War in Ukraine, day 70. Ukrainian forces have repulsed 12 Russian attacks in the past 24 hrs. New evacuations from Mariupol

Russia’s war against Ukraine has entered its 70th day, with the Russian bombings getting stronger and with blows in several more areas, and also against Ukraine’s last stronghold, the port city of Mariupol.

Several of the targets of Tuesday’s rocket attacks appear to have been linked to the transport of military equipment to Ukraine, which Russia had warned about. Ukrainian forces say they have repulsed 12 attacks by Russian troops in the Donbass in the past 24 hours.

Donetsk governor announces new evacuations of civilians from Mariupol on Wednesday morning.

Two people – a woman from Lisichansk and a man from Popasna – were killed and two others were injured in Russian bombings on Tuesday evening in the Lugansk region, according to the head of the regional military administration, Sergei Gaidai.-Warning- “Yesterday, every city of ours suffered from the enemy. Four localities withstood rocket and bomb attacks. The Russians not only destroy Popasna, but wipe it off the map of the Lugansk region. Thirty-four times the enemy has hit residential areas in the region,” Gaidai told Telegram.

As the EU prepares to impose oil sanctions on Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced in retort that exports and transactions with certain states could cease, which was the Kremlin’s harshest response to date.

Ukrainian General Staff : 12 Russian attacks repulsed in the past day

In the last 24 hours, Ukrainian forces have repulsed 12 attacks by Russian troops in Donbas (eastern Ukraine), where the Russian army is still trying to advance from the north, with the aim of encircling Ukrainian units in the area. Separate armored and infantry units, as well as airborne forces, hit targets along the Izium-Barvenkov front line, the Ukrainian Army General Staff said in a newsletter about the latest developments on the front, according to intelligence agencies, Unian and DPA press.

To support this effort, “the occupants transferred 240 mm Tiulpan heavy mortar batteries and Smerci missile launchers from the Belgorod region to the Izium area,” the report said.

Russian troops have attacked Liman, Severodonetsk, Popasna, Avdiivka and Kurahovo, continuing their offensive on Liman-Siversk and Sloviansk, according to the Ukrainian army, which added that it remains unclear whether the occupiers have made any territorial gains in this direction.

Russian forces have carried out assaults in the Popasna area, fighting continues here, according to the Ukrainian Army General Staff. Mariupol remains the hottest spot in the Donetsk region, where more than 90% of its infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed.

New evacuations from Mariupol

Several civilian buses left Mariupol on Wednesday morning, the governor of the Donetsk region, Pavlo Kirilenko, announced. “Today, with the support of the UN and the Red Cross, we are evacuating civilians from the Azov region to Zaporozhye. The buses have already left Mariupol, ” Kirilenko wrote on his Telegram channel, according to The Guardian.

The convoy will stop at Lunaciarsky, Tokmak and Vasilivka, the governor added, adding that in Tomkak personal cars can join the bus convoy.

British Defense Ministry: Russia wants to get over Izium 

“Russia has deployed 22 battalion battlegroups near Izium in an attempt to advance along the northern axis into the Donbas. Despite difficulties in breaking through Ukraine’s defenses and advancing, Russia most likely intends to cross the Izium to capture the cities of Kramatorsk and Severodonetsk. The capture of these cities will strengthen Russia’s military control over the northeast of the Donbas region and will contribute to efforts to isolate Ukrainian forces from the region,” said the British Defense Ministry in its latest assessment of the situation on the Donbas front.

Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine – 04 May 2022

Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/IvoOTjNz8D

?? #StandWithUkraine ?? pic.twitter.com/H0y9RFbaM7

— Ministry of Defence ?? (@DefenceHQ) May 4, 2022

Missile attacks on central and western Ukraine 

Several Ukrainian cities were targeted by Russian rocket fire on Tuesday night, which caused damage, especially to three power plants in Lviv, the mayor of this important city in western Ukraine, now partially without electricity, said. “Three power plants were damaged in a rocket attack,” Mayor Andrii Sadovii told Telegram, adding that the pumping stations had run out of electricity due to the damage. At least one person was injured, he added, according to AFP.

According to Ukrainian media, power outages have affected several neighborhoods in Lviv. Local authorities also reported bombings in the Vinnytsia (central), Odessa (southwest) and Kirovograd (central) regions, without indicating whether there was any damage.

The previously spared Transcarpathian region has been hit by war for the first time since the beginning of the Russian invasion. “A rocket fell in a mountainous area of ​​Transcarpathia. The services are working on the spot, we are clarifying the information about the injured and possible victims “, the governor of this region, Viktor Mikita, indicated on Telegram. Several of the targets of Tuesday’s rocket attacks appear to have been linked to the transport of military equipment to Ukraine. Russia has threatened to target arms shipments and their routes.

“Putin’s Bridge”, targeted by the Ukrainian army

The Crimean Bridge or “Putin’s Bridge”, which connects the western part of Russia with the Crimean Peninsula, is a strategic and symbolic bridge that the Ukrainian army openly says it has in sight. It is a 19-kilometer-long bridge – the longest in Europe – and is the only railway structure (in addition to the road) between Russia and Crimea, the Ukrainian province illegally annexed by the Russian state in 2014.

Built in just two years, it was inaugurated with great pomp in 2018 even by the Russian president, who crossed the building at the wheel of a truck. At that moment, Vladimir Putin proclaimed that it was an “exceptional, festive, historic day.”  The following year, 2019, he also inaugurated the railway part of the bridge.

Today, the Crimean Bridge is an important crossing point for Russian military logistics, allowing the Kerch Strait to be crossed in less than half an hour, Ouest France reports.

The bridge is now a declared military target for the Ukrainian army, which has threatened to bomb the infrastructure. “If we had the opportunity to do that, we would have already done it, “said Oleksi Danilov, secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, in an interview broadcast on April 21, 2022.

Russia allegedly took 400,000 tons of grain from the occupied territory of Ukraine

Russian forces allegedly took 400,000 tons of grain from occupied Ukrainian territory, or about a third of the grain stocks in Kherson, in the Zaporozhye, Donetsk and Lugansk regions, Deputy Minister of Agriculture in Kyiv Taras Vysotsky said on Tuesday evening. Ukrainian television, according to DPA.

Before the war, about 1.3 million tons of grain were stored there for daily supply, but also for planting. “There were no strategic reserves,” he said. If grain stocks are reduced, those areas are at risk of starvation, the Ukrainian official warned.

However, Ukrainian farmers expect a 35% lower harvest this year than in 2021, due to the fact that the sowing area with various spring crops was only 70% – Ukrinform reports, quoting a statement by economist Oleh Pendzin.

EU sanctions vs Putin’s ban on exports & transactions

The European Union will impose new sanctions on Russia, targeting the oil industry, a number of Russian banks, but also those responsible for misinformation, Josep Borrell said on Tuesday.

In retaliation, Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced that exports and transactions with certain states could cease, as this is the Kremlin’s harshest response so far to sanctions imposed by the United States and its allies. Putin has already signed the decree in this regard, and the list of entities to which it will apply will be published in the next 10 days.