The next few days and weeks are critical to his outcome. war in Ukrainehow Russian army intensifies its operations to seize everything Donbassin the eastern part of the country, while at the same time trying to nullify the plans of the Ukrainians for a counterattack on the southern front in order to repel Peninsula.

At least four civilians have been killed and ten injured in the last 24 hours as a result of Russian shelling that has spread to nine districts Ukrainianaccording to Kyiv.

“Hell” in the Donbass

Zelensky calls on China to mediate an end to the war.

The president Vladimir Zelensky Russian shelling of the Ukrainian army in the Donbass and especially in the city of Avdika and the fortified village of Peski, where, as Kyiv admits, the attackers have made progress in recent days, was called “hell”.

At the same time, strong explosions thundered in the southern city. Nikolaevwho protects her Odessa Russian troops, and 60 rockets were fired at the city of Nikopol, located on the Dnieper, on the opposite bank of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, occupied by the Russian army. Ukrainian General Oleksiy Gromov estimated yesterday that Russia could launch a strike in the coming days on the southern front to prevent a planned counterattack by the Ukrainian army in the direction of Kherson. For his part, Aleksey Arestovich, an adviser to the President of Ukraine, assessed that the increase in Russian attacks in Donetsk and Kharkov in eastern Ukraine was a distraction to prevent a Ukrainian counterattack in the south. Supported by Western weapons systems, the Ukrainians also went on the offensive, with pro-Russian separatists in Donetsk saying five civilians were killed by rockets that hit the city center. Yesterday, Amnesty International accused the Ukrainian army of putting civilians at risk by setting up military bases in schools and hospitals and launching strikes from residential areas. The fact that they were on the defensive does not relieve them of their obligation to respect international humanitarian law, said Anis Kalamar, Secretary General of the organization.

In an interview with the South China Morning Post, Volodymyr Zelensky said he was keen to discuss the Ukraine crisis with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and suggested that China is “a very powerful state with a strong economy that can influence Russia politically and economically.” to end the war. In the Kremlin, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov stressed that the agreement to lift the embargo on the export of Ukrainian grain, brokered by Turkey, was not “once and for all” and expressed the hope that the mechanism created would continue to work in the future.