War in Ukraine, day 67 | Russia does not seek to end the war on May 9, Victory Day

(Kyiv) Russia is not seeking to end the war in Ukraine on May 9, celebrated as Victory Day, its foreign minister said, as analysts believed a possible end to the conflict on that date.

“Our military will not artificially adjust their actions to any date, including Victory Day,” Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with Italian TV Mediaset broadcast on Sunday, referring to the date commemorating May 9, 1945 and the surrender of the Nazis to the Allies, including the Soviet Union.

“The pace of the operation in Ukraine depends, above all, on the need to minimize possible risks for the civilian population and the Russian military,” he added.

Russia usually celebrates Victory Day with great fanfare, with a large military parade through central Moscow and a speech by President Vladimir Putin hailing the country’s leading role in defeating fascism in Europe.

But this year’s celebrations will take place against the backdrop of Moscow’s military campaign in Ukraine, which Mr Putin has justified by saying, among other things, that the former Soviet republic must be “denazified” and making other allusions to World War II. world.

“We will solemnly celebrate May 9, as we always do. Let us remember those who fell for the liberation of Russia and other republics of the former USSR, for the liberation of Europe from the Nazi scourge,” Lavrov said.

Thousands of civilians have been killed in Ukraine and millions displaced by the Russian invasion, which began on February 24.

Moscow has announced an official death toll of a thousand soldiers. Ukraine claims that Russia’s losses are much higher.

Dozens of civilians evacuated from Mariupol

Dozens of civilians were evacuated on Sunday from the city of Mariupol, in southeastern Ukraine, where they were trapped in the Azovstal steel complex with the Ukrainian soldiers who are still resisting under Russian bombs.

The UN confirmed that this operation, which began on Saturday and was carried out in coordination between Ukraine, Russia and the ICRC, was continuing.

“The evacuation of civilians from Azovstal has started. A first group of about 100 people is heading towards the territory controlled (by Ukraine). Tomorrow we will welcome them to Zaporijjia”, a city located west of Mariupol, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on Twitter.

The Russian Ministry of Defense meanwhile assured that “thanks to the initiative of Russian President Vladimir Putin, 80 civilians, including women and children, detained by Ukrainian nationalists, were rescued from the territory of the factory. ‘Azovstal, evacuated to the village of Bezimennoye in the People’s Republic of Donetsk (under Russian control, editor’s note), where they received accommodation, food and the necessary medical assistance”.

” Civilians […] who wished to leave for areas controlled by the Kyiv regime were transferred to representatives of the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross,” the ministry added.

Buses with the letter Z

A video released by the Russian Ministry of Defense shows a convoy of cars and buses driving in the dark, adorned with the letter “Z”, symbol of the Russian armed forces in this conflict.

The UN has confirmed “an evacuation operation” is underway. This was launched “in coordination with the ICRC and the parties to the conflict”, indicated Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. He stressed that he could not give any other details for security reasons.

Thousands of civilians had been able to leave since the start of the war on February 24 Mariupol, a port city populated before the war by half a million inhabitants and now under Russian control after weeks of bombardment which almost entirely destroyed destroyed and at least 20,000 dead, according to the Ukrainians.

But this is the first time, after multiple failed attempts despite the intercession of foreign officials and Pope Francis, that civilians entrenched in the Azovstal complex, the last pocket of Ukrainian resistance crushed by Russian bombs, can get out. .

“Mariupol, City of Mary”

The pope had renewed his call on Sunday, during the Angelus prayer in the Vatican, for the opening of secure humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians from “Mariupol, city of Mary, bombarded and destroyed in a barbaric way”.

New satellite images from Maxar Technologies taken on April 29 showed that almost all the buildings of the huge steel complex had been destroyed by the bombardments, with Ukrainian soldiers and civilians holed up in the many underground galleries dating from Soviet times. , attacked according to Kyiv with armor-piercing bombs of very high power.

The commander of the 36^and Ukrainian brigade of marines entrenched in Azovstal, Serguiï Volynsky, had thus indicated Thursday that a Russian bomb had destroyed the underground field hospital set up on the site.

“All the medical infrastructure, the operating room was destroyed. Many of our guys were killed instantly. Many of the injured received new wounds. The situation is becoming even more critical”, he had transmitted to the Ukrainian site Levy Bereg, while the day before he had already reported 600 wounded soldiers and hundreds of civilians.

Faced with a slow progression of Russian forces, in numerical superiority and better equipped with heavy armaments, in the east of its territory after defeating them around Kyiv at the start of the offensive, Ukraine received this weekend end the unannounced visit of a delegation from the American Congress headed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, received by Volodymyr Zelensky.

“Our delegation traveled to Kyiv to send an unequivocal and resounding message to the whole world: the United States stands with Ukraine,” said the Congressional delegation, guarantor of American aid which will notably go through a Lend-Lease program (Lend-Lease), similar to the one set up by the United States for its allies during the Second World War.

This visit came a week after the trip to Kyiv by the head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken and the Minister of Defense Lloyd Austin, who had announced additional aid of more than 700 million dollars.

Ukraine does not cease to repeat its urgent need for heavy armaments, in particular armored vehicles and long-range howitzers, promised by the West.

“Hard in the East”

A senior Ukrainian military official said on Saturday evening that he informed US Army Chief of Staff Mark A. Milley of “the difficult situation in the east of our country, particularly in the regions of Izium and Sieverodonetsk , where the enemy has concentrated most of his efforts and his most combat-ready troops”.

President Zelensky also warned on Saturday that the Russians “have formed reinforcements in the Kharkiv region, trying to increase the pressure in the Donbass”.

In the regions of Kharkiv, the country’s second largest city, and Donetsk, eight civilians were killed in shelling on Sunday, including four in the town of Lyman alone, near the front, regional governors announced.

It is in this eastern flank that the Russian army is nibbling ground, seeking to hold its adversary in a vice from the north and the south in order to complete its hold on the Donbass mining basin.

In the south, the Russian Ministry of Defense claimed to have destroyed, by striking an airfield near Odessa on Saturday, “a hangar with weapons and ammunition received from the United States and European countries”, as well as the runway.

The governor of the region, Maxim Marchenko, had reported on Saturday of a missile strike on an airport in this port city of one million inhabitants, so far relatively spared.

“Sabotage”

The Ukrainians allowed themselves to strike on their side in Russian territory.

After a series of explosions affecting infrastructure in Russia, attributed to incursions by the Ukrainian military across the border, the governor of the Russian region of Belgorod reported a fire on Saturday in military installations.

During the day, the governor of another border region, that of Kursk, attributed the collapse of a railway bridge to “sabotage”.

On the armament side, in the middle of the great hilly plains and industrial cities, the face-to-face is essentially done with artillery. The balance of power there is extremely favorable to the Russians, up to “five times superior in terms of equipment” according to Iryna Terehovytch, sergeant of the 123^and Ukrainian brigade.

In Brussels, European sources have indicated that the EU is finalizing a gradual halt in its purchases of oil and petroleum products from Russia to sanction the war in Ukraine and will announce a timetable and new measures this week.

“There is a political will to stop oil purchases from Russia and we will have measures and a decision on a phased withdrawal next week,” said a European official involved in the discussions.