In the 134th day of war, Russian forces continue the attacks, and on Wednesday they destroyed the Pedagogical University in Kharkiv with rockets.
Ukraine and Russia accuse each other of preparing chemical weapons attacks, while the West warns that fighting for the eastern Ukrainian city of Sloviansk is the next major confrontation between Russian invasion and Ukrainian defense forces in the fight for total control of the Donbas region.
In Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ordered the lifting of the traffic ban for men of military age, just one day after the announcement of the Ministry of Defense in Kyiv. And in Donetsk, the Ukrainian governor of the region urged civilians to evacuate to safe areas to avoid being caught in the middle of fighting. More than 8.79 million people have crossed the border into Ukraine since the Feb. 24 invasion, the UN refugee agency said.
Serpent Island and Odessa, hit by two Russian missiles
The strategically and symbolically important southern outpost of Serpent Island was hit by two Russian missiles on Thursday morning, The Guardian reported. In an update posted on the Telegram, Odessa military administration spokesman Sergei Bratchuk said two missiles “significantly damaged” a pier on the island. Bratchuk added that Odessa was attacked at dawn on Thursday. “Two agricultural combine harvesters were hit, 35 tons of grain were destroyed,” the Ukrainian official said.
In a separate message, Odessa authorities confirmed that two combine harvesters had been hit and reported that two missiles hit two combine harvesters last night, destroying them. About 35 tons of grain were stored in a silo. According to preliminary data, there are no casualties.
On the other hand, the first images appeared with the Ukrainian flag installed again on Snake Island, the strategically important southern outpost on the Black Sea, after Russia confirmed last week the withdrawal of troops from the island in what Moscow called “a gesture of benevolence”.
Moscow passed a law on Wednesday that punishes those who urge actions against the country’s security with years in prison, while a Russian court has ruled that the pipeline from Kazakhstan to the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk be shut down for 30 days on the grounds that there have been some oil spills. The decision risks affecting deliveries in Romania and is likely to cause further disruptions to the already shaken oil market.
On the other hand, the European Commission warns that the EU is preparing for the “complete shutdown” of Russian gas.
Kuleba thanks Romania for all the help
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba thanked Romania “wholeheartedly” for the help he has given to Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian invasion and once again demanded heavy weapons for Ukraine from the democratic states.
“I would like to thank from the bottom of my heart Romania, our good friend and neighbor, for everything he has done since the beginning of this large-scale invasion against Ukraine,” Dmitro Kuleba said in a videoconference speech at a forum on Thursday. security, hosted in Bucharest.
In a speech to forum participants, Kuleba stressed that Putin wants to provoke a crisis in Europe and is motivated by “hatred of the well-being of Europeans.”
“We are facing an unprecedented challenge when a permanent member of the Security Council launched an aggression against another state. This war is unprecedented in our century, and we must not be mistaken for Russia’s real intentions. Putin is ready to redraw the borders, to destroy Europe. Russia was considered to be a competitive force in the international arena, but this time it used force to destroy the stability of other nations. Putin’s idea is simple, he wants to impose Russian standards on the whole world, namely the lack of justice and justice. It is motivated by hatred for the well-being of Europeans. Putin’s goal is to knock on every European door, presenting a crisis: economic, inflation or any form of instability. A crisis in Europe would allow Putin to show the Russians that those in Europe do not live better than them and that there is no point in opposing them,” said the head of diplomacy in Kyiv.
While thhe USA, Great Britain, the Netherlands, France, Italy, Germany, Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic or the Baltic States are just some of the countries that have publicly and transparently communicated what and how much heavy weapons they have sent to Ukraine, Romania has not mentioned so far precisely whether Romania sent heavy weapons to Ukraine, with President Klaus Iohannis recently claiming that “in war it is not wise to give essential information to the opponent.”
Asked by HotNews.ro in a recent press conference if Romania sent heavy weapons to the neighboring country and, if so, what are they and why it was not communicated publicly as in the case of other countries, the Romanian head of state replied: “I can tell you what I said on other occasions. We are at war, not in a situation that we quietly sat and chat while having a coffee. The war is taking place in our vicinity and it is wise not to give vital information to the opponent. We declare publicly that we are helping Ukraine with everything we can and that is what we are doing.”