An “atrocity” in Kramatorsk
At least 52 people lost their lives, including 5 children, following a Russian missile attack on the Kramatorsk train station in the east of the country on Friday morning, according to the governor of the Donetsk region, Pavlo Kyrylenko. The military offensive, which Russia denies being behind, came when many civilians were gathered at this station to flee the Donbass region, where the war is raging.
“The attack on a Ukrainian train station is another horrific atrocity committed by Russia, hitting civilians trying to evacuate and get to safety”, reacted on Twitter US President Joe Biden, who promised to increase US arms shipments to Ukraine.
Moreover, the Ministry of Defense of the United Kingdom announced on Friday that it had released a new sum of 100 million pounds sterling to supply weapons to Ukraine, including hundreds of missiles and protective equipment.
The attack on a Ukrainian train station is yet another horrific atrocity committed by Russia, striking civilians who were trying to evacuate and reach safety.
— President Biden (@POTUS) April 8, 2022
Respite in the North, worries in the South
In Sumy, a Russian border region in northeastern Ukraine, the head of the regional administration claimed that it had been completely “liberated” from Russian forces. However, he warned the population that the area is not “safe” for all that, since demining operations are still in progress.
Meanwhile, in the southern Ukrainian port city of Odessa, tenant authorities have announced that a curfew will be in effect from Saturday evening until Monday morning due to the ‘threat’ Russian military strikes.
Efforts to evacuate civilians are also continuing. On Friday, more than 6,600 people fled cities like Mariupol and Luhansk, among others, through humanitarian corridors, according to Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk.
Grocery cart scoops
The effects of the war in Ukraine on the price of the grocery basket are increasingly felt. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, world food prices reached their “highest levels on record” last month. The price of agricultural raw materials, such as wheat, corn and sunflower oil, thus climbed by 12.6% in March over one month due to this conflict which is getting bogged down and which threatens the next harvests both in Ukraine than in Russia.
The Russian rouble, however, continues to regain strength due in particular to the energy demand from which Russia continues to benefit. Which again led Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to urge the West to stop sourcing Russian oil and gas.
Blacklist
After the United States and the United Kingdom, it was the turn of the European Union (EU) on Friday to sanction the two daughters of Vladimir Putin, Maria Vorontsova and Katerina Tikhonova, by banishing the latter from entering the European territory in addition to freezing their assets there. These are on an EU blacklist that includes more than 200 other people, including oligarchs close to the Russian president. The EU also intends to impose an embargo on Russian coal from August.
Russia, for its part, announced on Saturday that it had closed the local offices of human rights NGOs Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, which have extensively documented and condemned the war in Ukraine in recent weeks.