War in Ukraine: on the 61st day, Washington announces new aid and the return of its diplomats

Europe 1 with AFP 07:32, April 25, 2022

THE ESSENTIAL

During this trip, announced on Saturday by Mr. Zelensky but confirmed by the United States only on Monday, after their exit from Ukraine, the two ministers expressed their solidarity with the Ukrainian leader.

The visit was all the more symbolic as it took place on the day of the Orthodox Easter, celebrated in pain and meditation in the country at war.

The two officials announced the gradual return of a US diplomatic presence in Ukraine and additional direct and indirect military aid of $713 million.

Return of American diplomats

"We want our diplomats to return to our embassy in kyiv as soon as possible," said a senior US official.

Mr. Blinken also announced the appointment in the coming days of a new US Ambassador to Ukraine.

It will be Bridget Brink, current ambassador to Slovakia.

The position in Ukraine had been occupied since 2019 by project managers.

The United States is much more cautious than several European countries which have already reopened their embassies in kyiv.

The arrival in kyiv of MM.

Blinken and Austin was the first of U.S. officials since the conflict began Feb. 24.

It came after those of several European leaders in recent weeks.

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President Zelensky had announced on Saturday that they were coming to discuss US arms deliveries to Ukraine.

"The friendship and collaboration between Ukraine and the United States is stronger than ever," he said Sunday on Twitter.

On YouTube, an adviser to Mr. Zelensky, Oleksiï Arestovitch repeated kyiv's desire to see itself delivered "offensive weapons": "As long as we cannot counter-attack, there will be a + new Boutcha + every days," he said, alluding to this town in the northwestern suburbs of kyiv that has become a symbol of the atrocities committed during the Russian occupation of the region in March.

"Save all Ukrainians!"

launched Mr. Zelensky in a message for the Easter holiday on Sunday.

"Burning Hate"

“Our souls are filled with burning hatred for the invaders and all they have done,” he continued.

"Transform it into a beneficial force to defeat the forces of evil".

Continued fighting has clouded the Easter ceremonies.

In the small church of Lyman (east), under the regular fire of Russian shells, about fifty civilians had gathered at dawn, while the roar of artillery was heard.

“If we make the wrong choices, darkness will ruin us, as darkness destroys us in this war,” the priest declaimed in his sermon.

call for truce

The UN has called for an "immediate" truce in Mariupol, a strategic port in the Sea of ​​Azov almost entirely controlled by the Russian army, to allow the evacuation of some 100,000 civilians still trapped in the besieged city in ruins since early March.

The bombardments and fighting have claimed the lives of more than 20,000 civilians in Mariupol, according to Mayor Vadym Boychenko, who denounced on the Ukraine 24 channel that "the Russian occupation forces are preventing evacuations".

"Every day, every hour that passes has a terrible human cost", deplored the International Committee of the Red Cross, calling urgently for "the voluntary and safe passage of thousands of civilians and hundreds of wounded out of the city, including including in the area of ​​the Azovstal factory", the last pocket of resistance of the Ukrainian fighters.

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Russian forces are still besieging and shelling the factory, according to Ukraine's Defense Ministry.

But "the (Ukrainian) defense lines are on the verge of collapsing" in Mariupol, specified the president's adviser Oleksiï Arestovitch.

Commander of the 36th Mariupol Marine Brigade, Sergey Volyna, stressed to him the urgency of accelerating efforts to free soldiers and civilians besieged in the steelworks.

"It is very difficult to defend oneself with a machine gun against bombers or cruise missiles, or even assault groups which advance on dozens of tanks", underlined Mr. Volyna.

An adviser to President Zelensky said Ukraine had offered Russia to hold "a special session of talks right next to the Azovstal site", saying "wait for the response".

The Ukrainian presidency has also again proposed negotiations "to take or exchange" soldiers, a proposal ignored by Moscow so far.

The OSCE "extremely concerned"

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said on Sunday it was "extremely concerned" following the arrest, in the pro-Russian separatist Ukrainian territories of the East, of four members of its observation mission. of the 2014 ceasefire, set up after the conflict that broke out between these regions and kyiv after the Russian annexation of Crimea (south).

The OSCE had evacuated several hundred observers at the start of the Russian invasion.

But there remained Ukrainian employees "carrying out administrative tasks", four of whom are detained in Donetsk and Lugansk (east), lamented the OSCE in a press release.

An "unacceptable" situation

This situation, which has been going on "for some time now", is "unacceptable", commented Zbigniew Rau, head of Polish diplomacy and chairman-in-office of the OSCE.

Separatist security forces accuse arrested OSCE employees of "high treason".

They said on Friday that one of them had "confessed" to having transmitted "confidential military information to representatives of foreign special services".

Fighting continues to rage in eastern and southern Ukraine.

According to the Ukrainian general staff, Kharkiv, the country's second city, remains "partially blocked" by the Russian forces which continue to bombard.

A woman was killed there and a man injured on Sunday, according to Ukrainian authorities.

More than 7 million displaced

In the Donbass basin (east), formed by the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk, Russian troops have "intensified their offensives" in three directions, according to the Ukrainian general staff: Severodonetsk, de facto capital of the Lugansk region under Ukrainian control, Popasna, about fifty kilometers further south, and Kurakhikva, near Donetsk.

Lugansk Governor Sergiy Gaiday told Ukraine 24 that tens of thousands of civilians remained in the area despite constant shelling.

“Unfortunately, there are mostly old people who feel that since they were born here, they should die here,” he said.

And in the Donetsk region, five civilians were killed and five injured on Sunday, Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko wrote on Telegram.

In Koroviy Iar, a town in the north of Donbass where the Russians have taken up position since Saturday, fighting was taking place at the entrance to the village, AFP noted.

Ukrainian tanks and armor reinforced the counter-offensive and covered an attempt to evacuate 30 civilians.

The Russian army, for its part, said on Sunday that it had carried out missile strikes against nine Ukrainian military targets, including four ammunition depots south of the Kharkiv region.

Moscow also said it carried out airstrikes against 26 targets, and 423 artillery strikes, without specifying locations.

On the diplomatic front, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres is expected Monday in Turkey, a country that is trying to mediate in the conflict, before going to Moscow and then kyiv.

The number of refugees who have fled Ukraine since the Russian invasion is approaching 5.2 million, according to the UN.

More than 7.7 million people have also left their homes but are still in Ukraine.