Ukraine’s President, Volodymyr Zelensky, stated on Saturday (April 23), that Russia is planning to take over other countries. ‘Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was simply meant to be the beginning,’ he claimed in a video speech. ‘All nations that believe in the triumph of life over death, like us, must join us in our fight. We are the first ones in line, so they must assist us. Who’ll be the next to arrive?’ It comes as a Russian commander warned that Moscow would continue its ‘special military operation’ until it had complete authority over southern Ukraine.
‘One of the Russian army’s responsibilities is to establish full authority over the Donbas and southern Ukraine,’ Major General Rustam Minnekaev says. Minnekaev leads Russia’s central military area as deputy commander. He believes that controlling southern Ukraine will allow Russia to gain control of Transnistria.
Transnistria is a portion of Moldova that is held by Russia in the west, and control of it may cut Ukraine off from the rest of the world. Earlier, European Council President Charles Michel requested humanitarian access to Mariupol from Russian President Vladimir Putin. ‘Strongly appealed for urgent humanitarian access and safe transit from Mariupol and other besieged cities on the occasion of Orthodox Easter,’ Michel wrote on Twitter.
‘All servicemen of the Ukrainian armed forces, militants of national battalions, and foreign mercenaries who put down their arms are promised life,’ Putin declared in response. ‘However, the Kyiv administration refuses to allow this opportunity to be utilised,’ he added.
Pavlo Kyrylenko, the governor of Ukraine’s Donetsk region, told AFP that ‘Mariupol is in the centre of the enemy’s onslaught in the south. The adversary is attempting to direct all of its resources toward it.’ The UN Secretary-General António Guterres will meet with both Zelensky and Putin next week. ‘He hopes to discuss what can be done immediately to bring peace to Ukraine,’ UN spokesperson Eri Kaneko said.
Post Your Comments