The Russian offensive intensifies as the fighting drags on on the ground. In the Donbass, the fighting is particularly intense around Izium, Lyman and Rubizhne, which the Russians are trying to “take control to prepare their attack on Severodonetsk”, one of the major cities of the Donbass still controlled by kyiv, the Ukrainian general staff said on Monday. Odessa is also the target of missiles, underlining Moscow’s desire to establish a corridor from Russia to the breakaway Moldovan region of Transdniestria.
For its part, Ukraine hopes to be able to resume the evacuation of civilians from the besieged city of Mariupol on Tuesday, while British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will address the Ukrainian Parliament by videoconference, a first for a Western leader since the start of the war.
- No humanitarian convoy in Mariupol
Evacuations should resume Tuesday morning with the support of the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Mariupol, a martyr city almost conquered by the Russians after weeks of siege, announced the municipal council of this strategic port of South East.
This weekend saw the release, for the first time in two months of siege and bombing of the city, of a hundred civilians holed up in the cellars of the huge Azovstal steelworks, the last pocket of Ukrainian resistance in this strategic port in southern Donbass.
But Monday, in Zaporijjia, 200 km to the northwest, a parking lot transformed into a reception point for refugees, with two armored 4x4s from Unicef and other vehicles from international NGOs, saw no arrival. convoy coming from Mariupol.
In the evening, the Azov regiment, which participates in the defense of the steel plant, explained “that after the partial evacuation of civilians from the territory of Azovstal, the enemy continues to fire on the territory of the plant, including buildings where civilians are hiding”. According to Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk, “hundreds of civilians” remain “blocked in Azovstal”.
- Odessa again targeted by the Russians
In the south-west of Ukraine, the port of Odessa is again the Russian target, Volodymyr Zelensky having denounced Monday evening a strike on a “dormitory”, killing a teenager and injuring a 17-year-old girl. “How did these children and the dormitory threaten the Russian state? That’s how they fight,” said the Ukrainian president.
Ukrainians fear that the city is one of Russia’s targets, especially since a Russian general claimed that the Kremlin’s offensive in Ukraine was aimed at establishing a corridor from Russia to the breakaway Moldovan region of Transdniestria, which would pass through Odessa.
- Questions around May 9
The approach of May 9, the date when Russia celebrates victory over Nazi Germany in 1945, is fueling speculation about how Moscow could announce gains in Ukraine. On Monday, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense considered it possible that Moscow would take advantage of these celebrations to “raise the question” of the integration into the Russian Federation of the separatist and pro-Russian “republics” of Donbass, whose independence Moscow has recognized as just. before invading Ukraine.
In Washington, the American ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Michael Carpenter, reported “very credible” reports that Russia intends to organize “around mid-May” referendums to “attempt to annex” the pro-Russian separatist “republics” of Donetsk and Lugansk, in the Donbass.
The governor of the Lugansk region said he expected “an intensification of the shelling” as May 9 approached.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, however, denied any particular Russian military action on this occasion, in an interview with the Italian television channel Mediaset broadcast on Sunday.
- Towards new sanctions
The European Commission is expected to propose a 6th sanctions package on Tuesday that would include a timetable for phasing out Russian oil imports, which represent 30% of European Union oil imports.
If the 27 agree on this measure, the cessation of purchases of oil and petroleum products from Russia will be gradual, over six to eight months, but with measures with immediate effect, in particular a tax on transport by tankers, said a European official.
The new sanctions will also concern “the banking sector, there will be other Russian banks that will come out of Swift”, said the high representative of the EU for foreign affairs, Josep Borrell, on a visit to Panama, in reference to the system interbank system that allows you to communicate quickly and securely on transactions.
Several European diplomatic sources had indicated this weekend that the most important Russian bank, Sberbank, which represents 37% of the market, should thus be excluded from Swift.
- Boris Johnson to address Ukrainian parliament
Western allies are increasing their pressure on Moscow and their support for kyiv with, on Tuesday, a speech by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson by videoconference to the Ukrainian Parliament, a first for a Western leader since the start of the Russian invasion.
“This is your hour of glory,” he must tell Ukrainian MPs according to a Downing Street press release published Monday evening, drawing a parallel with the unity displayed by the Parliament and the British people during the Second World War. “We remember our period of great peril as our hour of glory,” he said in his scheduled speech around 10:00 a.m. (UK time, 0900 GMT).
Boris Johnson is to announce a new component of military aid worth 300 million pounds (357 million euros), including in particular defensive armament equipment. So far, the UK has supplied Ukraine with 5,000 anti-tank missiles, five anti-aircraft missile systems with over 100 missiles and 4.5 tons of explosives.
- Denmark and Sweden reopen their embassies in Kyiv
Denmark and Sweden announced on Monday the reopening of their embassies in kyiv, in a sign of support for Ukraine against the Russian invasion.
“On Wednesday the Swedish Embassy will reopen in Kyiv,” Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde wrote on Twitter. His Danish counterpart Jeppe Kofod reopened his country’s embassy in the Ukrainian capital on Monday during a surprise visit.
- Return of US diplomats expected by end of May
The return of American diplomats to kyiv, which they had left in mid-February a few days before the start of the Russian invasion, is hoped “by the end of the month” of May, the American charge d’affaires announced on Monday. Kristina Kvien.