MYKOLAIV | France said on Friday it was ready to help lift the blockade of the Ukrainian port of Odessa, in order to unblock the cereals at the origin of a world food crisis, as deadly fighting continued in the south and the east. east of Ukraine.
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“We are at the disposal of the parties so that, basically, an operation is put in place which would allow access to the port of Odessa in complete safety, that is to say to be able to allow boats to pass despite the fact that the sea is mined,” said an adviser to President Emmanuel Macron.
These statements come as Mr. Macron received Senegalese President Macky Sall, also president of the African Union, on Friday. Mr. Sall had called on Thursday for the demining of the port of Odessa, and indicated that he had received assurances from President Vladimir Putin that the Russians would not take advantage of it to attack, as the Ukrainians fear.
“Navigation is blocked in the Black Sea and enemy ships are holding almost the entire Ukrainian territory under the threat of missile strikes”, explained the Ukrainian operational command of the Southern region, on the night of Friday to Saturday, noting that , “failing to advance on land, the enemy tests the strength of our positions (on the front lines) with bombardments from the air with helicopters”.
The Russian invasion launched on February 24 paralyzed grain exports from Ukraine – a major player in this sector – and caused a spike in grain and fertilizer prices, threatening a food crisis in many countries, especially in Africa and middle easterners.
The French president is due to travel to Romania and Moldova on Tuesday and Wednesday, pending a visit to Ukraine, the date of which has not yet been set, according to the Elysee.
For his part, US President Joe Biden said Friday that his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky “did not want to hear” American warnings before Russia invaded his country.
“A lot of people thought I was exaggerating” when I talked regarding a Russian attack on Ukraine before it started, Biden said.
“But I knew that we had information in this direction. (Russian President Vladimir Putin) was going to cross the border. There was no doubt and Zelensky did not want to hear it,” he added in front of reporters.
Ukrainian bombardment of Kherson
On the ground, Ukrainian forces said on Friday that they had bombed Russian positions in the Kherson region (south) – almost all of which has been occupied since the first days of the invasion –. kyiv fears a rapid annexation by Moscow.
For several days, the Ukrainians have reported fighting in this region.
The Ukrainian operational command said that a reconnaissance group infiltrated in this occupied territory had defeated Russian troops, “seizing their weapons and means of communication”.
The local authorities put in place by Moscow are loudly calling for annexation. A Russian negotiator mentioned on June 1 the forthcoming organization – perhaps in July – of a referendum in the occupied territories on this question.
A project described as “illegal” by kyiv and which recalls the referendum organized by Russia in Crimea in 2014, before annexing the Ukrainian peninsula in stride.
The fighting is also intense in the region of Mykolaiv, close to Odessa.
“The Russians are targeting us with heavy artillery, whether in town or in the villages,” Vitali Kim, governor of this region, told AFP, while welcoming that the Russians have retreated in recent days. “They won’t come back, we won’t let them come back,” he said.
Constant strikes on Severodonetsk
In the Donbass, the battle for the key city of Severodonetsk and its twin Lyssytchansk continues, increasingly deadly.
In his usual daily evening message, Mr. Zelensky reported “very heavy fighting” in the Donbass.
“Russia wants to devastate every city in Donbass, every one, without exaggeration. Like Volnovakha, like Mariupol,” he noted.
“The Ukrainian military is doing everything to stop the attacks of the occupiers, as much as possible with as many heavy weapons and modern artillery” as Ukraine has, “everything we asked and we continue to ask our partners,” he said.
But the fighting continues in Severodonetsk and the shelling is constant, said Friday Serguiï Gaïdaï, governor of the region.
Taking Severodonetsk would open up Moscow’s route to another major city, Kramatorsk, an important step in conquering the entire Donbass basin, a predominantly Russian-speaking region in eastern Ukraine, partly held by pro-Russian separatists since 2014.
The battle is particularly deadly, with “up to 100 Ukrainian soldiers” killed and 500 injured every day, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiï Reznikov said Thursday. The Russians say nothing regarding their losses.
Drip heavy weapons
Ukraine might however take back Severodonetsk “in two, three days”, as soon as it has Western artillery “of long range”, had assured Thursday Mr. Gaïdaï.
The Ukrainians keep asking their Western allies for new, more powerful weapons.
The delivery of multiple rocket launcher systems, including Himars with a range of regarding 80 km, slightly greater than Russian systems, was announced by Washington and London.
In this context, British Defense Minister Ben Wallace made an unannounced two-day visit to Kyiv. President Zelensky thanked him for London’s leading role in Western support for Ukraine.
“The British are showing real leadership in defense matters,” insisted the Ukrainian president in his evening message.
Sentenced to death
Mr. Wallace’s visit comes the day following the announcement by the authorities of the pro-Russian separatist “republic” of Donetsk of the death sentence for mercenary charges of two Britons and a Moroccan who fought on the Ukrainian side – Aiden Aslin, Shaun Pinner and Brahim Saadoun.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is “appalled” by the sentence, Downing Street said on Friday, saying he is working with Kyiv for their release.
“Clearly they were serving in the Ukrainian Armed Forces and are prisoners of war” and not mercenaries, Mr Johnson’s spokesman said.
On the 107th day of the war, the heads of state of nine countries of central and eastern Europe (Romania, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Slovakia) also met on Friday in Bucharest, to call for a reinforcement of NATO’s eastern flank, less than three weeks before an Alliance summit in Madrid.
“In the face of heightened security risks in Romania and the Black Sea, consolidating NATO on its eastern flank (…) becomes all the more urgent and crucial,” Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said as he opened the meeting. co-chaired by her Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda.
