At least eight people were killed in a Russian strike in Sloviansk, in the east of the country, according to the governor of the Donetsk region.
A new Russian strike on a building in Sloviansk, eastern Ukraine, killed at least eight people on Friday, April 14, the day President Vladimir Putin signed a law facilitating the mobilization of young Russians in the army. On the front, Russia said it was pushing west of Bakhmout to seize this city, the scene of the most violent fighting for several months. Here is what to remember from this new day in the conflict.
Bombing kills 8 in Sloviansk
A Russian strike on an apartment building left at least eight dead and 21 injured in Sloviansk, eastern Ukraine, according to the governor of the Donetsk region. A two-year-old child, who emerged alive from the rubble of the building, succumbed to his injuries in the ambulance transporting him to hospital, said an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Sloviansk is in a Ukrainian-controlled part of the Donetsk region, 45 km northwest of Bakhmout, near Russian-controlled territory. According to kyiv, the city was targeted by seven missiles, which damaged five buildings, five houses, a school and an administrative building.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of “brutally bombard” residential buildings and “kill people in broad daylight”.
Russia grows in western Bakhmut
“The assault groups of [la milice] Wagner are conducting high-intensity military operations to take quarters in the western part of the city of Artyomovsk”, the Soviet name for Bakhmut used by Moscow, the Russian Defense Ministry said. This area is the last in the city to be in the hands of the Ukrainian military, who face the mercenaries of the paramilitary group and the Russian army, now installed in the northern, southern and eastern districts.
Putin facilitates the mobilization of the Russians
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed the law facilitating the mobilization of Russians in the army, a text validated in two days by Parliament, according to Russian agencies. According to the new law, a reservist can now be mobilized electronically, via a portal of the Russian public services, or if the order is given to a third party. Until then, invitations had to be delivered by hand.
Russian oil exports more than well
Despite the rain of sanctions from the European Union and the G7, Russian oil exports are holding up and have even reached their highest level in three years, according to the latest report from the International Energy Agency (IEA). Total oil shipments, including to countries like India, rose in March by 600,000 barrels per day to 8.1 million barrels per day. However, the windfall they provide for Moscow is 43% lower than in March 2022, according to the IEA.
Moscow cancels May Day festivities
No parades or rallies marking May Day will take place in the Russian capital this year, the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia, the country’s largest trade union, has announced. The decision was taken by the authorities, because “the level of terrorist danger is higher, even in regions far from the places of the ‘special military operation'”, she justified, using the euphemism imposed by the Kremlin to evoke the war in Ukraine. Usually, many major cultural and political events take place in Moscow and its suburbs on the occasion of Labor Day, which is a public holiday throughout the country.