Russia continued to bombard eastern Ukraine this Sunday and its president, Volodimir Zelenski, is preparing to intervene on Monday before the world political and economic elites gathered in Davosin a diplomatic counteroffensive.
After failing to take control of the Ukrainian capital, kyiv, Russian troops are now concentrating their efforts in eastern Ukraine. Ukrainewhere the combats do not let up.
In this context, the Ukrainian parliament approved extending martial law and general mobilization until August 23.
According to the Ukrainian presidency, the Russian bombardments reached the cities of Mykolaiv, Kharkov and Zaporizhia on Saturday night.
The day before, seven civilians were killed and 10 wounded in the region of Donetskand in the region of Lugansk One person died and two were injured, all in shelling, according to their governors.
higher intensity attacks
“The Russians are putting all their efforts into conquering Severodonetsk,” Lugansk region governor Sergei Gaidai said. This city is strategic to conquer the region, which together with Donetsk forms the Donbas.
“The city is being destroyed, as Rubizhne and Popasna were destroyed before,” Gaidai said on Saturday.
The Ukrainian general staff said in its daily report on Sunday that the Russian army continued its attacks with missiles and aerial means throughout the territory and even “increased the intensity by using the air force to destroy crucial infrastructure.”
According to President Zelensky, the war “will be bloody, there will be fighting, but it will definitely end through diplomatic channels.”
To date, several meetings have been held between negotiators from both sides, but without concrete results.
“Until Ukraine is a member of the EU”
Polish President Andrzej Duda, who visited kyiv on Sunday, assured that from now on it will be impossible to “do business as usual” with Russia.
“After Bucha, Borodianka, Mariupol, there can be no more “business as usual” [negocios como de costumbre] with Russia,” he declared in a speech to the Ukrainian parliament.
In Bucha and Borodianka, occupied and later abandoned by the Russian army, hundreds of civilians were discovered dead after the passage of Moscow forces.
And in southeastern Ukraine, the port city of Mariupol has been left in ruins after months of siege and relentless shelling that killed at least 20,000 civilians, according to Ukrainian authorities.
“What can I still hope for? What can I say when the house is destroyed, when life is destroyed?” asked Angela Kopytsa, 52, in this city.
The Polish president also said that he would not rest “until Ukraine is a member of the European Union.” But in an interview on local radio, French Minister Delegate for European Affairs, Clément Beaune, insisted that kyiv’s accession to the EU “will probably take 15 or 20 years.”
“In the meantime we owe the Ukrainians (…) a political project in which they can enter,” he continued, referring to the French president’s proposal, Emmanuel Macronfor Ukraine to enter a “European political community”.
A message to Davos
Zelensky, who rejects Macron’s plan, is preparing to give a speech by videoconference before the Davos Economic Forum in Switzerland, which begins on Monday after a two-year break due to covid-19.
He is expected to use this new podium to call on world leaders to provide more aid to kyiv, both financial and military.
Zelensky will be the first head of state to give a speech. Many Ukrainian politicians will be present in Davos, from where the Russians were excluded.
For the founder of the Forum, Klaus Schwab, the 2022 edition comes at the most opportune moment and is the most important since its creation more than 50 years ago.
“Russia’s aggression … will be seen in the history books as the collapse of the order born out of World War II and the Cold War,” he told a briefing this week.
Russian countersanctions
Russia published a list of 963 American personalities prohibited from entering the country, in retaliation for similar sanctions taken by Washington.
The list includes President Joe Biden, his Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, and even the president of Meta (the parent company of Facebook), Mark Zuckerberg.
Ukraine will continue its diplomatic offensive this Sunday at the assembly of the World Health Organization (WHO) where he will present a resolution next week to the 194 members of the UN body.
He is expected to denounce the attacks perpetrated by Moscow on the health system, condemn the very serious consequences of the invasion and blockade of Ukrainian ports on the world supply of grain and the increase in prices.
kg