Ukraine is preparing for a “big battle” against Moscow’s forces in the country’s east, officials in Kyiv said, as Pope Francis on Sunday called for an Easter ceasefire to end the war. Evacuations resumed on Saturday from Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine, where 52 people were killed in a missile attack on a railway station a day earlier, as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson became the latest Western leader to visit Kyiv.
Appreciating the country’s response to the Russian offensive, Johnson offered Ukraine armored vehicles and anti-ship missiles, vital to deter the Russian naval siege of Black Sea ports, to ensure that the country But “will never be attacked again”.
His proposal was stated by President Volodymyr Zelensky that Kyiv was ready for a Russian attack. “Unfortunately, we see in parallel the preparation of important battles, some people call decisive in the east,” he said at a news conference with Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehmer on Saturday.
“We are prepared to fight and look in parallel to end this war through diplomacy.” Meanwhile, Pope Francis called for an Easter ceasefire in Ukraine to pave the way for peace through “real dialogue”.
“Let the Easter ceasefire begin. But not to provide more weapons and fight again – no! – a ceasefire that will lead to peace through genuine dialogue,” he told a public gathering in St. Peter’s Square.
The Pontiff condemned a war where “defenseless civilians” suffered “heinous massacres and dastardly cruelty”.
“What’s the point of putting a flag on a pile of rubble?” He asked.
Zelensky’s adviser Mykhailo Podolik said Ukraine should back Russia in the eastern Donbass region, where Moscow controls two separatist regions, before a meeting between the Ukrainian leader and Russian President Vladimir Putin could take place.
“Ukraine is ready for big battles. Ukraine has to win them, including Donbass. And once that happens, Ukraine will have a more powerful negotiating position,” he was quoted by Interfax news agency as on national television. said. “Then the president will meet. It may take two weeks, three.”
A video released by Zelensky’s office showed him and the British prime minister walking through empty city streets to Kyiv’s historic Maidan Square as snipers kept watch. Johnson said the discovery of large numbers of civilian bodies in Ukrainian cities had “permanently tainted” Putin’s reputation.
An AFP reporter saw at least two bodies found inside a manhole at a petrol station on a motorway outside Kyiv on Sunday. The bodies appeared to be wearing a mix of civilian and military clothing.
A distraught woman appeared at the manhole and peeped inside, before she broke down to the ground. She cried “my son, my son”.
Six weeks after the Russian invasion, Moscow shifted its focus to eastern and southern Ukraine, as stiff resistance thwarted plans to rapidly capture Kyiv. With thousands killed in fighting and more than 11 million fleeing their homes or country, the Ukrainian president called on the West to follow Britain’s example on military aid.
“We need more sanctions” against Russia, Zelensky said in a video address on Saturday. “We need more weapons for our state.”
‘War on the Civilians’
As Russian forces regroup in Ukraine’s east and south, local officials are urging residents to flee before it’s too late.
At least two people were killed in bombings in and around the northeastern city of Kharkiv, Governor Oleg Sinegubov reported on Facebook on Sunday, reporting 66 attacks in 24 hours.
“The Russian army continues to wage war on civilians because of the lack of victory at the front,” he said.
The mayor of East Lisichansk, Oleksandr Zika, on Saturday called on residents to evacuate as soon as possible due to the continued shelling by Russian forces.
Meanwhile, in Kramatorsk, minibuses gathered at a church to collect shaken people. About 80 people, most of them elderly, were taking shelter in a building near the target station.
The local station served as the main evacuation center for refugees from parts of the eastern Donbass region that is still under Ukrainian control.
AFP journalists at the station saw the remains of a missile tagged in white with the words “for our children” in Russian – to call for their loss by pro-Russian separatists since fighting broke out in the Donbass in 2014 expression to be used.
According to commentary published by the Interfax news agency, the governor of Donetsk claimed that a missile with cluster weapons – banned by an international treaty – was used in the attack.
NATO plans new army
Speaking on Saturday from Warsaw, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said a global pledge program for Ukrainian refugees has raised 10.1 billion euros ($11 billion). In another sign of Western solidarity, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the military alliance was planning a permanent military force along its border to prevent further Russian aggression.
“What we are seeing now is a new reality, a new normal for European security,” he said in an interview with Britain’s Daily Telegraph. We call reset, the long term adaptation of NATO.”
He said the new force would be one of the “long-term consequences” of Putin’s aggression.
Russian troops appear intent on building a long-sought land link between the Moscow-backed separatist regions of Donetsk and Lugansk in occupied Crimea and the Donbass region.
Mounting evidence of atrocities has also infuriated Ukraine’s allies in the European Union, which has sanctioned a ban on Russian coal, piling up billions in the assets of sanctioned individuals and closing its ports to Russian ships. has ordered.
Buka – where officials say hundreds were killed, some with their hands tied – has become a derision for the brutality allegedly committed under Russian occupation.
And Ukrainian officials say they are uncovering even more devastation in nearby cities.
prisoner exchange
Ukraine said on Saturday it had completed a third prisoner exchange with Russia, bringing 12 soldiers and 14 civilians back home. But Moscow said Russian troops also fired at a Ukrainian ship trying to evacuate commanders of the Azov battalion from the southeastern city of Mariupol.
The Azov Special Operations Detachment is fighting Russian forces in Mariupol – the scene of some of the war’s most severe civilian suffering – as it lies between pro-Russian separatist areas east of Russia-occupied Crimea and Ukraine.
Fighting in the region has become increasingly fierce as Russia shifts its focus. Donetsk’s governor said five civilians were also killed in Russian shelling and five others were wounded on Saturday in two eastern Ukrainian cities.
Pavlo Kirilenko said in a Telegram post that four of them were killed in the city of Vuglader and one in the city of Novomikhaylovka. The Ukrainian military announced on Facebook that it had “destroyed four tanks, eight armored vehicles and seven enemy vehicles”, as well as “one plane, one helicopter” and drones.
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