US rating: Moscow plans mergers in eastern Ukraine

According to the United States, Russia may try to annex parts of eastern Ukraine in early May. To this end, Russia plans to hold “fake polls” in Donetsk and Luhansk. Ukraine accuses Moscow of abducting its citizens from occupied territories.

According to US estimates, Russia plans to annex large parts of eastern Ukraine in May and recognize the southern Ukrainian city of Gershon as an independent republic.

The U.S. and others have information that Moscow plans to hold “bad referendums” in the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, which will see areas linked to Russia, said Michael Carpenter, the US ambassador to the Security and Cooperation Organization. In Europe (OSCE).

There are also indications that Russia will hold a referendum on independence in Kherson. Through such referendums, the Kremlin may try to give a democratic connection to its actions, Carpenter said. The approach expected from the United States “came directly from the Kremlin’s Tactical Guide.”

The Internet in Kherson is apparently under Russian control

Also, the Internet in Cerson is said to be currently under Russian control. “Someone must have executed a line from the Crimea to the Gershon,” said Doug Madori, director of cyber analysis at Kentucky. He described the development as similar to what happened after Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula in Ukraine in 2014.

The London-based organization NetBlocks, which documents the Internet blockade around the world, reported as Madory that Internet traffic in the Kherson area was diverted via the state-controlled Russian telecommunications company Rostelecom from Sunday evening after a day of downtime.

Mariupol “total disaster” situation

In Mariupol, which has been competing for several weeks, the city council announced another attempt to evict the public from the Azovstel steel plant. The rescue operation failed on Monday. According to Ukrainian sources, about 200 civilians are still staying there with the military. According to Mariupol Mayor Wadym Boychenko, there are still 100,000 civilians in the city.

According to the aid organization Doctors Without Borders, the humanitarian situation in Mariupol is catastrophic. “From the information we have so far, we can say for sure: this is a complete disaster,” Anja Vols Funke, the organization’s emergency coordinator for Ukraine, told reporters.

The true extent of human suffering in the besieged metropolis will only be fully revealed in the future. “I think we have no idea what we’re going to see there. Butsha, Irbin and Hostomal are just the tip of the iceberg,” Walls said. Hundreds of bodies were found in the cities of Pucha, Irfin, Borodianka and Hostomel after Russian troops retreated.

There is no medical facility in Mariupol

Walls stressed that there is currently no way to provide medical care to the people in the closed city. “Bringing relief supplies to Mariupol is now almost impossible,” Walls said. Although there are volunteers smuggling drugs into the city, these are very limited quantities.

Also, there is a shortage of medical personnel to provide medical care to the people in Mariapur. “Operations can’t happen. The people there are on their own.” This also applies to other war zones in the country.

Ukraine says rocket attack on Odessa

According to Ukrainian sources, the rocket fired at the port city of Odessa in the Black Sea on Monday evening. Maxim Marchenko, governor of the Odessa region of southwestern Ukraine, wrote to the Telegram, saying the dead and wounded. He did not provide any information on the number of victims.

Regarding the state of the civil war in eastern Ukraine, the US Department of Defense announced that the Russian military was making very little progress. “Troops are still plagued by poor leadership and control, lack of morale in many areas, and logistics support is optimal,” a Pentagon official said. For example, the Ukrainian army was able to push the Russians further back from Kharkiv.

Ukraine accuses Russia of kidnapping

Russia says it has brought nearly 1.1 million people to Russia from competing regions in Ukraine. About 200,000 of them were children, said Colonel General Mikhail Mijinsev in Moscow. On Monday alone, he said, 11,500 people, including 1,850 children, had been brought to Russia, according to the Interfox agency.

According to Russian accounts, these people from Ukraine were brought safely from the fighting and violence of the Kiev leadership. Refugees were brought to Russia from the separatist republics of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine before the Russian offensive on February 24.

Ukraine considers deporting its citizens from areas currently occupied by Russia in the east and south. According to sources in Kiev, the Russian military has not allowed people to flee to Ukrainian-held territory. Ukraine’s Security Council has accused Russia of using children for propaganda purposes.

Russia’s general mobilization is feared

There is growing concern that Russian attacks on Ukraine will increase significantly in the coming weeks. Several Ukrainian media outlets have picked up on the CNN report on the speculation that Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin may declare a state of war in Russia and order a general mobilization in a few days. Girillo Budanov, head of Ukrainian military intelligence, also spoke about Russia’s preparations for the open mobilization of troops and security forces. There is no evidence for this.

The Kremlin initially did not respond to the latest rumors. In the first weeks after the war began, Moscow commented on the concerns of its own people and insisted that a general mobilization was not planned.