Russia shifts focus from Kyiv to East: Report
11 Apr 2022 13:51:22
Kyiv, Apr 11: It has been 47 days that Ukraine has been fighting Russia that failed to take the capital city of Kyiv as it faced strong resistance. But the war has now shifted to the eastern part of the country as Valdimir Putin, the Russian president, has picked a seasoned military chief - Gen. Alexander Dvornikov - to oversee the invasion. The Kremlin has been accused of over 5,000 crimes of agression in the six weeks of war, including mass killings and rapes. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has said "the next few days of war are crucial".
In his daily nightly address, Zelensky on Sunday sent a message with a warning. “Russian troops will move to even larger operations in the east of our state. They can use even more missiles against us," he was quoted as saying in multiple reports, adding that the "next few days" are crucial for the war-battered nation.
“When people lack the courage to admit their mistakes, apologize, adapt to reality and learn, they turn into monsters. And when the world ignores it, the monsters decide that it is the world that has to adapt to them," the 44-year-old Ukraine president added in a scathing attack on Moscow, accusing the country of evading accountability on war crimes. Zelensky's adviser Mykhaylo Podolyak on Sunday was quoted as saying by news agency AFP that the country is "ready for big battles". "We must win them, including in the Donbas. And once that happens, Ukraine will have a more powerful negotiating position," he said, suggesting that the breakthrough should come before a meeting between the presidents of the two countries. In its latest updates, the UK's defence ministry, which has been closely following the on-ground war developments, said that evidence of "alleged Russian war crimes continues to emerge following the Russian withdrawal from northern Ukraine." "This includes the reported discovery of a makeshift grave containing deceased Ukrainian civilians near Burzova," it said.
Russia has made a key leadership appointment for the battlefield at a time it is preparing for a focused attack in the east. Russia-backed separatists have fought Ukrainian forces in the eastern Donbas region since 2014. Dvornikov was the head of the Russian forces deployed to Syria in 2015 - another country where the humanitarian crisis has just gone from bad to worse over the years. Some reports quote Ukrainian officials as saying that about 90 per cent of the infrastructure in the strategic port city of Mariupol - surrounded by Russian troops for 1.5 months - has suffered damages.