On the 40th day of war in Ukraine, pending new probable sanctions by the West on Russia for the Bucha massacres, both Moscow and Kiev have asked for a meeting of the UN Security Council on when this happened. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has announced the creation of “a special mechanism” to investigate possible war crimes, but the Russian authorities deny any responsibility and speak of hype.
Meanwhile, having failed in its objectives on two main fronts (after the withdrawal from the Kiev area, the withdrawal from Sumy Oblast is also underway), Russia focuses on the South and East of Ukraine. And intense fighting continues in Mariupol, the city that the Russians have been trying to conquer for weeks.
During the night there were also missile attacks in Odessa and later in Mykolaiv. Mariupol, as the latest British military intelligence report confirms, is “a key target of the Russian invasion because it will ensure a land corridor from Russia to the occupied territories of Crimea Meanwhile, however, “Russian forces continue to consolidate and reorganize as they refocus their offensive in the Donbass region”, where not only Russian troops but also “the mercenaries of the Russian private military company Wagner have been moved”.
According to Kiev, however, Russia is short of men and has started a secret mobilization of reservists to recruit another 60,000 soldiers to send to war. According to the Ukrainian General Staff, in fact, from February 24 to April 3, the Russians lost about 18 thousand soldiers, 644 tanks, 143 planes, 134 helicopters and many other weapons of various types.
On the humanitarian front, the situation remains dramatic. According to the UN, 1,417 civilians have been killed since the invasion began, including 40 boys and 59 children; but the numbers – says the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights – are probably much higher because there is still no information relating to areas where there have been violent clashes.
In the past 24 hours, the Ukrainian government has failed to evacuate more than 3,000 people from Mariupol and the neighboring Luhansk region. Mariupol, where some 150,000 people are believed to have been trapped, has been under siege for weeks and the attempts made in recent days by the Red Cross to bring in a humanitarian aid convoy have all failed.
Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk reiterated that talks are underway with Russia to allow Red Cross coaches. Russia has announced for today a new humanitarian corridor, organized at the request of Ankara, but usually those of Moscow are corridors that lead only to Russian territories.