Lritish Prime Minister Boris Johnson paid a surprise visit to kyiv on Saturday and promised new weapons to Ukraine, where the threat of an imminent new Russian offensive is pushing people to flee the east of the country, the day after a deadly Russian strike in front of Kramatorsk station.
“Today I met my friend President Zelensky in Kyiv to show our unwavering support for the Ukrainian people,” Boris Johnson tweeted after the meeting.
He pledged to supply Ukraine with armored vehicles and anti-ship missiles, paying tribute to the Ukrainian army for “the greatest feat of arms of the 21st century” which helped to defeat “the monstrous designs of Putin,” according to a statement from Downing Street.
On President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Telegram channel, several photos of the Ukrainian president, still in khaki, welcoming Boris Johnson in a suit and tie in front of the presidential headquarters in kyiv and inside.
Mr Johnson is the first G7 leader to visit the Ukrainian capital, which was threatened with assault and shelled just a week ago, and where Volodymyr Zelensky has taken refuge since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24 , commanding the respect of the whole world.
“This visit is a manifestation of Britain’s resolute, strong and continued support for Ukraine,” the Ukrainian president said in a statement. “We appreciate it and we will always remember it.”
London, at the forefront of condemnations of the Kremlin’s policy, notably provided the Ukrainian army with precious anti-tank weapons from the start and did not hesitate to sanction the Russian oligarchs whose massive presence had given it the nickname for a time. from “Londongrad”.
“The enemy keeps knocking”
At the same time in the east of the country, where a Russian missile killed more than 50 on Friday among hundreds of civilians gathered outside Kramatorsk station in the hope of boarding a train and fleeing west, was preparing for the worst.
“The Russian enemy continues to prepare to intensify its offensive operations in eastern Ukraine and take full control of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions”, in Donbass, the general staff of the Ukrainian army Saturday on Facebook.
In addition to the continued fighting to take control of the key towns of Mariupol in the south and Izium further north, “the enemy continues to strike with missiles civilian targets throughout Ukraine”, warned the Staff.
In Lysytchansk, a small town in the Lugansk region, Mayor Olexandre Zaïka called on residents to leave as soon as possible.
“The situation in the city is very tense, I ask you to evacuate. It is becoming very difficult, enemy shells are falling everywhere,” he said in a message on Telegram messaging.
But “nobody is going to abandon the Lugansk region”, he added, “our guys are doing well”.
In the rural area of Barvinkove, Ukrainian soldiers and members of the Territorial Defense were busy fortifying their positions and digging new trenches. The roadsides have been mined, and anti-tank obstacles are installed at all crossroads.
“We will stay here”
“We will stay here until the final victory,” commented a local commander.
Threatened in turn by strikes, the large port of Odessa, in the south on the Black Sea, will experience a curfew from Saturday evening to Monday morning, local authorities have announced.
“We are ready to fight, and at the same time to seek diplomatic ways to stop this war”, underlined Volodymyr Zelensky earlier in the day, during a press conference with Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer, who also came to kyiv. .
The day before, it was the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen who had made the trip, including to Boutcha, a small town near the capital that has become a symbol of the atrocities of the Russian invasion.
“If this is not a war crime, what is a war crime?” she said.
10 billion for Ukraine
The European leader announced on Saturday that an international collection had made it possible to raise 10.1 billion euros intended to support Ukraine. “It’s fantastic,” she said. “Once the bombs stop falling, we will help the Ukrainian people to rebuild their country. We will continue to defend Ukraine,” she said.
In Kramatorsk, where the last assessment Friday evening of the missile strike in front of the station reported 52 dead including 5 children, the evacuations of civilians continued on Saturday by road. Mini-buses and vans came to pick up dozens of survivors of the bombing who spent the night in a Protestant church in the city center, not far from the station, AFP journalists noted.
US President Joe Biden has denounced a “horrible atrocity” committed by Moscow and French diplomacy a “crime against humanity”.
Moscow has denied being responsible for the strike, going so far as to denounce a Ukrainian “provocation”.
After withdrawing its troops from the kyiv region and northern Ukraine, Russia has made the total conquest of Donbass, part of which has been controlled since 2014 by pro-Russian separatists, its priority.
President Vladimir Putin, whose decision to invade Ukraine with the original intention of taking kyiv shattered over fierce Ukrainian resistance, has scaled back his plans but wants to secure a victory in Donbass ahead of the parade military on May 9 marking the Soviet victory over the Nazis in Red Square, the culmination of the militarist narrative that it imposed in Russia, observers note.
Following revelations of the abuses of its army in Ukraine, Russia was suspended on Thursday by a vote of the UN Human Rights Council and was the target of new Western economic sanctions, which do not prevent however, the rouble, the Russian currency, has not regained strength over the past month.
The Russian Central Bank even announced on Friday that it was reauthorizing from April 18 the sale of foreign currencies, suspended at the beginning of March.
London has decided to sanction the two daughters of Vladimir Putin and that of the head of diplomacy Sergei Lavrov, saying it wants to attack the “lavish lifestyle of the inner circle of the Kremlin”.
The EU has also blacklisted the Russian president’s two daughters.
It had already adopted a new set of punitive measures on Thursday evening, including an upcoming halt to imports of Russian coal. This is the very first time that the Europeans have hit the Russian energy sector, Moscow’s main source of income.
Brussels has adopted new sanctions against Russian banks and decided to close European ports to Russian ships.
kyiv is calling for the “immediate” supply of arms to deal with a new Russian offensive in the East.
In addition to the armies announced on Saturday, the United Kingdom had already promised to send additional anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles. And Slovakia “donated” Soviet-designed S-300 air defense systems to kyiv.
According to Czech media, Prague on its side sent trains loaded with T72 tanks and Soviet-made armored vehicles to Ukraine on Monday, which would be a first delivery of heavy armaments claimed by kyiv.
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09/04/2022 19:25:11 – Kiev (Ukraine) (AFP) – © 2022 AFP