The Ukraine update: what happened today
Dozens of Attacks: Russia attacks in full force in four locations
As the world waits for the Ukrainian counteroffensive, Russia is currently attacking four locations in the Donetsk region. This is reported by the Ukrainian General Staff. The cities of Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdjiwka and Marinka are currently the main Russian battlefields. Bachmut and Marinka in particular saw the fiercest fighting. Here the Ukrainian army had to fend off 40 attacks in just 24 hours.
The Russians had mainly attacked inhabited areas from the air, according to the general staff. A Western intelligence service adds that the Russians have “reinvigorated” their nine-month attack on Bakhmut. This is mainly due to better cooperation between the regular army and the Wagner mercenary force.
Russia reports territorial gains at Battle of Bakhmut
According to Russia, it has made territorial gains in the months-long battle for the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. The mercenary group Wagner, fighting alongside the Russian army, managed to capture “two districts on the northern and southern outskirts of the city,” the Defense Ministry said in Moscow on Saturday. The Battle of Bakhmut has significant symbolic value for both Russia and Ukraine.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, retreating Ukrainian troops “deliberately” destroyed public infrastructure and residential buildings to halt the advance of Russian troops. The AFP news agency was unable to independently check the situation on site.
Both Russia and Ukraine are said to have suffered massive casualties in the battle for Bakhmut, which was home to 70,000 people before the war. Moscow reported on Thursday that Russian troops had managed to encircle Ukrainian troops in the city. Kiev had denied this and declared that it could continue to supply its soldiers with ammunition.
Rocket hit Ukrainian home: number of victims continues to rise
According to the authorities, after a Russian missile hit a residential area in the eastern Ukrainian city of Sloviansk, the death toll has risen to eleven. The Ukrainian media reported on Saturday, citing rescue services. Residents are still missing under the rubble. A two-year-old child is said to be among the dead. More than 20 people are said to have been injured.
According to Ukrainian information, the rocket hit the city in the heavily contested Donetsk region on Friday afternoon. At first there was talk of at least eight dead. Photos show a multi-story building with a large hole in the upper floors.
Regardless of the many civilian casualties, the Russian side has maintained that it has only attacked military targets since the war began more than a year ago. Also with regard to Sloviansk, the spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, Igor Konashenkov, now said that a fuel depot of the Ukrainian army had been attacked.
In addition, Moscow reported a minor military success south-east of Sloviansk: In the city of Bakhmut, which had been heavily fought over for months, mercenaries from the Wagner group had conquered two more districts, said Konashenkov. This information could not be independently verified.
Poland’s government suspends grain imports from Ukraine
To protect its own farmers, Poland has suspended imports of grain and other foodstuffs from Ukraine. In addition to Ukrainian grain, dozens of other foods such as honey are affected by the government order, said the head of the ruling PiS party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, on Saturday at a party conference in the northern Polish village of Lyse. The Ukrainian Ministry of Agricultural Policy regretted the decision.
As a result of the Russian war of aggression, fewer agricultural products are exported from Ukraine by sea. Instead, a particularly large amount of grain from Ukraine reaches neighboring European countries, including Poland, overland. Although the agricultural goods are actually supposed to be exported to other countries, they often remain in neighboring Ukrainian countries, causing full silos and significantly falling prices. This in turn drives Poland’s peasants to the barricades.
Kaczynski assured that Poland would continue to give its neighbor strong support against the Russian attackers. “We remain completely unchanged friends and allies of Ukraine.” However, Polish agriculture must be protected in order to prevent a “profound crisis”.
The Ministry of Agriculture in Kiev acknowledged that Polish farmers are in a “difficult situation”. But “Ukrainian farmers are in the most difficult situation in the face of war,” it added. It suggested that both countries should reach a new agreement that satisfies both sides in the coming days.
Last month, Poland and four other Central European countries asked the EU for help to counteract the effects of cheap Ukrainian grain.
Kiev sanctions Russian companies, athletes and daughter of ministers
In view of the ongoing Russian war of aggression, Ukraine has added hundreds more Russian companies and individuals to its sanctions list. Internet companies Yandex and VK are among the more than 240 companies affected, according to the decrees published by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday. The daughter of Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Xenia Shoigu, is also on the list. Among the more than 400 sanctioned people are also many well-known athletes – also from the former Soviet republic of Belarus, which is allied with Russia.
For example, those affected are no longer allowed to conduct business in Ukraine or are no longer allowed to enter the country. If they exist, their assets in Ukraine are often frozen as well. In many cases, however, the sanctions are likely to have symbolic value above all.
Important on Sunday: G7 foreign ministers discuss Ukraine and China’s role in Japan
The foreign ministers of the G7 countries meet in Karuizawa, Japan, on Sunday to discuss, among other things, Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine. China’s role in the conflict, which has been criticized by the West for being too pro-Russian, is also likely to play an important role in the talks in the city north-east of Tokyo. Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens), who is taking part in the consultations, accused Beijing on Saturday of wanting to create “its own rules” in world politics.
Another topic addressed by the foreign ministers of leading industrialized countries is climate protection. At the same time, the environment ministers of the group of states are discussing this topic in Sapporo. The meetings are being held in Japan because the country currently holds the G7 presidency. A summit meeting of the heads of state and government of the G7 countries took place in Hiroshima in May. They include Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom.
The Ukraine update: what happened last night
“Right now it looks like the Russians will do the sack”
Former Bundeswehr Colonel Ralph Thiele has sharply criticized Ukraine’s strategy of continuing to defend Bakhmut. In an interview with “T-Online” said Thiele: “I find it really difficult to see the sense of the Ukrainian operation.”
Such a defense of Bakhmut only makes sense if you lure the Russians in the city into a big trap “in order to then break through from behind yourself.” But such a trap is not recognizable. “So I think Ukraine is only weakening itself.”
“At the moment it looks as if the Russians will do the sack,” says Thiele about the fight for the city. His conclusion: “Bachmut is gone, that’s actually been clear for a long time.”
Rocket in residential area: Ukraine reports deaths in Sloviansk
Shortly before the Orthodox Easter celebrations this Sunday, Ukraine was again shaken by a heavy Russian rocket attack. According to the authorities, at least eight people were killed and more than 20 others injured in the city of Sloviansk in the eastern region of Donetsk on Friday evening.
“This is an evil state,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy about the aggressor Russia. “And he will lose. Victory is our duty to humanity. And we will win!”
The police said children were among the victims in Sloviansk. The rescue work has not yet been completed, so the number of dead could continue to rise. The information could not initially be verified by an independent party.
Zelenskyy expressed his condolences to the relatives of the killed civilians. This week there was “not a single hour without Russian murders and terror,” he said. The Russian war of aggression against the neighboring country has been going on for almost 14 months.
The fiercest fighting is taking place in Donetsk. The fighting is currently particularly heavy in the town of Bakhmut, south-east of Sloviansk. For months, Russian troops have been trying to take the city, which once had 70,000 inhabitants, in extremely costly battles. Today only a few thousand people live there among the ruins of a ghost town.
Putin enacts eased conscription law
In Russia, men can be more easily drafted into the military with immediate effect. President Putin signed the necessary amendments to the law. In the future, notices of convocation no longer have to be handed over personally, but can be sent electronically. Conscripts registered online are not allowed to leave Russia until they are presented to the army.
Many Russians fear that masses of men will again be recruited for the war against the Ukraine are to be confiscated. The Kremlin denied such plans.
Hundreds of thousands of men fled abroad in the fall as a result of a sometimes chaotically organized first wave of mobilization. Other Russians avoided conscription because they did not live at their registered address, so that the notice of conscription, which was only valid in letter form, could not be delivered. Russia’s leadership now wants to close this loophole.
Habeck: Federal government for sanctions against Russian nuclear industry
Against the background of the war in Ukraine, the German government is pushing for EU sanctions against Russia’s nuclear industry. It has been seen that Russia is specifically using dependencies in the energy sector as a means of exerting pressure, Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) told the German Press Agency. “The Federal Government has therefore now spoken out to the European Commission in favor of including the civil nuclear sector. That should be part of the next package of sanctions.” Among other things, the nuclear power Russia supplies uranium for nuclear fuel rods and stores radioactive waste on its territory.
What will be important on Saturday
Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is traveling from China to South Korea this Saturday. On the second stop of her trip to Asia, the Green Party politician wants to speak to Foreign Minister Park Jin during the inaugural visit. China’s backing for the Russian war of aggression is likely to play a role in this.
Also Read: The April 14 Ukraine Update.
