Austrian chancellor to meet with Putin as Kyiv braces for eastern offensive

KRAMATORSK, Ukraine (AFP) — Austria’s chancellor on Monday will develop into the primary European chief to go to Moscow since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as Kyiv prepares for an enormous Russian offensive within the nation’s east.

Karl Nehammer mentioned he would meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and is anticipated to lift alleged conflict crimes in devastated areas round Kyiv that have been beneath Russian occupation, together with the city of Bucha.

Ukrainian authorities say over 1,200 our bodies have been discovered within the space to this point and that they’re weighing circumstances in opposition to “500 suspects” together with Putin and different prime Russian officers.

Russian forces are actually turning their focus to the Donbas area within the east, the place Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky mentioned Russian troops have been getting ready “even bigger operations.”

Russia is believed to be looking for a hyperlink between occupied Crimea and Moscow-backed separatist territories Donetsk and Luhansk in Donbas.

“They will use much more missiles in opposition to us… However we’re getting ready for his or her actions. We are going to reply,” Zelensky mentioned.

Cemetery staff carry a corpse of a person from a mass grave to be recognized in a morgue, in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, April 10, 2022. (AP Picture/Rodrigo Abd)

Luhansk governor Sergiy Gaiday warned that the area might endure as badly as Mariupol, a besieged port metropolis that even pro-Russian authorities say has been 70 p.c ruined by combating.

“The battle for Donbas will final a number of days, however throughout today our cities could also be fully destroyed,” Gaiday mentioned.

In a later Telegram message, he mentioned Russian troops knew that “there isn’t a surviving important or another infrastructure in our space.”

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“Subsequently, each shelling of the housing inventory is a deliberate terrorist assault.”

‘Battle on civilians’

Over the weekend, ongoing assaults on the area hampered evacuations, and 12 individuals have been killed in and round northeast Kharkiv, regional governor Oleg Synegubov mentioned.

“The Russian military continues to wage conflict on civilians as a result of an absence of victories on the entrance,” Synegubov mentioned on Telegram.

In Dnipro, an industrial metropolis of round one million inhabitants, a rain of Russian missiles practically destroyed the native airport, inflicting an unknown variety of casualties, native authorities mentioned.

Gaiday mentioned a missile strike on a railway station within the metropolis of Kramatorsk on Friday, which killed 57 individuals, had left many afraid to flee. Russia has denied involvement within the strike.

Individuals board transportation throughout evacuation of civilians in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, April 10, 2022. (AP Picture/Andriy Andriyenko)

He estimated simply 20 to 25 p.c of the native inhabitants remained, with “fewer and fewer” now evacuating.

Over the weekend, practically 50 wounded and aged sufferers have been transported from the east in a hospital practice by medical charity Docs With out Borders (MSF), the primary such evacuation because the assault on the Kramatorsk station.

Electrician Evhen Perepelytsia was evacuated after he misplaced his leg in shelling in his hometown of Hirske in Luhansk.

“We hope that the worst is over — that after what I’ve been via, it will likely be higher,” mentioned the 30-year-old after arrival within the western metropolis of Lviv.

On Monday, the chairman of the Board of Ukrainian Railways, Alexander Kamyshin, mentioned one other railway station within the east had been attacked in a single day.

“They proceed to goal on the railway infrastructure,” he wrote.

‘Progress in direction of peace?’

On the diplomatic entrance, EU overseas ministers have been set to satisfy Monday to debate a sixth spherical of sanctions, with issues that divisions over a ban on Russia gasoline and oil imports might blunt their impression.

Austria is an EU member, however doesn’t belong to NATO, although Nehammer’s spokesperson mentioned Brussels, Berlin and Kyiv had been knowledgeable in regards to the journey to Moscow.

The chancellor determined to arrange the assembly after he met Zelensky in Kyiv on Saturday, his workplace mentioned.

He desires “to do all the things in order that progress in direction of peace could be made” even when the probabilities of success are minimal, the spokesperson added.

Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer presents new COVID-19 rules at a press convention in Vienna, Austria, Jan. 6, 2022. (AP Picture/Lisa Leutner, File)

“We’re militarily impartial, however have a transparent stance on the Russian conflict of aggression in opposition to Ukraine,” Nehammer tweeted, calling for humanitarian corridors, a ceasefire and a full investigation of conflict crimes.

US President Joe Biden in the meantime will maintain digital talks on Monday with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, simply weeks after saying India had been “shaky” in its response to the invasion.

A US spokeswoman mentioned the 2 leaders would seek the advice of on methods to offset the “destabilizing impression (of the conflict) on world meals provide and commodity markets.”

The World Financial institution warned Sunday that Ukraine’s financial system would collapse by 45.1 p.c this 12 months — a a lot bleaker outlook than it predicted even a month in the past — whereas Russia would see an 11.2 p.c decline in GDP.

‘Inciting hatred’

Ukraine’s allies have sought to pile stress on Moscow over allegations its troops carried out conflict crimes in areas round Kyiv, and there was little signal that intermittent peace talks are progressing.

The pope has urged an Easter ceasefire, denouncing a conflict the place “defenseless civilians” suffered “heinous massacres and atrocious cruelty.”

Ukraine’s International Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Sunday accused the Kremlin and Russian media of laying the groundwork for conflict “for a few years.”

“Russian political elites and propaganda have been inciting hatred, dehumanizing Ukrainians, nurturing Russian superiority and laying floor for these atrocities,” he tweeted.

WATCH: Ukrainian International Minister Kuleba tells #MTP, “If we have been a member of NATO, this conflict wouldn’t happen.”@DmytroKuleba: “We suggest to the west and to NATO a good deal: You present us with all the things that we want, and we combat in order that you do not have to step” Putin. pic.twitter.com/otQQPTv3l1

— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) April 10, 2022

However in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Kuleba mentioned he was nonetheless open to negotiating with the Russians.

“If sitting down with the Russians will assist me to stop a minimum of one bloodbath like in Bucha, or a minimum of one other assault like in Kramatorsk, I’ve to take that chance,” he mentioned.

Bucha — the place authorities say a whole lot have been killed, some with their arms sure — has develop into a byword for the brutality allegedly inflicted beneath Russian occupation.

However different villages, cities and roads on the northwest flank of Kyiv have their very own tragedies.

An AFP reporter noticed a minimum of two corpses inside a manhole at a gasoline station on a motorway outdoors Kyiv on Sunday, in a mixture of civilian and navy clothes.

A distraught girl peered in earlier than breaking down, clawing on the earth and wailing: “My little son.”