Ukrainian authorities are trying to evacuate civilians from eastern regions threatened by a Russian offensive, with President Volodymyr Zelensky saying the destruction in Borodianka, near kyiv, is even worse than that recently seen in Bouthca, still near the capital, after the departure of the Russian forces.
As Russia steps up its attacks in the south and east, kyiv — where European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU Foreign Minister Josep Borrell are expected on Friday — is witnessing the real extent of damage in areas now abandoned by Moscow forces.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the destruction in Borodianka, near kyiv, was worse than in Boutcha, where images of dead bodies on the streets sparked international outrage.
Twenty-six bodies have been extracted by Ukrainian rescue workers from the rubble of two apartment buildings in Borodianka, northwest of kyiv, Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova announced on Facebook on Thursday.
In a video message Thursday evening, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky assured that the situation in Borodyanka is “much more horrible” than in Boutcha. “There are more victims”.
But it is also to the east of the country, now a priority target for Moscow, that attention is focused. The Kremlin spokesman acknowledged Thursday that Russian forces had already suffered “significant military losses” in this region, citing a “huge tragedy”.
Fearing an offensive against these regions, the Ukrainian authorities have again called on the civilian population to leave them.
Evacuations by train, interrupted due to a damaged part of the railway, resumed overnight from Thursday to Friday, said the governor of the Lugansk region, Serguiï Gaïdaï.
“Three evacuation trains carrying residents of the Lugansk and Donetsk region were able to leave for the west. The track has been repaired,” he said early Friday.
“All the horrors we have known are likely to get worse. Do not condemn yourselves to death! Leave! The next few days will be the last chance” for an evacuation, he had launched earlier Thursday.
– “It falls from everywhere” –
Another new call concerned in particular the city of Severodonetsk, the most easterly held by Ukrainian forces, pounded by Russian troops and where AFP journalists saw civilians evacuated by buses on Thursday, while explosions rang out. regularly around its periphery.
“It’s falling everywhere. It’s no longer possible,” says Denis, a pale as a sheet forty-year-old, with an emaciated face, who would be considered to be in his sixties.
A “large number” of evacuees have already arrived in Dnipro, announced Thursday the mayor of this industrial city of one million inhabitants on the Dnieper, the river which marks the limit of the eastern regions of the country.
According to the British Ministry of Defence, Russian forces which had been deployed in northern Ukraine have “completely withdrawn” to Belarus or Russia.
“At least some” will “be redeployed to the east to fight in Donbass, but need “significant resupply” and such an operation would take “at least a week,” the ministry said in a statement released on Friday. on Twitter.
Accused of “war crimes” in Ukraine, Russia was the subject of an EU embargo on its coal on Thursday. This is the first time that the Europeans have hit the Russian energy sector, on which they are very dependent.
The EU imports 45% of its coal from Russia for a value of 4 billion euros per year. This embargo will come into force at the beginning of August.
Brussels plans to ban exports to Russia up to 10 billion euros, new sanctions against Russian banks and the closure of European ports to Russian ships.
At the same time, the EU is ready to release an additional €500 million to fund arms for Ukraine.
For their part, the G7 countries have announced new sanctions, including a ban on all new investment in key sectors of Russia.
Washington paved the way for punitive tariffs against Russia and Belarus, revoking their trade status on Thursday by a vote in Congress.
– “Insult to humanity” –
In a statement, Joe Biden said that “Russia’s lies do not hold up against the indisputable evidence of what is happening in Ukraine.”
The indications of rape, torture, executions are an “insult to humanity”, he added.
These initiatives follow the wave of indignation after the discovery of dozens of dead people, wearing civilian clothes and for some with their hands tied behind their backs, in the areas from which the Russian army withdrew and in particular in Boutcha , near Kyiv.
Ukraine and its supporters accuse Russian troops of being responsible for these “war crimes”.
Russia denies any abuse, denouncing a Ukrainian “provocation”.
Thursday evening, a Russian missile hit infrastructure in the Odessa region, the municipal council of this city in southern Ukraine said on Telegram, without immediately causing any casualties.
In Mariupol (south-east), a port city besieged and devastated by the Russian army since the end of February and where some 100,000 inhabitants are still hiding, the “new mayor” proclaimed by the pro-Russian forces announced Thursday that “about 5,000 people” had died among the civilian population.
“About 60 to 70% of the housing stock has been destroyed or partially destroyed,” added Konstantin Ivashchenko, appointed head of the city on Wednesday by Denis Pushilin, leader of the Donetsk separatists.
The Ukrainian authorities have put forward much heavier tolls.
– “Significant support” in NATO weapons –
And to prepare for the expected offensive in the Donbass, Kiev is seeking the help of Westerners.
The Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs went to Brussels to request immediate deliveries of arms to his counterparts in the Atlantic Alliance.
The Secretary General of the Alliance, Jens Stoltenberg, spoke of “significant support”, considering “preferable not to be too specific on the armaments which will be provided”.
The diplomatic aspect of the crisis shows no signs of progress. Russia said on Thursday that Ukraine had backtracked on some of the proposals it made during talks in late March in Istanbul that Russia said it welcomed.
kyiv immediately responded, calling on Moscow to “reduce its degree of hostility” in the negotiations. And Mr. Kouleba accused his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov of becoming an “accomplice in the crimes” committed by the Russian army by justifying them.
burx-cn/ob