Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is due to take part in the videoconference meeting of the leaders of the G7 major powers on Sunday to discuss the situation in his country, where the fate of the last besieged in the strategic port of Mariupol remains uncertain.
“May 8 is a historic date marking the end of the Second World War in Europe which caused terror, destruction and death in Europe,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s spokeswoman said on Friday, saying the war in Ukraine made “the cohesion of the G7 (…) more important than ever”.
Germany holds the presidency of the G7 this year (also Canada, United States, France, United Kingdom, Italy and Japan).
This third meeting since the beginning of the year will be devoted “in particular to the situation in Ukraine”, she indicated, without further details.
US President Joe Biden had mentioned this meeting a few days earlier, about possible additional sanctions against Russia.
“We are always open to additional sanctions,” he said on Wednesday, adding that he would discuss with G7 members “what we will and will not do.”
Also on the Western sanctions front, the 27 member states of the European Union are engaged in arduous negotiations to reach an agreement this weekend on a plan to stop imports of Russian oil, which Hungary has so far blocked.
The G7 meeting will take place on the eve of the May 9 military parade in Russia, which marks the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.
The Russian army carried out the last rehearsals for the traditional military parade scheduled for the day on Saturday in Moscow’s Red Square, in the presence of soldiers who took part in the offensive in Ukraine.
The Ukrainian authorities have been warning for several days against an intensification of Russian attacks as this commemoration approaches.
“The enemy is trying to finish off the defenders of Azovstal, he is trying to do this before May 9 to give (Russian President) Vladimir Putin a gift,” warned Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to the Ukrainian president.
The Azovstal Steelworks is home to the last defenders of Mariupol. Hundreds of civilians also found refuge in its sprawling underground galleries after the Russian invasion launched on February 24.
– What about the fighters? –
After many calls and vain attempts in recent weeks, “we have evacuated the civilians from Azovstal”, launched President Zelensky on Saturday evening in his daily message, citing the number of 300 exfiltrated people. “We are now preparing for the second phase (…): the injured and the medical personnel”.
And, “of course, we are also working to evacuate our soldiers. All these heroes defending Mariupol”, he continued, without giving a figure. “It’s extremely difficult. But it’s very important.”
“Many soldiers are in serious condition. They are injured and have no medicine,” said Yevgenia Tytarenko, a military nurse, whose husband, a medic and member of the Azov regiment, and his colleagues are still at the factory. . “Food and water are also lacking,” she says.
“I will fight until the end,” wrote her husband Mykhaïlo, in an SMS that AFP was able to consult. They got married two days before the Russian invasion.
“The order of the (Ukrainian) president has been carried out: all women, children and elderly people have been evacuated from Azovstal. This part of the humanitarian mission in Mariupol has been accomplished,” the official announced earlier on Saturday. Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk.
According to kyiv, these operations have enabled a total of nearly 500 people to flee in one week, under the aegis of the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Ukraine asked Doctors Without Borders (MSF) on Saturday evening to organize a mission to evacuate and treat the soldiers entrenched in the steelworks.
Moscow announced on Wednesday a unilateral three-day ceasefire from Thursday morning to allow civilians in Azovstal to leave.
But the Ukrainian authorities, in particular the general staff of the army, maintained that the Russians had again attacked this factory during this period. The Defense Ministry said on Saturday that “the enemy was not stopping its offensive”, in particular still “blocking” the defenders of the Azovstal district.
Mariupol, a port city in the south-east which had nearly 500,000 inhabitants before the war, was almost completely wiped off the map by two months of Russian bombardment.
Vladimir Putin, who thinks he cannot “afford to lose” in Ukraine, is “convinced that redouble his efforts will allow him to progress”, estimated Saturday Bill Burns, director of the American intelligence agency CIA.
There is, however, no “concrete evidence” that Russia, which placed its deterrent forces on high alert shortly after the start of its military intervention, “is preparing for the deployment or even the potential use of tactical nuclear weapons ” in this conflict, he underlined.
– Diffuse bombings –
In the south-west of Ukraine, airfields in the regions of Artsyz, near Romania, Odessa – a major Ukrainian port on the Black Sea – and Voznessensk, north of Mykolaiv, were targeted, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced on Saturday evening.
In the northeast, Russian army Iskander mobile ballistic missile systems “destroyed large quantities of weapons and military equipment delivered (to Ukraine) by the United States and other Western countries “in Krasnograd and Karlovka, not far from Kharkiv,” he continued.
Strikes were also reported on Saturday around Donetsk (east), where four people were killed and nine injured, according to regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko.
The Russians have made limited territorial gains in the past 24 hours around Severodonetsk, one of the main localities in Donbass still in Ukrainian hands, but this should not lead to a complete encirclement, noted the American Institute of study of war (ISW).
Russia has so far only been able to claim complete control of one major city, Kherson.
In Kharkiv, the Ukrainian counter-offensive to put Ukraine’s second city out of range of enemy artillery has even gained momentum, with the capture of several Russian positions, again according to the ISW.
“Ukrainian forces are regaining ground along a wide arc around Kharkiv and no longer focusing on a limited thrust, demonstrating an ability to launch offensive operations on a larger scale than so far in this war “, explained this institute.
So much so that the Russian army had to blow up three road bridges “to slow down the counter-offensive” in this region, according to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense.
Mr. Zelensky said on Saturday evening that the Russians had targeted the museum dedicated to the philosopher and poet Grigori Skovoroda in the Kharkiv region, which was badly damaged by a missile strike.
– Cultural heritage destroyed –
“Every day in this war, the Russian army is doing something that leaves you speechless,” he said. “As of May 7, the Russian military has destroyed or damaged nearly 200 cultural heritage sites.”
“The invaders today launched a missile strike on Odessa, a city where almost every street is memorable, is historic,” he lamented.
The Ukrainian navy claimed to have destroyed a hundred kilometers off Odessa precisely, not far from the tiny Serpents’ Island, the Russian landing ship Serna by means of a combat drone developed in Turkey.
Information not confirmed by Russia, which declared on the other hand to have sunk “the Ukrainian assault boat + Stanislav +”.
According to a report by the British Ministry of Defense, the conflict is causing “damage to the most combat-capable Russian units”.
Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatovic on Saturday denounced the “dizzying” violations of human rights and international humanitarian law by the Russian army in Ukraine, after a four-day visit to kyiv and in his region.
There have been a total of “200 attacks on health establishments” since the outbreak of hostilities, deplored Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organization, to the press in kyiv.
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