British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he would do everything “to starve out Putin’s war machine”. To this end, sanctions and military support for Ukraine should be increased. Because of the Russian attack, the West has already imposed extensive punitive measures against Russia, including President Vladimir Putin himself.
Federal Minister of Finance and Vice Chancellor Christian Lindner (FDP) announced on Twitter that tightening of sanctions would be discussed as early as Monday. Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) said the “crimes of the Russian military” had to be relentlessly cleared up. Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) spoke out in favor of bringing war criminals before the International Criminal Court.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russian troops of genocide. “It is indeed genocide,” he told the US broadcaster CBS on Sunday, according to the translator, in response to a question from the moderator. “We are citizens of Ukraine and do not want to be subjected to the policies of the Russian Federation. And that is why we are being destroyed and annihilated.” Zelenskyy said it was still his duty as president to negotiate with Putin. “There is no other way than dialogue if we don’t want hundreds of thousands, millions, to die.”
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called for tougher sanctions by the G7 states against Russia. Specifically, he demanded an oil, gas and coal embargo against Russia from the seven leading democratic economic powers, an exclusion of all Russian banks from the banking communication network Swift and a closure of all ports for Russian ships and goods.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken pointed out that the US had long assumed that serious war crimes were being committed in Ukraine. This is a “reality that plays out every day as long as Russia’s brutality against Ukraine continues. That’s why it must end.”
Triggers of the outrage included a video footage released by the Ukrainian Defense Ministry showing the bodies of several people by the roadside, some with their hands tied behind their backs. This was also reported by the British broadcaster BBC in a film from Butscha. The Russian Ministry of Defense dismissed the reports as “fake”.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that the withdrawal of Russian troops from the Kyiv area was not a real withdrawal. Rather, it can be seen how Russia “repositions” its troops. NATO is concerned about possible increased attacks, especially in the south and east. This could already be observed at the weekend – presumably with the aim of expanding the areas occupied there. The city of Odessa was also attacked. The Ministry of Defense in Moscow said ships and planes had shelled an oil refinery and three fuel depots near Odessa.
According to Ukrainian military information, fighting continued in the east. The shelling of cities in the Luhansk region continues. There are fights at Popasna and Rubishne. According to Russian information, a total of 51 military facilities were hit in Ukraine on Sunday night.
The Red Cross had to abandon attempts to take people out of the embattled port city of Mariupol with a bus convoy. Nevertheless, according to Ukrainian information, 765 residents managed to leave the city in their own vehicles. Almost 500 people have fled the city of Berdyansk, which is also on the Black Sea.
The Ukrainian chief negotiator in the negotiations with Moscow, David Arakhamija, spoke of positive signals on state television. A meeting between Presidents Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Putin in Turkey is also possible. By contrast, Russia dampened these expectations. There is still a lot to do, said negotiator Vladimir Medinski.
The Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych expects the war to end in “two to three weeks”. Everything now depends on the outcome of the fighting in the south-east of the country. The Russian army no longer has a reserve, the adviser claimed, according to a report by the news site strana.news. There has long been speculation that Putin could end the war by the end of World War II celebrations. In Russia, this is May 9th.
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Kyiv/MOSCOW (dpa-AFX)
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