Apart from the bombardments in Lviv, a western city which had so far been relatively spared from the strikes, the encirclement of Cherniguiv and the takeover of Slavoutitch (160 km north of kyiv) by the Russian army, the majority of the fighting was concentrated, Saturday, March 26, in the east of the country. The Ukrainian forces have thus announced that they have regained control of the city of Trostianets (north-east). Around Donetsk and Lugansk, the two major cities of Donbass, they claim “to have inflicted significant losses on the Russian invaders”. They counted three planes shot down, eight tanks destroyed and some 170 soldiers killed on the Russian side. The Russian Ministry of Defense has reported a battle for control of two villages near Donetsk.
The Russian army has taken control of Slavoutitch, the inhabitants demonstrate
The city, located 160 km north of kyiv, is the place of residence of the personnel of the Chernobyl power plant. The Russian army took Slavoutitch and “occupied the municipal hospital”, wrote the military administration of the Kyiv region on Telegram on Saturday morning. The mayor, Yuri Fomichev, was briefly arrested, before being released in the afternoon. “I have been released, everything is fine, as far as it is possible under the occupation,” he told AFP. The city councilor, once free, spoke at an anti-Russian demonstration which brought together, according to him, nearly 5,000 people. He assured that Russian troops would withdraw from the city on Sunday.
IAEA concerned about low employee turnover at Chernobyl plant
The Chernobyl plant was taken by the Russian army on February 24, the first day of the invasion of Ukraine. On Saturday, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reiterated its concern, insisting that “there has been no turnover of employees for almost a week”, i.e. since March 20 , on the Chernobyl site. The agency is concerned about the ability of employees, who manage day-to-day operations at the radioactive waste site, to return home to rest. For nearly four weeks, a hundred Ukrainian technicians had to manage the daily operations on the radioactive waste site without being relieved.
The White House tempers Joe Biden’s remarks
During a meeting with Ukrainian refugees in Poland on Saturday, US President Joe Biden called Vladimir Putin a “butcher”. The battle “between democracy and autocracy” will be long but the United States is “on the side” of Ukraine, he declared. The American president also warned Russia, urging it not “even [penser] to advance one centimeter into NATO territory”.
If he assured that the Russian people “are not our enemy”, he scolded the master of the Kremlin: “For the love of God, this man must not remain in power.” But the White House immediately tempered Joe Biden’s comments. “What the President meant was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region. He was not talking about Putin’s power in Russia, nor about regime change,” she nuanced.
Opposite, Dmitry Peskov, the spokesperson for the Russian presidency, called on Joe Biden to remain “thoughtful” in his remarks, judging “that each time, personal insults of this kind reduce the field of possibilities for [les] bilateral relations with the current US government”.
In a new video, Zelensky calls for more weapons
“We need more armament. We must not only protect Ukraine but also the other countries of Eastern Europe, under the threat of a Russian invasion. We have made this clear during our talks with our American counterparts in Poland,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video released Saturday evening.
“What is NATO doing? Is it led by Russia? What are they waiting for?” he criticized. The ex-comedian, now a warlord, also believes that it is impossible to save Mariupol without additional tanks and planes: “Ukraine cannot shoot down Russian missiles with shotguns and machine guns.”
Auchan decides to stay in Russia
The CEO of Auchan Retail International, Frenchman Yves Claude, on Sunday defended the maintenance of the group’s activities in Russia because, according to him, “leaving would be imaginable from an economic point of view, but not from a human point of view”. “It’s easy to criticize us, but we are there, we face up and we act for the civilian population,” he said. Volodymyr Zelensky challenged the group on Wednesday, before the French Parliament, on its activity in Russia, where it employs 30,000 people and achieves 10% of its global sales.
London demands the withdrawal of its troops to lift its sanctions
If Moscow pledged to a full ceasefire and withdrew its troops, the British could lift their sanctions against Russia, UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said on Saturday. The country led by Vladimir Putin should also ensure its “commitment to no longer commit aggression” against Ukraine, she told the Sunday Telegraphspecifying that these sanctions could be reimposed in the event of a new attack.
Like other Western countries, the UK has imposed sanctions on more than 1,000 Russian or Belarusian individuals and companies in recent weeks.