Russia continues to pound Ukrainian cities
Kyiv/Moscow/Brussels/Washington: Maksym Kozytskyi, Head of the Lviv Military Administration, reported today that 23 thousand Ukrainians had moved to Poland in the last 24 hours while Russia shelled the cities of Avdiivka, Vugledar, Krasnogirivka, Mariupol and Volnovas in the Donestk region, killing 58 people.
As of April 8, 2022, in all 4,441,663 Ukrainian citizens had left Ukraine since the Russian invasion, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), stated.
The Parliamentary Commissioner for Human Rights Lyudmyla Denisova said Ukrainian authorities had confirmed information about at least 15 thousand cases of people missing after the Russian aggression in Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
The head of the Luhansk Regional Military Administration Sergey Gayday today claimed that in the Luhansk region near Rubizhne Russia had again hit a cistern with nitric acid and that the population is advised not to leave shelters.
Two civilians were injured in a rocket attack on the city infrastructure in Myrgorod, in the Poltava region. Besides, Russian artillery shelled the city of Severodonetsk in the Luhansk region. An apartment building was set on fire.
In the Kharkiv region, Russians shelled the residential areas. Information about victims is being clarified. The death toll after the rocket attack on Kramatorsk railway station rose to 52 and the number of those injured rose to 109 injured today.
Also read: Ukraine claims killings and rapes by Russian soldiers continue
Russia however, accused the Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF) of striking the railway station in Kyiv-controlled Kramatorsk with a Tochka-U tactical missile. “We convey our deep condolences to the families and friends of the deceased,” the Russian foreign ministry stated. It claimed that the UAF had committed a “similar barbarous crime” on March 14, 2022, when a strike by the same Tochka-U missile at the centre of Donetsk killed 17 people and wounded another 36. “In both cases, the choice of the target was not random – the Kyiv regime is striving to maximise the number of civilian victims. Their murders in Donbass have become standard practice for Ukrainian armed units in the past eight years. By cynically killing civilians in cold blood, Kyiv is trying to blame Russia for its own crimes in order to discredit Moscow’s special military operation to defend the [Donetsk People’s Republic] DPR and the [ Luhansk People’s Republic] LPR,” Russia claimed.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Regional Military Administrations further provided an update on the massacre in Bucha, in the Kyiv region, and claimed 360 civilians were killed by Russian occupiers, including at least 10 children.
In the Zaporizhzhia region, Russian occupiers allegedly abducted 106 citizens from March 14 to April 9, including 21 local officials. Today, 63 people were still being held hostage, and 43 people have been released, the Regional Military Administration of Zaporizhzhia, claimed.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy today thanked the Federal Chancellor of Austria Karl Nehammer for his visit to Ukraine and his support of Ukraine. Nehammer said in Austria, any attempts to circumvent sanctions imposed against Russia will be punished.
The European Union, in the meantime, restricted the import of fertilizers from Russia as part of the package of sanctions – From July 10, 2022, the quota for the import of potassium chloride will be 837.57 thousand tons per year, as well as, other complex fertilizers containing potassium – 1 million 577.807 thousand tons per year. – Information agency “Interfax-Ukraine”
US President Joe Biden yesterday signed a law on new sanctions against Russia, suspending Russian oil, coal, and gas imports. The United States is also breaking normal trade relations with Russia and Belarus.
Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Lyudmila Denisova today claimed that Russia banned the protection of human rights, and its Ministry of Justice announced the cancellation of the registration of 15 representative offices of international organizations, including human rights activists Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. The reason reported by the Russian Ministry is the violation of Russian law by these organizations. –
In Moscow, the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, told media persons that “the most uncompromising measures must be taken in Ukraine to stop the gross discrimination against the rights of the Russian-speaking people in Ukraine, as well as the rights of other ethnic minorities, to stop the discrimination against the Russian language and to stop encouraging neo-Nazi ideology and practices”.
Photo (top) by Rodrigo Abd (war.ukraine.ua)
– global bihari bureau
