(Kyiv) The US government announced on Wednesday that it had “established that members of the Russian forces committed war crimes in Ukraine”, as Joe Biden arrived in Brussels for NATO, G7 and EU summits Europe, a month after the outbreak of the Russian invasion.
Updated yesterday at 8:05 p.m.
The conflict is also deadly for the Russian forces, which have already lost between 7,000 and 15,000 soldiers in Ukraine, according to a senior NATO official, who is based in particular on information from the Ukrainian authorities and Western intelligence services.
In accusing Russia of committing war crimes, the United States is basing itself on “a careful review of available information from public and intelligence sources”, said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
“We have seen many credible reports of indiscriminate attacks and attacks deliberately targeting civilians, as well as other atrocities,” he said in a statement, stressing that it will be up to the courts to determine the responsibilities.
“These war crimes must stop immediately,” urged European Council President Charles Michel on Wednesday evening. “We see Russia increasingly attacking the civilian population, targeting hospitals, schools and shelters,” he said in a statement.
“It’s a genocide”, declared the day before the general prosecutor of Ukraine, Iryna Venediktova. “War theaters have rules,” she said, adding that she could “prove” that Vladimir Putin is a “war criminal.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday evening called on citizens around the world to take to the streets to protest against the invasion of his country.
“Go ahead with Ukrainian symbols to defend Ukraine, to defend freedom, to defend life!” “, launched Mr. Zelensky in a video message in English. “Meet in the squares, in the street, show yourself and make yourself heard! »
“The world must stop the war,” he added.
In Kyiv, a new strike in the parking lot of a shopping center left one dead and two injured, according to Mayor Vitali Klitschko.
Earlier in the day, four people were injured in bombings on buildings.
PHOTO MARKO DJURICA, REUTERS
Russian journalist killed
A Russian journalist, Oksana Baulina, was killed Wednesday in a bombardment on Kyiv, announced in the evening the online media for which she worked, The Insider.
The Russian military has retreated more than 30 km east of Kyiv in the past 24 hours and has begun to establish defensive positions on several fronts in Ukraine, a senior Pentagon official said Wednesday.
“The Ukrainians managed to repel the Russians 55 km to the east and northeast of Kyiv,” the senior official told reporters, requesting anonymity. “It’s not that they’re not moving forward, it’s that they’re not trying to move forward. They take defensive positions,” he added.
The Ukrainian president’s chief of staff called on Westerners to deliver “offensive weapons” before Thursday’s summits to which Volodymyr Zelensky will address by videoconference.
Welcoming the “extraordinarily courageous” resistance of the Ukrainians, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the delivery of 6,000 additional anti-tank missiles to Kyiv. London has already delivered 4,000 of these weapons to Ukraine.
Sweden and Germany announced for their part the delivery to Ukraine of 5000 and 2000 anti-tank weapons respectively. The Ukrainian forces have already received 1,000 anti-tank weapons and 500 Stinger-type surface-to-air missile launchers taken from the reserves of the Bundeswehr, the German army.
US President Joe Biden, who arrived in Brussels on Wednesday evening, will try to strengthen Western unity and increase sanctions against Russia, before going to Poland.
Washington is to announce Thursday “a set of sanctions that affect both political figures” and “oligarchs”, announced national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
NATO, for its part, will deploy four new battlegroups in Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia to strengthen its defenses against Russia on its eastern flank, its secretary general announced.
Jens Stoltenberg denounced “the political support given to Russia by China, including spreading lies” and “the possibility that Beijing provides material support for the invasion of Ukraine”.
Renault suspends operations in Moscow
The head of Ukrainian diplomacy Dmytro Kouleba has called for a global “boycott” of the French car manufacturer Renault because of “its refusal to leave Russia”, following the invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces.
Shortly after, Renault announced in a press release suspending the activities of its factory in Moscow.
Earlier in the day, Volodymyr Zelensky had urged French companies established in Russia to stop supporting the Russian “war machine” and to leave this country.
Faced with increasingly harsh economic sanctions, Vladimir Putin announced that Moscow would no longer accept payments in dollars or euros for gas deliveries to the EU.
But the German Economy Minister Robert Habeck considered that this requirement “constitutes a breach of contract”. And Austria has indicated that it will continue to pay in euros.
Putin at the G20 summit?
Will Russia be excluded from certain international institutions? “On the issue of the G20, I would simply say this: we believe that Russia cannot act as if nothing has happened in international institutions and in the international community,” said Jake Sullivan.
China has come out against Moscow’s exclusion from the next summit at the end of the year of this vast group of industrialized and emerging countries, in which Moscow has indicated that Vladimir Putin intends to participate.
On the ground, “nearly 100,000 people in inhuman conditions” are still trapped in the ruins of the large city of Mariupol (south), “under total siege, without food, without water, without medicine, under bombardments constant,” Mr. Zelensky warned in a video posted Wednesday.
At the Mariupol Number One Hospital, patients are treated in the basements, the city council said on its Telegram page.
“Candles remain the main source of light. They try to save fuel as much as possible, so diesel generators are only used for complex operations,” the council said, adding that between 600 and 700 local residents have also taken refuge in the hospital.
More than 3.6 million people have fled Ukraine since February 24, according to the UN tally released on Wednesday. In total, some ten million people, or about a quarter of the country’s population, have been forced from their homes.
The UN General Assembly of 193 states is expected to adopt a new resolution on Thursday that will “demand” from Russia an “immediate” end to the war in Ukraine.