“It’s almost a child every second, for two months, who has crossed the borders of his country.” Among the more than 5.4 million Ukrainians who have fled their country since the Russian invasion began on February 24, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, “half” are children, warned Ann Avril, director general of Unicef, on franceinfo Tuesday, May 3. It calls on neighboring countries to welcome these children “in the best possible conditions” and to “continue the momentum of solidarity”. Follow our live.
Several areas bombed, Lviv partly without electricity. shots from Russian missiles injured one person and destroyed three power plants in Lviv, according to the mayor of this large city in the west of the country, Tuesday evening May 3. The Ukrainian region of Transcarpathia, on the border with Hungary and hitherto spared, was hit for the first time since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24.
The European Union is preparing an embargo on Russian oil. The European Commission is planning a gradual halt to European purchases over a period of six to eight months until the end of 2022, according to several European officials and diplomats to AFP. Hungary and Slovakia, two landlocked countries totally dependent on deliveries via the Druzhba pipeline, will be able to continue their purchases from Russia in 2023. But this embargo still raises reservations, according to these same sources.
Russia launches an offensive on the Azovstal factory in Mariupol. “A powerful assault on the territory of Azovstal is currently underway, with the support of armored vehicles, tanks, with attempts to land troops, with the help of boats and a large number of elements of infantry”, said Sviatoslav Palamar, deputy commander of the Ukrainian Azov regiment, in a video message on Telegram on Tuesday, May 3. The Mariupol’s last pocket of resistance, where many fighters and civilians deprived of water and medicine are locked up, has so far been pounded by plane and from the sea.