After 50 days of war, annoyance rises a notch in Moscow. Russia on Wednesday threatened to strike command centers in the Ukrainian capital kyiv, accusing its enemy of firing and sabotage on Russian territory. “If such events continue, strikes will be carried out by the Russian military on decision-making centers, including in kyiv, which the Russian military has refrained from doing so far,” he said. the spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry.
Because Ukraine, for its part, is doing better than just defending itself. Authorities have claimed missile strikes on the Russian cruiser Moskva, flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. “Neptune missiles protecting the Black Sea have caused significant damage to this ship,” said the Ukrainian governor of the Odessa region (south), Maxime Marchenko.
The Moskva is “seriously damaged”, Russian state agencies admitted on Thursday. They do not evoke the Ukrainian missiles but an explosion of ammunition on board the ship, whose crew was evacuated. This is Vladimir Putin’s worst material setback since the start of the war. The Moskva had been put into service during the time of the Soviet Union in 1983 and participated in the Russian intervention in Syria from 2015. At the beginning of the invasion in Ukraine, it had been noted for its attack on the Serpents’ Island, contributing to the development of a strong Ukrainian patriotic feeling.
- New US aid of $800 million
US President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced $800 million in new military aid to Ukraine, including heavy equipment. According to the Pentagon spokesman, these are 18 M777 Howitzer guns, latest-generation artillery pieces used until recently by the American army in Afghanistan, accompanied by 40,000 155mm shells, 10 anti- AN/TPQ36 mobile artillery and two AN/MPQ64 “Sentinel” anti-aircraft radars.
This new tranche also includes 300 Switchblade “kamikaze” drones, as well as 500 Javelin missiles and “thousands of other anti-tank systems”, to which are added 200 M113 armored personnel carriers and 100 Humvee light armored vehicles.
- Ukraine is a ‘crime scene’
The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, the British Karim Khan, described Wednesday Ukraine as a “crime scene”, during a visit to Boutcha, near kyiv. “We are here because we have good reason to believe that crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court are being committed,” he said during a visit to this city where hundreds of civilians, according to the authorities. Ukrainians, were found dead after the Russian occupation.
Polish President Andrzej Duda, visiting kyiv, said Russia was not waging a simple war in Ukraine but was guilty of “terrorism” and “cruelty”.
Further east, Wednesday, “four civilians died in one day and ten others were injured” in bombardments in Kharkiv, said on Telegram Oleg Synegoubov, the governor of the region.
- Surrender of soldiers in Mariupol, according to Moscow
The Russian Ministry of Defense said Wednesday that more than a thousand Ukrainian soldiers had surrendered to Russian forces in the city of Mariupol, a strategic port besieged for several weeks. However, Ukrainian President’s military adviser Oleksiy Arestovitch said that units of the 36th brigade had joined the Azov regiment, thus regrouping Ukrainian forces in the city.
- Tension between kyiv and Berlin
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Wednesday that he did not consider, at this stage, going to kyiv as requested by the Ukrainian president. This invitation comes against a backdrop of tensions between the two countries, after Volodymyr Zelensky’s refusal on Tuesday to receive German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, criticized for his diplomacy of rapprochement with Russia when he was Minister of Angela Merkel. kyiv did not receive an “official” request from Berlin for a visit by Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Volodymyr Zelensky later reported.
- Extended sanctions on both sides
The United Kingdom has announced that it will expand the list of people sanctioned to include 178 pro-Russian separatists, but also new Russian oligarchs and their relatives, as well as the wife of the head of Russian diplomacy, Sergei Lavrov.
The authorities of Jersey, a dependency of the British crown, have announced the freezing of “assets estimated at more than 7 billion dollars suspected of being linked” to the Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich.
Moscow has finally announced on its side to sanction 398 American parliamentarians as a reprisal measure.