Russia and Ukraine have not achieved“significant progress” for now in their negotiations, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday (28 March). While discussions are due to resume on Tuesday, fighting continues on the ground. Franceinfo summarizes what to remember from the developments of the day.
Ukrainian government says Irpin, suburb of Kyiv, has been ‘liberated’
The town of Irpin, on the outskirts of kyiv, was “liberated”said the Ukrainian government. “The city is now liberated, but it is still dangerous to be there”, Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky said. A quiet locality in the Ukrainian capital, its strategic location in the attempt to encircle the city by Russian forces turned it into a theater of fierce fighting. Life had become impossible there. The Russian army has not yet provided information on the situation of its troops in this city.
Russia is preparing a text for limit its access to nationals of “unfriendly” countries
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced that a decree was in preparation to limit access to Russian territory to nationals of countries responsible for acts judged “unfriendly” by Russia. “A draft presidential decree is in preparation to introduce retaliatory measures, concerning visas, in connection with the unfriendly actions of several foreign governments”, said the head of Russian diplomacy. The names of these countries have not been specified.
Independent Russian newspaper “Novaya Gazeta” suspends publication
Novaya Gazeta was the last stronghold of the free press still in operation. But the independent Russian newspaper, muzzled by censorship, has announced that it will suspend its publications until the end of the war in Ukraine. This suspension concerns articles on social networks and in paper format. The newspaper took this action after receiving a second warning from the Russian telecoms policeman for breaching a controversial law. It is blamed on Novaya Gazeta for not having specified that an NGO mentioned in one of its articles was qualified “foreign agent” by the Russian authorities, as required by law.
Kremlin denounces Biden’s comments on Putin
After comments by Joe Biden, who called Vladimir Putin a “Butcher”Moscow called“alarming” the comments of the American president. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov assured that Moscow would continue to monitor “very attentive to the words of the American president”.
For his part, Joe Biden said he did not withdraw his remarks suggesting he wanted his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin out of power. “For the love of God, this man can’t stay in power!”he launched on Saturday in Warsaw, the Polish capital. “I was just expressing my outrage that he shouldn’t stay in power, the same way bad guys shouldn’t keep doing bad things.”, “but that doesn’t mean we have a fundamental policy change”he added.
kyiv renounces any evacuation corridor for civilians
“Our information has reported possible provocations on the part of the occupants [russes] on the routes of the humanitarian corridors. Therefore, for security reasons for civilians, no humanitarian corridors will be open today.”, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk wrote on Telegram. Usually, humanitarian corridors are organized daily from the towns most affected by the fighting to allow the evacuation of civilians. Ukraine has already repeatedly denounced Russian attacks on these corridors, particularly around Mariupol, a totally devastated port city.