War in Ukraine | Russian army “expands offensive”, weapons will be delivered to Ukraine

(Kiev) Russia announced on Saturday that it was expanding its offensive against Ukraine despite a growing international outcry, tougher sanctions and the announcement of new arms deliveries to Kiev, in particular by Germany.

In the immediate future, “the night will again be difficult. The (Russian) soldiers are still trying to enter Kiev,” the mayor of the Ukrainian capital, former world boxing champion Vitaly Klitschko, wrote on his Telegram account on Saturday evening.

But Berlin, which has been reluctant to do so until now, said it was ready on Saturday for a “targeted limitation” of Russia’s access to the Swift interbank exchange system, which could pave the way for this sanction considered as a of the most radical in the economic field, and to which France in particular has declared itself in favor.

Germany also announced the supply to Kiev of a thousand anti-tank rocket launchers and 500 surface-to-air missiles, breaking with its traditional policy of refusing to export lethal weapons to conflict zones.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed the German decision on Saturday. “Keep it up, Olaf Scholz! The Anti-War Coalition in Action! “, he tweeted to the attention of the German chancellor.

But the Kremlin has already said it doesn’t care about sanctions, and has only stepped up its invasion. “All units have been ordered to expand the offensive in all directions,” the Russian Defense Ministry said.

Earlier, pursuing an information war, Moscow accused Ukraine of refusing a truce and negotiations the day before.

Russia had in fact made it a condition that the Ukrainians lay down their arms, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in several videos posted from central Kiev, ruled out.

On the third day of the intervention launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin, fighting took place on Saturday, in addition to the capital, in many Ukrainian cities.

“A vain war”

At least 198 civilians, including three children, have been killed and 1,115 people injured since Thursday, according to Ukrainian Health Minister Viktor Lyashko.

“Our army controls Kiev and key cities around the capital,” Volodymyr Zelensky assured Facebook, claiming to have “broken the plan” of Moscow. He called on the population to take up arms and swore to stay in Kiev.

In Moscow, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov reaffirmed that the Russian army was not carrying out strikes on residential areas. AFP reporters, however, saw several homes hit by gunfire across the country.

For his part, the head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, spoke directly on Twitter on Saturday “to the Russian people”, in Russian.

“You do not deserve a vain war with your neighbors, friends and families in Ukraine,” he wrote in particular.

Washington announced on Saturday the sending of new military aid to Ukraine, amounting to 350 million dollars, while a senior Pentagon official told AFP that he saw “signs of Ukrainian resistance viable”.

“We think Russians are growing increasingly frustrated with their loss of momentum over the past 24 hours, especially in northern Ukraine,” he added.

The Netherlands said it was delivering 200 Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, the Czech Republic said it was sending weapons worth 7.6 million euros, and Belgium said it was supplying Kiev with 2,000 machine guns and 3,800 tons of fuel oil.

And France in turn announced on Saturday evening, after a Defense Council meeting, that it had “decided on the additional delivery of defense equipment to the Ukrainian authorities”.

“Totally isolate” Moscow

“War has returned to Europe” and it “will last”, warned French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday morning in Paris.

Pope Francis spoke by telephone with President Zelensky and expressed his “deep sorrow for the tragic events” in Ukraine, announced the Ukrainian embassy to the Holy See.

Volodymyr Zelensky also met on Saturday with United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres and asked him to deprive Russia, an “aggressor country”, of its right to vote in the Security Council.

He and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson stressed in a phone call on Saturday “the need to completely isolate Russia diplomatically and financially”, Downing Street announced.

On the diplomatic side again, the presidency of Belarus announced on Saturday that President Alexander Lukashenko, in recent months very dependent on the support of the Kremlin, had met with his French counterpart.

Emmanuel Macron asked that Belarus “demand the withdrawal of Russian troops from its soil as soon as possible”, and who are engaged in the invasion of Ukraine, then explained the Elysee.

Greece for its part demanded that Russia cease its air attacks against civilians in Ukraine, accusing it of the “murder” of at least ten Ukrainians of Greek origin.

Clashes in Kyiv

In Kiev, a ghost town deserted by its inhabitants, fighting opposed Russian and Ukrainian forces on Saturday. The curfew has been extended until 8 a.m. Monday and anyone on the street will be treated as an enemy, Mayor Vitaly Klitschko announced.

Ukrainian soldiers on patrol assured AFP that Russian forces were in a firing position a few kilometers away. Under a blue sky, the wreckage of a military truck blown up by a missile still smoked amid the debris, while detonations were heard in the distance.

The Kiev metro is at a standstill and now serves as an air-raid shelter for the population.

A 30-storey residential building was hit head-on on Saturday morning by a missile that caused significant damage, without the authorities reporting any immediate casualties.

Moscow “sabotage units” are in the city, but not yet regular Russian army formations, the city’s mayor said.

The Ukrainian army claims to have destroyed a column of five military vehicles, including a tank, on Victory Avenue.

She also claimed on the night of Friday to Saturday to have shot down several Russian aircraft including an Ilyushin Il-76 jumbo jet, information impossible to verify immediately.

Exodus to the West

So far, the Russian Ministry of Defense has not mentioned an offensive on Kiev, citing only the firing of cruise missiles on military infrastructure, advances in the East – where the army is supporting the separatists in the territories of Donetsk and Lugansk – and in southern Ukraine, where Russian forces entered Thursday from the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Moscow in 2014.

Russian units have been identified in Borodianki (70 km northwest of Kiev) in Butcha, in the northwestern suburbs of the capital, and in Vyshgorod, in its northern suburbs, the Ukrainian army said on Facebook.

Russian forces “continue their attack to block Kiev from the northeast (of the country), but they have been stopped by the Ukrainian armed forces”, she said again.

Across the country, dozens of Ukrainian soldiers have lost their lives in the fighting, according to the Ukrainian army, which also claims to inflict heavy losses on the Russian army. Moscow does not give any information about its balance sheet.

On the road between Kramatorsk and Dnipro, two cities in eastern Ukraine, AFP journalists noted the presence of a large number of Ukrainian military convoys. Checkpoints have been set up at the entrances and exits of each major city in this area.

Poland says 115,000 Ukrainians have crossed the border since Thursday. Nine reception centers have been set up.

Censorship in Russia

“We left our house very, very quickly because we were afraid of a massive attack,” Dania told AFP, among the refugees.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) had previously estimated that more than 116,000 refugees had fled to neighboring countries, such as Hungary, Moldova, Slovakia and Romania.

Vladimir Putin seems determined to continue his offensive, until dislodging from power in Kiev those whom he qualifies as “drug addicts” and “neo-Nazis”. He also called on the Ukrainian army to take power.

According to Moscow, this is a military “peacekeeping” operation.

The Russian media regulator also ordered national media on Saturday to remove any reference to civilians killed by the Russian army in Ukraine as well as the terms “invasion”, “offensive” or “declaration of war”.

Western sanctions

The Western camp is focused on tightening sanctions against Russia after restricting its access to financial markets and technology, and therefore now considering a limitation or exclusion of Russia from the Swift interbank system.

Westerners had already taken a step on Friday by imposing personal sanctions on Vladimir Putin and his head of diplomacy, Sergei Lavrov.

The sanctions affect in particular the air domain, and Germany, whose Lufthansa company announced to suspend its flights to Russia for 7 days, indicated on Saturday that it was considering closing its airspace to Russian companies.

The French authorities, for their part, indicated that they had intercepted a 127-meter Russian commercial vessel in the Channel suspected of belonging to a company targeted by the sanctions imposed by the EU.

All over the world, athletes, especially footballers, have expressed their solidarity with Ukraine and their opposition to the Russian offensive before the start of matches.