Strikes in Russia?
Moscow on Friday accused Ukraine of carrying out a helicopter strike in the Russian town of Belgorod, about 40 kilometers from the Ukrainian border. The attack, which has neither been confirmed nor denied by Ukrainian authorities, reportedly hit a fuel depot in the city.
“The likely loss of fuel and ammunition supplies from this depot will likely add further pressure in the short term to Russia’s already strained supply chains”, particularly harming the military in Kharkiv, the second largest city in the world. country, analyzed the British Ministry of Defense on Friday, in a Twitter post.
It would be the first attack of the Ukrainian army in Russia since the beginning of this conflict, if it is confirmed.
The bombings continue
Local authorities said on Friday they had regained control of the town of Boutcha, near kyiv, where resistance to the Russian offensive has gained ground in recent days. The Ukrainian government has also indicated that it has exchanged 86 of its soldiers with Russia, including 15 women. However, he did not specify how many Russian soldiers were handed over to the Kremlin in return.
The Russian army, for its part, launched three cruise missiles from the Crimean peninsula, annexed to Russia in 2014, towards the Odessa region. These attacks would have caused deaths, according to local authorities. The Ukrainian authorities also reported bombings in several regions of the country on Friday, in particular in that of Luhansk, in the east of the country, where the Russian army claims to have withdrawn from the capital, in the north.
Evacuation in Mariupol
More than 3,000 people were “rescued” from the port city of Mariupol on Friday through humanitarian corridors, out of a total of 6,266 people nationwide, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video released late in the evening.
Earlier in the day, the besieged city’s city council said on its Telegram account that “nearly 2,000 people” were being moved to safer neighboring towns by dozens of buses.
The town hall of Mariupol also quantified Friday at “at least 10 billion” the extent of the expenditure which will be necessary “to restore the infrastructures of Mariupol” at the end of the Russian invasion, which largely destroyed this city.
UN officials visiting Moscow
The UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Britain’s Martin Griffiths, will be in Moscow on Sunday to try to secure a “humanitarian ceasefire” in Ukraine, the UN chief announced on Friday. Antonio Guterres. He will then travel to kyiv.
According to the latest UN toll, which continues to grow, the war in Ukraine has caused the death of at least 1,276 civilians since February 24, including 115 children. Nearly 2,000 other civilians were injured, according to this conservative toll.
With Agence France-Presse