French President Macron said he maintains regular communications with his Russian counterpart Putin and that his country and other Western nations are not trying to destroy Russia, which has attacked Ukraine. In that of Kiev and in 4 other Ukrainian regions the scheduled blackouts are back today. The capital is freezing, with temperatures from -5 degrees.
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Pope, without peace all defeated, do not get used to war
“The war in Ukraine , already on the eve of its beginning, questioned each of us. After the dramatic years of pandemic , when, not without great difficulties and many tragedies, we were finally emerging from its most acute phase, why did the horror of this senseless and blasphemous conflict arrive, as is every war? Can we confidently speak of a just war? Can we speak with confidence of a holy war? We, men of God who proclaim the Gospel of the Risen One, have the duty to cry out this truth of faith. God is a God of peace, love and hope. A God who wants us all to be brothers, as his Son Jesus Christ taught us. The horrors of war, of every war, offend the most holy name of God. And they offend him even more if his name is abused to justify this unspeakable massacre. The cry of children, women and men wounded by war rises to God like a yearning prayer for the heart of the Father”. He writes it Pope francesco in the introduction of the book ‘An encyclical on peace in Ukraine’, which collects Bergoglio’s interventions on the conflict and of which Corriere della Sera is publishing an excerpt today.
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Attacked in the night hometown of Zelensky
Russian troops attacked the hometown of Ukrainian President Volodymyr overnight Zelensky , Kryvyi Rih, in the south of the country: the head of the military administration, Oleksandr Vilkul, made it known on Telegram, as reported by Ukrinform. “Kryvyi Rih. Several powerful explosions rocked the city. Do not film or post anything on social media,” Vilkul wrote without specifying if there were any injuries or victims.
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Kiev prosecutor’s office, rape as a weapon of war, drastic increase in violence
Kiev Attorney General Andriy Kostin has denounced a “drastic increase” in the use of sexual violence by Russian soldiers as a weapon of war in Ukraine . According to Kostin, interviewed by the German Funke Media Group and by the French Ouest-France, the victims are both women and men. And sexual violence is used as a weapon of war ”to humiliate the Ukrainians”.
In the advances of the Dpa we read that ”in many cases people are raped, tortured and killed by Russian soldiers. Rapes often take place in front of relatives and children”. Kostin explained that Russian commanders often order or at least support the rapes. “Atrocities against civilians are part of the tactics of warfare against Russian soldiers in Ukraine,” Wenzel Michalski, director of Human Rights Watch’s German office, told Funke Media Group. ”Violent acts that are committed by soldiers, including rape, are not punished by Russia’s political leaders and the army. On the contrary, forces that act with particular brutality are praised, ” he added.