38th day of war: Russian troops leave kyiv and Chernihiv regions
April 2 at 4:49 p.m. As announced a few days ago, Russian troops are gradually leaving the cities of western Ukraine to concentrate on the south and east of the country. This Saturday, April 2, Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to the Ukrainian presidency, confirmed it on a television channel: “Let us have no illusions: there are still intense battles for the south, for Mariupol, for eastern Ukraine.” Another adviser also said that the Russians are operating a “rapid withdrawal” of their forces in the kyiv and Chernihiv regions: “Given all the movements and concentrations of occupying troops, it is quite clear that the Russia has chosen another priority tactic.”
The Russian troops are therefore repositioning themselves in the south and east of Ukraine, but not only… Indeed, according to the Ukrainian authorities, Russian soldiers are currently deployed in Transnistria. It is a self-declared independent Moldovan region that lies within missile range of the port city of Odessa.
Russian soldiers allegedly contaminated after digging trenches in Chernobyl
April 1 at 5:02 p.m. Russian soldiers are said to have dug trenches in the Red Forest, around the nuclear site of Chernobyl. Only problem, highly radioactive waste was buried there, 35 years ago after the explosion of the plant. This is how soldiers would have been contaminated after being exposed to radioactive elements for too long. In addition, the movements of the tanks in the dust of the site would have played a role in the contamination of the soldiers, according to The Guardian.
Information confirmed by the journalist of the World, Faustine Vincent: “Seven medical buses carrying Russian soldiers, who had seized the Chernobyl site at the start of the offensive, were today brought to the Radiation Medicine Center in Homel, Belarus, according to Belarusian media independents,” she wrote on Twitter. According to an employee of the Chernobyl plant, young Russian soldiers would never have heard of the disaster that hit the site in 1986.
Petro Kotin, president of Energoatom, indicated at the microphone of BFM-TV, Friday, April 1: “We know that some people have developed radiation-related symptoms, but we cannot confirm this 100%. They were building fortifications in this forest, in places where the radiation levels were very high .” The International Atomic Energy Agency, meanwhile, said it was opening an investigation.
Russian oil depot bombed, Ukrainians involved
April 1 at 12:30 p.m. Did Ukraine bomb a fuel depot in Russia? This is what Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of the Belgorod region, says on Telegram: “A fire in an oil depot occurred because of an airstrike by two Ukrainian army helicopters that entered on Russian territory at low altitude.” This Friday, April 1, an oil depot was indeed the target of missile fire in Belgorod, a Russian city 40 km from the Ukrainian border. This is the first attack on Russian soil since the end of World War II.
Shortly before noon, the Russian authorities reacted. The Kremlin directly accuses Ukraine and indicates that this action will weigh on the continuation of the negotiations: “It is clear that we cannot consider this as something that will create the appropriate conditions for the continuation of the negotiations”, thus explained Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov. For the moment, the Ukrainian authorities have not reacted.
Russia breaks promises of withdrawal from Kyiv and ceasefire from Mariupol
April 1, at 9:59 a.m. Russia is said to be repositioning its troops in the east of the country in preparation for “powerful attacks” on the Donbass, namely the separatist regions of Donetsk and Lugansk according to the latest statements by the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky. The head of state also anticipates assaults launched on Mariupol, the port city in southeastern Ukraine besieged for more than three weeks and in the process of falling. The hypothesis of the Ukrainian president corroborates the announcements made by Russia at the beginning of the week concerning the withdrawal of Russian military troops around kyiv and Chernihiv. Have the armed forces really withdrawn? Moscow has been accustomed to broken promises since the start of the war in Ukraine, so doubt is permitted as to the even temporary abandonment of military operations initiated near the Ukrainian capital, especially since the announcements of new air attacks and other bombings hit kyiv according to the April 1 morning report from British intelligence.
Russia could therefore not keep its word and take kyiv’s resistance from the back by attacking by surprise. The strategy has already been seen in Mariupol with the repeated impediments to the evacuation of civilians in Mariupol. For three weeks all attempts have failed because of the interruption by Russia of the ceasefires concluded around the humanitarian corridors with Ukraine. Yesterday again, the corridor initially planned failed to evacuate the civilians still stuck without water, without electricity, without heating and deprived of communication in Mariupol. This Friday, April 1, the International Committee of the Red Cross is again trying to organize the evacuation deemed “vital”.
Will the civilians stranded in Mariupol finally be able to be evacuated?
March 31 at 5:10 p.m. This Thursday, March 31, a big step was taken to evacuate civilians stuck in Mariupol since the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine. Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk announced that the exit from the port city in southern Ukraine would be facilitated: “Last night we were informed by the International Committee of the Red Cross that Russia was ready to open access to humanitarian convoys from Mariupol.” So, 45 buses left from Kyiv. “We will do everything so that the buses can enter Mariupol and evacuate those who remain in the city,” said the Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister.
Since this Thursday, at 10 a.m., a ceasefire has come into effect in Mariupol, as the Russian Minister of Defense had announced the day before. Only one request had been made by the latter, that the convoys leaving the port city be escorted by Ukrainian soldiers. “Our soldiers have confirmed that they guarantee the ceasefire,” replied Iryna Verechchuk.