Rome, June 18, 2022 – La war in Ukraine it got to day 115. And the president Volodymyr Zelensky he made his first visit to Mykolaiv, in the south of the country. A video, released by his office, shows him inspecting a badly damaged residential building and holding meetings with local officials, but it is unclear whether the visit took place today or not. The pre-war port city of nearly half a million inhabitants is still under Ukrainian control, but is close to regione di Kherson, occupied by the Russians. It remains a target of Moscow because it is on the route to Odessa, the largest port in Ukraine. And right there Odessa region it was the second leg of the Ukrainian president’s trip. His office released photos of the visit to the trauma ward, in which Zlensky talks to wounded soldiers undergoing treatment. “As long as you are alive, there is a strong Ukrainian wall protecting our country,” Zelensky said
Olena Zelenska: my life as a target number 2 of the Russians and the days hidden from everyone
The fights
Meanwhile, the fighting continues: the most furious are, however, in progress in Donbass. The Russian agency Tass reports a powerful explosion occurred in Severodonetsk in Lugansk, showing a video showing a pink mushroom-shaped cloud rising into the sky. Lugansk’s ambassador to Russia, Rodion Miroshnik, wrote on Telegram that the video was shot near Popasnaya, located 30 kilometers south of Severodonetsk, and that the “color of the smoke looks like what rises after the explosion of a reservoir of nitric acid, but this has not yet been verified “.
According to local authorities, too Lysychansk, controlled by the Ukrainians on the other side of the river from Severodonetsk, was “heavily bombed”. Residents are preparing for the evacuation. And several districts of the city of Donetscapital of the eastern region of the same name, were bombed by forces from Kiev last night and an unknown number of civilians were killed or injured, according to reports by the pro-Russian separatist mayor Alexei Kulemzin, quoted by the Bbc. According to the mayor, a building of Donetsk National University, a school, shops, housing and administrative buildings were hit and damaged. Two are the victims of the Russian missiles launched on Kryvyi Rihas reported by local authorities on social media indicating that there have been several damage and destruction in the district of Inguelets.
“Russian war crimes site online”
President Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, announced on Telegram that the government of Kiev has made a platform for reporting Russian war crimes and their authors. “This site contains detailed and verified information on Russian war criminals. Ukraine will do everything to find and punish everyone,” Yermak wrote. At the top of the list of what he called the ‘Book of the Ukrainian People’s Executioners’ is the Russian general Alexander Dvornikov for his actions “against the civilian population in Mariupol”. On the site it is also possible to report new war crimes.
US soldiers on Russian TV
And Russian TV released videos of the two US volunteers who disappeared last week as they fought alongside Ukrainian forces north of Kharkiv. The images show that Alexander Drueke and Andy Huynh, i two US Army veterans, they are still alive. Both videos were broadcast on Telegram: Drueke, dressed as a military man, speaks to his mother (“I just want to let you know I’m alive and I hope to get home as soon as possible”); Huynh claims he was “engaged in fighting with Russian troops” near the Kharkiv area. After retreating and hiding for hours, the two surrendered to Russian troops, Huynh also explains in the clip. The Intelligence Directorate of the Kiev Ministry of Defense instead reported an exchange of Ukrainian civilians and Russian prisoners of war (5 to 5).
Peace talks
Eventually they could resume at the end of Augustafter Ukraine has secured a series of victories on the battlefield, peace negotiations with Russia. The Ukrainian chief negotiator, David Arakhamia, told Voice of America without giving more details. The latest meeting between the two sides took place last March in Istanbul, Turkey.
Victoria Apanasenko, the Ukrainian volunteer from Miss Universe