A three month old girl. Her name was Kira. She died with her only 28-year-old mother Valeriia and her 55-year-old grandmother. This family was wiped out on the day of Holy Saturday of Orthodox Easter by the bombings ordered by Putin, who did not give up and ordered his generals to escalate the attacks. And strike again Odesa, an iconic city in southern Ukraine, overlooking the stretch of sea where ten days earlier Russia had suffered one of its most bitter humiliations: the sinking of the flagship Moskva. Yesterday afternoon at around 2:30 p.m. (local time), a Tupolev Tu-95 plane, a bomber, fired six rockets at residential areas of Odessa. Two were intercepted by Ukrainian anti-aircraft defenses, but two more hit a sixteen-story building occupied by civilians who did not have time to run to emergency shelters. normal families. Eight victims including the three-month-old baby. Twenty injured, according to a first report by the rescuers. On the same day, in Kherson, also in the south, the Ukrainians managed to meet the command of the 49th army of the invading army: two Russian generals died, one was seriously wounded (source is the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense).
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Let’s go back to Odessa: firefighters rushed to put out the fire that spread between the fourth and fifth floors. The images are similar to those seen in Kyiv in late February when the Russians bombed civilian buildings, or Mariupol, where entire neighborhoods were demolished. The bright building was on fire, the apartments burned out. Smoke rose all over the city. After the Russian military withdrew from the Kiev region, leaving behind hundreds of bodies, evidence of gruesome brutality, abandoned bodies in the streets and mass graves, there has been speculation that Putin may focus all his efforts on this Donbass, i.e. in the eastern regions next to the two separatist republics of Donetsk and Luhansk. But exactly two months after the start of the invasion (it was February 24 when the madness of this military aggression began), the words of a Russian general, addressing a group of industrialists on Friday, changed the scenario: The goal is everything to conquer the south, then Mykolaiv in the west on the coast (violently bombed in the last 48 hours) and precisely Odessa, the main port of the Black Sea to unite the East and Crimea with Transnistria, a self-proclaimed republic loyal to Moscow on the territory of Moldova.
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In the face of these threats, the Moldovawhich has so far maintained a neutral status but has also applied to join the European Union, summoned the Russian ambassador.
Yesterday afternoon’s gruesome bombing, probably from Crimea, showed in the worst way that Putin has not given up on Odessa. He is taking a risk: Russian public opinion can cynically accept the destruction of Mariupol, but Odessa is a city of great historical value, with testimonies and monuments. Destroying it with bombs, shaving it to zero would be an unbearable wound even for the accommodating population of the Russian Federation. Nonetheless, yesterday Putin ordered the bombing of Odessa and more are likely to follow. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba says: “The only aim of the Russian rocket attacks on Odessa is terror. Russia must be identified as a sponsor state of terrorism and treated accordingly. No business, no contacts, no cultural projects. We need a wall between civilization and the barbarians who hit peaceful cities with rockets». And Zelenskyy warned: «The invasion of Ukraine is only the beginning. Moscow has plans to conquer other countries».
The Russian President didn’t even respect that orthodox easter celebrated today (but attended the vigil at Christ the Savior Church in Moscow celebrated by Patriarch Kirill). The Ukrainian Defense Ministry has released a wiretapping log in which Russian soldiers can be heard saying: We write “Christ is risen” on the bombs. “These are Putin’s Easter presents,” says Odessa adviser Petro Obukhov bitterly about the brutal rocket attack on civilian buildings. The Ukrainians expected this and decided on a curfew from yesterday. Fighting continues, according to British intelligence analysis yesterday morning Mariupol “They are thwarting Russian attempts to capture the city, further slowing their desire to advance into the Donbass,” where “despite the spike in activity over the past 24 hours, they have not yet made much progress.” According to the British analysis, this is due to “the effectiveness of the Ukrainian air and sea defenses”.
But the situation in the east remains very difficult: a report by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense seems to contradict the British analysis, as it speaks of “42 small towns that have fallen into Russian hands”. Donetsk. Observers from the OSCE (Organization for European Co-operation and Security) were arrested in this region and in that of Lugansk, as reported by the same organization. The bloodiest days of this war, as Zelenskyy has long said, are ahead, especially in eastern and southern Ukraine. The Kyiv General Staff says: “In the direction of Donetsk and Tavriya, the main enemy efforts are concentrated on capturing the settlements of Popasna and Rubizhne and preparing the attack on the city of Kyiv Severodonetsk. In the Slobozhansky direction, the enemy continues to partially blockade the city of Kharkiv and conduct artillery bombardments on the positions of our units and on civilian infrastructure in the area of the settlements of Chuguiv, Korobochkino and Dovgenke ». Severodonetsk is located in the heart of the Donbass, halfway between Mariupol (south) and Kharkiv (north) in the east of the country.
Referendum and guns
In the press conference that Zelenskyy called in the subway last night, he also said that he hopes to get the same result in Donbass as in Kyiv, where the Russian army was pushed back: “I remember that the tanks at the gates of the city stood the capital. . At that time, the Russians temporarily occupied the Donbass. But if adequate weapons arrive, Donbass can return to our hands. We repel the attack of a powerful army. We will not give up. The best solution to end the war would be my meeting with Putin. We must try to achieve this, but we do not see this will on the part of Russia. You say one thing and then do the opposite. I’m not afraid of a meeting with the President or assassination attempts. I have no right to be afraid because our people have shown that they are not afraid of anything. They’re afraid for their children, but people stopped the tanks with their bare hands.
Zelenskyy: “Ukraine is just the beginning, Moscow wants to send other countries”. Kyiv: 21,600 Russian soldiers killed
But before they meet Putin, they must silence their guns». About the Pope: «His mediation is important. I am grateful for your position. I hope that one day he can come here». Speaking of referendums that the Russians are organizing in cities like Cherson to demand annexation: “That would be a pseudo-referendum and not useful for a diplomatic solution to the conflict. In fact, it would prevent a possible ceasefire ». What scenarios await us? On Tuesday, the Pentagon is bringing together representatives from more than 40 countries at Ramstein Air Force Base, Germany. Topic: Kiev’s defense needs, also “in the long term”. “The use of nuclear weapons? No one can rule that out,” US Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland said in an interview on Friday. Moscow replied: “The Russian Ministry of Defense has received information that the US is preparing provocations to accuse the Russian armed forces of using nuclear, chemical, biological or tactical weapons.” Having supplied $1.6 billion. And yesterday, Turkey announced that it had informed Russia that it had closed its airspace to civilian and military flights carrying soldiers to Syria.