The military operation which was supposed to last only 48 hours in Ukraine drags on. 52 days after the invasion of Russian troops in the neighboring country, the situation is still tense. Despite the withdrawal from the kyiv region to focus on Donbass, the Russian army has warned that it will intensify strikes against the capital in retaliation for attacks on its soil of which it accuses Ukraine. It thus targeted a missile manufacturing plant on Friday April 15 and a military equipment factory on Saturday April 16. Moreover, the threat of the use of nuclear weapons by the Kremlin is brandished by kyiv and Washington who fear an aggravation of the conflict.
- Russia claims to have targeted a military factory in kyiv
A military equipment factory manufacturing tanks in particular was targeted this Saturday morning by a bombardment in the suburbs of kyiv, noted an AFP journalist. This bombing, claimed by Moscow, comes the day after Russian forces warned that they were going to intensify their attacks on the Ukrainian capital.
“High-precision, long-range air-to-surface weapons destroyed production buildings of an arms factory in kyiv,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement on Telegram. On the scene, a large number of soldiers and police were present on the spot, preventing access to the complex, from which smoke was billowing. The mayor of kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, indicated on Facebook that he had no information on the potential victims at this stage. “In the morning kyiv was shelled. Explosions sounded in the Darnytsky district on the outskirts of the city. Rescuers and medics are currently working on the spot,” he wrote.
- Retaliation after the loss of the Russian ship “Moskva”
On Friday, a Russian strike this time hit a factory in the kyiv region, manufacturing Neptune anti-ship missiles that the Ukrainian army claimed to have used to hit the Russian cruiser “Moskva”. The 186-meter-long missile ship was hit by two Ukrainian missiles, the Pentagon said.
A Ukrainian military official further claimed that, contrary to what Russia said, her crew – around 500 men according to available data – could not be saved. Russia, according to which this building was “severely damaged” by a fire and the explosion of its own ammunition then sank during its tow, maintained that the crew had been evacuated.
“We are fully aware that we will not be forgiven” for the destruction of the “Moskva” and therefore this blow to Moscow’s “imperial ambitions”, added the spokeswoman for the military command of southern Ukraine, Natalia Goumenyuk . “We are aware that the attacks against us will intensify, that the enemy will take revenge, that there will be missile attacks and artillery bombardments,” she continued.
- Ukraine fears nuclear attack
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday that “the whole world” should be “worried” about the risk that his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, cornered by his military setbacks in Ukraine, may resort to a tactical nuclear weapon. He echoed the statements to this effect of the head of American foreign intelligence William Burns who had estimated the day before that such a threat should not be “taken lightly”.
In this context, Berlin announced on Friday that it was ready to release more than one billion euros in military aid for Ukraine. The German government is thus seeking to respond to the growing criticism from the Ukrainian authorities, but also from some of its partners in the European Union, concerning its apparent lack of support in terms of armaments in kyiv, and even its complacency with regard to Moscow.
In a video message, Volodymyr Zelensky said to Westerners: “You can make the war much shorter. The faster and more of the weapons we have requested, the stronger our position and the more soon peace will come”. During a telephone conversation with the Chief of the American Defense Staff Mark Milley, his Ukrainian counterpart Valery Zaluzhny also insisted on the urgent need for weapons and ammunition to strengthen Ukraine’s defense capabilities, according to a statement.
- Moscow threatens Washington with ‘consequences’
Russia sent a formal complaint to the United States this week warning the US government of “unforeseeable consequences” following its sharply increased military aid to Ukraine, according to press reports. According to this diplomatic note, Moscow warns Washington and NATO against sending “more sensitive” weapons to Ukraine, judging that such military equipment put “fuel on the fire” and could cause “consequences unpredictable,” reported the washington post.
On the ground, Russia had set the tone on Friday morning. “The number and scale of missile strikes on Kyiv sites will increase in response to all terrorist-type attacks and sabotage carried out on Russian territory by the nationalist regime in Kyiv,” the Russian Defense Ministry warned. .
An official of the Russian National Defense Center, Mikhail Mizintsev, said in a statement that the authorities in kyiv were preparing a “new monstrous provocation” to accuse the Russian armed forces of having committed war crimes.
- Strikes in the Donbass
In the largest region of Donbass, that of Donetsk, where “fighting is taking place on the entire front line”, three people were killed and seven injured, the Ukrainian presidency said. The other region of this mining basin, that of Lugansk, was the scene of 24 bombings which left two dead and two wounded, according to the same source.
On the night of Friday to Saturday, the mayor of the city of Aleksandria, about 300 km southeast of kyiv, said on Facebook that a Russian missile had hit the airport of his city. He said that the rescue teams were at work but without immediately claiming any victims.
Russia, whose announced massive offensive in the Donbass has still not started, is however struggling to take complete control of Mariupol. It is in this strategic port city in the south-east that the heaviest human toll of the war could be recorded at this stage. The Ukrainian authorities spoke of some 20,000 dead.
- Five million refugees
More than five million people have fled Ukraine since the Russian invasion began on February 24, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. “War is everywhere,” lamented Friday on Rai, Italian public radio and television, Pope Francis, who had unsuccessfully asked for an Easter truce in Ukraine.