Kyiv Eight weeks after the start of the aggressive war against Ukraine, the Russian army has specified its military goals. Rustam Minnekayev, acting commander of the central military district, said on Friday that Russia wants to take over the entire Donbass and also southern Ukraine. This is reported by the agency Interfax.
Minnekayev explained that Russia is interested in a land route to the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea and access to Transnistria. Russian troops are stationed in the Transnistria region, which broke away from Moldova. Minnekayev indicated that the interests of the Russian-speaking population should also be defended in Transnistria.
If Russia takes over the south, Ukraine could lose all access to the world’s oceans. Until now, no one in the Russian military leadership had made such a concrete statement about the goals of the war.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on a question about “expanding the operation.” He referred to the Defense Ministry, which previously said it would focus on eastern Ukraine. There, the Luhansk and Donetsk regions are to be completely wrested from Ukrainian control.
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Ukraine has labeled Russia’s plans as imperialism. “They don’t hide it anymore,” the Defense Ministry in Kyiv said on Twitter. Russia has “confirmed that the aim of its ‘second phase’ of the war is not victory over the mythical Nazis, but simply the occupation of eastern and southern Ukraine”.
The Russian troops are still around 300 kilometers away from taking the entire Black Sea coast. They have already taken 250 kilometers, including the Cherson region. From there it is about 120 kilometers to the city of Odessa, where the Russian troops are likely to face particularly tough Ukrainian resistance.
Satellite photos indicate mass graves
Satellite images indicate a possible mass grave near the port city of Mariupol in south-eastern Ukraine. The US satellite photo service Maxar distributed images that are said to show several excavated grave sites in the suburb of Manhusch.
The recordings are said to show several excavated grave sites.
(Photo: AP)
The Mariupol City Council and Mayor Vadym Bojchenko say that up to 9,000 people are said to be buried there. The city council and mayor are no longer on site themselves. The information could not be independently verified.
The situation in Mariupol
Ukraine accuses Russian troops of preventing civilians from leaving the besieged Mariupol steel mill. “The Russians are afraid of storming Azovstal, but they are deliberately and cynically not letting civilians out,” Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk told the Telegram news channel.
British intelligence experts suspect that Russian troops would have to expect high losses if the steel works were stormed. This was announced by the Ministry of Defense in London. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to establish a blockade around the steel plant indicates a desire to contain Ukrainian resistance in Mariupol and free up Russian forces for deployment to other parts of eastern Ukraine, the statement said continue.
Mariupol was encircled shortly after the Russian war of aggression began two months ago. Only in the Azovstal plant are several hundred Ukrainian soldiers still holding out. According to Ukrainian information, there are also around 1,000 civilians with them.
No Easter rest in Ukraine
Fighting in Ukraine continues during the Orthodox Easter holidays. According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Russia has rejected a proposal for a ceasefire over the Easter holidays. This shows what the Christian faith and one of the happiest and most important holidays are for the leaders of Russia, said Selensky in his video message every evening on Friday night.
1000 bodies found in Kyiv
According to police, more than 1,000 bodies have been found in the Kyiv area since the withdrawal of Russian troops more than three weeks ago. The police chief of the region around the capital Kyiv, Andriy Nebytov, said on Ukrainian television. The dead are civilians.
After the Russian withdrawal from the region, the discovery of hundreds of bodies, some of them buried in mass graves, in Hostomel, Irpin, Bucha and Borodjanka northwest of the capital caused international horror.
The Kyiv suburb was heavily contested during the Russian offensive.
(Photo: AP)
According to the UN Human Rights Office, there are increasing signs of war crimes in Ukraine. Russian forces have indiscriminately shelled and bombed inhabited areas, killing civilians and destroying hospitals, schools and other civilian infrastructure, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, reported in Geneva on Friday.
Putin receives UN Secretary-General in Moscow
Next Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin will receive UN Secretary General António Guterres in Moscow. Guterres will also hold talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday. The UN chief had previously requested a meeting with Putin.
Guterres will travel to Moscow as part of increased peace efforts in the Ukraine war. “He will have a working meeting and lunch with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The Secretary-General will be received by President Vladimir Putin,” a UN spokeswoman said in New York.
Earlier, Guterres had sent letters to the UN missions of Russia and Ukraine, asking to meet him in the countries’ capitals. “Urgent steps” must be taken to bring about peace in Ukraine. The UN chief has recently called for a ceasefire in the Ukraine war.
After the stay in Moscow, it currently seems quite possible that Guterres will travel on to Kyiv: “We are in contact with the government of Ukraine regarding preparations for possible visits,” the UN said.
Scholz warns that Baerbock makes promises
In Germany, the debate about further arms deliveries to Ukraine continued on Friday. Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) justified his hesitant attitude on this subject in an interview with the “Spiegel”. “There must be no nuclear war,” he said. “I am doing everything to prevent an escalation leading to a third world war.”
>> Read about this: Interview with Olaf Scholz – There will be no Russian dictated peace
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is in Lithuania’s capital, Vilnius. There she promised the Baltic states greater German involvement in the defense of NATO’s eastern flank. “If NATO decides that NATO’s presence should be increased to brigade strength, then we in the Federal Republic of Germany will make a substantial contribution to this,” said the Greens politician. “I understood here that this is necessary. And then Germany will lead the way there.”
Baerbock emphasized that after repeated attempts to achieve common security in Europe with Russia as a partner, Russian President Vladimir Putin is now forcing NATO to take a new course. “Today the main concern is security from Russia.”
More Handelsblatt articles on the war in Ukraine
Almost 370,000 war refugees from Ukraine in Germany
The number of war refugees from Ukraine arriving in Germany continues to rise. As the Federal Ministry of the Interior announced on Twitter on Friday, the Federal Police have counted 369,381 refugees since the war began on February 24. These are mainly women, children and old people.
Meanwhile, Poland’s border guards have once again counted more people entering Ukraine than leaving the neighboring country to the east. On Thursday, 23,600 people left Poland for Ukraine. In contrast, 19,300 people came to Poland from Ukraine in the same period – eleven percent fewer than the day before.
More: You can follow the latest developments in our news blog