The Russian offensive continues on eastern and southern Ukraine on the 67th day of fighting. Since the beginning of the Russian invasion, thousands of civilians have been killed in Ukraine and millions displaced. For its part, Moscow has announced an official death toll of a thousand soldiers. Ukraine claims that Russia’s losses are much higher. And they could still get heavier when Moscow has no intention of ending the war by May 9, the symbolic date that had been mentioned for the end of the conflict.
In Mariupol, a completely besieged and destroyed city, a humanitarian corridor has finally allowed civilians entrenched in the Azovstal factory to begin to evacuate since Saturday April 30, they will be able to continue to use the humanitarian corridor this Monday morning, while the bombardments resumed on the port city.
- The war will not end on May 9
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov refuted the hypothesis, raised by analysts, according to which the war would end on May 9, the date commemorating in Russia the capitulation of Nazi Germany in 1945.
“Our military will not artificially adjust their actions to any date, including Victory Day,” Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with Italian TV Mediaset broadcast on Sunday (May 1). “The pace of the operation in Ukraine depends, above all, on the need to minimize any risk to the civilian population and the Russian military.”
Every year, a military parade marks the end of World War II on this day and is the most important celebration in Russia. This year, in the backdrop of the celebrations, complex challenges await Vladimir Putin and his offensive in Ukraine, which the president justified by affirming in particular that this country should be “denazified”.
- Evacuation of civilians from Mariupol continues
The continuation of the evacuations of residents of Mariupol is scheduled for Monday, May 2 in the morning, after a first operation which removed a hundred civilians from the Azovstal factory, besieged by Russian forces in this strategic port in the south-east of Ukraine. “On May 2, the evacuation in Mariupol begins at 7 a.m. Collection point – ‘Port City’ shopping center”, announced on Telegram Pavlo Kirilenko, regional governor of Donetsk, on the night of Sunday to Monday.
This evacuation operation began on Saturday and was carried out in coordination between Ukraine, Russia and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). It first concerned civilians present in the basements of the huge Azovstal steelworks.
“Today, for the first time since the beginning of the war, this vital humanitarian corridor began to function. For the first time, there were two days of real ceasefire in this territory” of the steel complex , Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video message on Sunday evening. “At last!”
“More than a hundred civilians have already been evacuated, first of all women and children,” the president said, adding that the first evacuees would arrive in Zaporizhia, a town west of Mariupol, on Monday morning. Volodymyr Zelensky added “hope that the conditions will be met to continue the evacuations from Mariupol”.
- Russian shelling resumed in Mariupol
Especially since the Russian bombardments seemed to resume, according to Denis Schlega, commander of the 12th Operational Brigade of the Ukrainian National Guard. “For the past two days, during the operation to get civilians out of the factory there has been an announcement of a ceasefire… two days of calm, but once the last civilian has left the ‘factory, which literally happened an hour ago, the bombardment of the factory started again with all types of weapons,’ he said in the wake of the evacuation in a video broadcast to Ukrainian television.
Thousands of civilians had been able to leave since the start of the war on February 24 Mariupol, a port city populated before the war by half a million inhabitants and now under Russian control after weeks of bombardment which almost entirely destroyed destroyed and left at least 20,000 dead, according to the Ukrainians.
But this is the first time, after multiple failed attempts despite the intercession of foreign officials and Pope Francis, that civilians entrenched in the Azovstal complex, the last pocket of Ukrainian resistance crushed by Russian bombs, have been able to to go out.
New satellite images from Maxar Technologies taken on April 29 showed that almost all the buildings of the huge steel complex had been destroyed by the bombardments, with Ukrainian soldiers and civilians holed up in the many underground galleries dating from Soviet times. , attacked according to kyiv with armor-piercing bombs of very high power.
Eight civilians were killed Sunday in bombings in the Kharkiv and Donetsk regions, including four in the town of Lyman alone, close to the front and under the direct threat of the Russian advance, regional governors announced.
“Russian shelling in the Donetsk region: four civilians killed, all from Lyman,” Donetsk region governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said on Telegram, adding that seven civilians were injured in this city from where the Ukrainian army recently had to fold.
A senior Ukrainian military official underlined “the difficult situation” in the east of the country, particularly in the regions of Izium and Sieverodonetsk, “where the enemy has concentrated most of its efforts and its most prepared troops for fight”.
- Russians open Zaporizhia nuclear power plant
In the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, in Russian hands and which AFP was able to visit during a press trip organized by the Russian army, the new pro-Moscow mayor of Energodar, Andrei Shevtchik, trumpeted that ” Here, everything is fine !”. “We are ready to sell electricity to Europe. Any buyer is welcome. It’s very cheap!”, Added the new city councilor.
The facade of a large administrative building that served as a staff training center is blackened by flames and many windows are shattered.
Last week, the International Atomic Energy Agency deemed the situation at the Zaporizhjia power station “worrying”, to which its experts have not had access since it was taken over by Moscow. The plant “is operating normally, in accordance with nuclear, radioactive and environmental standards”, however, assures on the spot Major-General Valéri Vasiliev, specialist in nuclear and chemical questions, dispatched by Moscow to secure the site.
- EU finalizes phased embargo on Russian oil
The West has multiplied the sanctions, and their effects are beginning to be felt in Russia, with high inflation and the risk of shortages, particularly in industry.
The European Union is finalizing a gradual halt to its purchases of oil and petroleum products from Russia to sanction the war in Ukraine and will announce a timetable and new measures this week, several European sources said on Sunday.
“There is a political will to stop oil purchases from Russia and we will have measures and a decision on a phased withdrawal next week,” said a European official involved in the discussions.