US President Joe Biden announced on Wednesday the dispatch of longer-range air defense systems to Ukraine where at least 13 civilians have been killed. Because the Russian offensive continues, as do the negotiations on the basis of reinforced sanctions.
In short remarks, Biden confirmed his country would provide an additional $800 million in military aid to Kyiv, an “unprecedented” $1 billion in one week to support its military .
“At the request” of his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, who had previously addressed the United States Congress, “we are helping Ukraine acquire additional and longer-range air defense systems,” he said. he said, adding that drones would also be delivered.
Shortly following the American president told a journalist that Vladimir Putin is a “war criminal”, a qualifier he used for the first time. Remarks deemed “unacceptable and unforgivable” by the Kremlin whose response was quick.
Shots on a queue
In Ukraine, ten people who were queuing to buy bread in Cherniguiv, 150 km north of kyiv, died in the morning when soldiers opened fire on them in a “premeditated” manner, announced the general prosecutor’s office.
In the followingnoon, the firing of Grad rockets on a convoy of civilians leaving the besieged and constantly shelled port city of Mariupol left an undetermined number of dead and injured, including a seriously injured child, d following the Ukrainian army.
A theater which housed “hundreds” of civilians “was destroyed there in the explosion of a bomb dropped by a Russian plane, added the town hall.
The city of Zaporozhye, largely spared so far and a refuge for people fleeing Mariupol, has meanwhile for the first time since the start of the conflict been targeted by at least one missile, apparently without causing any casualties. It is in this region that the largest nuclear power plant in Europe is located, which the Russians have occupied since March 4.
Three other people lost their lives and five were injured in a market in a fire caused by a bombardment in Kharkiv, in the northeast, according to the relief.
Moscow denies
Moscow has denied most of these accusations, the army spokesman denouncing in particular an act of “propaganda” by the Ukrainian regime, assuring during a televised briefing that “no Russian soldier has been and will not is in Cherniguiv (…) and no offensive is being carried out there”.
According to Ukrainian relief, at least 500 people had been killed since the start of the war in Kharkiv, the second city of Ukraine, in the northeast, relentlessly bombarded.
Explosions were also heard once more at dawn in kyiv where thick columns of black smoke rose.
The capital, emptied of more than half of its 3.5 million inhabitants, has been under curfew since until 7 a.m. Thursday, following several missiles hit apartment buildings on Monday and Tuesday.
As a result of the conflict, more than three million Ukrainians – almost half of them children – have already taken the road to exile, the vast majority to Poland.
No NATO troops
It is in this context that the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the highest court of the United Nations, on Wednesday ordered Moscow to immediately halt its military operations in Ukraine, saying it was “deeply concerned” by the extent fights ; and that the Council of Europe, guarantor of the rule of law on this continent, officially excluded Russia, while the European Court of Human Rights suspended the examination of all applications concerning Russia.
Imperturbable, Vladimir Putin hammered home in a speech that the military operation launched three weeks earlier, on February 24, was “a success”. This while his army might not claim the capture of any major city and progressed in slow motion.
Just before, his Ukrainian counterpart had by videoconference, applauded by American parliamentarians, once more called for the establishment of a no-fly zone over his country.
Joe Biden has so far rejected a no-fly zone, for fear of seeing the United States and NATO, who repeated on Wednesday that there was “no question of deploying NATO troops or planes in Ukraine”, drawn into a conflict likely to turn into the 3rd world war.
The Atlantic Alliance has however announced its intention to strengthen its position on its eastern flank.
A “compromise”?
The offensive and the determination of the two camps did not prevent the continuation of parallel talks, relaunched Monday by videoconference at the level of the delegations.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that negotiators were now discussing “a compromise”, which would make Ukraine a neutral country, on the model of Sweden and Austria.
“There are very concrete formulas which, I think, are close to an agreement”, also launched the head of Russian diplomacy Sergei Lavrov.
Without denying discussions on neutrality, the Ukrainian chief negotiator Mykhaïlo Podoliak rejected “a Swedish or Austrian model” and insisted on “absolute security guarantees” once morest Russia, with a commitment to intervene alongside Ukraine. in case of aggression.
President Zelensky had estimated on Tuesday night that the positions of the two camps were now “more realistic”, while considering that it would take “still time for the decisions to be in the interest of Ukraine”.
He had previously said he was ready to renounce any membership of his country in NATO, a casus belli for Russia.
Blocked Media
On Wednesday, Vladimir Putin pledged financial aid to individuals and businesses, calling the sanctions a “blitzkrieg” once morest Russia.
The Russian authorities continue in parallel to repress any opposition to the war.
After the arrest of an employee of Russian Channel 1 who had protested once morest the war by bursting into the television news set on Monday evening, the authorities blocked the websites of around 30 additional media, including that of the BBC.
This article has been published automatically. Source: ats
