Ukraine has warned that Moscow is withdrawing from areas north of Kiev to focus its offensive military operations in the east of the country. Moscow, which initially justified its invasion by arguing that it should protect Russian-speaking citizens in the self-proclaimed Donbass republics, has confirmed the change in strategy. Governor Serhiy Gaidai said about 30% of the residents had stayed in the towns and villages of the area despite being asked to leave. “They [Russia] “We are mobilizing forces for an attack and we are seeing that the number of bombings has increased,” Gaidai told public television. Russian operations continue to focus on the southeastern parts of the country, targeting Donbas, Mariupol and Mykolaiv, the UK Ministry of Defense has announced. The attacks “are supported by continuous launches of cruise missiles at Ukraine by Russian naval forces,” according to its latest intelligence update. He said he expected Russian air activity “to increase in southern and eastern Ukraine in support of this activity”, but that forces had failed to establish a land corridor between Crimea and Donbass. With Russia’s attack refocusing, the United States has warned that Moscow may be planning to deploy tens of thousands of troops to eastern Ukraine. “At this juncture, we believe that Russia is reviewing its military objectives” to focus on “eastern and parts of southern Ukraine rather than targeting most of the territory,” President Joe Biden’s national security adviser said earlier this week. Jake Sullivan. Residents called for evacuation of Luhansk following a rocket attack on a train station in Donetsk in eastern Ukraine on Friday. The attack on Kramatorsk station killed at least 50 people, including five children, who were waiting to be evacuated. Blaming Russia for the attack, Volodymyr Zelenskiy called the attack a war crime and said it should be included in any future court on the invasion. Russia has denied responsibility. Zelensky calls for “global response” to Kramatorsk “war crime” – video Zelensky said he expected “a firm, global response.” “Like the Bucha massacre, like many other Russian war crimes, the Kramatorsk rocket attack must be one of the charges in court, which is certain to happen,” he said on Friday night. The Tochka-U rocket landed outside the Central Station building where 4,000 people were waiting to be evacuated on Friday, injuring 87 people in addition to the dozens killed. Many have lost limbs and are in critical condition, flooding the city hospital. Authorities had urged people to leave ahead of a Russian military strike expected next week. Following the coup, the Ukrainian leader once again called on the allies to supply Ukraine with more weapons and to impose heavier sanctions on Russia. “The pressure on Russia must increase. It is necessary to introduce a complete energy embargo – on oil, on gas. It’s the energy exports that provide the lion’s share of Russia’s profits. “Russian banks must also be completely disconnected from the global financial system.” Pavlo Kyrylenko, the governor of the Donetsk region, accused Russia of carrying out the attack in order to “sow panic and fear” and kill as many civilians as possible. “The enemy knew that this is a city, that this is a crowd of people, this is a train station,” he said. Amid the growing horrors of the invasion, Olga Stefanisina, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration, said she expected her country to receive EU candidate status in June. She said her country was “ready to move fast” with her application to join the bloc. Stefanishyna’s remarks come a day after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen vowed to provide a swift response to Ukraine’s bid to join the union, telling Zelenskiy she believed it would be a “matter of weeks”. Ten humanitarian corridors to evacuate people from war-torn areas across the country were agreed on Saturday, said Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk. He said the planned corridors included one for people moving by private transport from the besieged city of Mariupol, which has been under constant fire since February 24. Over the weeks, several attempts to evacuate the approximately 150,000 civilians remaining in Mariupol and import vital supplies have failed. The remaining residents face a humanitarian catastrophe, cut off from water, food and electricity supplies.
