QUICK READING April 19: France persuaded the EU to embargo Russian oil?
A Ukrainian soldier stands next to a Javelin anti-tank missile at a position in the Donetsk region on April 18 – Photo: REUTERS
* Mr. Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to President Zelensky, said Russian forces are advancing “very cautiously” in the east because they lacked the strength to penetrate Ukraine’s defences. “Their attack will fail, I’m 99% sure, they simply don’t have enough power,” Mr. Arestovych said.
* Reuters news agency quoted Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova as saying United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has not contacted Russian President Vladimir Putin since the military campaign of Moscow began on February 24. “No one contacted, either through Russia’s permanent mission to the UN or through the Foreign Ministry,” Zakharova said.
* TASS news agency quoted information monitoring agency Roskomnadzor as saying that Russia has restricted access to the website of Human Rights Watch (HRW) based in New York (USA). Roskomnadzor’s move is related to the agency’s claim that HRW has published false information about the conduct of the Russian military in Ukraine.
* Mr. Serhii Haidai, head of the Luhansk government, called on civilians to evacuate in the context that the city of Kreminna in the region had fallen. Evacuation efforts will focus on the regions of Rubizhne, Severodonetsk, Lysychansk, Popasna and Hirske.
* Reuters news agency quoted information from the Russian Defense Ministry said Russian rockets and artillery hit 1,260 targets in Ukraine on the night of April 18. Russian air defenses shot down a Ukrainian MiG-29 jet in the Donetsk region.
* Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Luo Yucheng met Russian Ambassador to China Andrey Denisov on April 18, according to Reuters news agency. Lac assured China to strengthen cooperation with Russia regardless of international developments. The two diplomats also discussed Ukraine.
* Russia continues its offensive in the east “to establish full control over the Donetsk and Luhansk regions”, as well as to maintain a land corridor with Crimea, Aljazzeera Radio reported, citing information from the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The Ukrainian military added that Russian forces are focused on breaking through the defenses in the Donbass region and establishing control over the entire city of Mariupol. Ukraine says it repelled seven Russian attacks in Donetsk and Luhansk, destroying 10 tanks, 18 armored units, eight vehicles and one artillery system.
* French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told Radio Europe 1 that The European Union (EU) is drafting a Russian oil embargo. “I hope in the coming weeks we will convince our European partners to stop importing Russian oil,” Le Maire said.
* Reuters news agency quoted Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk as saying April 19 was the third day in a row. cannot establish any humanitarian corridor to evacuate civilians.
* According to the Guardian newspaper, Japan will send masks and clothing designed to protect against chemical weapons, as well as drones to Ukraine on request from Kiev. While Britain will soon send Stormer armored missile launchers (HVMs) to Ukraine after Russia begins its large-scale offensive in the Donbass.
Stormer is manufactured by British arms company BAE Systems. The system requires only three people to operate and uses Starstreak missiles, which can be used to bring down low-altitude aircraft.
Pro-Russian forces control people’s papers in the city of Mariupol on April 18. This southern Ukrainian port city has been largely controlled by Russian forces after weeks of siege – Photo: REUTERS
* According to Reuters news agency, the US is looking to seize the superyacht Amadea docked in Fiji, believed to be owned by Russian tycoon Suleiman Kerimov. Mr. Kerimov is on the sanctions list of the US and EU. On April 19, Christopher Pryde, the chief prosecutor of Fiji, filed an application with the Supreme Court of this island nation to seek to prevent Amadea from leaving.
* The Russian Embassy in Podgorica sent a note to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Montenegroasked the agency to clarify the previous statement about the severance of diplomatic relations with Russia, according to TASS news agency on April 19.
Earlier, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Montenegro posted on Twitter a statement by Foreign Minister Djordje Radulovic about the need to sever diplomatic relations with Russia. However, this statement was deleted a few hours later.
* According to TASS news agency, on April 19, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov of the Belgorod region (Russia) accused Ukrainian forces of attacking a village here, injuring a civilian. Belgorod is located near the border of Russia and Ukraine.
The Guardian newspaper said it was not immediately clear whether this claim was true, whether the attack was carried out by artillery, mortars, rockets or an air attack.
Ukrainian refugees wait for the train to Budapest, Romania – Photo: REUTERS
* According to the Guardian on April 19, the aviation monitoring site FlightRadar said that the plane sent by Moscow to pick up the expelled diplomats was forced to fly more than 15,000 km because of the European Union’s flight ban. The total length of these flights is almost equal to the current longest flight in the world.
* The European Union Police Agency (Europol) warns The conflict in Ukraine threatens to increase crime in Europefrom human trafficking, sexual abuse to cyberattacks, and trafficking in illegal weapons, drugs and tobacco.
* On April 18, the chief of staff of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak said that “the second phase of the war has begun”, referring to a new wave of Russian attacks in eastern Ukraine, according to Reuters news agency.
While, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian forces launched new offensive along most of Ukraine’s eastern flank on April 18, and the “Battle of Donbass” began.
“We can now say that the Russian forces have begun the war in the Donbass, which they have been preparing for a long time,” Zelensky said.
And Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of the Security Council of Ukraine, said Russia had been trying to break through Ukraine’s defenses along the front lines in the Donetsk, Lugansk and Kharkov regions.
* “Ukrainian forces continue to fight for Mariupol. This is an important city for them both economically and culturally and they are fighting for it.”John Kirby – spokesman for the US Department of Defense – said on CNN on April 18.
The Ukrainian side believes that about 21,000 people have been killed in the besieged southern port city almost since Russia launched a special military operation on February 24.
Russian forces issued an ultimatum “surrender or die” until the morning of April 17 to the Ukrainian groups still resisting in Mariupol, but this request was ignored by the Ukrainian side.
Mr. Kirby also explains why Ukraine is determined to protect Mariupol: it is an important port city and moreover it is the land connection point between Russia and the Crimean peninsula, which was annexed by Russia in 2014.
A man walks past a badly damaged apartment building in the city of Mariupol, Ukraine on April 18 – Photo: REUTERS
* US President Joe Biden has no plans to visit Ukraine in the immediate future. Ms. Jen Psaki – spokeswoman for the White House, reiterated again at a press conference on April 18.
She made it clear that the Washington administration is thinking of sending a special envoy to Kiev, but ruled out the possibility of the President going to Ukraine at this time for safety reasons.
Even to explain the security for the trip, Ms. Psaki emphasized: “If someone has to go to Ukraine, we don’t say it here.”
She confirmed that Washington hopes to reopen its embassy in Kiev, but did not specify a schedule for this plan.
A tank of the Ukrainian army in the Kharkov region, on the side of the road is a military vehicle with the symbol Z as an identification sign of pro-Russian forces – Photo: REUTERS
* On April 18, the Tass news agency quoted the Russian Defense Ministry as saying that the Russian air force hit a logistics center of the Ukrainian army near the city of Lviv, destroying most of the foreign weapons. stored here.
In addition, Russian forces also destroyed a Tochka U ballistic missile repair center in the city of Dnipro.
* The mayor of the city of Mariupol said about 40,000 civilians had been forcibly moved to Russia or to Russian-controlled areas in Ukraine. Reuters was unable to verify the allegation. Russia has always denied that it targeted civilians during its military operation in Ukraine that began February 24.
* President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky officially sent a complete answer sheet on membership of the European Union (EU) to an EU special envoy in Ukraine on April 18, according to Reuters news agency. At the same time, he believes that this move will help Kiev gain membership in the next few weeks.
A destroyed tire shop in the city of Lviv, Ukraine – Photo: AP
* On April 18, Martin Griffiths, under-secretary-general of the United Nations (UN) in charge of humanitarian affairs, said that humanitarian ceasefires between Russian and Ukrainian forces in Ukraine have not occurred yet, but maybe in the next few weeks. Griffiths said Russian officials had not yet put a ceasefire at the top of their agenda, according to Reuters.
* CNN quoted UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as saying there had been 136 attacks on health care facilities in Ukraine. since Russia launched a military campaign in this neighboring country. Of these, at least 73 people were killed and 52 were injured.
* A senior US defense official said the US military will begin training Ukrainian soldiers to use howitzer systems in the coming days. The official said the howitzer training would take place outside Ukraine, according to the newspaper Guardian.
Last week, US President Joe Biden announced additional military aid of $ 800 million to Ukraine, including heavy artillery. To date, Washington has sent four flights of weapons to Ukraine as part of a new aid package.
* On April 18, Ukraine’s Infrastructure Minister Oleksander Kubrakov said that Russia’s military campaign has damaged or destroyed up to 30% of infrastructure, with a loss of up to 100 billion USD, of Ukraine. Mr. Kubrakov said reconstruction could take up to two years, and using funds from frozen Russian accounts, according to Reuters.
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