U.S. foreign and defense chiefs met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on Sunday, exactly two months after the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which sadly celebrated Orthodox Easter.
• Read also: [EN DIRECT] Two months of war in Ukraine: here are all the latest developments
• Read also: Ukraine offers Russia talks next to Azovstal site in Mariupol
• Read also: In Lviv, a flowered wall in tribute to the Ukrainians killed
“The Americans are in Kyiv today. They are discussing at this very moment with the president”, declared in the evening on YouTube an adviser to the Ukrainian president, Oleksiï Arestovitch.
–
–
The visit to Kyiv by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Minister of Defense Lloyd Austin is the first for American leaders since the start of the conflict on 24 February. It comes after those of several European leaders in recent weeks.
President Zelensky had announced on Saturday that they were coming to discuss US arms deliveries to Ukraine.
“The friendship and collaboration between Ukraine and the United States are stronger than ever,” he said late Sunday evening on Twitter.
Two months of heroic nationwide resistance of 🇺🇦 to the Russian aggression have passed. I’m grateful to @POTUS and the people of 🇺🇸 for leadership in supporting 🇺🇦. Today the Ukrainian people are united and strong, and 🇺🇦-🇺🇸 friendship and partnership are stronger than ever! https://t.co/5KzjLDJLVO
– Volodymyr Zelenskyy (@ZelenskyyUa) April 24, 2022
–
–
–
–
Mr. Arestovitch repeated on YouTube Kyiv’s desire to be delivered “offensive weapons”: “As long as we cannot counter-attack, there will be a ‘new Boucha’ every day”, he said. he launched, alluding to this city in the northwestern suburbs of Kyiv that became a symbol of the atrocities committed during the Russian occupation of the region in March.
“Save all Ukrainians!” launched Mr. Zelensky in a message for the Easter holiday on Sunday. He appealed to God’s judgment, listing a long list of locations, including Butcha, Irpin and Borodianka, where Kyiv accuses the Russians of committing atrocities against civilians.
“Our souls are filled with burning hatred for the invaders and all they have done,” he continued. “Transform it into a beneficial force to defeat the forces of evil”.
The visit of Messrs. Blinken and Austin come as continued fighting has clouded Easter ceremonies, despite multiple calls for a truce. Pope Francis on Sunday renewed his call for a truce and an end to attacks against “exhausted populations”.
In the small church of Lyman (east), under the regular fire of Russian shells, about fifty civilians had gathered at dawn, while the roar of artillery was heard.
“If we make the wrong choices, darkness will ruin us, as darkness destroys us in this war,” the priest declaimed in his sermon.
“Immediate” truce in Mariupol
The day after the failure in Mariupol (south-east) of a new attempt to evacuate civilians by the Ukrainian authorities, who incriminated the Russians, the UN called for an “immediate” truce in this strategic port of the Sea of Azov almost entirely controlled by the Russian army, in order to allow the evacuation of some 100,000 civilians still stuck in the city in ruins, besieged since the beginning of March.
–
–
The bombardments and fighting have claimed the lives of more than 20,000 civilians in Mariupol, according to Mayor Vadym Boychenko, who denounced on the Ukraine 24 channel that “the Russian occupation forces are preventing evacuations”.
“They must be allowed to evacuate now, today. Tomorrow it will be too late”, according to the UN coordinator in Ukraine, Amin Awad.
“Each day, each hour that passes has a terrible human cost,” lamented the International Committee of the Red Cross, calling urgently for “the voluntary and safe passage of thousands of civilians and hundreds of wounded out of the city, including including in the zone of the Azovstal factory”, the last pocket of resistance of the Ukrainian fighters.
–
–
Russian forces are still besieging and shelling entrenched units in the factory, according to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry on Telegram on Sunday. But “the (Ukrainian) defense lines are on the verge of collapsing” in Mariupol, specified Oleksiï Arestovitch.
He said Ukraine had offered Russia to hold “a special session of talks right next to the Azovstal site”, indicating that it was “waiting for the Russian response”.
The Ukrainian presidency has also again proposed negotiations “to take or exchange” soldiers, a proposal ignored by Moscow so far.
The OSCE “extremely worried”
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said on Sunday it was “extremely concerned” following the arrest, in the pro-Russian separatist Ukrainian territories of the East, of four members of its observation mission. of the 2014 ceasefire, set up after the conflict that broke out between these regions and Kyiv after the Russian annexation of Crimea (south).
The OSCE had evacuated several hundred observers from dozens of countries at the start of the Russian invasion. But there remained Ukrainian employees “carrying out administrative tasks”, four of whom are detained in Donetsk and Lugansk (east), lamented the OSCE in a press release, saying “to use all available channels to facilitate their release”.
This situation, which has lasted “for some time now”, is “unacceptable”, commented Zbigniew Rau, head of Polish diplomacy and chairman-in-office of the OSCE.
–
–
Separatist security forces accuse arrested OSCE employees of “high treason”. They said on Friday that one of them had “confessed” to having transmitted “confidential military information to representatives of foreign special services”.
The US Ambassador to the OSCE, Michael Carpenter, denounced “reprehensible lies on the part of Russia”.
Peace negotiations remain stalled as fighting continues to rage in eastern and southern Ukraine.
According to the Ukrainian general staff, the city of Kharkiv, the second largest city in the country, remains “partially blocked” by the Russian forces which continue to bombard. A woman was killed there and a man injured on Sunday, according to Ukrainian authorities.
–
–
In the Donbass basin (east), formed by the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk, Russian troops have “intensified their offensives” in three directions, according to the Ukrainian general staff: Severodonetsk, de facto capital of the Lugansk region under Ukrainian control, Popasna, about fifty kilometers further south, and Kurakhikva, near Donetsk.
Lugansk Governor Sergiy Gaiday told Ukraine 24 that tens of thousands of civilians remained in the area despite constant shelling. “Unfortunately, there are mostly old people who feel that since they were born here, they should die here,” he said.
And in the Donetsk region, five civilians were killed and five injured on Sunday, Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko wrote on Telegram.
–
–
In Koroviy Iar, a locality in the north of Donbass where the Russians have taken up position since Saturday, fighting was taking place at the entrance to the village, AFP noted. Ukrainian tanks and armor reinforced the counter-offensive and covered an attempt to evacuate 30 civilians.
Guterres in Moscow then Kyiv
The Russian army, for its part, said on Sunday that it had carried out missile strikes against nine Ukrainian military targets, including four ammunition depots south of the Kharkiv region.
Moscow also said it carried out airstrikes against 26 targets, and 423 artillery strikes, without specifying locations.
In Russia, any voice challenging the war continues to be silenced. The popular chess site Chess.com was blocked there, at the request of the Russian General Prosecutor’s Office, after the publication of two articles on Ukraine described as “false information”, according to the Russian telecoms policeman Roskomnadzor.
–
–
On the diplomatic front, the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen is due to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi in India on Monday, with whom she should discuss the neutrality displayed by New Delhi on the war in Ukraine.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres is expected in Turkey on Monday, a country that is trying to mediate in the conflict, before going to Moscow and then Kyiv.
The number of refugees who have fled Ukraine since the Russian invasion is approaching 5.2 million, according to the UN. More than 7.7 million people have also left their homes but are still in Ukraine.
–
