L’Russian army continues to advance towards Sievierodonetsk, in the east of Ukraine and kyiv, worried about a risk of overflow, calls for more heavy weapons to match the Russian firepower. In certain regions of eastern Ukraine where the Russian offensive has been concentrated for weeks, “the enemy is clearly superior, in equipment, in number of soldiers”, admitted Wednesday May 25 the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky . But Ukrainian forces “are resisting (this) extremely violent offensive”, he added in his daily video message.
“We need the help of our partners, and particularly weapons”, he pleaded, a few hours after his Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dmytro Kouleba, had called for more heavy weapons. In detail, Ukraine would like to receive mobile units capable of sending several rockets simultaneously. “It is really the weapon that we badly need,” said the head of Ukrainian diplomacy after discussions with government officials and business leaders, within the framework of the Economic Forum in Davos (Switzerland).
“The battle for Donbass is very similar to the battles of the Second World War,” he explained to the press. Some villages and towns there “were reduced to rubble by Russian artillery fire, by Russian multiple rocket launchers”. A type of weapon of which Ukraine is completely devoid, indicated the minister.
The fighting against Russian troops in eastern Ukraine has reached “maximum intensity”, Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Ganna Malyar said Thursday (May 26th). “The fighting has reached its maximum intensity and a long and extremely difficult stage awaits us,” said the deputy minister during a press briefing.
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Sievierodonetsk not yet surrounded
On the ground, the Russian forces are getting closer every day a little closer to Sievierodonetsk, the capture of which is essential for them to fully control the Donbass, a mining basin already partly occupied by pro-Russian separatists. They are close enough to be able to fire mortars on the city, populated by around 100,000 inhabitants before the war, which “is simply being destroyed”, with, already, fighting on the outskirts, Serguiï assured Wednesday Gaïdaï, the governor of the region. However, according to him, the city “is not surrounded”, contrary to what an official of the pro-Russian separatists said.
About 15,000 people are still there and in nearby villages, despite the incessant shelling, he said. In this region, the towns on the front line have been emptied of their inhabitants, the recalcitrant, often elderly, spending most of their time hiding in cellars.
As in the town of Soledar, a few dozen kilometers from Sievierodonetsk, where Natalia, 47, went up in the open air “just to see people”. “We need to know that we are not alone and that there is always life around here,” she said. In nearby Lysytchansk, police have taken over funeral services to bury the dead, the governor said. At least 150 people must have been buried there in a mass grave, he added.
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Seven dead in Kharkiv
According to the Ukrainian presidency, in the past 24 hours at least three people have been killed in this town in the Luhansk region, and four civilians have died in the Donetsk region. Two people died in the bombing of Balakliya while two deaths were also recorded in the south of the country, in the Mykolaiv region.
In addition, in the Kharkiv area (north-east), seven people died in the second city of the country. The city had begun a return to normal life in mid-May. “Occupiers are again bombing the regional center,” said regional governor Oleg Sinegoubov. “Seven civilians were killed and 17 injured, including a nine-year-old child,” he said. The previous toll reported four dead and seven wounded. Missiles hit the residential area of the Pavlové Polé district – in the center-north of the city – near a shopping center closed at the time of the strike, according to an Agence France-Presse journalist on the spot.
This saw a young man killed and four wounded, all taken to hospital, including an older man with a torn leg and arm. Other residential areas were also bombed, with extensive destruction of buildings.
240 children dead since February 24
“Countries that are dragging their feet on the supply of heavy weapons to Ukraine must understand that every day they spend deciding, weighing different arguments, people are killed”, hammered forcefully in Davos the Ukrainian minister Foreign Affairs. 240 children in particular have died since the launch of the Russian offensive, according to the services of the general prosecutor
Amid concerns over Ukraine’s current inability to export its grain due to Russian blockades of its ports, he reported kyiv’s discussions with the United Nations on the possibility of safe passage from from the port of Odessa.
Speaking by videoconference to Davos, President Zelensky for his part called on his Western allies on Wednesday to stop sparing Russia or its interests. “Whatever the Russian state does, there is always someone to say: let’s take its interests into account. This year in Davos, we heard it again, ”he lamented. “We must do everything possible so that (…) the interests of Ukrainians are not supplanted by the interests of those who are always in a hurry to rush to another meeting with the dictator,” he said. said, without naming Vladimir Putin. Earlier Wednesday, the Ukrainian head of state had called for the “support of a united Europe”, deploring the lack of cohesion of Westerners in the face of this war which has just entered its fourth month.
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Russian oil embargo on track?
On the southern front, Moscow is busy consolidating its hold on the territories conquered for three months. In this sense, Russia has announced that it will allow residents of the Zaporizhia and Kherson regions to apply for a Russian passport via “a simplified procedure”. Ukraine immediately denounced a measure demonstrating Moscow’s desire to carry out a pure and simple annexation of these territories. “The forced granting of passports to Ukrainians in Kherson and Zaporizhia is further proof of the criminal aim of Russia’s war against Ukraine,” the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
On the diplomatic front, European Council President Charles Michel said he remained “confident” of an agreement on an EU embargo on Russian oil by the start of the European Council on Monday, despite the deadlock Hungarian.
For his part, Dmytro Kouleba indicated on Twitter on Thursday that he had had his first telephone conversation with his new French counterpart, Catherine Colonna, and “to have agreed with her on the need to intensify the pressure of sanctions on Russia, including an embargo tanker”. The measure is considered essential by kyiv, which on Wednesday in Davos called on the international community to “kill Russian exports”. Also in Davos, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he was “convinced” on Thursday that Russia would not win the war and that President Vladimir Putin would not be allowed to “dictate” peace.
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