The alarm sirens in Ukraine continue to sound, a prelude to the umpteenth night of bombing ( here the chronicle of the day). While satellite images show the advance of Russian tanks up to 25 km from the center of Kiev, new heavy missile attacks destroyed an air base near Vasylkiv, some thirty kilometers southwest of the city.
The evacuations of civilians continue with a dropper and the Ukrainian defense denounced the killing of 7 people fleeing the village of Peremoga, including a child, right along a "green" corridor agreed with the Russians. A strategy of terror, that against the population, which would also seem confirmed by a telephone interception carried out by the Ukrainian intelligence according to which Russian troops near Kharkiv received from their command "the order to shoot civilians and children".
Raids were reported in Dnipro, the third largest city in Ukraine on the river of the same name, where according to the mayor, the air defense systems, however, repelled an attack from the sky in the early hours of the morning. Kropyvnytskyi, in the center, was also affected. The hottest front remains that of Mariupol, which the Russians had already announced yesterday that they had completely surrounded. Halfway between Mariupol and Kherson, with the offensive that aims to take control of the entire coastal strip on the Sea of Azov, Melitopol has now fallen into Russian hands, following the kidnapping yesterday of Mayor Ivan Fedorov, who according to Zelensky he could be tortured by the "occupiers" to get him to record a video in their support.
PUTIN: "PROGRESS" - Meanwhile Vladimir Putin raises the hope of an end to the war by speaking of "progress" on the diplomatic front. "As our negotiators told me, there has been some positive development," insists the Tsar, receiving his most trusted ally, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, for a five-hour marathon interview. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also opens a window on a possible negotiated solution to the conflict.
And another signal comes from Moscow, with the announcement that talks between the two sides continue by videoconference, after the three face-to-face meetings held in Belarus.
It is impossible to say on what concrete elements Zelensky bases himself when he speaks of a more willing attitude than Putin. Especially as Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba says the enemy continues to make "unacceptable" demands for Kiev. "We - added the head of diplomacy - will not compromise on any of the existential issues concerning Ukraine". What the Ukrainian president underlined in a meeting with foreign journalists in Kiev is for now Putin's change of tone. "At first there were ultimatums that came from Moscow, now they started talking about something", Zelensky underlined, saying he was "happy with these signals". In the talks held so far between the Russian and Ukrainian delegations, there has been talk above all of local truces to guarantee the humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of civilians.
But to dampen the enthusiasm is a note from the Elysée, after a new three-way telephone conversation between the French president Emmanuel Macron, the German chancellor Olaf Scholz and the head of the Kremlin. Putin "has not given any signal of his willingness to suspend the war", observed sources of the French presidency, acknowledging only that he has lowered some tone, for example by renouncing to speak of the need to "denazify" Ukraine. From Berlin, Scholz's spokesman states that he and Macron have asked for an end to the conflict, adding that "silence has been agreed on other contents of the interview".
(Unioneonline / D)