The Mariupol mayor’s office has expressed confidence that thousands of civilians will reach Zaporizhia this Monday, of which almost a hundred were evacuated yesterday from the besieged port city, but they got caught midway. “According to our information, they have already left Mariupol and we expect them to arrive in Zaporizhia this afternoon or at night,” said a spokesman for the mayor’s office, through Telegram, according to the Ukrainian portal ‘Ukrinform’. The Mariupol authorities hope that the Russian troops “allow” this Monday to continue their journey to Zaporizhia, further north, from where their subsequent transfer to other parts of the country is organized or they are given the first reception.
Thus, throughout this Monday it is expected that the evacuation of citizens blocked in Mariúpol will continue, especially from the Azovstal steel mill, the last point of Ukrainian resistance to Russian troops. The source from the mayor’s office has indicated that the buses planned to take them out of the city are enabled and has added that private cars can join the column. Still, after the evacuation of nearly a hundred civilians, Ukraine has accused the Russian military of resuming “massive attacks” against the Azovstal steelworks. This was announced on national television by the commander of the 12th Brigade of the National Guard, Denys Schleha.
According to the commander, every day the enemy “presses more and more” to take control of the site. The military chief has clarified that, according to his estimates, there are still several hundred civilians in the Azovstal bunkers, including up to 20 children. In addition, he has said that there are also some 500 wounded who are waiting to leave the steel mill, and that they can take “our fallen comrades-in-arms, which is also a very large number.” However, the military commander has asserted that the Ukrainian forces that control the plant will continue to carry out their tasks until the end.
“The guys have been repelling (the enemy) for 67 days and I think they have done everything possible and impossible, and continue to do so. And we will fulfill all the tasks that come our way and we will defend our homeland“, he added. Meanwhile, the Russian forces continue their offensive in the south of Ukraine, where they try to advance in the direction of the South Bug, the second most important river in the country that flows into the Black Sea, with the aim of reaching the administrative border of the Kherson region and occupy it in its entirety.
Torture and murder in Kharkiv
This is stated in the last part of the Ukrainian Military High Command, which adds that the occupiers are looking for “weaknesses” in the Ukrainian defense in that area, while maintaining their artillery attacks in the area of ​​the city of Nikolaiv. Ukraine has further noted that Russian troops are trying to improve their tactical position in the Popasna area and have reinforced their troops from the Mariupol direction. To augment the air defense system, Russia has deployed additional anti-aircraft missile systems in the occupied territories in the Lugansk and Zaporizhia regions, according to the statement, highlighting “significant losses” being suffered by the occupiers.
Along these lines, the Ukrainian Ombudsman’s Office on Monday accused Russian troops of forcibly removing residents of the city of Kupiansk and of torture and murder civilians, in the Kharkov region. “Russian occupiers intimidate and forcibly evacuate residents of the city of Kupiansk in the Kharkov region and neighboring settlements. In addition, they spread false information about the alleged capture of Kharkov, kyiv and Zaporizhia. In Berdyansk, according to residents locals, the occupants go to the apartments and houses abandoned by the residents of Berdyansk,” said the Ombudsman, according to the UNIAN agency.
“On April 29, a grave with the bodies of three men was found on the territory of the Bucha district, whom Russian soldiers tortured and then brutally murdered. The victims were tortured for a long period of time, the gunshot wounds They were found in their limbs. Ultimately, each of the men was shot in the ear.“, the report has been used. The burial place was in the forest near the town of Mirotskoye. There, they found that the victims had their hands tied, a cloth around their faces to close their eyes, and some men had a gag in the mouth.
Several “indicators” point to an attack on Moldova in the near future
There were signs of torture on the corpses, as well as shots in different parts of the body. According to preliminary data from the Ukrainian Police, They threw the bodies into a pit and covered them with earth.. In total, the researchers examined 1,202 bodies of civilians on the territory of the kyiv region, who were killed by the Russians. In this sense, the Ombudsman of Ukraine, Lyudmila Denisova has denounced that “terror and ill-treatment of civilians in the occupied territories is a war crimedefined by the Statute of the International Military Tribunal and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, and a violation of the provisions of the Geneva Convention for the Protection of Civilians in Time of War”.
On the other hand, Russia would also seek to open a new front against Ukraine from Moldova, and several “indicators” point to an attack against that former Soviet republic in the near future, according to Ukrainian military sources quoted by the newspaper “The Times” If successful That incursion would allow Russian forces to enter the port of Odessa, on the Black Sea, from the west, the British newspaper added on Monday, recalling that Moldova barely has 3,250 soldiers in its Army. “We believe that the Kremlin has already made the decision to attack Moldova. The fate of Moldova is very crucial. If the Russians start to take control, we will be an easier target militarily and the threat to Ukraine will be existential,” a source said. Ukrainian military.
Tensions have risen in Transnistria, a breakaway region of Moldova, after a series of mysterious explosions blamed on “terrorists”. Transnistria, which was formed in 1990 after the Soviet Union dissolved, borders southwestern Ukraine and is controlled by pro-Russian officials. Western analysts believe that the Kremlin’s goal is to create a land bridge from Russia along the Ukrainian coast to Transnistria, cutting Ukraine off from the Black Sea. Moldova is coping with a large influx of refugees and also with the economic consequences of the war as it has curbed almost 15% of its exports.
Attacks on Russian patrol cars and Ukrainian fighters
This Monday it was also possible to know that two Russian patrol boats sailing in the Black Sea were destroyed by the fire allegedly carried out from two Ukrainian unmanned aircraft, according to the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, Valerii Zaluzhnyi. “Two Russian Raptor-class ships were destroyed near Zmiinyi (Snake) Island early today,” Zaluzhnyi said, adding: “Bayraktar is operating.” He has said this in reference to a Turkish long-distance, medium-altitude unmanned combat aerial vehicle capable of autonomous or remotely controlled flight operations.
According to Ukraine, Russian ships had previously tried to conduct reconnaissance at the mouth of the Danube. Similarly, heRussian forces have shot down a Ukrainian MiG-29 fighter near Sloviansk, in eastern Ukraine. “During air combat near Sloviansk, a MiG-29 fighter was shot down,” Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said. Russian air defense systems also shot down ten Ukrainian drones over the past 24 hours, he added. In addition, “two Tochka-U tactical missiles were shot down near the Petrovskoe village in the Lugansk People’s Republic, and one Smerch missile was destroyed in the Donetsk region,” he noted.
Faced with the latest attacks in Ukraine, the president of the Russian Duma (Lower House), Viacheslav Volodin, has stressed that the countries that send weapons to Ukraine are part of the conflict, are approaching a “catastrophe” and that their leaders must answer for it before the Justice. “By sending weapons to Ukraine they become parties to the conflict.” According to Volodin, “the leaders of a number of European countries, headed by Germany, can cause great problems for their peoples.” Likewise, he has accused the West of “doing nothing” to protect the inhabitants of Donbas during the eight years that the conflict in eastern Ukraine lasted “and now do everything so that Slavs die in Ukraine“.
Source: Lasexta
Mario Twitchell is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his insightful and thought-provoking writing on a wide range of topics including general and opinion. He currently works as a writer at 247 news agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
