A destroyed tank in the village of Biskvitne, near Kharkiv, on May 19, 2022 (AFP / SERGEY BOBOK)
The US Congress unblocked a gigantic $40 billion envelope for Ukraine on Thursday, as Moscow secured a symbolic victory with images of hundreds of Ukrainian fighters emerging, haggard, from the Azovstal factory in Mariupol where they were entrenched since weeks.
Six billion dollars of this new American aid should in particular allow Ukraine to equip itself with armored vehicles and strengthen its anti-aircraft defense at a time when fighting is raging in the east and south of the country. Moscow resolved to concentrate its efforts there after having failed to take kyiv and Kharkiv in the North.
The bill only has to be promulgated by President Joe Biden, who was demanding this huge budget extension to support kyiv in the new phase of the conflict, after the 14 billion dollars already released by Congress in mid-March.
The G7 finance ministers, meeting in Germany, just began on Thursday to count the billions that each country could spend quickly to support the Ukrainian economy and military effort.
The much-awaited aid by Ukraine comes as Russia announced on Thursday that nearly 800 Ukrainian soldiers entrenched in the bowels of the gigantic Azovstal steel complex had surrendered in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 1,730 since Monday.
Moscow released images showing cohorts of men in combat gear emerging, some with crutches or bandages, after a long battle that had become a symbol of Ukrainian resistance to the Russian invasion in Mariupol, a martyred city in 90% destroyed in the south-east of the country and where at least 20,000 people died, according to kyiv.
These soldiers, including 80 wounded, “made themselves prisoners”, underlined the Russian Ministry of Defense.
kyiv has not spoken of surrender and Ukrainian officials decline to comment at this stage. But President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke on Monday of an “evacuation” aimed at safeguarding the lives of these Ukrainian “heroes” through international mediation.
Implicitly confirming the version of a negotiated solution, as had been the case under the aegis of the ICRC to previously evacuate civilians from Mariupol, the UN on Thursday called on Russia and Ukraine to resume talks to “end to this war”.
“I like to believe that the fact that this cooperation has worked relatively well, in any case much better than the previous weeks, is something we can build on,” said the UN emergency chief. emergency, Martin Griffiths.
Map of the situation in Ukraine as of May 19 at 7 a.m. GMT (AFP /)
Mainly members of a unit of marine riflemen of the Ukrainian army and of the Azov regiment founded by Ukrainian nationalists, the evacuated combatants had been entrenched for several weeks in the maze of underground galleries dug during the Soviet era under the gigantic steelworks, heavily bombed by the Russians.
Pro-Russian separatist leader Denis Pushilin said on Wednesday that commanders had not yet surrendered and said there were initially “more than 2,000 people” at the site.
– “Independance War” –
In a video released on Thursday, Sviatoslav Palamar, deputy commander of the Azov regiment, confirmed that he was still in the factory with the rest of the command, refusing to reveal details of the “operation” in progress.
Their fate remains unresolved: Ukraine wants to organize an exchange of prisoners of war but Russia has made it known that it considers at least some of them not as soldiers, but as “neo-Nazi” fighters.
A Ukrainian battle tank drives in Severodonetsk, eastern Ukraine, on May 18, 2022 (AFP/Yasuyoshi CHIBA)
Despite this sequence of essentially symbolic value for Moscow, which already had almost total control of the city, President Zelensky declared Thursday that his people remained “strong, indestructible, courageous and free”, in a video marking the day of the Vychyvanka, the famous traditional Ukrainian embroidered shirt, which he wore for the occasion.
In a speech in front of students, he spoke of a “war of independence”, and considered that Russia would “probably always remain a threat”.
– “I beg your pardon” –
Sequence this time with high symbolic value for Ukraine, the first trial of a Russian soldier for war crime resumed Thursday in kyiv.
Image released by the Russian Defense Ministry on May 18, 2022, showing Ukrainian servicemen as they are searched by pro-Russian servicemen after leaving the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol (Russian Defense Ministry/Handout)
“I know you won’t be able to forgive me, but I beg your pardon,” Sergeant Vadim Chichimarine, 21 and with a youthful face, told the widow of the 62-year-old man he is accused of killing. shot down on February 28 in the north-east of Ukraine, while, his column of armored vehicles having been attacked, he tried to join his people.
Life imprisonment was requested against the young soldier, who pleaded guilty.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday called the accusations against Russian troops “fakes or staged”.
Another war crimes trial opened Thursday in northeastern Ukraine, however: that of two Russian soldiers accused of firing rockets at civilian infrastructure in the Kharkiv region.
Russian bombardments continue to cause casualties. They left 12 dead and 40 injured on Thursday in Severodonetsk, in the Lugansk region (east), according to local governor Serguiï Gaïdaï. He said most of the shots hit apartment buildings, and the death toll could rise.
An AFP team on the spot noted that this industrial city had been transformed for several days into a battlefield and crushed under artillery fire.
“I don’t know how long we can hold out,” said Nella Kachkina, 65, a retired municipal employee.
– “Fort consensus” –
Severodonetsk and Lyssytchansk constitute the last pocket of Ukrainian resistance in the Lugansk region. The Russians surround these two localities, separated by a river, and bombard them relentlessly.
According to a daily report by the Ukrainian military, “the enemy has intensified its attacks and assault attempts to improve its tactical positions” in Donbass, the Russian-speaking eastern region partially controlled since 2014 by pro-Russian separatists and whose Moscow, unable to take kyiv and the rest of the country, wants to take total control.
The Pentagon warned on Thursday that despite the successes of Ukrainian forces in the north, the Russian military was managing to tighten its grip on Donbass and the south of the country, which means the conflict could last.
Photo of the G7 big money, May 19, 2022 near Bonn, Germany (AFP / Ina Fassbender)
For the first time since the start of the war, the American and Russian chiefs of staff, generals Mark Milley and Valéri Guerassimov, spoke on the telephone on Thursday, the American Department of Defense also reported.
On the diplomatic front, President Biden received the leaders of Finland and Sweden in Washington, promising them American support the day after their application for NATO membership.
While Turkey opposes their candidacy for the moment, the head of American diplomacy said he was “very confident” to see the process unblock. “If concerns are raised by a member of the Alliance, they will receive a response”, “there will be a strong consensus to bring these two countries in”, he assured in New York.