invasion.
USA: budget extension for kyiv
Joe Biden stepped up the pressure on Moscow on Thursday by asking Congress for a colossal $33 billion budget extension to deliver ever more military aid to kyiv, and by proposing to liquidate the assets of Russian oligarchs to compensate for the damage suffered by Ukraine.
The United States “does not attack” Russia but “helps Ukraine defend itself against Russian aggression”, having already delivered 10 anti-tank weapons for each Russian tank, said the American president during a speech at the White House.
Washington will not let Moscow “bully” Europe into cutting gas supplies, he added.
A bombed military hospital in Mariupol
In Mariupol, the Azov battalion indicated on Telegram that a military hospital located in the vast Azovstal metallurgical complex – where Ukrainian fighters are entrenched – had been bombed overnight from Wednesday to Thursday. The operating theater collapsed and soldiers being treated there died and others were injured, Azov said.
“I call on international human rights organizations to react to the fact that Russia continues to try to eliminate even the defenders of Mariupol who can no longer hold a weapon”, reacted on Telegram Lioudmyla Denisova, in charge of human rights. humans in the Ukrainian Parliament.
Nearly 5.4 million refugees
Nearly 5.4 million Ukrainian refugees have fled their country since Russia invaded Ukraine, according to the UN on Thursday.
The European Commission has paid a total of 3.5 billion euros to the 27 Member States for the reception of refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine. Thus, Poland received some 560 million euros to help with their care, followed by Italy (452 million euros), Romania (450 million), Spain (434 million). France received 123 million euros.
Intensification of the offensive in the East
“The enemy is intensifying its offensive. The occupiers are carrying out strikes practically in all directions”, with particularly intense activity in the regions of Kharkiv and in the Donbass, underlined the Ukrainian general staff. According to him, the Russian army is trying to prevent the transfer of Ukrainian forces from the north to the east.
According to the governor of Kharkiv, Oleg Synegoubov, five people were killed Thursday in bombardments on the city and its region. Russian troops, who were trying to advance from Izium towards “Brazhkivka, Dovhenky and Velyka Komyshuvakha”, suffered “heavy losses and were forced to retreat”, he assured on Telegram. In the Donbass, in Lyman, “the situation is very difficult, the whole town is surrounded,” Andriï Pankov, head of the administrative region of Kramatorsk, told AFP. According to him, nearly half of the municipal territory is occupied by Russian tanks and columns, coming from the north by Izioum, captured previously.