On the 427th day of the war in Ukraine, the weapons are piling up. On the side of the occupied territories, first. Russia has erected 800 kilometers of trenches, anti-tank ditches, barriers, and men. Moscow is preparing for kyiv to try to regain ground, when the mud that had brought the fighting to a standstill has completely dried. Volodymyr Zelensky no longer hides his desire to counter-attack. As he spoke “peace” with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Wednesday, he received his last shipments from the West. According to NATO, most of the armored vehicles requested have arrived. The counter-offensive that will not be long in coming.
Russian missile kills in Mykolaiv
A Russian missile killed one person and injured more than a dozen in the early hours of Thursday in Mykolaiv, a city in southern Ukraine, authorities said. “Around 1 a.m. (2200 GMT), the residents of Mykolaiv heard four loud explosions,” the city’s mayor, Oleksandr Senkevich, said on Telegram. “We already know that one of the missiles hit a high building. Another hit a detached house.” He added that some homes in the city were without power.
“So far, we know of 15 wounded and one dead,” said Vitaliy Kim, head of the regional military administration.
98% of combat vehicles have arrived
According to General Christopher G. Cavoli, head of the American forces within NATO, most of the motorized vehicles promised to Ukraine in its last months to enable it to carry out its counter-offensive have arrived. “The Ukrainians are in a good position,” he told the New York Times. Several Western countries had announced the granting of Abrams, Challenger 2, Leopard 2 tanks and long-range rockets.
Washington, Paris and Brussels welcome Xi Jinping-Zelensky exchange
A first, hailed in the West. On Wednesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Main topic of conversation? “Peace”, defended by China. “Dialogue and negotiation” are the “only way out” of the ongoing conflict with Russia, said the Chinese head of state on television when asked about the exchange. And to promise that his country would not seek to “take advantage” of this “crisis”.
Washington, yet an enemy of China, has, like Paris, welcomed this conversation, qualifying it as a “good thing”, while saying “ignore for the moment” if this “could lead to an initiative, a proposal or a plan of serious peace”. For his part, the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell welcomed an “important first step”. “It is very important that China speaks to Ukraine. I want to remind that we all want peace […] But everyone has to understand that it doesn’t have to be just any “peace,” he added.
Russia, for its part, “acknowledged” Beijing’s desire to “strive to set up a negotiation process” between Moscow and Kiev but sharply accused Ukraine of “undermining peace initiatives” by his refusal to dialogue with her and reproached her for “rejecting any sensible initiative aimed at a political and diplomatic settlement of the crisis”.
Russia is (still) pushing the wheat deal
Will the wheat agreement be extended, as planned? Signed in July to allow the export of Russian and Ukrainian cereals to the Black Sea and avoid rising prices and famines in the world, the text, which must be renewed on May 19, is suspended at the discretion of Russia. Moscow wants the West to release its fertilizers, subject to an embargo and other sanctions, in exchange for an extension.
“So far, we don’t see any progress,” Russian Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva Gennady Gatilov, a former deputy foreign minister, told a press conference on Wednesday. “We appreciate the efforts of the UN, the UN is trying to do its best,” the ambassador stressed, “but so far we have only seen promises.”
The reconnection to the Swift international banking system of the Russian bank specializing in agriculture, Rosselkhozbank, is part of Moscow’s demands. However, AFP was able to confirm on Wednesday from a source familiar with the matter that US authorities had given JPMorgan bank permission to make payments to Rosselkhozbank to allow exports of Russian grain and food.
A journalist and his fixer killed
A Ukrainian journalist employed as a fixer by the Italian daily La Repubblica was killed by sniper fire in southern Ukraine, while his Italian colleague was injured, the newspaper said on Wednesday. “Our correspondent Corrado Zunino and his fixer Bogdan Bitik fell into an ambush by Russian snipers today in the suburbs of Kherson, in southern Ukraine,” the daily reported.