Fighting continues in eastern Ukraine, Mariupol evacuation delayed

The Russian offensive continues with heavy fighting in the donbas this Monday, a day in which the expected evacuation of civilians from the city of Mariupol was delayed as the European Union outlined a plan to impose a progressive embargo on Moscow crude.

A hundred people were evacuated over the weekend from the huge Azovstalthe last stronghold of Ukrainian resistance in that place in the region of donbaswhich is almost entirely under Russian control.

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Two UN armored SUVs and other international NGO vehicles, as well as journalists, were waiting for them on the outskirts of Zaporizhiaa city located about 200 km to the northwest and still under Ukrainian control, where there is a refugee reception center, according to AFP.

A second evacuation was expected on Monday, but in the afternoon there was still no sign of movement.

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Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk stated that “hundreds of civilians are still trapped.”

A family of internally displaced persons stands next to a bus after arriving from the frontline city of Orikhiv, at the evacuation point in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, on May 02, 2022. (EFE/EPA/ROMAN PILIPEY).

Around May 9

Since the beginning of the Russian invasion on February 24, thousands of civilians have fled Mariupol, where Ukrainian authorities believe that between 100,000 and 120,000 people still remain.

In this city, which before the war had a population of half a million inhabitants, the kyiv authorities fear that 20,000 people have died since the beginning of the harsh siege by Russian troops, which left this port reduced to rubble.

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Now Moscow is concentrating its efforts on the southern and eastern part of the country, in particular the Donbas region, after failing to take the capital kyiv in the first weeks of the war.

The fighting is especially intense around Izium, Lyman, and Rubijné, positions that the Russians are trying to take to “prepare their attack on Severodonetsk”, one of the main Donbas cities still controlled by kyiv, the Ukrainian General Staff said on Monday.

“The situation in the Luhansk region can be described in a few words: heavy fighting is still going on,” Ukraine’s Defense Ministry warned.

As May 9 approaches, the date Russia commemorates victory over Nazi Germany in 1945, the governor of the Lugansk region said he expected “an intensification of bombing.”

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But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov appeared to dismiss that idea. “Our military will not artificially adjust their actions to any date,” he said in an interview with Italy’s Mediaset television channel on Sunday.

The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense also estimated that it is possible that Russia will take the opportunity to “raise the question” of an integration of the “republics” self-proclaimed by the pro-Russian separatists in Donbas to the Russian Federation, after Moscow recognized their independence in eve of the invasion.

The evacuation operation in Mariupol. (AFP).

The Ukrainians also pointed out that Russia may announce the holding of a referendum in the Kherson region, in southern Ukraine, very close to the Crimean peninsula, which was annexed by Moscow after a popular consultation in 2014, within the framework of the conflict. with the pro-Russian separatists.

Russia has sought to gain a foothold in areas under its control, and the Russian currency, the ruble, began circulating in the Kherson region on Sunday, initially alongside the Ukrainian hryvnia.

But Ukrainian forces have also recaptured some territory in recent days, and on Monday they said their drones had sunk two Russian patrol boats near Snake Island in the Black Sea, a symbol of Ukrainian resistance after a group of border guards rejected in April the call to surrender launched from a Russian ship.

Meanwhile, the Russian foreign minister caused controversy after being questioned about the statement that his country seeks to “denazify” Ukraine, taking into account that the Ukrainian president is Jewish, for his response in which he stated that Hitler “had Jewish blood.”

His Israeli counterpart called the claims “scandalous” and summoned the Russian ambassador for “explanations.”

Return of diplomats to kyiv

Meanwhile, Western powers have increased their past arms shipments to Ukraine and are slowly relocating diplomatic missions to kyiv, as many delegations have been relocated to Lviv in the country’s west.

Following the trend of several European countries, the United States hopes to return to the Ukrainian capital “before the end of the month,” Washington’s charge d’affaires Kristina Kvien announced on Monday.

For its part, the European bloc of 27 seeks to increase pressure on Russia by tightening sanctions.

Diplomatic sources told AFP that the European Union (EU) will propose a phased ban on the import of Russian oil, which accounts for 30% of crude purchases.

The energy ministers meet this Monday afternoon in Brussels to define a calendar on this issue. The European Commission, on behalf of the EU, is currently preparing the text that could be submitted to the bloc’s countries on Wednesday, according to these sources.

Several diplomats said a ban on Russian oil would be possible after a change of heart from Germany, which had resisted the move as potentially damaging to its economy.

Meanwhile, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for dialogue to stop the war, avoiding condemning the invasion during a visit to Berlin.

In almost ten weeks of war, more than 5.4 million Ukrainians have fled their country, according to the UN, and more than 7.7 million have been internally displaced, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Source: Elcomercio