© KEYSTONE/AP/Evgeniy Maloletka
The Ukrainian authorities were trying Friday to evacuate civilians from the eastern regions, threatened by a Russian assault. The capital kyiv is preparing to receive the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and the head of EU diplomacy.
With the withdrawal of Russian troops from the kyiv region, the Ukrainian authorities see the true extent of the damage. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday said the destruction in Borodianka, near kyiv, was worse than in Boutcha, where images of dead bodies on the streets sparked international outrage. “There are more victims,” he added.
Twenty-six bodies have already been extracted by Ukrainian rescuers from the rubble of two apartment buildings in Borodianka, northwest of kyiv, announced the Prosecutor General of Ukraine Iryna Venediktova.
Appeal to Eastern Ukrainians
But it is also to the east of the country, now a priority target for Moscow, that attention is focused. The Kremlin spokesman acknowledged Thursday that Russian forces had already suffered “significant military losses” in this region, citing a “huge tragedy”.
Fearing an offensive once morest these regions, the Ukrainian authorities have once more called on the civilian population to leave them. Russian forces have “damaged the railroad in Shastya. From now on, the evacuation will take place only by bus”, indicated the governor of the region of Lugansk, Sergei Gaïdaï.
“All the horrors we have known are likely to get worse. Do not sentence yourselves to death! Leave! The next few days will be the last chance” for an evacuation, he launched on Facebook.
And in Donestk, the head of the regional military administration Pavel Kirilenko said that three evacuation trains had been temporarily immobilized following a Russian strike once morest a railway line.
Another call concerned the city of Severodonetsk, the most easterly held by Ukrainian forces, shelled by Russian troops. “It’s falling everywhere. It’s no longer possible,” told AFP Denis, a forty-year-old pale as a sheet, his face emaciated, who would be considered in his sixties.
Aimed Russian Coal
A “large number” of evacuees have already arrived in Dnipro, announced Thursday the mayor of this industrial city of one million inhabitants on the Dnieper, the river which marks the limit of the eastern regions of the country.
Accused of “war crimes” in Ukraine, Russia was the subject of an EU embargo on its coal on Thursday, the first time that the Europeans hit the Russian energy sector, on which they are very dependent. The EU imports 45% of its coal from Russia for a value of 4 billion euros per year. This embargo will come into force at the beginning of August.
Brussels plans to ban exports to Russia up to 10 billion euros, new sanctions once morest Russian banks and the closure of European ports to Russian ships. At the same time, the EU is ready to release an additional €500 million to fund arms for Ukraine.
For their part, the G7 countries have announced new sanctions, including a ban on all new investment in key sectors of Russia. Washington paved the way for punitive tariffs once morest Russia and Belarus, revoking their trade status on Thursday by a vote in Congress.
“Insult to humanity”
In a statement, US President Joe Biden said that “Russia’s lies do not hold up once morest the indisputable evidence of what is happening in Ukraine”. The indications of rape, torture, executions are an “insult to humanity”, he added.
These initiatives follow the wave of indignation following the discovery of dozens of dead, wearing civilian clothes and for some with their hands tied behind their backs, in the areas from which the Russian army withdrew and in particular in Boutcha , near Kyiv.
Ukraine and its supporters accuse Russian troops of being responsible for these “war crimes”. Russia denies any abuse, denouncing a Ukrainian “provocation”.