2023-04-29 16:27:51
► Poland seizes the building of the Russian high school in Warsaw
Poland announced on Saturday April 29 that it had seized the building of the Russian high school in Warsaw. “This building will now belong to the Warsaw City Hall”spokesman for the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Lukasz Jasina, told AFP by telephone, stressing that this is a procedure of “referral by bailiff” on behalf of the municipality.
Russia protested in stride and threatened a response. “It is an illegal act, an incursion into a diplomatic site”, said its ambassador in Warsaw, Sergei Andreyev, in a video broadcast by the Russian public news agency Ria Novosti. A year ago, Warsaw City Hall seized a former Russian diplomatic site, the subject of a legal dispute between Poland and Russia and nicknamed by Warsaw residents the “nest of spies”to offer it to Ukraine which is fighting the Russian forces.
► Crimea: fire in an oil depot in Sevastopol
A major fire covering an area of 1,000 sq m broke out at an oil depot in Sevastopol, the home port of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in annexed Crimea, after a drone attack, local authorities said .
In total, four oil tanks were damaged in the attack and “have burned”. Since the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine in February 2022, Crimea, a peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014, has repeatedly been the target of aerial and naval drone attacks.
In mid-April, the authorities announced the cancellation of the celebrations of May 1 and 9 (the official date of the end of the Second World War in Russia) on the peninsula, citing “security issues”.
► Cereals: kyiv denounces “unacceptable” restrictions to Poland
Ukraine announced on Saturday that it had given Poland a note in which it denounces trade restrictions « unacceptable” that Warsaw, despite being one of its main allies in the face of the Russian invasion, imposes on Ukrainian agricultural products.
Several countries bordering Ukraine, including Poland, have issued temporary bans on the import of grain and other goods from Ukrainian territory, amid protests from local farmers.
The European Commission, for its part, announced on Friday that it had reached an agreement with five EU states, including Poland and Hungary, to guarantee the transit of Ukrainian cereals, after import ban measures taken by these countries, judged “unacceptable” by Brussels.
The invasion of Ukraine considerably limited the traditional channel of Ukrainian grain exports through the Black Sea, necessitating overland exports via its neighbours.
► Ukraine says it is ready for its spring offensive
Ukraine said it was ready to start its spring offensive against Russian forces, several attacks of which killed at least 26 people on Friday April 28 in several cities across the country.
“The equipment has been promised, prepared and partially delivered. In a broad sense, we are ready”, said Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiï Reznikov during a press conference. However, the Abrams heavy tanks promised by Lloyd Austin, US Secretary of Defense, will be missing. Their delivery scheduled for the next few weeks in Germany, initially to train Ukrainian soldiers there, before their deployment on the battlefield, has been delayed. But kyiv received the first American Patriot air defense systems.
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