War in Ukraine: Zelensky condemns shooting at lifeboats

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“Even animals have more morals than you, Russian state,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly video message broadcast in Kiev on Sunday. “Russian terrorists continue to fire at evacuation routes, evacuation points and boats taking people away.”

According to Ukrainian authorities, such a boat carrying 21 people was fired on by Russians on Sunday as civilians tried to escape from the Russian-occupied part of the Kherson region in the south of the country. Three people were killed and ten injured. The information could not be independently confirmed.

First Russia blew up the Kakhovka dam, then left the people in the flooded area to fend for themselves, and now they are also being shot at, Zelensky railed. He said that representatives of the International Criminal Court in The Hague saw the situation in Kherson with their own eyes and began to investigate the disaster. The right bank of the Dnipro River is under Ukrainian control.

“This research is very important for the security of the whole world,” Zelensky said. Punishing Russia is a condition not to repeat this evil in the world. About 4,000 people have been rescued so far, according to Zelensky. Dozens of towns and villages are still under water and the situation is worst in the Russian-occupied part of the Kherson region on the left bank of the Dnipro. The evacuation continues.

After the destruction of the dam on Tuesday, the number of flood victims now stands at 14, with eight in the Russian-controlled part of the Kherson region. There alone, 35 people are still missing, including seven children. Although the floodwaters are now falling, the consequences of the dam’s failure are devastating. Experts speak of a serious environmental disaster. Russia denies any responsibility and claims Ukrainian forces fired rockets at the dam.

Moscow wants to command private armies

The Russian Ministry of Defense wants to bring all Russian volunteer organizations under its command by order. All of these units must sign a contract with the agency before July 1, Moscow deputy defense minister Nikolai Pankov said. There are now more than 40 voluntary associations whose legal position must be safeguarded in this way. The head of the Russian private army Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, announced on Sunday that he refuses to sign such a contract.

Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu can determine the ministry and soldiers, Prigozhin said in a voice message published on his Telegram channel. However, the minister has not yet been able to lead his own troops. Wagner will therefore not sign any contracts with Shoigu. Wagner might then not get any arms or ammunition – but only until the ministry needed the help of the private army.

Zelenskyj expands sanctions list

President Zelensky said in his video message that he had put another 178 people on a sanctions list who “serve the evil that the Russian state has become”. It is about those responsible for destroying liberties and playing a key role in repression in the occupied territories of Ukraine and in Russia itself. Any “accomplice of the Russian dictatorship” will be held accountable, he promised.

At the same time, Zelensky pointed to successes in the war against Russia. Again 95 Ukrainian fighters were released from Russian captivity through negotiations. He also praised the offensive action of the Ukrainian armed forces against the Russian occupiers. In a major offensive, Selensky aims to liberate the country’s occupied territories, including the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which was annexed in 2014. There were the first territorial gains.

Ukrainians announce the liberation of places in the Donetsk region

According to military information from Kiev, Ukrainian soldiers have liberated the towns of Blahodatne and Makarivka in the Donetsk region, which was largely occupied by Russia. There are also advances in the city of Bakhmut, Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maljar said in Kiev on Sunday night. There was initially no comment from the Russian official side. The Russian army has been claiming for days that it is repulsing the Ukrainian offensive.

However, Russian military bloggers near the Kremlin also reported that Blahodatne had been abandoned because Moscow’s fighters feared encirclement there. Accordingly, the village of Neskutschne was also taken. The village of Lobkove in the Zaporizhia region is said to have been liberated from Russian occupation. For days, the Ukrainian armed forces have been carrying out massive attacks in the regions of Donetsk and Zaporizhia, among others, to liberate their occupied territories.

Russian troops have since withdrawn combat units from the Kherson region to reinforce contingents in other parts of the front, for example in the Zaporizhia region and in Bakhmut, Deputy Minister Maljar said. She reiterated her belief that Russia deliberately destroyed the Kakhovka dam to flood the Kherson region and make it impassable to Ukrainian assault forces. Moscow’s goal was to free up its own troops for other missions in this way.

However, the flood that followed the dam burst also destroyed the Russian defenses. According to Russian military bloggers, the intention of the Ukrainian side was to make it easier to penetrate into most of the Kherson region that it cannot control once the floodwaters subside.

Monday will be important

Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Polish Head of State Andrzej Duda are welcomed in Paris by French President Emmanuel Macron for a dinner that will focus on continued support for the Ukrainian defense war and preparations for the NATO summit in Vilnius scheduled for July. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg is on a two-day visit to Washington, where he is expected to meet US President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the White House on Monday.

(SDA)

Source: Blick