Ukrainians celebrated Orthodox Palm Sunday yesterday. But the party didn’t stop the war: at least 7 civilians were killed in bombings over the weekend. The eastern provinces of Ukraine have come under rocket, rocket and artillery fire. President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the Russian attack which, in particular in Zaporizhzhia – the city of the nuclear power plant – caused the death of a father and his ten-year-old daughter while the mother was seriously injured. “This is how Russia isolates itself even more from the world, from humanity,” said the leader of Kiev in his evening message on Telegram. “May next year’s Palm Sunday be spent in peace and freedom for all our people”
Mariupol authorities: the Russians are demolishing the station
Occupying Russian troops are demolishing Mariupol’s central railway station and several surrounding buildings, half-destroyed during the siege of the city by Moscow forces, exiled city councilor Petro Andriushchenko said on Telegram. The railway station has allegedly been dismantled. “for the construction of a large logistics hub,” Andriuschenko said as quoted by Ukrainian media. A video included in the city councilor’s post shows a practically destroyed train station with a construction crane next to it.
Nyt: Kiev will run out of anti-aircraft defense stocks by May
Ukraine’s air defense systems are running out of ammunition and without the arrival of huge Western supplies they will not be able to counter any attacks by the Russian aviation, whose strength is still intact. This is the prediction of American officials and some of the classified documents of the Pentagon that ended up on social media, according to reports from the New York Times. Stockpiles of missiles for the Soviet-era S-300 and Buk air defense systems, which make up 89 percent of Ukraine’s protection against most fighter jets and some bombers, will run out completely between mid-April and on May 3, according to one of the leaked documents. The Biden administration last week announced it was sending additional munitions and air defense interceptors as part of a $2.6 billion aid package, part of which will be used to help Kiev prepare for the offensive of spring. US officials contacted by the NYT say whether this will be sufficient depends on a number of factors, including whether NATO allies will carry out their deliveries and whether Putin will continue not to risk his precious warplanes. “The Russian military has been torn apart but the Russian air force has not,” Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley told MSNBC in February.
Russian airstrike hits a village in Kherson
During the night, Russian forces attacked two communities in Kherson province. The governor said so Oleksandr Prokudin, according to local media reports. Enemy fighters also dropped three bombs on Kizomys village in Bilozerka community,” Prokudin reported on Telegram. No civilian casualties were reported.
Air warning in 7 eastern regions
The air raid alarm went off overnight in seven regions of eastern Ukraine, according to official sources quoted by local media. Air raid sirens sounded in the early hours of today in Dnipro, Poltava, Sumy, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson oblasts.