A thousand Ukrainian soldiers, including all their commanders, are still barricaded in the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol. This was reported by the leader of the self-proclaimed republic of Donetsk, Denis Pushilin. According to Moscow, 959 fighters who were in the last stronghold of the city’s defenders have surrendered since Monday. According to Pushilin “it will be up to the court to decide their fate”. And the Russian bombings on the Azovstal plant risk causing an environmental disaster in the Azov Sea, given that the plant contains thousands of tons of concentrated hydrogen sulfide solution.
Meanwhile, the first war crimes trial since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine has begun in Kiev. A Russian soldier accused of killing an unarmed civilian. And the soldier, Vadim Shishimarin, just 21, pleaded guilty to killing a 62-year-old man who rode a bicycle and stumbled upon by chance. The trial starts at a time when international institutions are also conducting their own investigations into abuses committed by Russian forces.
Moscow announced the expulsion in a single day of 24 Italians, 27 Spaniards and 34 French diplomats and staff of the embassies and consulates of the three European countries in Russia. Meanwhile, Turkey has blocked the start of negotiations within NATO for the accession of Finland and Sweden.
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00.04 – Zelensky: does Russia use lasers? Witness invasion failure
The fact that Russia is using ‘laser weapons’ indicates the “complete failure of the invasion” of Ukraine: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his evening message. “A Russian rep said today that the occupiers are using laser weapons, ostensibly to spare missiles. First, it should be noted that they need to spare missiles … they fired over 2,000 missiles at Ukraine, which was a large part of their arsenal. Now they only have leftovers. Second, everyone has already seen Russia in war: inexperienced conscripts, thrown into battle like cannon fodder. Raiders seeing ordinary household appliances for the first time in a foreign country. Soviet armored vehicles without modern protection. Banned phosphorus bombs, which they use to burn down schools and houses, ”says Zelensky. “And missiles, most of which are used to destroy civilian infrastructure without any strategic military advantage.” “In the Nazi propaganda there was the expression ‘wunderwaffe’, the weapon of wonders. The more it became clear that they had no chance of winning the war, the more propaganda about the weapon of wonders grew, capable of changing the tide of war … and in the third month of the war, Russia tries to find its wunderwaffe. It seems to be the laser ».
00.01 – Blinken, “215 million dollars for the food emergency”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that the United States will give an additional $ 215 million for emergency food aid to Ukraine. “And we will do much more,” he added speaking to the United Nations during the ministerial meeting on global food security which was also attended by the Foreign Minister, Luigi Di Maio. “We expect – he explained – that the US Congress will approve approximately 5.5 billion dollars in additional funding for humanitarian assistance and food security very soon”.
Yesterday’s news and insights
The Trimurti of Russian propaganda Skabeyeva-Solovyov-Kiselyov pierced by a former Russian colonel
Jacopo Jacoboni
17 Maggio 2022
