Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has issued a new warning against Russian troop movements and the risk of new “powerful attacks” in the south of the country, including in the besieged city of Mariupol, where a new attempt to evacuate civilians is underway. prepared for this Friday (1st).
On the Russian side, Chancellor Sergei Lavrov reinforced what he considers to be a breakthrough in negotiations with the neighboring country. At a press conference in India, the diplomat said Moscow was preparing a response to the demands put forward by Ukrainian negotiators and said Kiev had shown “much more understanding” regarding critical points in the conflict, such as the status of Crimea and Donbass and their possible neutrality.
In the diplomatic field, leaders of the European Union and China meet this Friday to discuss the course of the war in Ukraine. Brussels is trying to pressure Beijing for assurances that the Xi Jinping regime will not supply weapons to Russia – a country with whom China has formalized an “unlimited friendship”.
While Moscow this week promised a “drastic reduction” in its military activity in the Kiev and Chernihiv regions, reports of successive attacks have thrown a new layer of skepticism against Russian discourse.
“This is part of their tactics,” Zelensky said in his daily speech on Thursday night. “We know they are leaving areas where we are winning to focus on other areas that are very important and where it might be difficult for us.”
When referring to areas where the Ukrainians are said to be winning, the president speaks of cities around the capital where officials and local leaders say they have regained control and put the brakes on or expelled the Russians. The “difficult” areas would be those in the south of the country, considered strategic for Moscow’s interests.
“In Donbass and in Mariupol, towards Kharkiv, the Russian army is raising the potential for attacks, powerful attacks,” Zelensky said.
For analysts, the trend is for a longer conflict if Russia focuses on Donbass, as Ukraine has forces and combat experience in the region after eight years fighting separatist groups.
Mariupol, on the other hand, would be a central point for the Russian objective of establishing its control over the coastal strip in the south, which runs from Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014, to the territories of Donetsk and Lugansk, in the Donbass – President Vladimir Putin recognized both as republics. independent three days before the start of the war.
Mariupol was reduced to rubble. According to local officials, at least 5,000 people died during the weeks of Russian attacks, and the tens of thousands who still live in the city suffer from severe shortages of food, water, electricity and medicine.
There were attempts to establish humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of civilians from the city. Several of them failed, while Russia and Ukraine traded blame for their failures.
This Friday, a new attempt should be conducted by the International Committee of the Red Cross, with approval from Moscow and Kiev. “We hope we can facilitate safe passage for civilians who desperately want to flee Mariupol,” spokeswoman Lucile Marbeau said, adding that the organization would also try to deliver truckloads of humanitarian aid to those still in the city.
