Russia intensified its attacks in Ukraine while trying to take more cities in the eastern region known as Donbass, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said for the second time in a few days that the situation there is “extremely difficult.” On the 88th day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, “the Russian enemy does not stop conducting offensive operations in the Eastern Operational Zone,” the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in its daily report. The Kremlin said it was ready to continue talks with Ukrainewhile the ukrainian authorities demand that their allies send more weapons.
An “extremely difficult” situation
“As in previous days, the Russian Army is trying to attack Sloviansk and Severodonetsk”said Zelenski in his usual video message, adding that the situation in Donbass “remains extremely difficult”, although “the Ukrainian Armed Forces are repelling the offensive”.
“Every day that our defenders repel these Russian offensive plans and thwart them becomes a concrete contribution to the approach of the key day. The long-awaited day that we all wait for and for which we fight: the day of victory” said the Ukrainian president. But these latest comments by Zelensky seem to reflect more optimism than the reality on the ground.
Russia has set itself the conquest of Donbass as its goal after having withdrew its troops from the northern capital kyiv region at the end of March. The most experienced and well-equipped Ukrainian military units are in the Donbass, but they are outnumbered and surrounded by Russian troopswhich makes it difficult to replenish according to analysts.
The Russian Army fully or partially controls five provinces in eastern and southern Ukraine.including the two in Donbass (Lugansk and Donetsk), in addition to the Crimean peninsula, which was annexed in 2014. In Moscow, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that Russia attacked from planes and artillery command centers, ammunition depots and troop concentrations in Donbass and in the southern province of Mikolaiv.
The ministry spokesman, General Igor Konashenkovsaid the missiles hit three command centers, 13 areas where Ukrainian soldiers and equipment were concentrated, and four ammunition depots in Donbass. In Mikolaiv, Russian rockets destroyed a mobile anti-drone defense system near the town of Hannivka, some 100 kilometers northeast of Mikolaiv, the Russian news agency Sputnik reported.
Attacks on Severodonetsk grow
For days the hostilities in the Donbass have focused on Severodonetskin the Luhansk province, which is “virtually surrounded” by Russian forces, according to its authorities. Industrial Severodonetsk is one of the few major Donbass cities still under Ukrainian control, as well as its twin city of Lisichansk, separated from each other by the Siversky Donets River.
The governor of Luhansk, Sergei GaidaiHe said this Sunday that Russian troops tried to attack Severodonetsk from four directions in the last hours. Gaidai said on the Telegram messaging app that the attempts were unsuccessful, but artillery attacks on residential areas continued, adding that a bridge linking the city with neighboring Lisichansk had been destroyed.
Russia took a big step in its goal of capturing Donbass last month by conquer the southern port city of Mariupol, at the southern end of Donetsk, on the Sea of Azov. Two days ago, Russia declared the “total liberation” of Mariupol after the surrender of the last Ukrainian soldiers in the city, entrenched for weeks in the underground tunnels and bunkers of a large metallurgical plant. Since last week, a total of 2,439 refugee fighters at the Azovstal steel mill have surrendered to Russian troops.of which are now prisoners of war.
Russia ready to resume negotiations
Russia said it is ready to continue talks with Ukraine, which were frozen by kyiv a month and a half ago after the fighting in Mariupol intensified and images of Bucha came to light. The head of the negotiations on the part of Moscow, Vladimir Medinskywas the one who communicated the Russian will to resume dialogue, according to the Tass agency.
“For our part, we are ready to continue the dialogue. The freezing of the talks was completely an initiative of Ukraine,” Medinsky said, considering that “the ball is in the court” in kyiv. The last round of face-to-face talks between the delegates from both countries took place in Istanbul, Turkey, on March 29.
Ukraine asks for more weapons
For your part Ukrainewhich hopes that the arrival of more Western weapons will help it balance forces with Russia and even allow it to go on the counteroffensive, reiterated this Sunday its refusal to make concessions to Moscow. “Negotiate with a country that has taken millions of people hostage? We have a better idea: the world must agree to supply Ukraine with self-propelled multiple rocket launchers and other heavy weaponry to unblock the Black Sea“he wrote on Twitter Mikhail Podolyakadviser to the presidency of Ukraine.
Podolyak, who participated in the talks with Russia in the first weeks of the conflict, thus commented on the suggestions of the American press that kyiv negotiate with Moscow the release of the Black Sea ports. Last week, Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Andrei Rudenko linked the release of Ukrainian ports to the lifting of sanctions on Russian exports.
President Zelensky, who accuses Russia of stealing Ukrainian wheat from regions occupied by its troops, said that the Russian blockade has immobilized 22 million tons of grain. “We have to unblock that path because there is a food crisis. It can be done in different ways and one of them is the military. That is why we ask our partners for the necessary weapons for it,” said the Ukrainian president.
Faced with the continuity of the Russian attack launched on February 24, Sweden and Finland are still trying to move forward (after decades of military non-alignment) with their decision to join NATOwhose only current obstacle is the rejection of Turkey.