Firefighters in front of a building damaged by a Russian bombardment in Odessa, Ukraine, April 23, 2022. MAX PSHYBYSHEVSKY / AP
The war in Ukraine enters its third month on Sunday, April 24, and the prospects for a ceasefire appear slim in a context that is still tense and deadly. At least eight people were killed and at least 18 others injured in Russian attacks on the southern port city of Odessa on Saturday, according to a report by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“Seven missiles were aimed at Odessa,” the Ukrainian leader said, including one that “hit an apartment building” and “two that were shot down by the air defense system.” A previous toll reported six deaths, including a three-month-old baby.
“The war started when this baby was a month old. Can you imagine what is happening? said Mr. Zelensky. “They’re just bastards. … I have no other words for it, just bastards,” he added on behalf of the Russians during a press conference organized at a metro station in the heart of the Ukrainian capital.
For its part, the Russian army claimed to have used “high-precision missiles” to attack a logistics terminal at the military airfield near Odessa, which stores weapons supplied to the Ukrainian armed forces by the United States and European countries.
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In addition, six civilians were killed in the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine, victims of Russian attacks near the village of Girské, the regional governor said in the evening. “Throughout the day, the city of Guirské suffered from heavy Russian strikes,” explained Sergeï Gaïdaï.
First American diplomatic visit to Kyiv
On the diplomatic front, Zelenskyy announced that he would meet US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin in Kyiv on Sunday. This will be the first official visit by US government officials to Ukraine since the beginning of the war. Volodymyr Zelenskyy made it clear that the talks would focus on US arms sales to Kyiv.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky during a news conference with international media at a metro station in Kyiv April 23, 2022. GENIA SAVILOV / AFP
“Last week the signals, the messages, the steps, the deadlines, the numbers – I’m talking about the weapons of the United States – everything improved,” he congratulated himself, saying he was “grateful” to the American government. although he would like to have “even heavier and more powerful weapons” against the Russian army. For its part, Poland has already shipped weapons worth $1.6 billion to Ukraine, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said.
At the same time, Volodymyr Zelenskyy again called for a meeting with Vladimir Putin “to end the war”. In this regard, Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, actively supporting the Russian President, asked for a prayer for a “lasting peace” without mentioning a truce, while calls for a truce for the Easter weekend multiplied among Orthodox Christians.
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Fearing “provocations” at ceremonies that usually draw crowds, Ukrainian authorities on Saturday urged believers to watch the service online.
The despair of Mariupol
Heavy fighting continues in the east of the country, and dozens if not hundreds of Ukrainian civilians and soldiers remain trapped in Mariupol, a city devastated by weeks of bombing.
A fresh attempt to evacuate civilians to the city of Zaporizhia has failed, said a deputy mayor of this strategic port city in southeastern Ukraine. According to Petro Andryushchenko, about 200 residents had started gathering to be evacuated when they were “dispersed” by the Russian army. Some were then allegedly forced to board buses bound for a Russian-held location 80 kilometers to the north. In Mariupol, which Russia claims to have “liberated”, several humanitarian corridors have already had to be closed. Moscow and Kyiv blamed each other for these mistakes.
People walk near a damaged military vehicle in an area controlled by Russian-backed separatists in Mariupol, Ukraine, April 23, 2022. ALEXEI ALEXANDROV/AP
Referring to the fate of the Ukrainian militants who had been holed up in the Azovstal metallurgical complex in Mariupol for several weeks, Zelenskyy warned on Saturday that if they were killed, Kyiv would abandon negotiations with Moscow. He also said he was “ready” for “an exchange of our soldiers defending Mariupol” in “any format” to extract “these people who are in a terrible situation, surrounded”.
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Women and children who also sought shelter in the steel mill described their desperation in a video released on Saturday. “We want to see a peaceful sky, we want to breathe fresh air,” said one woman. You just have no idea what it means to us to only eat, drink, sweet tea. It’s lucky for us. »
Troops from Moscow are already occupying much of the east and south of the country. General Rustam Minnekayev explained in detail that it is now a matter of guaranteeing “a land corridor” to Crimea and access to Transnistria, a pro-Russian Moldovan region in which there is a Russian garrison.
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