The Russian military is focusing on Kiev and eastern Ukraine, new sanctions

DNIPRO, Ukraine | On Friday, Russian forces mounted pressure on Kiev and eastern Ukraine, where the main city of Dnipro was targeted, and the United States lamented that Vladimir Putin was not engaging in “serious diplomacy”.

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The Ukrainian military said in a statement that the Russians were still focusing on their efforts in Kiev, Mariupol, Krivy Rik, Kremenchuk, Nicopol and Zaporizhia in the Sea of ​​Azov.

“Unable to achieve victory, the enemy continues its attacks with missiles and bombs on deep cities in the territory of Ukraine, Dinifro, Lutsk and Ivano-Frankivsk,” he said.

Mariupol, a strategic port that has been besieged and bombed by the Russians for a dozen days, is in an “almost hopeless” situation, warns NGO Doctors Without Borders (MSF): “Hundreds of thousands of people” live without water and without heat. Moreover, according to the official report, 1,582 people have already died.

Bodies are left on the streets; A large grave was dug for the others. In recent days we have seen people fighting for food.

In response to the continuing invasion of Russia on February 24, Joe Biden announced that the United States and its European allies had decided to exclude Russia from the normal rule of world trade, paving the way for the implementation of punitive tariffs. Against it.

Its Vice President Kamala Harris, who visited Romania, lamented that the Russian head of state “showed no sign of commitment to serious diplomacy” and that his “brutal and defamatory behavior” required “other measures.”

“Yes [le président russe Vladimir] Putin accelerated the bombing and besieged Kiev […] We know we have to lift massive sanctions again, ”said French President Emmanuel Macron after a meeting with other European leaders near Paris.

• Listen to Richard Martino’s interview with Dominic Arel, Head of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Ottawa on QUB Radio:

Tima, 8 Age, head injury

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), on the ground, the war has already forced more than 2.5 million people to seek refuge abroad, most of them in Poland and about two million in Ukraine.

Dnieper, which had hitherto been left untouched by the advance of Russian soldiers, was swept away by the industrial city of Dnieper, which has a population of one million, which was marked by experiments on the river, which marked the part between the pro-Russian eastern part of Ukraine and its other parts. It killed at least one person.

“There were three airstrikes on the city, a kindergarten, an apartment building and a shoe factory. […] There was a fire there, ”said the Ukrainian emergency services.

Video footage shows firefighters extinguishing a fire in a smoking wreck. Some buildings are nothing more than piles of beams and twisted metal structures.

After a pediatric hospital in Mariupol on Wednesday, a disabled facility near Kharkiv was attacked on Friday, but no casualties were reported this time.

Tima Kasiyanov, an 8-year-old boy, was unlucky: he was hospitalized with a head injury after being shot in the head by a Russian missile that destroyed the apartment where he lived in the Northeast. Closed by an eyelid.

The UN says “targeting the public, hospitals and schools is unforgivable” and those involved will be “held accountable”. Warned during its Security Council meeting on Friday.

Air strikes

A bomb blast near the Lutsk military airport in northwestern Ukraine has killed at least four Ukrainian soldiers and wounded six others. Ivano-Frankievsky’s attack in the far west was also targeted.

The Russian Defense Ministry said the sites had been “removed”.

There were also night airstrikes in Chernihiv (north) and Sumi (northeast).

The AFP noted that the morgue in the town of Mykolayiv, on the shores of the Black Sea, had been under Russian fire for several days, with bodies piled up on the ground and in the yard.

“We have driven the enemy out of our city limits,” Vitaly Kim, the region’s governor, promised.

At the same time, the Russians continue their maneuver to encircle Kiev. After reaching its suburbs, they are trying to remove security in several places west and north of the capital, “preventing” it, Ukrainian civil servants announced.

In a video, Mikhail Potolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zhelensky, described the “symbol of the Kiev opposition” as preparing for “uninterrupted security.”

Nearly 20,000 people have already been evacuated from the capital and its environs, and 100,000 have been evacuated from all war-torn areas in Ukraine over the past two days.

Is the Russian army slow?

“The enemy has not had significant success in the last 24 hours and has been stopped by our missiles, air and ground attacks in almost all directions,” he said. Said Oleksi Arrestovich, another adviser to Zhelensky.

Western military sources also point to a slowdown in the progress of Russian troops, while President Vladimir Putin has given the green light to send “volunteer” fighters, especially from Syria.

“It’s a battle with a very stubborn enemy […] Who decided to hire mercenaries against our citizens. They are doing it for us, from Syria, a country that has been destroyed by assassins and occupiers, ”the Ukrainian head of state replied.

The Kremlin master asked his defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, to provide military reconstruction on Russia’s western border in response to NATO in Eastern Europe.

Russia, meanwhile, is set to sue Meta for ‘calling for the killing’ of Russians after Facebook and Instagram eased rules on violent posts for the Russian military and leaders. Access to Instagram is also banned there.

On the US side, YouTube has expanded its media ban on Russian-funded media worldwide – not just in Europe.

Against all odds, the Ukrainians seem to have their enthusiasm. “From the first days, a lot of young women came, they wanted to grab a gun, they wanted to go and fight,” Irina Sergieva, assigned since 2017, told Kiev.

The target is Russian vodka

Joe Biden, along with the European Union, was keen to exclude Russia from international trade on Friday as he was keen to avoid a “direct confrontation” between the Atlantic Alliance and Russia, which could lead to a “third world war”. .

In particular, it banned the import of “key sectors of the Russian economy” such as “seafood, vodka and diamonds”.

In the process, the United States and the European Union banned the export of luxury goods to Russia.

However, the G7 urged the international community to refrain from taking any action to restrict food exports.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has warned that eight to 13 million people worldwide are suffering from malnutrition.

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