After meeting President Vladimir Putin the previous day in the Russian capital, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres arrived in Ukraine, his first visit to the country since the Russian invasion began on February 24. He will travel Thursday to the Kyiv suburbs of Boutcha, Irpin and Borodianka, scenes of abuses attributed by Ukrainians to the Russian army.
At a time when the West is stepping up efforts to arm Ukrainians against Russia, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed that “sheds with a large quantity of foreign weapons and ammunition supplied to the Ukrainian armed forces by the United States and European countries , had been destroyed by Kalibr missiles fired from the sea at the Zaporozhye aluminum plant in southern Ukraine.
However, the governor of this region firmly denied: “In Zaporozhye no ammunition and weapons depot is affected,” he replied, and pounded that the affected factory “has not been in operation for six years”.
Russian troops are bombing bridges and railroads to slow Western arms shipments to Ukraine, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister said Tuesday after destroying a strategic bridge linking that country with Romania.
About forty countries met Tuesday in Germany, around the United States, to coordinate an expedited delivery of military equipment that Kyiv is demanding.
– “Extremely difficult weeks” –
In a speech in London on Wednesday evening, the head of British diplomacy, Liz Truss, called for an increase in arms supplies to Ukraine and stressed that the time was for “courage” towards Russia.
“Heavy weapons, tanks, planes – dig into our stocks, ramp up production, we have to do all of that,” she insisted, calling Vladimir Putin “a desperate rogue operator who has no interest in international mores” – in a speech in the official Residence of the Lord Mayor of the City of London.
Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin again warned against outside intervention in the conflict in Ukraine and promised a “quick and lightning-fast” response.
Russian forces, which have been stepping up their offensive in Donbass for the past two weeks, announced on Wednesday that they have launched airstrikes on 59 Ukrainian targets.
Kyiv admitted that the Russians had taken territories from north to south, suggesting that Moscow wants to take a truck in a big bag that is still in the hands of the Ukrainians.
“We have extremely difficult weeks ahead of us,” Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov warned in a statement on Wednesday.
According to him, the Russian army “already aware of its strategic defeat will try to inflict as much suffering as possible on the Ukrainian soldiers whom he told to “hold out”.
– “The enemy is bombing massively” –
Despite the bombs, three young volunteers, Nazar, Alexiï and Oleg, suitcases full of food, techno music on full blast, provide humanitarian aid every day in areas of this city regularly attacked by Russian missiles.
“Our main goal is to feed children and the elderly, they need it the most,” Nazar Tishchenko, 34, told AFP.
At the southern tip of the Donbass, in the strategic port city of Mariupol, besieged and devastated, “the enemy is massively shelling and blockading our units near the Azovstal factory,” Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said in its daily report.
The commander of the 36th Mariupol Marine Brigade, Sergey Volyna, again asked for help, saying he had with him 600 wounded soldiers and hundreds of civilians.
– The Gas Gun –
Outside Ukraine, Russia’s Gazprom group announced on Wednesday that it had suspended all gas supplies to Bulgaria and Poland to ensure those two countries didn’t pay in rubles, as Vladimir Putin has been demanding since March.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen denounced a new “gas blackmail” campaign and reiterated that these two EU and NATO member countries, which are heavily dependent on Russia’s “blue gold”, are now “relying on their neighbors in the European Union Union” would be supplied “.
“This is not blackmail,” but a response to “unfriendly acts,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov replied, alluding to the freezing of Russian foreign exchange reserves abroad.
European ministers responsible for energy will meet for an “extraordinary meeting” on Monday 2 May, French minister responsible for the ecological transition, Barbara Pompili, announced on Wednesday evening, stressing that “Europeans remain united and united”. .
These events come at a time when many chancellery offices are concerned about the risk of escalating the conflict following a series of blasts that Kyiv is blaming Moscow on in Moldova’s pro-Russian separatist region of Transnistria.
“We condemn such actions in the strongest possible terms. The Moldovan authorities will ensure that the republic is not drawn into a conflict,” Moldovan President Maïa Sandu urged the population to calm down on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, the authorities of the separatist area said that a border village, where a large Russian army ammunition depot is located, had been shelled by Ukraine.
President Volodymir Zelenskyi welcomed the proposal, adding that Russia is “trying to create a global crisis” and “chaos” in the global food market.
The United Kingdom announced on Monday that it had taken such a measure.
The Ukrainian President said on Twitter on Wednesday that he had spoken to his Indonesian counterpart, who invited him to the G20 summit due to take place in Bali in November.
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