© KEYSTONE/EPA/ROMAN PILIPEY
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russia of wanting to “destroy” the entire eastern region of Donbass. He promised that everything would be done to defend him, starting with Mariupol where the encircled soldiers are called upon to fight “until the end”.
“Russian soldiers are preparing for an offensive in the east of our country in the near future. They literally want to complete and destroy the Donbass,” Zelensky said in a video message on Sunday.
“Just as the Russian military is destroying Mariupol, they want to destroy other cities and other communities in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions”, he continued, before launching: “we are doing everything to ensure the defense “.
“Sabotage the occupiers’ orders. Do not cooperate with them (…) You must stand your ground,” he said, adding to Westerners that “the need for an embargo on the delivery of oil from Russia is needed every day”.
“Deliberate Terror”
In the east, the Russian Defense Ministry assured Sunday that “high-precision missiles had destroyed fuel and ammunition warehouses” in Barvinkove (Izium region) and Dobropillia (not far from Donetsk).
“The constant bombardment of the region (of Lugansk) continues”, at the same time deplored its Ukrainian governor, Serguiï Gaïdaï. The locality of “Zolote was hard hit today. They deliberately targeted a five-storey building (…) Two people were killed and five injured”.
In this context, the Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister announced the suspension of the humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of civilians from the eastern part of Ukraine, for lack of agreement with the Russian army on a cessation of firing.
But Serguiï Gaïdaï, nevertheless urged civilians to evacuate the area. “Next week may be difficult,” he warned. Now “this may be the last time we have a chance to save you” by leaving the combat zones, hammered the governor on Facebook.
Further north, in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city, at least five people died on Sunday and 20 others were injured in a series of Russian strikes, noted regional governor Oleg Sinegoubov. “Only in the past four days, 18 people have been killed and 106 injured” in the bombardments on this city, for his part noted Mr. Zelensky, castigating a “deliberate terror”.
AFP journalists on the spot heard two shellings and saw five fires spreading in the residential areas of central Kharkiv.
“A lot of civilians” in the Azovstal complex
Ignoring the ultimatum from Russia, which had asked the last Ukrainian soldiers present in Mariupol to lay down their arms on Sunday, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Chmygal assured that the resistance would continue.
“No, the city has not fallen. Our military forces, our soldiers are still there. They will fight until the end. As I speak to you, they are still in Mariupol,” he said. on the American television channel ABC.
Moscow had asked the last Ukrainian fighters, entrenched in the Azovstal metallurgical complex, to stop the fighting in the morning and to evacuate the premises at midday.
“All those who have given up their arms will be guaranteed to have their lives saved,” the Russian Defense Ministry had promised on Telegram. “It’s their only chance.”
A Mariupol police official, Mykhailo Vershynin, assured Sunday that “many civilians including women, children, babies and the elderly” were entrenched in the Azovstal complex. “These people protect themselves from the bombardments because there is a shelter there which gives a chance of survival for a certain time,” he said in a recording broadcast on Youtube. “They don’t trust the Russians. They have seen what is happening in the city and that is why they are in the factory.”
In the early morning of Sunday, the Ukrainian General Staff reported Russian airstrikes on Mariupol and mentioned “assault operations near the port”, without further details.
The capture of this city would be an important victory for the Russians because it would allow them to consolidate their coastal territorial gains along the Sea of Azov by linking the Donbass region, partly controlled by their supporters, to the Crimea that Moscow has annexed in 2014.
“Inhuman situation”
For Volodymyr Zelensky, “the situation in Mariupol remains as serious as it can be. Simply inhuman”. He believes that there are only “two options”: either the Westerners immediately deliver heavy weapons to help him lift the siege of this city inhabited by 441,000 people before the start of the Russian offensive on February 24 , or they help him to obtain a cessation of the fighting through negotiation.
“There is no food, no water, no medicine” in Mariupol, he got carried away with the media, accusing Moscow of “refusing” the establishment of humanitarian corridors.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk, for her part, demanded on Sunday the opening of an evacuation route for the wounded soldiers who are still there.
According to the executive director of the World Food Program David Beasley, more than 100,000 civilians are on the verge of starvation in Mariupol, also lacking heating.
The kyiv region targeted
In the kyiv region, the Russian Defense Ministry announced on Sunday that it fired high-precision missiles at an ammunition factory near Brovary.
The mayor of this locality Igor Sapojko affirmed that “some elements of infrastructure had been affected” in the early hours of the day.
Over the past three days, Russian forces have carried out several strikes on military factories in the capital region, following the downing of the cruiser Moskva in the Black Sea.
Putin “believes he is winning the war”
According to Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer, who met Vladimir Putin on Monday in Moscow, the Russian president is “now in his own logic of war” and “believes that he is winning the war”.
For his part, the head of the Italian government Mario Draghi regretted on Sunday the apparent ineffectiveness of the “dialogue” with the master of the Kremlin, noting that these contacts did not prevent the “horror” from continuing in Ukraine.
Speaking like MM. Nehammer and Draghi to a media – in this case CNN -, Mr. Zelensky meanwhile said he invited Emmanuel Macron to visit his country to see that the Russian forces are committing “genocide”, a term that his French counterpart has so far refused to employ.
Ukraine “martyred”
Pope Francis, for his part, called on leaders to “hear the people’s cry for peace” in this “Easter of war”, again evoking “martyred” Ukraine.
In Kramatorsk (east), about forty faithful, mostly women, attended the Svyato-Pokrovsky Orthodox Church at the Palm Sunday liturgy, noted an AFP journalist.
In Lviv, a city in western Ukraine relatively spared from the fighting, the faithful also celebrated this religious holiday.
Holding a bouquet of willows and wheat tied with a blue and yellow ribbon, the colors of the Ukrainian flag, Natalia Borysiuk, a 29-year-old woman who works in the information technology sector, on this occasion prayed for “the peace and victory”.