Updated on 4/30/2022 at 11:52 p.m
- Russian forces have been heavily bombing eastern Ukraine.
- In Odessa, the airport runway was apparently destroyed.
- More bodies with signs of torture were discovered near Bucha.
According to Ukrainian sources, more civilian bodies with signs of torture were found not far from the Kiev suburb of Bucha. Russian soldiers tortured the three men before they died, wrote the police chief of the Kiev region, Andriy Nebytov, on Saturday Facebook. Parallel to new Russian attacks and a confusing battle situation in the east of the Ukraine the USA started training Ukrainian soldiers on German soil, among other places. According to Russian news agencies, 25 people have been evacuated from the besieged Azovstal steelworks in the port city of Mariupol.
The bodies of the civilians were buried in a forest near the village of Myrozke and were only discovered on Friday, police chief Njebytow reported. They had gunshot wounds to their ears and some were tied and gagged.
Shortly after the withdrawal of Russian troops almost a month ago, in Bouscha Findings of hundreds of civilians killed caused horror around the world. Ukraine throws Russia war crimes and targeted massacres of defenseless people. Moscow Strongly denies responsibility for the deaths of civilians in Bucha and other Ukrainian regions.
Ukraine War: Negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow make no progress
While negotiations between Ukraine and Russia are sluggish, the fighting continues with all severity. Both sides reported military successes in the fiercely contested east of the country. The Russian side said it hit more than 380 Ukrainian military objects, about four ammunition dumps and a fuel depot. In addition, 120 Ukrainian fighters were “destroyed”. According to Ukrainian sources, a Russian rocket attack has destroyed the runway at the airport in the port city of Odessa.
The Ukrainian side claimed to have destroyed 11 tanks, 9 drones and 7 artillery systems. The Ukrainian army also blew up a railway bridge in the Donetsk region, as the “Ukrajinska Pravda” wrote. A Russian freight train was hit. According to the Russian account, the Ukraine is said to have also attacked the Russian region of Kursk near the border with grenades. Again and again targets in Russia near the border had been fired at.
Also read: All current information on the war in Ukraine in the live ticker
Die USA are now training Ukrainian soldiers in Germany on howitzers and other heavy artillery. The US Secretary of Defense spokesman confirmed that the training of the soldiers on German soil had already begun. The Ukrainian military is trained at several locations outside of Ukraine.
Ukraine and Russia exchange prisoners
According to reports by the Russian news agencies Tass and Ria Novosti, 25 civilians, including six children, have been evacuated from the besieged Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol. The information could not be independently verified. According to Ukrainian information, around 1,000 civilians are said to be trapped in the bunkers of the steelworks. Russia, on the other hand, speaks of around 2,500 Ukrainian fighters and foreign mercenaries who are also said to have holed up there.
In the case of a renewed exchange of prisoners with Russia, there are no details Kyiv According to Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk, 14 Ukrainians were released – seven civilians and seven soldiers. There was no confirmation from the Russian side. According to Vereshchuk, around 1,000 Ukrainian civilians and 700 military personnel are in Russian captivity. Ukraine took around 700 Russian soldiers as prisoners of war. Since the Russian war of aggression against the neighboring country began on February 24, Moscow and Kyiv have exchanged prisoners several times.
In an interview with the Chinese news agency Xinhua, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused the Western military alliance of preventing the end of the “special operation” – as Moscow calls the Russian war of aggression that has been going on for more than two months – through arms deliveries and political agreements. The talks were hampered by “militant rhetoric and inflammatory actions by Western supporters of Kyiv.”
Lavrov: “Don’t play with nuclear war”
Lavrov warned on the Arabic-language channel Al-Arabiya that Russia knows the routes through which Ukraine receives weapons from the West. The weapons should now become a target “once they reach the territory of Ukraine”. But he also said that Russia does not see itself at war with NATO. His country is not threatening nuclear weapons, Western media exaggerated on this subject. “We are not ‘playing’ with nuclear war,” he said.
The war in Ukraine was also the focus of party conferences of the CSU in Würzburg and the Greens in Düsseldorf. CSU boss Markus Söder accused Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and the traffic light coalition of a hesitant attitude. “Germany has been making an embarrassing figure for weeks,” he criticized. CSU General Secretary Stephan Mayer said of Scholz that in this situation a captain was needed “and not just an ordinary seaman”. With an application in Düsseldorf, the Greens support more money for the Bundeswehr and the delivery of heavy weapons to Ukraine – but they reject NATO’s two percent target for arms spending. Party leader Omid Nouripour had previously promised: “We will always remain a peace party.”
According to media reports, the CDU chairman Friedrich Merz wants to travel to the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Monday. (mt/dpa)
Updated on 04/30/2022 at 13:40
Explosions continue to be heard at the Azovstal Steelworks. The people of Mariupol are trying to come to terms with their devastated city.