War, day 91: Situation in the Lugansk region “getting worse by the hour.” Official: 22,000 civilians killed in Mariupol

The Russian army is trying at all costs to conquer the entire Lugansk region of Donbas, as it has stepped up its offensive to “destroy everything,” says Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The Russians put all their strength in stake there, he argued. In the Luhansk region, the Russians are advancing from all directions at once, says the regional governor, Sergei Gaidai.

The bombings are intensifying in Severodonetsk, a strategic city and one of the last strongholds. Ukrainians are fighting to defend the Donbas, which includes the Lugansk and Donetsk regions and has been partially controlled since 2014 by pro-Russian separatists.

Putin claims that he sent the army to save the population there from genocide. The Russian military will continue the special military operation until all objectives are achieved, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu also announced yesterday.

Zelensky said on Wednesday that he was willing to speak only directly with Vladimir Putin and not through intermediaries. He added that if the Russian president “understands the reality”, there is a possibility of finding a diplomatic way out of the conflict. Zelensky who addressed an audience at the World Economic Forum in Davos, also said that Ukraine will fight until it recovers its entire territory. Ukrainian President says Moscow should withdraw troops behind pre-invasion lines: “This could be a first step in talks”.

The situation in the Lugansk region is “getting worse by the hour” 

The situation on the ground in the Lugansk region of eastern Ukraine, where the Russian military has made progress in recent days, “is getting worse by the hour,” said regional governor Serhii Gaidai. “The situation is very difficult and, unfortunately, it is only getting worse. It is getting worse day by day, hour by hour,” he said in a video posted on his Telegram channel. “The bombing is intensifying,” and “the Russian military has decided to completely destroy Severodonetsk,” a strategic city northwest of Lugansk, the governor added. Severodonetsk “is about to be wiped off the face of the earth,” he said, calling the situation “almost critical.”

200 decomposed bodies found in a basement in Mariupol

Relatives can bury the dead only if they declare that the Ukrainians are to blame “Mariupol is now a city of ghosts,” said Petro Andrishchenko, an adviser to the mayor of the Russian-devastated port city. According to him, according to estimates, 22,000 civilians were killed, but the number may be higher. 200 bodies were found under the ruins of a bombed-out building. The dead can only be buried if their relatives give a video statement in which they must say that the Ukrainians are guilty.

Petro Andrishchenko is an adviser to the mayor of Mariupol, he managed to escape from the area, but he has information from the officials who are still stuck there, CNN reports. According to Andrishchenko, Mariupol City Hall officials believe at least 22,000 people have been killed in three months of war. The councilor believes that in reality there are many more civilians killed. He said 200 bodies were found under the ruins of a building during debris removal. The bodies were found in an advanced state of disrepair in the basement, the councilor said. “The city has been turned into a cemetery,” he added. Those whose relatives want to bury them according to religious belief cannot recover the bodies unless they claim in a video that the dead were victims of the Ukrainian army.

As Putin runs out of soldiers in Ukraine, Russians try to recruit them to marathons, concerts or on the streets

Several Russian military recruiting centers were spotted in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk on Saturday near the site of a half marathon, The Moscow Times reports. In the absence of an official declaration of war with Ukraine, which would allow Russia to introduce a general mobilization, such recruitment centers are increasingly appearing in Russian cities while Putin has fewer and fewer soldiers to support. He sends them to fight in the war. “Mobile selection point for contract service” – written in blue letters on one of the trucks, the message being suspended above an image with an aircraft carrier and a fighter jet.

Another photo from the event shows the recruiting officers walking among the runners. Russian troops’ invasion of Ukraine, a multi-front war against the fierce defense of the Ukrainians, has depleted Moscow’s reserves of Russian infantry, analysts say, and Russian military officials are rushing to fill the gaps left by the losses suffered on the battlefield.

Pro-Russian separatists in Donetsk refuse to go to fight in Luhansk

However, soldiers of the separatist republic of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine have recorded a video message stating that they refuse to go to fight in Luhansk, the other pro-Russian separatist region of Donbas, saying they do not want to be “cannon fodder”.

“Dear residents of the Donetsk People’s Republic. We are the soldiers of the 107th Infantry Regiment, the 4th Battalion, the 3rd, 2nd and 4th Companies – 204 men. We refuse to go to a massacre in the RPL (Luhansk People’s Republic) – a completely different republic! ”, reads their message.

They also said that they had been the victims of several “illegal activities”, listing that they had been mobilized illegally, had not received a medical examination during the mobilization process, had been repeatedly deceived and that their transfer had been attempted. secretly on the territory of the RPL.

Here’s a message from the 107th Infantry Regiment of the DPR basically telling the Russians they don’t want to go fight for the LPR pic.twitter.com/h4w9Dzsz3e

— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) May 24, 2022

Russia to talk on exchange of prisoners at Azovastal

Russia will discuss the possibility of an exchange of prisoners with Ukraine after the Ukrainian soldiers who surrendered (from the Azovstal steelworks – n.r.) will be convicted, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko said on Wednesday, Reuters reports, quoting the news agency Russian Interfax. Russian and separatist officials have reported in recent days that Ukrainian soldiers at the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol will be tried for war crimes by a tribunal set up in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic.

The Russian Black Sea blockade will make commodities more expensive worldwide

Russia’s naval blockade of Black Sea ports will further increase the price of many commodities around the world, according to the British Ministry of Defense in its latest assessment of the war. British officials also say that since the beginning of the Russian invasion on February 24, there has been no major trade activity in and from Odessa, putting indirect pressure on world grain prices. A significant amount of Ukrainian grain cannot be exported and remains in warehouses, the quoted source also shows.

Soros warns: Civilization “May Not Survive” Ukrainian War 

US billionaire George Soros warned on Tuesday that civilization “may not survive” the war in Ukraine. At the same time, the controversial philanthropist believes that Europe may be in a “stronger position” than he thinks in terms of Russian gas. “The invasion of Ukraine by Russia may have been the beginning of World War III, and our civilization may not have survived,” George Soros said in a keynote speech. traditionally in Davos, Switzerland, on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum meeting.