The war in Ukraine advances with its blood tribute for a year and a half. The last few hours have been particularly dramatic in Pokrovsk, in the Donetsk region, in the east of the country.. When the Emergency teams and the neighbors tried to evacuate those who had survived, the block was hit by a second projectile. In all, seven people have died and at least 70 have been injured.
It is the last known massacre of a war in Ukraine for which there is no end in sight.. If at the end of Monday, the United States praised China's presence at the summit held last weekend in Saudi Arabia, a statement from Beijing underlined hours later its friendship with Russia.
A lack of ships in Russia and declining interest by Western grain traders in doing business with Moscow add to the rising costs of moving Russian wheat, at a time when the war in Ukraine has raged close to the routes. supply from the Black Sea.
President Vladimir Putin vowed to replace Ukrainian grain with Russian shipments to Africa after Moscow in July ended a deal giving Ukraine's food cargo safe passage in the Black Sea.. By breaking that agreement, it imposed a de facto blockade on its neighbor and then attacked the storage facilities, in an escalation of the war.
Ukraine's response, marine drone attacks on a Russian tanker and a warship at its Novorossiysk naval base, next to a major grain and oil port, have added to these new dangers for shipping at sea. Black.
Eduard Zernin, head of the Union of Grain Exporters of Russia, cited a possible aggravation of what he called “hidden sanctions” that “may lead to increased freight and insurance costs” for Russia.. This “will be reflected in the price level of wheat and other grains on the world market,” Zernin told Reuters.
The second missile landed on Pokrovsk 40 minutes after the first, according to the governor. He killed and injured emergency personnel, witnesses told a Reuters cameraman at the scene. Two rescue workers and a soldier are among the dead.. Nine policemen and one military man were injured, but most of the 31 injured are civilians, including a member of the local city council, Ukrainian officials have said.
Kateryna, a 58-year-old resident of Pokrovsk, was at home when she heard the first explosion and thought she was saved.. He was telling this to a person who called to inquire when the place was attacked a second time.
“An explosion and that's it. A flame filled my eyes. I fell to the ground, to the ground. My eyes (hurt) a lot…”, Kateryna told Reuters in an interview, pointing to several scratches around her eyes.. He had bandages on his forehead. Footage showed rescuers making their way through rubble, the remains of a car and an apartment building with collapsed balconies.
A man helps a woman injured by the second shell in Pokrovsk
The Emergency teams have resumed at dawn on Tuesday the search for survivors among the rubble of a residential building where at least seven people were killed the day before by two Russian missiles in Pokrovsk, eastern Ukraine, an area where the Russian army also secures having gained ground in the previous days.
AFP journalists present in Pokrovsk saw rescuers working around the badly damaged five-story building, evacuating the injured from the rubble and trying to free trapped residents from their homes with the help of a large ladder.
The building destroyed by a double Russian bombardment in Pokrovsk
“Seven people died. Sixty-seven were injured,” Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of Donetsk's military administration, announced on Telegram on Tuesday, revising downward the previous death toll of eight from Monday night.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov held a telephone conversation on Monday in which Wang assured that Moscow and Beijing are “good friends and partners” who can “trust each other “, reports the Chinese Foreign Ministry in a statement on its website. Wang noted that since Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Russia in March this year, the bilateral relationship has made “new progress”, with “record trade volume”, “stable energy cooperation” and a recovery speed of exchanges”.
The Chinese foreign minister also stressed that China and Russia continue their “close strategic coordination on the international and multilateral stage”, promoting the “multipolarization of the world”, the “democratization of international relations” and “upholding its basic norms”.. For his part, Lavrov expressed Russia's willingness to “strengthen strategic coordination”, “deepen practical cooperation” and “achieve new results in the bilateral relationship”.
President Joe Biden's administration will announce $200 million in aid for new weapons for Ukraine on Tuesday, US officials told Reuters. They correspond to the first part of a pending amount due to an accounting error that Washington recognized in May.
Included in this package were items such as mine clearance equipment, TOW and AT4 anti-tank weapons, weapons and ammunition, air defense interceptors made by Lockheed Martin Corp for the Patriot system, Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS) rockets, and Javelin anti-tank rockets, missiles made by a joint venture between Lockheed and RTX Corp, along with other equipment.
The United States on Monday welcomed China's participation in the Saudi-led negotiations over the war in Ukraine, with which Washington hopes to show Russia is isolated.. “We think it was productive for China to attend,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.
“We have said for a long time that it would be productive for China to play a role in ending the war in Ukraine if it accepts a role that respects Ukraine's territorial integrity and Ukraine's sovereignty,” he said.
Talks on Saturday in the Saudi port city of Jeddah included some 40 countries, including rising powers such as India and Brazil, which have so far been critical of Western punishments against Russia.
EL MUNDO visits an advanced center where Ukrainian surgeons save the lives of front-line wounded and use the instinct of dogs to detect Russian attacks
A report by Alberto Rojas, special envoy to the war in Ukraine.