Ukraine urges citizens to avoid fears of Russian aggression in eastern regions

“You need to evacuate now, while that possibility still exists,” Irina Vereshchuk, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister and minister for the occupied territories, said in a Ukrainian TV appearance on Wednesday. “Later, people will be in fire and in danger of death. We won’t be able to help because it would be practically impossible to stop the fire.”

After heavy losses, Russia last week pulled its troops around Kyiv and from the northern Chernihiv and Sumy regions, in a strategy shift that the Kremlin says will focus on seizing parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. will allow, known collectively. As in Donbass, which remains under Ukrainian control.

In Mariupol, the second largest city in the Donbass, Mayor Vadim Boychenko said on Telegram that Russian soldiers engaged in fierce urban fighting with Ukrainian troops have begun using mobile crematoriums to dispose of bodies of Ukrainian civilians. Mr Boychenko, who killed 5,000 civilians last week, said he now believed thousands of Mariupol residents could have been killed. There was no independent confirmation of their assessment.

As heavy fighting continued in and near the Donbass, Russia targeted fuel depots across Ukraine and an industrial facility in the eastern city of Novomoskovsk with its campaign of long-range missile strikes, local officials said.

The conflict in the east and south was in contrast to the north, where a Russian withdrawal has marked a return to relative normalcy. Turkey, which has supplied weapons such as the Bayraktar TB2 armed drones to Ukraine while maintaining close ties with Russia, has become the first major nation to send diplomats back to Kyiv now that it is no longer at risk of shelling or overruns . Turkey has served as the site for the latest round of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, and is involved in efforts to transport civilians and wounded soldiers by sea from Mariupol.

The Turkish embassy, ​​which was relocated to the western Ukrainian city of Chernivtsi, has reopened in Kyiv and will resume consular services, it said on social media. In contrast, the US currently has no diplomatic presence on Ukrainian soil, with embassy staff operating from Poland. Several Western leaders have visited Kyiv in recent weeks to show solidarity, including the president of the European Parliament, Roberta Mtsola, and the prime ministers of Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovenia. According to Lithuanian officials, Lithuania is planning to send its ambassador back to Kyiv as soon as possible on Thursday.

While Russia’s withdrawal from northern Ukraine eased pressure on Kyiv and lifted the siege of the cities of Sumy and Chernihiv, it allowed Moscow to focus on trying to capture the entirety of the Donbass and encircle the large Ukrainian garrison there. is allowed. Heavy fighting continued on Wednesday south of the eastern Ukrainian city of Izium in the Kharkiv region, as Russian forces attempted to break through and link up with Russian troops trying to push north from Mariupol.

Russia in February recognized the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, the proxy statelets established in 2014, as independent. Their claimed borders, recognized by Russia, are two-thirds of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions controlled by Kyiv at the time.

“The main effort of the enemy is to prepare an offensive to establish complete control over the Donetsk and Luhansk regions,” Ukraine’s General Staff said at Wednesday’s briefing. Ukrainian forces have seized three villages in the southern Kherson region, driving the Russian army away from the chief. The city of Krivi Rih, the hometown of President Volodymyr Zelensky, said the military.

The regional government said the mayor of the city of Rubizan in the Luhansk region, where some areas have been seized by Russian forces, had switched sides and was now working with the occupying forces. The mayor, Serhi Khortiev, released a video reiterating Russian propaganda points about the war. In another area under Russian control, the town of Vovchansk in Kharkiv region, the mayor was filmed under Russian detention, calling “Glory of Russia” according to videos released by pro-Kremlin social-media channels.

Overnight, Russia carried out a series of missile strikes, once again targeting fuel depots as it sought to deprive Ukrainian forces of fuel. Meanwhile, Ukrainian demining teams continued to remove unexploded ordnance, land mines and booby traps left by Russian forces in liberated areas, including the city of Bucha, where the discovery of mass graves and bodies on the road following the withdrawal of Russian forces has prompted . charges of war crimes.

Mr Zelensky told Irish lawmakers on Wednesday that as Ukraine’s farmers begin the spring sowing season, attacks on fuel facilities are aimed at destroying the country’s civilian infrastructure and creating widespread hunger.

Addressing members of the Irish Parliament, he said, “For them hunger is also a weapon, a weapon of domination against us commoners.”

In the latest in a series of speeches to international legislatures, Mr. Zelensky said food shortages due to Russian attacks on Ukrainian agriculture and the blockade of the country’s ports would be felt around the world, and especially in North Africa, which traditionally Depends on Ukrainian wheat.

“There will be a shortage of food and prices will go up,” he said. “This is the reality for millions of people who are hungry and it will be more difficult for them to feed their families.”

As Russian forces withdrew from the north to focus on the east, a senior commander described the move as the end of a successful phase in their combat operations. Colonel General Aleksandr Lapin, commander of Russia’s Central Military District, said during a medal-award ceremony that Moscow had successfully completed the first phase of its “special military operation”.

“Soldiers, sergeants and officers demonstrated resilience, courage and valor in carrying out their missions,” said General Lapin, as Russian officials continued to dismiss evidence of the massacre of Ukrainian civilians in cities near Kyiv, Which was occupied by the Russian army till last week.

Pope Francis on Wednesday expressed regret over the killing of civilians in Ukraine, especially in Bucha.

“Even more horrific cruelties against civilians, women and helpless children. They are the victims whose innocent blood cries and pleads in heaven,” the pope said in his weekly public audience at the Vatican.

Pope Francis has repeatedly called for an end to the war and mourned the suffering of Ukraine, although he did not name Russia as the aggressor.

Mr Zelensky said in an address to the UN Security Council on Tuesday that Russia should be removed or disbanded, after warning that the withdrawal of Russian forces near Kyiv following newly uncovered atrocities against those in Buka. could be worse.

“It is difficult to trace a war crime that the occupiers have not committed,” Mr. Zelensky said during a virtual appearance in the council chamber in New York. He has previously said that more than 300 civilians were tortured or killed in Buka.

Mr Zelensky said civilians were “crushed by tanks in civilian cars in the middle of the road – for fun” as well as “raped and murdered in front of their own children.”

Mr. Zelensky’s speech came as the US and EU prepare to impose a sweeping new package of sanctions on Moscow, Washington plans to ban all new investment in Russia and the European Commission to impose sanctions on Russian coal imports and two proposed a ban. Daughters of President Vladimir Putin. US officials said the Biden administration is preparing to impose a second round of sanctions this week, including two of Russia’s biggest banks and Mr Putin’s daughters.

The US is expected to announce sanctions on Wednesday on Russia’s biggest lender Sberbank and Alfa Bank, one of the country’s top private banks, officials said.