War in Ukraine | A note of hope with American accents

For the first time since the beginning of the conflict, senior American leaders set foot on Ukrainian soil on Orthodox Easter. They met in Kyiv with President Volodymyr Zelensky. And pledged an additional $700 million in military aid as the Russian invasion continues unabated in the east and south of the country.

Lila Dussault
The Press

American visit

The visit of US foreign and defense chiefs Antony Blinken and Lloyd Austin marked the start of the third month of the war in Ukraine. They spoke with President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv. Little information leaked following the meeting, which was held in high confidentiality, but the two officials announced the gradual return of a US diplomatic presence in Ukraine and additional military aid, direct and indirect, of more than 700 millions of dollars. On Sunday, an adviser to the president repeated on YouTube Kyiv’s wish to be delivered “offensive weapons”, that is to say equipment to attack the enemy. On Sunday, Mr. Zelensky said on Twitter that “the friendship and collaboration between Ukraine and the United States [étaient] stronger than ever”. Antony Blinken also indicated that President Joe Biden will appoint a new US Ambassador to Ukraine in the coming days. It will be Bridget Brink, current ambassador to Slovakia.

No truce for the Orthodox Easter holiday

“Save all Ukrainians!” “Launched Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday in a message for the Easter holiday. Pope Francis also renewed his call for a truce and an end to attacks against “exhausted populations”. In the aftermath, the United Nations (UN) called for an “immediate” truce in Mariupol to evacuate the approximately 100,000 civilians trapped in the ruined city and besieged since the beginning of March. “Every day, every 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.

In interview with the New York Times, Azov Battalion Deputy Commander Svyatoslav Palamar, entrenched in the sprawling metallurgical plant, said his troops were ready to leave the place if safe passage was arranged for them and the hundreds of civilians holed up in the tunnels. “The lines of defense [ukrainiennes] are on the verge of collapse” in Mariupol, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said the same day. The ministry offered Russia to hold “a special session of talks right next to the Azovstal site”, but was still awaiting a response. The Ukrainian presidency, for its part, again proposed negotiations “to take or exchange” soldiers, without success. The shelling and fighting claimed the lives of more than 20,000 civilians in Mariupol, according to the city’s mayor.

The assault continues in the East and the South

The city of Kharkiv, in the northeast of the country, continues to be shelled and partially blockaded by Russian forces. A woman was killed there on Sunday and a man injured, according to Ukrainian authorities, while in the south of the country, in the Donetsk region, five civilians were killed and five others injured, the governor wrote on Telegram. In the Donbass basin, formed by the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk and where thousands of civilians, especially the elderly, still reside, Russian troops have “intensified their offensives”, according to the Ukrainian general staff. The number of refugees who have fled Ukraine since the Russian invasion is approaching 5.2 million, the UN said on Sunday.

On the diplomatic front

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said it was “extremely concerned” on Sunday following the arrest, in the pro-Russian separatist territories, of four members of its ceasefire observation mission. -fire of 2014. These are Ukrainian employees accused, according to the separatist forces, of “high treason”. One of the detainees is said to have “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”. This is not the first time that OSCE members have been detained in Ukraine, explains Maria Popova, a professor in the political science department at McGill University who specializes in post-Soviet affairs. In his opinion, they are going to be released. “It’s probably a tactic to terrorize people and make it more difficult for the OSCE to work in this region,” she observes.

At the same time, the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, is expected this Monday in Turkey, a country which is trying to mediate between Russia and Ukraine, before going to Moscow, then to Kyiv – a decision criticized by the Ukrainian authorities. For Maria Popova, the choice of the UN to go to Moscow is a mistake. “Symbolically, it shows that Russia is still a stakeholder in the international community and the world order, she analyzes, while the country has clearly shown that its goal is to change this order and replace it with a other. »

With Agence France-Presse