Truce in sight at the Mariupol steelworks to evacuate civilians
As fighting continues in Ukraine, a ceasefire is due to come into effect Thursday around the Azovstal factory in Mariupol to evacuate civilians.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his daily video message that 344 people were evacuated from Mariupol on Wednesday.
AFP
A three-day unilateral Russian ceasefire is due to come into effect Thursday morning around the Mariupol steelworks, the last stronghold of Ukrainian resistance in this strategic port city, but fighting continues in the rest of Ukraine.
“The Russian armed forces will open a humanitarian corridor from 08:00 to 18:00 Moscow time (07:00 to 17:00 Swiss time) on May 5, 6 and 7 from the site of the Azovstal metallurgical plant to evacuate civilians” , the Ministry of Defense said in a statement on Wednesday evening.
“During this period, the Russian armed forces and the units of the People’s Republic of Donetsk (unilaterally proclaimed by the pro-Russian separatists, editor’s note) will cease fire and hostilities unilaterally”, he continued, assuring that the civilians having found refuge in the factory would be allowed to go to Russia or the territories controlled by kyiv.
The Ukrainian General Staff said in its daily update around 6:00 a.m. Thursday that “the Russian invaders are concentrating their efforts on blocking and trying to destroy our units in the Azovstal area. With the support of the air force, the enemy resumed the offensive to take control of the factory”.
344 civilians evacuated
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.
Hundreds of people — Ukrainian fighters and civilians — have been living since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24 in underground galleries dating from the Second World War running under the site of Azovstal copiously bombarded by Russian forces.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his daily video message that 344 people were evacuated Wednesday from Mariupol and its surroundings to Zaprorijjia, a Ukrainian-held town some 230 km away. “There are still civilians. Women, children,” he said.
The UN participated Sunday in the organization of the evacuation of a hundred civilians trapped in Azovstal. Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday called on UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres in a telephone interview to help “rescue” the wounded in these ruined facilities. A Security Council meeting devoted to Ukraine is scheduled for Thursday evening in New York.
Black gold embargo
For its part, the European Commission on Wednesday proposed a gradual embargo by the European Union on oil imported from Russia. If the European Union member states give — unanimously — the green light, “we will phase out Russian deliveries of crude oil within six months and of refined products by the end of the year”, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in Strasbourg.
According to European officials, the Commission’s plan provides for a temporary exemption for Hungary and Slovakia, two landlocked countries totally dependent on deliveries through the “Druzhba” pipeline, which will be able to continue their purchases from Russia in 2023 Budapest, however, refused to accept this project as it stands, drawing the wrath of the Ukrainian government.
“If a country opposes an embargo on Russian oil, it means one thing: this country is on the side of the Russians and it shares the responsibility for everything that is done by Russia in Ukraine”, accused the Ukrainian minister of Foreign Affairs, Dmytro Kouleba.
Oil prices soared under the effect of this embargo project: the benchmark contract for the price of a barrel of Brent from the North Sea, with expiry in July, gained 4.92% to end at 110 .14 dollars, its highest level for two and a half weeks. A barrel of US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for June delivery rose 5.27% to 107.81 dollars.
Mortal Strikes
On the ground of military operations, Russian forces continued their offensive in the east on Wednesday, while hitting numerous targets in the west, from Lviv to the hitherto unspoiled mountainous region of Transcarpathia, not far from the Hungarian border. .
In the south, explosions took place in Mykolaiv, local authorities said. “Thanks to the successful actions of the Ukrainian defenders, the enemy has lost control of several localities near the Mykolaiv and Kherson regions,” the Ukrainian general staff said Thursday morning.
And Moscow announced in the evening that its army had simulated the firing of nuclear-capable missiles in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad located between Poland and Lithuania, two member countries of the EU. Russia placed its nuclear forces on high alert shortly after sending troops to Ukraine on February 24.
Posted today at 05:48
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