THE Mariupol is cut off from the rest Ukraine and bombed for more than 40 days. The occupation of the besieged city would allow the Russian army to consolidate its territorial gains in the coastal zone of the Sea of Azov and connect Donbass with the Crimean peninsula, which was annexed by Moscow in 2014.
The governor of Danetsk, Pavlo Kirilenko, told CNN yesterday that “we can say that between 20 and 22,000 people were killed.” Earlier, he had spoken of 10,000 dead in the city, which. He admitted that it was “difficult to estimate the exact number of victims” in the besieged city.
Through Telegram, the governor Kirilenko stated that “street fights” are raging “day and night” in Mariupol and that he has only “minimal” contacts in the city.
Adviser to the Ukrainian presidency Mikhail Podoliak stressed via Twitter that “Ukrainian soldiers are surrounded and blocked” in the city, where “90% of the houses” have been destroyed.
The Russian military also said it had prevented an attempt by about a hundred Ukrainian soldiers with armor to break the cordon at a factory in the northern part of the city on Monday.
Russian attack on Donbas expected to start “very soon”
In eastern Ukraine, the full conquest of which is now a priority for Moscow, Kyiv has said it expects an immediate large-scale offensive. “According to our information, the enemy has almost completed its preparations for the attack” in Donbas and it is expected to begin “very soon,” said Ukrainian Defense Ministry spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanik. The civilians continue to leave Lugansk and Danieck, especially with six trains that were to leave yesterday.
Analysts say Vladimir Putin wants a victory in Donbass by May 9, the day of the military parade in Red Square to mark the anniversary of the Soviets’ victory over Nazi Germany in 1945.
Zelensky mocks Putin
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky mocked today the statement of the Russian counterpart of Vladimir Putin that the war he unleashed goes as foreseen by the “plan” of theu, wondering what plan he is talking about when Russia suffers such heavy losses in Ukraine.
Mr Putin assured on Tuesday that Moscow would achieve all its “noble” goals as it continued “rhythmically and calmly” what the Kremlin calls a “special military operation” on Ukrainian territory.
“Russia has been told once again that what is being called a ‘special operation’ is going to go ahead as planned. “But to be honest, no one in the world understands how this plan came to them,” he said. Zelensky during his evening sermon downloaded today on the Telegram platform.
“How exactly was a plan conceived that predicts the death of tens of thousands of their soldiers in just over a month? “Who exactly approved it?” continued ironically the Ukrainian president.
He wondered how many deaths of Russian soldiers he would consider acceptable losses. Putin, describing a range of tens to hundreds of thousands. Moscow, he said, lost in 48 days more than the men it mourned during the ten-year war in Afghanistan (1979-1989).
Mr Zelensky’s government claims that Russia has suffered some 20,000 casualties in the war.
The latest official announcement from Moscow was made on March 25. He spoke of 1,351 deaths since February 24, according to international news agencies and the Athenian News Agency.
Mr Zelensky acknowledged that despite ridiculing the Russian president and his generals, the failures of the Russian army and its inferior technology, his country’s opponent was not insignificant. “We have to understand that not all Russian tanks have been stuck in the fields, not all the soldiers are firing from the fronts, not all the soldiers are drawn who do not even know how to hold their weapons,” he said. “This does not mean that we should be afraid of them, it means that we should not degrade the achievements of our fighters, our army,” he hastened to add.
Alongside, Mr Zelensky admits he can not say with 100% certainty that Russia used chemical weapons in Mariupol, because no investigation can be carried out in the strategically important port of southern Ukraine as hostilities rage. Nevertheless, he argued that repeated threats by some in Russia that such weapons would be used meant that the West must take action now to prevent that from happening. He did not become more specific.
The presidents of Poland and the Baltic states today Kyiv
Meanwhile, Polish President Andrei Duda and his counterparts from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are on their way to Kyiv to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Duda’s adviser said today.
“In this way, our countries show their support for Ukraine and President Zelensky,” said Jacob Kumoch, an adviser to the Polish president, in a Twitter post.
Source: News Beast
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