The European Commission has proposed a sixth package of sanctions against Russia, this time mainly affecting oil, an important source of financing for Moscow. Meanwhile, new evacuations from the bombed-out Mariúpol are pending.
Operations continue on the ground: in besieged Mariupol, on the shores of the Sea of Azov, Russian troops continue to launch airstrikes and fire on Ukrainian positions at the Azovstal steelworkswhere hundreds of Ukrainian civilians and soldiers still take refuge.
Peese to it, Russia again denied the assault and said that its military only “suppresses” the fire of the Ukrainian side. “There is an order that was given (on April 21) publicly by the commander in chief (President Vladimir Putin) to suspend any assault. There is no assault,” said the spokesman for the Russian Presidency, Dmitri Peskov, at his press conference. daily Press.
Peskov stressed that the Russian troops that have blocked the plant intervene only to “suppress” the attempts of the Ukrainian fighters to take “firing positions”.
In the meantime, Russian bombing has focused on railway infrastructure and, for the first time, from the Caspian Sea area, which is more than 1,800 kilometers from the Ukrainian capital.
The Russian Army continues to intensify its offensive in eastern and southern Ukraine, although their attacks also affected other regions of the country in the last hours focused on destroying infrastructure, especially railway stations and bridges, according to the Ukrainian Army.
Oleksandr Kamyshin, director of Ukrzaliznytsia [UZ]the Ukrainian national railway company, reported that Russians attacked six train stations in central and western Ukraine on Tuesday.. Kamyshin said that up to 14 passenger trains had suffered incidents and that “infrastructure damage is serious.
Meanwhile, the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, assured that, despite the continuous attacks on the area by Russian troops, his government works “every day” to evacuate all the people who remain in the besieged city of Mariupolwhich includes the facilities of the Azovstal steel plant.
Russian troops have fired in the last 24 hours more than 20 missiles that hit various regions of Ukraine and most were launched from the Caspian Sea area, reported Yurii Ihnat, spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force Command, on Wednesday. “On the night of May 3, an air attack warning was issued throughout Ukraine. Russian Tu-95 or Tu-160 strategic bombers were carrying out a missile attack from the Caspian region,” the military high command described.
Besides, Belarus announced this Wednesday the beginning of some military exercises to assess the readiness and ability of troops to react operationally to “possible emergence of crisis situations”.
“The military units will act in places unknown to them and in conditions of a rapidly changing situation,” said a statement from the Belarusian Defense Ministry, which did not specify the duration of the exercises or the number of troops participating in them.
New EU sanctions
For its part, the European Commission (EC) proposed this Wednesday a sixth package of sanctions against Russia that includes for the first time a progressive veto on purchases of Russian oil.
“We propose a ban on Russian oil. It will be a total import ban on all Russian oil, by sea and by pipeline, crude and refined,” Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a speech to the European Parliament plenary meeting in Strasbourg.
In the absence of the Commission publishing the details of the sanctions proposal, which must be approved unanimously by the twenty-seven Member States of the European UnionEuropean sources of the Executive indicated that Hungary and Slovakia, which are landlocked and totally dependent on Russian crude, could have more time.
Von der Leyen also proposed this Wednesday punish the persons and entities responsible for or involved in any way in the documented massacres of civilians in towns near kyiv such as Bucha or on the coast of Mariúpol, practically devastated by Russian attacks.
The president of the European Commission also proposed this Wednesday to ban the broadcast in the European Union of three additional Russian television networks that, according to Brussels, are dedicated to replicating “misinformation and lies” from the regime of Russian President Vladimir Putin.