RUSSIA,UKRAINE, THE NETHERLANDS: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was described on Thursday as “largely stalled on all fronts” as Europe’s largest conflict in 80 years entered its fourth week.
In the besieged city of Mariupol, rescue workers dug survivors out of the rubble of a theater that Ukraine said had been hit by a Russian airstrike while people sheltered there from bombardments. The war has settled into a grinding pattern of sieges of cities, but the Russians have failed to capture a major city in the face of spirited resistance from Ukrainian forces. British military intelligence said the invasion had “largely stalled on all fronts,” and Russian forces were suffering heavy losses.
Northeastern and northwestern suburbs of Kyiv have suffered heavy damage but the capital itself has held firm, under a curfew and subjected to deadly nightly rocket attacks.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin on Thursday rejected an order by the UN’s top court for Russia to suspend the military offensive in Ukraine, a day after judges in The Hague announced their ruling.
“We cannot take this decision into account,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, adding that both parties – Russia and Ukraine – had to agree for the ruling to be implemented.
“No consent can be obtained in this case,” Peskov said.
The UN’s International Court of Justice ruled on Wednesday that Moscow should “immediately suspend military operations that it commenced on February 24 on the territory of Ukraine.”
Meanwhile, The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that a Ukrainian allegation that the Russian air force had bombed a theatre in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol was a lie and that the truth would emerge despite what it called attempts to frame Moscow. Ukraine's Foreign Ministry on Wednesday alleged that Russian forces had dropped a powerful bomb on the theatre where hundreds of civilians were sheltering in the encircled Ukrainian city and accused Moscow of committing a war crime.
Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for Russia's Foreign Ministry, told a briefing on Thursday that Kyiv was trying to frame Russia.
"The Kyiv regime immediately tried to blame the Russian military, who, in its view, allegedly dropped a bomb from the air on the theatre," said Zakharova.
"Of course, this is a lie. It is well known to everyone that the Russian armed forces do not bomb cities. No matter how many videos are doctored by NATO structures and how many video clips and photo fakes are pumped out, the truth will come out." The Ukrainian Government did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Zakharova's statements.
- ARAB NEWS, FRANCE 24
Add new comment