Russian troops establish themselves

Kyiv According to Ukrainian information, Russian troops have established themselves in several places in eastern Ukraine and are now continuing their offensive. UN chief Antonio Guterres wants to get involved in Ukraine diplomacy on a grand scale.

After a meeting with Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin in Moscow, he will also travel to President Volodymyr Zelensky in Ukraine next week. Zelensky himself called on the Ukrainians to resist the Russian occupation by any means necessary.

According to Ukrainian sources, while continuing their offensive, Russian forces are trying to gain full control of the separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk and to establish a land connection with the Crimean peninsula annexed in 2014, the Ukrainian general staff said in a morning situation report. In addition, there is a partial blockade of the city of Kharkiv in the north-east of the country by Russian troops.

All Ukrainian-controlled cities in the eastern Luhansk region are under constant fire from Russian forces, according to local authorities. The shelling is also increasing, regional governor Serhiy Haidai said on television. The Ukrainian armed forces had withdrawn from some localities in order to regroup. But this is not a major setback. Russia denies attacking civilian areas.

In its report on Friday evening, the Ukrainian general staff announced that Russian units had gained a foothold in the small town of Lozova, an important railway junction in the Kharkiv region in the east of the country. They could also have gained a foothold in the town of Stepne in the Donetsk region.

Attacks were fended off in the Luhansk region, around 80 percent of which is already under Russian control, according to Ukrainian sources, in the area of ​​the city of Rubishne and the village of Novotoschkivske. The information could not be independently verified.

Zelenskiy calls on Ukrainians to resist Russia

The Ukrainian President called on the citizens of his country to resist the Russian war of aggression. “Everyone has to defend themselves against the occupation at every opportunity,” said Selenski in his video message every evening on Saturday night. People shouldn’t cooperate with the Russians. Those living in areas controlled by Russian units should “cause them as much trouble as possible.”

Zelenskiy also reacted to Russia’s specification of its war aims. The area where Russia should take care of the rights of Russian speakers “is Russia itself,” he said. There is no freedom of speech there, and poverty thrives.

On Friday, a senior Russian military official said that in the second phase of the war in Ukraine they wanted to capture the Donbass in the east and south of the country and there was still access to Transnistria, where “oppression of the Russian-speaking population” was also noted . Russia uses this argument to justify its war of aggression in Ukraine. Russian troops are stationed in the Transnistria region, which broke away from Moldova.

The statements from Russia also confirmed what he had already said several times: “That the Russian invasion of Ukraine should only be the beginning and after that they want to conquer other countries.”

Ukraine: Possible escape corridor from Mariupol on Saturday

According to Ukrainian sources, an evacuation from the badly damaged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol could take place on Saturday. This was announced by Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Wereshchuk on Facebook late Friday evening.

She went on to say that escape corridors out of the city had failed several times and that she understood how difficult this was for people. “But you and I have to try so many times until it works.”

London: Change in Russian tactics may take some time

An announcement by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu that he would use unspecified “new methods of warfare” is, according to the British assessment, a tacit admission that Russia is not progressing as planned in its war of aggression against Ukraine. Nevertheless, it will take a while to adapt and improve tactics, the British Ministry of Defense said on Friday evening, citing intelligence information. This applies in particular to land-based maneuver warfare.

Around two months after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, UN Secretary-General António Guterres plans to visit Russia and Ukraine next week. After a reception by Russian President Putin in Moscow on Tuesday, Guterres will travel to Ukraine and meet President Zelensky there on Thursday, as the United Nations announced on Friday (local time) in New York.

The UN chief had previously asked for the meetings to mediate in the struggle for a ceasefire in the conflict. The trip to Moscow is likely to be one of the most important of Guterres’ time as UN Secretary-General.

Medvedev: Europe ‘won’t survive a week’ without Russian gas

Ex-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has responded to a guideline from the EU Commission that it appears EU companies could pay for Russian gas without violating sanctions. The “consistency and loyalty to principles of the European partners is appreciated,” Medvedev wrote on Telegram on Saturday night, adding a laughing smiley face and a clown emoji.

Especially when you consider that, according to current data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Europe can get by without Russian gas for a maximum of six months. “But seriously, they won’t last a week.”

Satellite images are said to show other possible graves near Mariupol

Not far from the south-east Ukrainian port of Mariupol, which was besieged by Russian troops, satellite images indicate another possible mass grave. “This time in the left-bank district near the Vynohradne cemetery,” city council deputy Petro Andryushchenko told Telegram on Friday. The occupying forces would try to cover up war crimes.

The images distributed by the US satellite photo service Maxar from March 22 to April 15 are said to show a cemetery near Wynohradne before, during and after an expansion of the graves. The information cannot be independently verified.

More Handelsblatt articles on the war in Ukraine

A week after the sinking of the warship “Moskva”, the Russian leadership admitted one fatality, 27 sailors were missing. “In the fight for the survival of the ship, a soldier died and another 27 crew members are missing,” the Ministry of Defense said on Friday, according to the Interfax news agency. There was no information about injuries. After discussions with relatives, the media critical of the Kremlin spoke of a significantly larger number of dead and missing.

With a federal party conference at the weekend, the FDP determines its further course of support for Ukraine. Demonstrations against the war are planned in Düsseldorf and Hamburg.

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