A Russian general said on Friday that Moscow wanted to seize all of southern and eastern Ukraine, much broader war goals than it had previously acknowledged.
Rustam Minnekaiev, deputy commander of Russia’s central military district, was quoted by state news agencies as saying that Moscow intends to seize the entire Donbass region (east), connect it with the Crimean peninsula and capture southern Ukraine entirely, to the border with Moldova.
That would mean advancing hundreds of kilometers beyond current lines, passing through the major cities of Mikolaiv and Odessa.
Ukraine reacted, saying that these comments belied Russia’s earlier claims that it has no territorial ambitions.
“They have stopped hiding,” Ukraine’s Defense Ministry declared on Twitter. According to the text, Russia “recognized that the objective of the ‘second phase’ of the war is not a victory over the mythical Nazis, but simply the occupation of eastern and southern Ukraine. Imperialism as it is.”
Kiev said Russian forces had increased attacks in the east and were trying to mount an offensive in the Kharkiv region. Russian artillery hit the main market in this city in northern Donbass. Ambulance services said there were casualties, but details are not yet available. A wedding hall and a residential building were also hit.
In Geneva, the United Nations human rights office said there was growing evidence of Russian war crimes in Ukraine, including indiscriminate bombings and summary executions. said Ukraine also appears to have used weapons with indiscriminate effects.
Russia denies attacking civilians and says without evidence that signs of atrocities committed by its soldiers were falsified.
Putin says Kiev prevents soldiers from surrendering in Mariupol
The Russian army said on Friday it was ready to offer a humanitarian truce in “all or part” of the industrial zone of Azovstal, the last stronghold of Ukrainian forces in Mariupol, to allow the evacuation of civilians and the surrender of fighters.
President Vladimir Putin on Thursday claimed ownership of this crucial port city for the invasion, but Kiev and the US dispute. He had ordered to surround the plant, where there are about 2,000 troops, according to Moscow, but without issuing the order to assault.
“The starting point of this humanitarian truce would be for Ukrainian troops to raise a white flag over part or all of the Azovstal,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement, adding that departing civilians would be able to choose between being taken to territories under Russian control. or Ukrainian.
On Friday, Putin accused Ukrainian authorities of preventing the surrender of the last entrenched soldiers.
“The lives of all Ukrainian military, nationalist fighters and foreign mercenaries are guaranteed if they lay down their weapons… But Kiev does not authorize this possibility,” Putin said in a Kremlin statement, summarizing a conversation with European Council President Carlos Michel.
Putin also accused the “leaders of most European Union countries of supporting clearly Russophobic actions”, referring to the exclusion of Russian citizens from cultural and sporting events, and said that he considered “irresponsible” statements by European officials about “the need to resolve the situation in Ukraine by military means and ignore the numerous Ukrainian war crimes”.
In a Russian-controlled part of the city, stunned-looking residents ventured onto the streets against a backdrop of charred buildings and wrecked cars. Some carried suitcases.
Volunteers in hazmat suits and white masks roamed the ruins, collecting bodies from inside the apartments and loading them onto a truck marked with the letter “Z”, symbol of the invasion of Russia.
Ukraine estimates that tens of thousands of civilians died in the city during the bombing and Russian siege.
Maxar, a commercial satellite company, said space footage showed freshly dug mass graves in Manhuch, on the outskirts of Mariupol.
Kiev says 100,000 residents are still there and need to be evacuated.
The United Nations and the Red Cross say the number of civilians is still unknown, but they are at least in the thousands.
Kiev said no new evacuation operations were planned for Friday. Moscow says it has taken 140,000 Mariupol residents to Russia, but Kiev says many of them were forcibly deported in what would be a war crime.
war crimes
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Friday that there was growing evidence of Russian war crimes in Ukraine, including signs of indiscriminate bombing and summary executions. The organization’s statement also said that Ukraine also appears to have used weapons with indiscriminate effects in the Moscow-controlled region in the east of the country.
“The Russian Armed Forces indiscriminately bombed populated areas, killing civilians and destroying hospitals, schools and other civilian infrastructure, actions that could amount to war crimes,” said High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet.
UN monitors in Ukraine have also documented what appears to be the use of weapons against civilian casualties by the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the east of the country.
“The scale of summary executions of civilians in areas previously occupied by Russian forces is also emerging. Preservation of evidence and dignified treatment of mortal remains must be ensured, as well as psychological and other relief for victims and their families,” he added. Bachelet.
Russia, which describes its incursion as a “special military operation” to disarm and “denazify” Ukraine, denies targeting civilians or committing such war crimes.
The UN said that from the start of the war on 24 February to 20 April, monitors in Ukraine had checked 5,264 civilian casualties – 2,345 dead and 2,919 wounded. Of these, 92.3% were registered in government-controlled territory and 7.7% in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions controlled by the Russian Armed Forces and affiliated groups.
Pope gives up meeting with Russian Orthodox patriarch
Pope Francis said on Friday he had dropped plans to meet in June with Russian Orthodox Patriarch Cyril, an ally of Vladimir Putin who has supported the war in Ukraine.
Francis, who has implicitly criticized Russia and Putin several times since the invasion of the neighboring country, told the Argentine daily La Nacion that he regretted that the plan had to be “suspended” because Vatican diplomats advised that such a meeting “could generate a lot of confusion at this time. “.
In Moscow, the RIA news agency quoted a senior official from the Russian Orthodox Church as saying the meeting was postponed because “the events of the last two months” would have created too many difficulties for its preparation.
Reuters reported on April 11 that the Vatican was considering extending the pope’s trip to Lebanon, scheduled for June 12 and 13, so he could meet Cyril on June 14 in Jerusalem.
Cyril, 75, has given his full blessing to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine since its inception on February 24, a stance that has fractured the world Orthodox Church and sparked an internal rebellion that theologians and academics say is unprecedented.
Francis, 85, used terms like “unjustified aggression” and “invasion” in his public comments about the war and lamented atrocities against civilians.
Asked in the interview why he never named Russia or Putin specifically, Francis was quoted as saying: “A pope never appoints a head of state, let alone a country, that is superior to its head of state.”
A Vatican source familiar with the planning of Francis’ trip to Jerusalem said on Friday that preparations were at an advanced stage and that even the venue for the meeting with Cyril had been chosen.
Francis said earlier this month that he was considering a trip to Kiev, telling reporters on a flight to Malta on April 2 that the possibility was “on the table”. He was invited by Ukrainian political and religious leaders.
Asked in the Argentine interview why he has not gone there, he replied: “I can’t do anything that jeopardizes greater objectives, which are an end to the war, a truce or at least a humanitarian corridor. the war continue the next day?”