In Ukrainian it is called “off-road”, and in Russian “thaw”. We are talking about the black mud that covers the Ukrainian plains every spring when the snow melts, and which went down in military history with the destruction it brought to the invaders’ plans of conquest. Yesterday, March 1, thinks so Russians so from them Ukrainians the beginning of spring and the infamous black mud has already appeared on the battlefields of the east and south of Ukraine. For the Ukrainian foreign minister this spring, black had a pink tinge. His country has been spared “Putin’s winter terror,” Dmitry Kuleba wrote on Facebook, adding that his country has “survived the worst winter in its history.”

For their part, the Russians hope to celebrate the arrival of spring with their first military success after half a year of successive blows: the fall of Bahamut. Despite the very high price they have already paid with the lives of soldiers – mostly ex-prisoners recruited by the private mercenary company Wagner – yesterday they continued their attacks in a key city in the Donetsk region, which is threatened by enemy encirclement. strength.

One of the close associates of the Ukrainian president Vladimir Zelensky left open the possibility that the defenders would abandon the city. “Our military will obviously weigh all the possibilities. For now, we are holding the city, but if necessary, we will continue the strategic curtailment,” Zelensky’s economic adviser Alexander Rodnyansky told CNN.

Drone debunking

Meanwhile, another senior adviser to the President of Ukraine, Mykhailo Podolyak, denied Russia’s allegations that Ukrainian drones were targeting Russian political infrastructure inside the country, even within 100 kilometers of Moscow. “Ukraine does not strike at the territory of the Russian Federation, it is engaged in a defensive struggle,” Podolyak said.

Ukrainian woman at the center of Blinken’s tour of Central Asia and the G20 ministerial meeting.

When asked to respond, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he “does not believe” Kyiv. Photos and videos from international agencies show that the drone that crashed in the village of Gubastovo, about 100 kilometers from Moscow, was Ukrainian-made. In addition, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that the country’s armed forces had intercepted an attack by six Ukrainian drones on the Crimean peninsula.

In the diplomatic sphere, the confrontation between Russia and the West has been moved from yesterday to New Delhi, where the ministerial meeting of the G20 group is taking place. US Foreign Ministers Anthony Blinken, Sergei Lavrov of Russia and Wang Yi of China are there, but the head of the State Department said he had no plans to meet with his two colleagues.

Anthony Blinken traveled to India, completing his tour of Central Asia with stops in Astana, Kazakhstan and Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The Ukrainian language dominated Blinken’s discussions with his colleagues from the former Soviet republics of Central Asia, neither of whom welcomed or condemned the Russian invasion.

Xi with Lukashenka

Yesterday in Beijing, Chinese leader Xi Jinping met with President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, who has been on a visit to the country since the day before yesterday. Lukashenko expressed full agreement with China’s 12-point peace plan for Ukraine, while Xi Jinping, in a clear blow to the US, condemned “the politicization of the world economy in their interests.”