War in Ukraine: Moscow increases pressure in the east and south of the country | War in Ukraine

Violent explosions were heard overnight from Friday to Saturday in Kharkiv, the country’s second city, pounded for weeks by Russian artillery.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged that the situation in this region is difficult. But our military achieves tactical successeshe added.

In the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, 14 attacks launched by Russian forces have been repelled in the past 24 hours, the Ukrainian forces’ general staff said on Saturday.

According to a senior Pentagon official, Russian forces are far from having made the connection troops entering through the Kharkiv region, north of Donbass, with those coming from the south of the country, one of the objectives of the Russian army to take in a pincer movement the Ukrainian forces deployed on the front line around the separatist areas of Donetsk and Lugansk.

But we believe they continue to create the conditions for a sustained, larger and longer offensivehe specified.

For his part, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov assured that special military operation launched on February 24 by Russia was proceeding according to plan, in an interview with the official Chinese agency Xinhua (New China) on Saturday. All his goals will be achieved despite the obstruction of our adversarieshe detailed.

One million Ukrainians deported, according to Moscow

He also said that about one million people have been evacuated from Ukraine to Russia since Feb. 24 and that a total of 2.8 million people have applied for it. This figure includes 120,000 foreigners and people evacuated from the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. His statements made to the Xinhua agency were published on the website of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

War crimes

Separately, kyiv police said on Saturday that the bodies of three visibly tortured and shot dead men were found Friday in a pit near Boutcha, with their hands tied and blindfolded.

” According to preliminary data, the occupiers tried to hide the traces of their violence […] they threw the bodies into a pit and covered them with earth. »

The bodies of these three men were found in Myrotske, a village close to Boutcha – which has become a symbol of the atrocities of the war and where nearly 1,000 corpses of civilians have been discovered, according to kyiv.

At the same time, the office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine Iryna Venediktova revealed that 10 Russian soldiers had been indicted for alleged war crimes in Boutcha. And more than 8000 cases suspected of war crimes have in total been identified in Ukraine, confirmed the prosecutor.

Takeovers from Ukraine

The military aid provided to kyiv has greatly increased since the beginning of the conflict and the effects are beginning to be seen on the ground where the Russian forces are sometimes in difficulty.

Ukrainians evacuated from the village of Lozova arrive in Kharkiv on April 29, 2022.

Photo: AP/Felipe Dana

This is particularly the case in Lozova, a village taken over by the Ukrainians north of Kharkiv, from where the Russian forces pounded the city. More than 600 residents have been evacuated from the village, which has been occupied for two months, according to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry.

We stayed in the basements with no food for two months, we ate what we hadexplained Svyatoslav, 40, his eyes red with fatigue.

Oleksandr Skachko, a resident of Slatyne, near Lozova, which was also taken over by Ukrainian troops, said 15 people from the village were killed. No matter what they say, no matter what Putin says, our people are dying herelaunched the man.

Meanwhile, the United Nations (UN) continues to negotiate the evacuation of civilians from Mariupol. Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boichenko said on Friday that citizens beg to be saved of a steelworks which has become the city’s last defense bastion. It’s not a matter of days. It’s a matter of hourshe said.