kyiv targeted by new night bombardments

Published on : 05/26/2023 – 06:52

• 6:02 a.m.: Scholz ready “when the time comes” to reconnect with Putin

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he was ready on Friday to resume contact “when the time comes”, about Ukraine, with Russian President Vladimir Putin, with whom he has not spoken since December.

“It’s been a while since my last telephone conversation. But when the time comes, I intend to speak with Putin again,” Olaf Scholz said in an interview published by the daily Koelner Stadt-Anzeiger. Regarding the resolution of the conflict, “Russia must understand that it cannot be a question of sealing a kind of cold peace, which would see the current front line become the new border between Russia and Ukraine, it would only legitimize Putin’s criminal expedition,” insisted Olaf Scholz. “On the contrary, we must achieve a fair peace and the condition for doing so is the withdrawal of Russian troops” from Ukraine, after the invasion began in February 2022, he added.

However, he explicitly refused to say whether this withdrawal should also include Crimea, which has been occupied since 2014. The German Chancellor judged that it was up to Ukraine to define what it wants precisely.

• 5:09 a.m.: nnew night bombardments on kyiv

Russian forces shelled kyiv again overnight from Thursday to Friday, the city’s civil and military administration said. “Another air attack on kyiv, the 13th in a row since the beginning of May! And as always, at night,” the administration said on its Telegram account. According to her, cruise missiles were launched by Tu-95MS strategic bombers from the Caspian Sea region. “According to preliminary information, all enemy targets in Kyiv airspace have been detected and destroyed,” she added.

In its daily morning brief, the Ukrainian General Staff reported 55 Russian air attacks over the past day, including 36 by explosive drones, and four missile attacks. “An S-300 missile hit a dam in the Karlivka area of ​​the Donetsk region” (east), said the staff. “As a result, there is a great danger of flooding of the surrounding communities,” he added, adding that he had intercepted all the projectiles launched during the air raids.

In addition, in Russia, a “detonation” caused damage to a building in Krasnodar, a city near Crimea, without causing any casualties, according to local authorities quoted by the Ria Novosti agency. A pro-Russian media, Readovka, published on its Telegram channel a photo of a building whose top floor and roof are damaged and blackened.

• 4:50 a.m.: Report from Avdiivka, one of the hottest spots on the frontline

Our reporters went to one of the most dangerous corners of the Donbass, the Ukrainian town of Avdiivka, a fortress that has resisted Russian army attacks for nearly a year. For several weeks, Moscow has been pursuing a scorched earth policy there. Between massive destruction to gain ground and survival of local populations, here is the exclusive report of our teams.

• 12:52 am: Russia says it won’t extend grain deal if its demands aren’t met

Russia said on Thursday that it would not extend the Ukrainian grain export deal after July 17 if its demands for Russian grain and fertilizer exports were not met.

Russia has previously indicated that obstacles to its own agricultural exports must be removed before it allows Ukraine to continue exporting grain from its Black Sea ports. Moscow claims that restrictions on the payment, logistics and insurance sectors are an “impediment” to its shipments.

Russia now appears to be prioritizing two demands: the restart of a pipeline carrying Russian ammonia to the Ukrainian port of Pivdenny, and the return of the Russian Agricultural Bank (Rosselkhozbank) to the SWIFT international banking system.

“If Rosselkhozbank does not come back into the SWIFT system and no progress is made on other ‘systemic’ issues that are preventing our agricultural exports, then the Black Sea grain deal will have to find alternatives,” he said. wrote the Russian Foreign Ministry in a statement released Thursday.

• The essentials of the day of May 25

Belarus has claimed that Russia has followed through on its threats by starting to deliver EU nuclear warheads to it, as the Russian military is in dire straits in Ukraine awaiting an imminent counter-offensive Ukrainian forces.

In Russia, the Federal Security Service has announced that it has arrested Ukrainian “saboteurs” who were planning attacks against the country’s nuclear power plants.

With AFP and Reuters