Russian bombs rain down as UN chief holds Kyiv talks
The head of the United Nations said Ukraine has become “an epicentre of unbearable heartache and pain’’ – a description underscored a short time later by the first Russian strike on the capital since Moscow’s forces retreated weeks ago.
Russia pounded targets from practically one end of Ukraine to the other yesterday.
Ukrainian emergency services said 10 people were wounded when a Russian missile hit a 25-storey apartment building in Kyiv and set off a fire, which partially destroyed the first and second floors.
The bombardment came barely an hour after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a news conference with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
A spokesperson said Guterres and his team were safe.
Meanwhile, explosions were reported across the country – in Polonne in the west, Chernihiv near the border with Belarus, and Fastiv, a large railway hub southwest of the capital.
The mayor of Odesa, in southern Ukraine, said rockets were intercepted by air defences.
Zelenskyy said he had ‘‘very substantive and warm talks’’ on energy and defence co-operation with Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov during his visit to Kyiv.
Zelenskyy said they agreed that damaged Ukrainian military equipment could be repaired at Bulgarian plants and then sent back to Ukraine.
‘‘Another issue we agreed on was the supply of Ukrainian electricity to Bulgaria and the joint use of the Trans-Balkan gas pipeline’’ to diversify energy supplies in the region,’’ Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address to the nation.
Russia this week cut off natural gas supplies to Bulgaria and also to Poland, two Nato members which have been among the strongest European supporters of Ukraine in the war.
Although Bulgaria gets over 90% of its gas from Russia, the cutoff does not immediately put the country in dire trouble because of other potential suppliers. The Trans-Balkan gas pipeline runs from Greece through Bulgaria and Romania to Ukraine.
In Kyiv, at least one person was killed and several were injured yesterday, including some who were trapped beneath the rubble, according to rescue officials. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the Shevchenkivskyi district in the northwestern part of the city was hit twice, causing fires in at least two high-rise buildings.
The explosions, which sent plumes of black smoke into the air, came just shortly after the two leaders held a press conference in which Guterres condemned the atrocities committed in towns like Bucha, where evidence of mass killings of civilians was found after Russia retreated.
Appearing to be one of boldest attacks on Kyiv since Russian forces retreated from around the capital weeks ago, the explosions came as residents have been increasingly returning to the city. Cafes and other businesses have reopened, and a growing number of people have been out and enjoying the spring weather.
Soldiers accused
Ukraine’s prosecutor identified 10 Russian soldiers she accused of atrocities in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha, one of the war’s major flashpoints that helped galvanise Western support of Ukraine.
Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova said on Facebook that the 10 soldiers in Russia’s 64th Separate Motorised Rifle Ground Forces Brigade who occupied Bucha were ‘‘involved in the torture of peaceful people’’. She did not specifically say that her office had filed criminal charges, and appealed to the public to help develop evidence.
The Russian government denies it targets civilians.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, visiting Bucha on Thursday, called for a thorough investigation of alleged war crimes. Ukrainian authorities have said they are investigating thousands of possible war crimes, including killing of civilians, bombing of civilian infrastructure, torture, sexual crimes and use of prohibited weapons.
Biden: No proxy war
President Joe Biden is rejecting the idea that Russia’s war in Ukraine could grow into a larger proxy conflict between Moscow and the United States and Nato allies that may even bring the world closer to nuclear confrontation.
At an event at the White House where Biden asked Congress for an additional $33 billion to aid Ukraine, the president said that the idea of a larger proxy war was concerning but ‘‘not true.’’
He blamed Russian authorities for exaggerating such speculation, saying ‘‘it shows the desperation that Russia is feeling about their abject failure’’ with the invasion of Ukraine.
‘‘Instead of saying that the Ukrainians, equipped with some capability to resist Russian forces, are doing this, they’ve got to tell their people that the United States and all of Nato is engaged,’’ Biden said.
Moscow talks
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says both UN SecretaryGeneral Antonio Guterres and Russian President Vladimir Putin have told him that their talks in Moscow earlier this week were ‘‘positive.’’
Erdogan told reporters before leaving for a trip to Saudi Arabia, that he held separate telephone calls with Guterres and Putin.
‘‘Mr Guterres ... informed me that the talks (with Putin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov) were positive. In our discussion with Mr Putin yesterday, Putin expressed the same views.’’
Erdogan added that the Russian president had ‘‘conveyed the opinion that a UN intervention is positive for the future’’. He did not elaborate.
Mariupol fight continues
Ukrainian troops defending a steel plant that is the last Ukrainian bulwark in the key port of Mariupol say an intensive Russian bombing has inflicted more casualties.
The Azov Regiment holed up at the giant Azovstal steel plant posted a video showing people combing through the rubble to remove the dead bodies and help the wounded after the Russian bombing overnight. The Azov said the Russians hit an improvised underground hospital and its surgery room, killing an unspecified number of people and wounding others there.
The video could not be independently verified.
Ukrainian officials say that up to 1000 civilians also were sheltering in Azovstal. They are demanding that Russia provides a safe exit for them under the United Nations aegis.
EU condemns ruble rules
Senior European Union officials say countries or companies bowing fully to the terms of a Russian presidential decree insisting that they pay their gas bills in rubles will be in breach of the bloc’s sanctions.
The Kremlin says importers should establish an account in dollars or euros at Russia’s Gazprombank, then a second account in rubles. They would pay the gas bill in euros or dollars and direct the bank to exchange the money for rubles.
The officials warn that Russia’s central bank could hold on to the money before converting it and in essence use the funds as a temporary loan for the national economy or to prop up the ruble. The EU’s sanctions prohibit any transaction with the Russian Central Bank.
One official said that ‘‘if the member states and the European companies apply strictly the decree . it will constitute a breach of the sanctions.’’ His job description does not allow him to be named publicly.
The violation essentially comes with the use of the second bank account. The EU’s executive branch, the European Commission, has said that companies could remain in compliance by paying in euros or dollars, as per their contract, and then notifying Gazprombank that their payment obligations are over.
Ultimately, it’s up to the 27 EU countries to judge whether the rules are being broken. Some of those countries are heavily reliant on Russia for gas.
Germany continues gas purchases
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is defending his country’s ongoing purchase of gas and other fossil fuels from Russia.
Speaking during a visit to Japan on Thursday, Scholz said that ‘‘it is a challenge that many European countries, including Germany, are dependent on imports of fossil resources from Russia.’’
Scholz said his government aims to end imports of Russian coal and oil this year. He said that ‘‘the same will happen for gas, but that is a process that will require more time.’’
Asked whether he was concerned Russia might stop shipping gas to Germany, like it did this week for Poland and Bulgaria, Scholz acknowledged that ‘‘any interruption would have consequences for the economic situation’’.
He said this was also the reason why no sanctions have so far been imposed on energy supplies from Russia, adding this had been decided ‘‘in close cooperation with our partners who themselves are energy exporters and therefore in a different starting position, such as the United States.’’
Scholz said: ‘‘Whether and what decisions the Russian government takes in this regard one can only speculate.’’
Repurpose assets
President Joe Biden is asking Congress or new powers to seize and repurpose the assets of Russian oligarchs as part of a new funding request to aid Ukraine.
In remarks at the White House, Biden will formally ask for billions of dollars in additional US spending earmarked for supplying Ukraine’s military, bolstering its economy and supporting the millions of refugees who fled Russia’s invasion. The White House said he will also seek new authorities from Congress to strengthen US sanctions against the Russian government and those who profit from it, the White House said.
Biden is asking lawmakers to make it a criminal offence for a person to ‘‘knowingly or intentionally possess proceeds directly obtained from corrupt dealings with the Russian government,’’ double the statute of limitations for foreign money laundering offences to 10 years, and expand the definition of ‘‘racketeering’’ under US law to include efforts to evade sanctions. –