Families arrive at Kramatorsk central station as they flee the eastern city, in the Donbas region, on April 4, 2022. CREDIT: FADEL SENNA/AFP
April 5, 2022
Russia plans to take control of the “entire” Donbas region in eastern Ukraine, with the aim of creating a corridor from Russia to Crimea, the chief of Nato has said.
Jens Stoltenberg said Russian forces are moving away from Kyiv to “regroup, re-arm and resupply” and to “shift their focus to the east”.
Mr Stoltenberg said: “In the coming weeks, we expect a further Russian push in the eastern and southern Ukraine to try to take the entire Donbas and to create a land bridge to occupied Crimea.”
Nato foreign ministers will meet on Wednesday to discuss the possibility of sending advanced weapons systems, such as javelins and anti-tank weapons, to Ukraine.
Tory MP backs expansion of UK support for Ukraine
Tom Tugendhat, the Tory chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, has agreed that all weapons, not just so-called “defensive weapons”, should be made available to Ukraine.
Asked on Times Radio if all “reasonable battlefield weaponry” should be provided to Ukrainian forces, the Conservative MP said: “Yes. I mean, I don’t think there’s any really great doubt in this.”
Mr Tugendhat added: “Well, that’s a decision for various member states, right. And that’s a decision for countries like Poland or countries like the United States.
“I mean, you could retrain a Ukrainian pilot to fly various US-type aircraft in the weeks that have gone by so, you know, I mean there’s various options that we could have.”
Ukrainian armed forces need weapons, says MP
Oleksiy Goncharenko, a Ukrainian MP representing Odesa, said his country’s armed forces need weapons that can help defend against Russian air and battleship attacks.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s World At One programme, he said: “We need air defence, aircraft – that is the most important.
“We also need anti-ship missiles – we are thankful of the UK Government for Harpoons, but we need more.”
The MP said he thought it was Moscow’s mission to take the south of the country and cut Ukraine off from the Black Sea.
He added: “They still want to attack Odesa, to take Odesa, to cut Ukraine from the sea and to go to the border of the European Union, because Romania is already there – and (there are) Russians in Transnistria, an occupied part of the Moldovan republic.
“That is their strategic aim to go there. For the moment, they are unsuccessful but they will try again.”
Finland and Sweden would be welcomed by Nato, says Stoltenberg
Nato countries would welcome Finland and Sweden into the alliance if they decided to join, but any such move is up to the two nations, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Tuesday.
“It’s for them to decide of course but if they apply, I expect that 30 allies will welcome them,” Stoltenberg told a news conference.
He said Nato would likely find ways “to address the concerns they may have about this interim period between having applied and until the last ratification (by allies) has taken place” – referring to possible Russian retaliation before the two countries were properly under Nato protection, as seen in Ukraine.
France opens three investigations into potential war crimes
French prosecutors have opened three new inquiries over potential war crimes committed by Russian forces in Ukraine.
The country’s anti-terrorist prosecutor said it would investigate attacks carried out in the cities of Mariupol, Gostomel and Chernihiv, related to acts against French citizens resident in Ukraine, that occurred in February and March.
The prosecutors had previously opened a war crime probe on March 16 into the death of French-Irish Fox News cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski, who was shot near Kyiv while reporting on the war.
UN says evidence suggests civilians were ‘directly targeted’ in Bucha
The UN human rights office spokesperson, Liz Throssell, said signs from the Ukrainian town of Bucha suggested civilians had been directly targeted and killed by Russian forces.
Throssell told reporters in Geneva: “What we’re talking about here appears to be the direct killing and targeting of civilians in Bucha”.
She said images of corpses with their hands tied behind their backs and partially naked women were “extremely disturbing” and suggests “they were directly targeted as individuals”.
She added: “What we must stress is that under international humanitarian law, the deliberate killing of civilians is a war crime.”
US blocks Russia from paying debt with dollars held in US banks
The US will bar Russia from making debt payments using funds held at American banks from Tuesday, the Treasury said.
“Today is the deadline for Russia to make another debt payment. Beginning today, the US Treasury will not permit any dollar debt payments to be made from Russian government accounts at US financial institutions,” a Treasury spokesperson told AFP.
“Russia must choose between draining remaining valuable dollar reserves or new revenue coming in, or default.”
Debt payments had previously been exempt from sanctions that isolated Russia from the global financial system, with the country having made several payments to foreign creditors through major American banks.
The US’s latest move “will further deplete the resources Putin is using to continue his war against Ukraine and will cause more uncertainty and challenges for their financial system,” the Treasury official said in a statement, noting that Russia “is facing a recession, skyrocketing inflation, (and) shortages in essential goods”.
More than seven million people displaced by war in Ukraine
More than 7.1 million people have been displaced by the war in Ukraine, a report by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said on Tuesday.
The figure represents a 10 per cent increase in the number of internally displaced persons in Ukraine since the first survey was conducted on March 16, the body said.
Russian embassy in Ireland pleads for government help over fuel shortages
The Russian Embassy in Ireland has urged the Irish government to intervene as it faces fuel shortages that could leave it without hot water or heating.
The Irish Mirror reports that the Bank of Ireland have also decided to suspend their accounts with the embassy.
A letter from the embassy to Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney asks the department to intervene “into this clearly discriminatory case”.
A source told the newspaper: “The embassy is struggling because no one wants to do business with them as a result of what’s happening in Ukraine. It’s not only some oil companies they’re having issues with, it’s banks too and many more businesses”.
Kremlin: Widespread expulsions of Russian diplomats a ‘short-sighted move’
The Kremlin said on Tuesday that mass expulsions of Russian diplomats by a number of European countries – including Denmark, France, Italy, Germany and Spain – is a “short-sighted move” that will only complicate communication.
“Narrowing down opportunities for diplomatic communication in such an unprecedentedly difficult crisis environment is a short-sighted move that will further complicate our communication, which is necessary to find a solution,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Peskov added that although Russia does not reject the possibility of a meeting between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky, it can only happen once a document has been agreed.
He declined to comment on the progress of current peace talks that are taking place via video link.
Kremlin: Biden’s suggestion that Putin be tried for war crimes is unacceptable
The Kremlin said on Tuesday that a remark made by US President Joe Biden that Vladimir Putin should be tried for war crimes was unacceptable and unworthy of his office.
Speaking to reporters on a conference call, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Russia expected the US to impose further sanctions, which he called the country’s “favourite practice”.
Reports of war crimes committed in Bucha by Russian forces, meanwhile, are a “monstrous forgery” intended to denigrate the country’s military, he said.
Pro-Russian party stages fake mayoral election in Mariupol
By Ewan Somerville
A pro-Russian political party has staged fake mayoral elections in the besieged southern port city of Mariupol, local media reports.
Kostyantyn Ivashchenko, a local council member from Opposition Platform – For Life, a pro-Russian party in Ukraine, was reportedly declared “mayor” of Mariupol on April 4.
That is according to the Kyiv Independent, an English-language Ukrainian media outlet, which reported that the mock ceremony followed a meeting of party members.
The outlet cited Petro Andryushchenko, an advisor to the real mayor of Mariupol, saying that the Russian military assisted Ivashchenko’s staged ceremony, which was not legally binding.
It comes as Russian troops, who occupy part of the ruined city on the Sea of Azov, step up their encirclement as Vladimir Putin redeploys troops to take eastern and southern regions after heavy losses near the capital Kyiv forced a retreat.
Vadym Boichenko, the real mayor of Mariupol, said on Monday that the city was now “90 per cent” destroyed after relentless bombardment.
Civilian ship sinking in Mariupol after being hit by Russian shelling
A civilian ship is sinking in the port of Mariupol after it was struck by “shelling from the sea” by Russian forces,Ukraine’s interior ministry said, with the shelling having also caused a fire in the engine room.
The ship, which was flying the flag of the Dominican Republic, was moored in the port when it was hit, the ministry said in a post on Telegram.
It is now “gradually going under water”, the ministry said, with it now being “impossible to conduct a rescue operation under constant fire”.
Putler wants all the Donbas and wants to inflict massive losses on the Ukrainian armed forces. All in time for May 9. There will also be the usual torture, rape and genocide.
If he succeeds, he will not stop at that. The damn war would go on and on as the bastard seeks to cut off Ukraine from the Black Sea.
None of this can be allowed to happen. The rodent must be stopped by any means necessary.
Who will help Ukraine enforce the NFZ?
RuSSia is like a teenage thug. Now that the conquest of Kyiv, despite rape and torture, failed – they now want to steal more land in the Donbas. I do not understand why the ukrainian military command did not order on February 24 to retake all of Donbas. They fucked up and fell for the distraction near Kyiv. Time they aim at retaking everything in Donbas. Of course the West must provide Ukraine with more and heavier arms to make sure this can be achieved.
Kyiv was not a faint. Putin needs all of Ukraine to be able to reach his geopolitical goals. Putin can not be allowed to consolidates and hold what he has already taken. Ukraine needs heavy offensive weapons to be able to drive Putin utterly from Ukraine’s national borders.