Two people were killed and eight injured by Russian strikes on Saturday afternoon in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine.
It is the second time this week that the city has been targeted by Russian strikes. Two people were killed and eight injured on Saturday March 18 in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine. That same day, Vladimir Putin traveled to Crimea for the ninth anniversary of the annexation of this Ukrainian peninsula by Russia. On the diplomatic front, thehe international agreement of July 2022 on the export of Ukrainian cereals, crucial to avoid a food crisis, has been extended. Here’s what to remember from the day on the war front in Ukraine.
Kramatorsk again bombarded by the Russian army
“Russia continues to reign in terror.” On his Facebook page, the mayor of Kramatorsk, Alexander Goncharenko, announced thatTwo people had been killed and eight injured by Russian strikes with “cluster munitions” Saturday afternoon. A dozen residential buildings and 14 municipal facilities were damaged, he said.
It is the second time this week that the city has been targeted by Russian strikes. On Tuesday, a shelling in the center left one dead and three injured and six residential buildings were damaged. On February 1, a bombardment killed three people there.
Regularly bombarded by the Russian army, Kramatorsk, a city of about 150,000 inhabitants before the Russian invasion launched more than a year ago, has played the role of a regional center since the occupation of the city of Donetsk in 2014 by Russian and pro-Russian forces.
The Ukrainian grain agreement extended in extremis
The subject of negotiations for several weeks, the international agreement of July 2022 on the export of Ukrainian cereals was extended in extremis on Saturday. Following negotiations under the auspices of Ankara and the UN, the extension was announced on Saturday by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who welcomed the extension of an agreement “vital to the global food supply”threatened by the consequences of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The agreement was due to end on Saturday evening.
“The Black Sea Grain Initiative is extended for 120 days. We thank Antonio Guterres, the United Nations, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, (Turkish Defense Minister) Hulusi Akar and all our partners for confirming This agreement”, he said on Twitter. But Moscow quickly contradicted him, assuring that only a 60-day extension had been decided.
The Black Sea Grain Initiative signed in July 2022 by Ukraine, Russia and Turkey, with the help of the UN, has alleviated the global food crisis caused by the war in Ukraine by allowing the export of nearly 25 million tons of corn, wheat and other cereals from Ukrainian ports.
Vladimir Putin on surprise visit to Crimea
This is the Kremlin master’s first trip to Crimea since the outbreak of the Russian offensive in Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Vladimir Putin visited this Ukrainian peninsula on Saturday, for the ninth anniversary of its annexation in 2014. Arrived in Sevastopol, home port of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Crimea, Vladimir Putin notably attended the inauguration ceremony of a school of arts for children in the company of the local governor, Mikhail Razvojayev, according to the images broadcast by the public television channel Rossia-1.
This city being located only about 240 km from Kherson, a southern Ukrainian city retaken by the army of Kiev in November after the withdrawal of Russian forces, this trip of the Russian president is also the first carried out in a place so close. from the front line.
This surprise trip comes the day after the issuance of an international arrest warrant against the Russian president. The International Criminal Court (ICC) accuses him of the war crime of “illegal deportation” of Ukrainian children.