KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR / DESARROLLOS CLAVE EN LA GUERRA RUSIA-UCRANIA:

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is set to announce plans Thursday to send additional military aid to help Ukraine fight back against the Russian invasion, according to a U.S. official.

The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Biden will deliver a Thursday morning address at the White House detailing his plans to build on the roughly $2.6 billion in military assistance the administration has already approved for Ukraine.

The new package is expected to be similar in size to the $800 million package Biden announced last week. It includes much needed heavy artillery and ammunition for Ukrainian forces in the escalating battle for the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.

Earlier this week, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also said his country will send heavy artillery to Ukraine.

And Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that the Netherlands will send more heavy weapons, including armored vehicles.

KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR:

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OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:

LVIV, Ukraine — The Luhansk governor said Russian forces now control 80% of the region, which is one of two regions that make up the Donbas in eastern Ukraine.

One of Russia’s stated goals is to expand the territory in the Donbas under the control of Moscow-backed separatists.

Before Russia invaded on Feb. 24, the Kyiv government controlled 60% of the Luhansk region.

Gov. Serhiy Haidai said the Russians, who renewed their offensive this week in eastern and southern Ukraine, have strengthened their attacks in the Luhansk region.

After seizing Kreminna, Haidai said the Russians now are threatening the cities of Rubizhne and Popasna and he has urged all residents to evacuate immediately.

The Donetsk region, also part of the Donbas, has seen extremely heavy fighting as well — particularly around the port city of Mariupol.

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A senior U.S. defense official says training of Ukrainian personnel on American 155mm howitzers has begun in a European country outside of Ukraine, kicking off an effort to enable the Ukrainian army to use newly supplied U.S. artillery in the escalating battle for the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal U.S. assessments of the war, said the first of 18 promised U.S. 155mm howitzers arrived on cargo flights to Europe on Wednesday and more are on the way.

The artillery systems are to be moved overland directly into Ukraine; the training of Ukrainian personnel is being done on other 155mm howitzers elsewhere in Europe, the official said.

The senior U.S. defense official also said that Russia in the past 24 hours has added another four battalion tactical groups in Ukraine, all but one in the Donbas region.

The official did not say how many of the groups are now in the Donbas, but on Tuesday the Pentagon said Russia had a total of 78 such groups in eastern and southern Ukraine.

__ AP Military Writer Robert Burns in Washington contributed to this report.

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NICOSIA, Cyprus — Cyprus is moving to strip citizenship from another four Russians who appear on the European Union’s updated list of sanctions imposed following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Deputy government spokesperson Niovi Parisinou said Wednesday’s decision brings to eight the number of Russians whose Cypriot citizenship will be revoked. They’re among 1,091 people sanctioned by the EU. Parisinou said their family members also will lose their Cypriot citizenship.

The Russians received Cypriot passports under the country’s once lucrative citizenship-by-investment program that was scrapped in 2020 following an undercover TV report that allegedly showed the parliamentary speaker and a powerful lawmaker suggesting they could skirt the rules to grant a passport to a fictitious Chinese investor supposedly convicted of fraud.

A 2021 report found that more than half of a total 6,779 passports were issued unlawfully to relatives of wealthy investors over the program’s 13-year run, and that another 770 people were wrongly granted citizenship mainly due to inadequate vetting.

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KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s President said he hasn’t seen any new Russian proposals for halting hostilities.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy was asked Wednesday about a Kremlin statement that Russia is waiting for Ukraine’s response to a draft document and “the ball is in their court.”

Zelenskyy’s adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said earlier Wednesday that the Ukrainian side had received Russian proposals and was reviewing them. But Zelenskyy said it’s not so. He said he played football pretty well in peacetime, and the rules say there must be two teams and a ball. He says the Kremlin spokesman appears to be “playing with himself.”

Zelenskyy said he’s been ready for years to discuss with Russian President Vladimir Putin an end to Russia’s war in eastern Ukraine. He said they sent the same signals about talks before their large-scale invasion, so they are not ready for a peace settlement.

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KYIV, Ukraine — An adviser to Ukraine’s president has challenged Russia to conduct an urgent round of talks in Mariupol.

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said on Twitter that he and other Ukrainian negotiators are ready for any format of negotiations to save lives of Mariupol defenders and civilians trapped in the city.

He tweeted that “we’re ready to hold a “special round of negotiations” right in Mariupol. One on one. Two on two.”

Podolyak said that Ukraine is ready for talks without any conditions “to save our guys, Azov, military, civilians, children, the living and the wounded. Everyone. Because they are ours. Because they are in my heart. Forever.”

There was no immediate response from Russia to Podolyak’s offer.

Mariupol has faced a Russian siege and relentless bombardment for seven weeks, and the last remaining Ukrainian defenders are currently trapped at a giant steel mill encircled by the Russians. They have rejected the Russian ultimatum to surrender or get killed.

Zelenskyy said up to 1,000 civilians could be trapped at the Azovstal steel plant.

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KYIV, Ukraine — President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the situation in Ukraine’s east and south remains difficult with Russian troops pushing their attacks.

Speaking in a video address to the nation late Wednesday, Zelenskyy said “the occupiers aren’t abandoning their attempts to score at least some victory by launching a new, large-scale offensive.”

He said Ukraine’s Western allies have “come to understand our needs better,” so they’re receiving new shipments of Western weapons “now, when Russia is trying to step up its attacks, not in weeks or in a month.”

Zelenskyy also urged the West to keep ramping up the sanctions against Moscow and quickly implement a full ban on imports of the Russian oil and oil products.

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KYIV, Ukraine — A 91-year-old Holocaust survivor has died in a basement in the besieged Ukrainian port of Mariupol.

The Judaism website Chabad.org and the Auschwitz Memorial announced the death of Vanda Semyonovna Obiedkova.

Chabad.org, a website run by the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, reported that Obiedkova’s daughter shared the news about her mother after arriving to a safe location with the rest of her family. The daughter said Obiedkova died pleading for water in a freezing basement on April 4.

Obiedkova was 10 years old when the Nazis occupied Mariupol in 1941 and killed thousands of Jews in a single day, including her mother. She survived in a basement then, and died in a basement in the same city 81 years later.

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KYIV, Ukraine — A top Ukrainian official said Wednesday’s planned evacuation of civilians from Mariupol has failed because of the Russian failure to observe a cease-fire.

Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said “the humanitarian corridor didn’t work as planned” on Wednesday. She added that “the occupiers have failed to ensure a proper cease-fire die to the lack of control over its own military.”

Vereshchuk also charged that “due to the sloppiness” of the Russian military, it has failed to timely deliver those who were willing to evacuate to an area where Ukrainian buses were waiting for them.

She said that efforts to evacuate civilians from Mariupol will resume Thursday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said about 120,000 people remain under siege in the city.

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WASHINGTON — Pentagon press secretary John Kirby is downplaying Russia’s launch of a new intercontinental ballistic missile that the Kremlin is counting on as the center of its nuclear strategy.

Russian President Vladimir Putin calls the Sarmat missile uniquely capable of penetrating anti-missile defenses. And Russia’s space agency chief Dmitry Rogozin provocatively called Wednesday’s test flight “a present to NATO.”

But Kirby said “Russia properly notified the United States under its New START obligations that it planned to test this ICBM. Such testing is routine. It was not a surprise. We did not deem the test to be a threat to the United States or its allies.”

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KYIV, Ukraine — About 1,000 civilians are trapped at a steel mill in Mariupol along with Ukrainian soldiers, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday.

“Behind the backs of our guys in Mariupol there are around a thousand civilians, including women and children,” he said after talks with European Council President Charles Michel.

Zelenskyy added that Russia has stonewalled Ukraine’s attempts to negotiate a safe exit for them. “We are open to different formats of exchange of our people for Russian people, Russian military that they have left behind,” he said.

Ukraine also has tried to get Russia to agree on a humanitarian corridor to evacuate the 120,000 people who Zelenskyy said remain under siege in Mariupol.

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WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Ukraine’s Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko walked out of a Group of 20 meeting Wednesday as Russia’s representative started talking.

Several finance ministers and central bank governors also left the room, and some ministers and central bank governors who attended virtually turned their cameras off, according to an official familiar with the meetings, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the event was not public.

The brutal effects of Russia’s war against Ukraine have taken center stage at the International Monetary Fund and World Bank spring meetings.

President Joe Biden has said that Russia should not remain a member of the G-20, which promotes cooperations between the world’s biggest economies.

— AP writer Fatima Hussein in Washington contributed to this story.

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PANAMA CITY, Panama — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expressing concerns about a humanitarian corridor Ukraine is trying to set up to evacuate people trapped by Russian forces in Mariupol.

“Of course, we want to see people who are in harm’s way, if they are able to, to leave it safely and securely,” Blinken said Wednesday. The U.S. is sharing its assessments, but the Ukrainian government and the people themselves must decide whether to take the risk..

“What gives pause is the fact there have been agreements on humanitarian corridors established before that have fallen apart very, very quickly, if not immediately, principally because the security has been violated by Russian forces. And so people leaving, believing that they could do so safely and securely, were fired on.”

Blinken said the world witnessed “death and destruction and atrocities” after the Russians retreated from Bucha, and “we can only anticipate that when this tide also recedes from Mariupol we’re going to see far worse, if that’s possible to imagine.”

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KYIV, Ukraine — A Ukrainian military officer has urged world leaders to help evacuate hundreds of soldiers and civilians from a steel mill in Mariupol, the last remaining Ukrainian stronghold in the city.

The officer identified himself as Serhiy Volynskyy of the 36th Marine Brigade defending the giant Azovstal steel mill. He posted a video plea on Facebook Wednesday saying “we have more than 500 wounded soldiers and hundreds of civilians with us, including women and children.”

“We ask you to provide us safety on the territory of a third state,” Volynskyy said in the video message, which couldn’t be independently verified.

“This may be our last appeal. We may have only a few days or hours left,” he added.

Ukrainian officers have said Russian forces have been dropping heavy bunker-busting bombs on the steel mill, where people have taken shelter in underground tunnels and chambers.

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UNITED NATIONS — U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres wants to meet with the leaders of Russia and Ukraine in Moscow and Kviv to press for peace.

Guterres asked by letter Tuesday for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin to meet him in their respective capitals, aiming “to discuss whatever urgent steps can be taken to stop the fighting,” spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.

As of Wednesday, Dujarric said the U.N. has gotten no response.

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MOSCOW — The Russian Defense Ministry reported the first launch of its new Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile. President Vladimir Putin said this weapon is unique and will make those who threaten Russia “think twice.”

The ministry said the missile was launched Wednesday from the Plesetsk launch facility in northern Russia and its practice warheads hit designated targets at the Kura firing range on the far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula.

The Sarmat is a heavy missile, intended to replace the Soviet-made Voyevoda missile which was code-named Satan by the West. Putin said it can penetrate any prospective missile defense.

Putin called this “a big, significant event” for Russia’s defense industry. He said the Sarmat will ensure Russia’s security from external threats and “make those who, in the heat of frantic, aggressive rhetoric, try to threaten our country, think twice.”

Russia relies on land-based ICBMs as the core of its nuclear deterrent, and is counting on the Sarmat for decades to come. The U.S. has its own nuclear-capable ICBMs, but recently called off a test to avoid escalating tensions.

Dmitry Rogozin, the head of the state Roscosmos agency that oversees the missile factory building the Sarmat, described Wednesday’s test as a “present to NATO” in a comment on his messaging app channel.

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LONDON — Tennis players from Russia and Belarus will not be allowed to play at Wimbledon this year because of the war in Ukraine, the All England Club announced Wednesday.

Prominent players affected by the ban include reigning U.S. Open champion Daniil Medvedev, who recently reached No. 1 in the ATP rankings and is currently No. 2; men’s No. 8 Andrey Rublev; Aryna Sabalenka, who was a Wimbledon semifinalist in 2021 and is No. 4 in the WTA rankings; Victoria Azarenka, former women’s No. 1 who has won the Australian Open twice; and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, the French Open runner-up last year.

Wimbledon begins on June 27. Russian athletes have been banned from competing in many sports following their country’s invasion of Ukraine. Belarus has aided Russia in the war.

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SOFIA, Bulgaria — Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba asked Bulgaria to align with international efforts to support his country with military aid.

“The Bulgarian government and Parliament know very well what the Ukrainian requests are … When you fight a war, you need everything — from bullets to fighter jets. We gave the same list to all NATO member states,” Kuleba said Wednesday after meetings with Bulgarian officials.

Bulgarian President Rumen Radev has warned against supplying weapons to Ukraine, citing the dangers of involving his country more directly in the war.

The ruling coalition in Sofia is blocked by the Socialist party which opposes any military aid to Ukraine, leaving Bulgaria as the only EU member, besides Hungary, that has so far been reluctant to send weapons to Kyiv.

“I have to have in mind the political situation in your country and leave the matter to the government of Bulgaria,” Kuleba said. He warned, however, that those who choose not to help Ukraine “in fact support the Russian aggression and the murder of our citizens.”

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HELSINKI — Estonia says it is prohibiting public meetings where people display Russian flags military symbols during the Victory Day celebrations on May 9, which is traditionally celebrated by the Baltic country’s sizable ethnic-Russian population to mark the end of World War II.

“The Estonian state has so far been tolerant of the events of May 9, but Russia’s current activities in Ukraine preclude public meetings in Estonia expressing support for the aggressor state and displaying war symbols,” Police and Border Guard chief Elmar Vaher said Wednesday.

Among the banned symbols are the flags of the Soviet Union and Russia, USSR military uniforms and the black-orange Ribbon of Saint George worn in Russia to mark the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in WWII.

Ethnic Russians make up about 25% of Estonia’s 1.3 million population and they traditionally gather to lay flowers on May 9 at Tallinn’s Bronze Soldier statue commemorating the fallen Red Army troops in WWII battles in Estonia.

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MOSCOW — Russia will “act consistently” to make sure that life in Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland “normalizes,” President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday.

Speaking at a meeting with members of a state-funded non-profit group, Putin pledged that “we will act consistently and make sure (that) life in Donbas normalizes.”

Putin said that hostilities in eastern Ukraine, where Russia-backed rebels have been fighting Ukrainian forces since 2014, prompted Russia to launch a military operation.

“All these eight years, bombing, artillery strikes and hostilities continued there. And of course, it was very, very hard for people,” Putin said. “The goal of the operation is to help our people living in Donbas.”

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MOSCOW — The Kremlin’s spokesman says Russia has presented Ukraine with a draft document outlining its demands as part of peace talks and is now awaiting a response from Kyiv.

A Ukrainian presidential adviser said Kyiv was reviewing the proposals.

Dmitry Peskov told a conference call with reporters Wednesday that Russia has passed on a draft document containing “absolutely clear, elaborate wording” to Ukraine and now “the ball is in their court, we’re waiting for a response.”

Peskov didn’t give further details. He blamed Ukraine for the slow progress, claiming Kyiv constantly deviates from confirmed agreements. “The Ukrainians do not show a great inclination to intensify the negotiation process,” he said.

Ukraine presented Russia with its own draft last month in Istanbul. Moscow has long demanded, among other things, that Ukraine drop any bid to join NATO. Ukraine has said it would agree to that in return for security guarantees from a number of other countries.

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BERLIN — The German government and military are rejecting an assertion by Ukraine’s ambassador that the country could spare armored fighting vehicles and deliver them to Kyiv.

Ambassador Andriy Melnyk, who has frequently criticized perceived German slowness on weapons deliveries and other issues, argued that Germany’s Bundeswehr uses about 100 Marder vehicles for training and they could be handed over to Ukraine immediately.

But Defense Ministry spokesman Arne Collatz said Wednesday that Germany needs the vehicles for deployments on NATO’s eastern flank and for training. He said that “a delivery from Bundeswehr stock of ‘heavy material’ … is not foreseen.”

He spoke after the German military’s deputy chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Markus Laubenthal, told ZDF television that the military has “wide commitments” and needs the weapons systems it has.

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BERLIN — The United Nations’ refugee agency says that more than 5 million people have now fled Ukraine since the Russian invasion began on Feb. 24.

The Geneva-based U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees on Wednesday put the total number of refugees at 5.01 million.

More than half of the total, over 2.8 million, fled at least at first to Poland. Although many have stayed there, an unknown number have traveled onward. There are few border checks within the European Union.

UNHCR said on March 30 that 4 million people had fled Ukraine. The exodus was somewhat slower in recent weeks than at the beginning of the war.

In addition to the refugees, the U.N. says that more than 7 million people have been displaced within Ukraine.

Ukraine had a pre-war population of 44 million.

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KYIV, Ukraine — Mariupol mayor Vadym Boychenko is urging residents to leave the city.

Boychenko appealed Wednesday to people who had already left Mariupol to contact relatives still in the city and urge them to evacuate. He said 200,000 people had already left the city, which had a pre-war population of more than 400,000.

“Do not be frightened, and evacuate to Zaporizhzhia, where you can receive all the help you need — food, medicine, essentials — and the main thing is that you will be in safety,” he wrote in a statement issued by the city council.

Boychenko said buses would be used for the evacuation and there will be three pickup points, one of them near the Azovstal steel mill which has become Ukrainian forces’ last stronghold in the city. Many previous evacuation efforts relied on civilians being able to leave in private cars after efforts to bring buses from Ukraine-held territory into the city failed.

Mariupol, Ukraine’s tenth-largest city, came under attack from Russian forces almost immediately after the invasion began in late February. The port city has strategic value as a link between territories in the south and east of Ukraine which are held by Russian forces or Russia-backed separatists.

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COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Norway is donating about 100 air defense systems to Ukraine with the Scandinavian country’s defense minister saying that “the country is depending on international support to resist Russian aggression.”

Bjørn Arild Gram said Norway had donated French-made Mistral short-range missile systems which currently are being phased out by the Norwegian Armed Forces, “but it is still a modern and effective weapon that will be of great benefit to Ukraine,” Arild Gram said.

The weapons have already left Norway which previously has donated 4,000 anti-tank missiles, protective equipment and other military equipment to Ukraine, he added.

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LONDON — Britain’s defense ministry says the Russian military is expanding its presence on Ukraine’s eastern border as fighting in the Donbas region intensifies.

In an intelligence update released Wednesday morning, the ministry says Russian attacks on cities across Ukraine are an attempt to disrupt the movement of Ukrainian reinforcements and weapons to the east.

While Russian air operations in northern Ukraine are likely to remain at a low level following the withdrawal of forces from the Kyiv region, there is still a risk of “precision strikes against priority targets throughout Ukraine,” the ministry says.

In a briefing released late Tuesday, the ministry said Ukrainian forces had repelled “numerous attempted advances” by Russian troops as shelling and attacks increased along the line of control that has separated Ukrainian and Russian-backed forces in the Donbas region for the past eight years.

“Russia’s ability to progress continues to be impacted by the environmental, logistical and technical challenges that have beset them so far, combined with the resilience of the highly motivated Ukrainian armed forces,” the ministry said.

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This story was first published on April 21, 2022. It was updated on April 21, 2022 to correct that Chabad.org is a Judaism website, not a Jewish organization, and first reported the death of Holocaust survivor Vanda Semyonovna Obiedkova.

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El presidente Joe Biden anunciará el jueves planes para enviar ayuda militar adicional para ayudar a Ucrania a luchar contra la invasión rusa, según un funcionario estadounidense.

El funcionario, que no estaba autorizado a comentar públicamente y habló bajo condición de anonimato, dijo que Biden pronunciará un discurso el jueves por la mañana en la Casa Blanca detallando sus planes para aprovechar los aproximadamente 2.600 millones de dólares en asistencia militar que la administración ya ha aprobado para Ucrania.

Se espera que el nuevo paquete sea similar en tamaño al paquete de 800 millones de dólares que Biden anunció la semana pasada. Incluye artillería pesada y municiones muy necesarias para las fuerzas ucranianas en la creciente batalla por la región de Donbas, en el este de Ucrania.

A principios de esta semana, el primer ministro canadiense, Justin Trudeau, también dijo que su país enviará artillería pesada a Ucrania.

Y el primer ministro holandés, Mark Rutte, le dijo al presidente ucraniano Volodymyr Zelenskyy que los Países Bajos enviarán más armas pesadas, incluidos vehículos blindados.

DESARROLLOS CLAVE EN LA GUERRA RUSIA-UCRANIA:

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El gobernador de Lugansk dijo que las fuerzas rusas ahora controlan el 80% de la región, que es una de las dos regiones que conforman el Donbás en el este de Ucrania.

Uno de los objetivos declarados de Rusia es expandir el territorio en el Donbás bajo el control de los separatistas respaldados por Moscú.

Antes de que Rusia invadiera el 24 de febrero, el gobierno de Kiev controlaba el 60% de la región de Lugansk.

El gobernador Serhiy Haidai dijo que los rusos, que renovaron su ofensiva esta semana en el este y sur de Ucrania, han fortalecido sus ataques en la región de Lugansk.

Después de apoderarse de Kreminna, Haidai dijo que los rusos ahora están amenazando las ciudades de Rubizhne y Popasna y ha instado a todos los residentes a evacuar de inmediato. ANUNCIO

La región de Donetsk, también parte del Donbás, también ha sido testigo de combates extremadamente intensos, particularmente alrededor de la ciudad portuaria de Mariupol.

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Un alto funcionario de defensa de Estados Unidos dice que el entrenamiento del personal ucraniano en obuses estadounidenses de 155 mm ha comenzado en un país europeo fuera de Ucrania, iniciando un esfuerzo para permitir que el ejército ucraniano use artillería estadounidense recién suministrada en la creciente batalla por la región de Donbas en el este de Ucrania.

El funcionario, que habló bajo condición de anonimato para discutir las evaluaciones internas de Estados Unidos sobre la guerra, dijo que el primero de los 18 obuses estadounidenses prometidos de 155 mm llegó en vuelos de carga a Europa el miércoles y más están en camino.

Los sistemas de artillería se trasladarán por tierra directamente a Ucrania; la capacitación del personal ucraniano se está realizando en otros obuses de 155 mm en otras partes de Europa, dijo el funcionario.

El alto funcionario de defensa de Estados Unidos también dijo que Rusia en las últimas 24 horas ha agregado otros cuatro grupos tácticos de batallón en Ucrania, todos menos uno en la región de Donbass.

El funcionario no dijo cuántos de los grupos están ahora en el Donbás, pero el martes el Pentágono dijo que Rusia tenía un total de 78 grupos de este tipo en el este y sur de Ucrania.

__ El escritor militar de AP Robert Burns en Washington contribuyó a este despacho.

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NICOSIA, Chipre (AP) — Chipre se está moviendo para despojar de la ciudadanía a otros cuatro rusos que aparecen en la lista actualizada de sanciones impuestas por la Unión Europea tras la invasión rusa de Ucrania.

El portavoz adjunto del gobierno, Niovi Parisinou, dijo que la decisión del miércoles eleva a ocho el número de rusos cuya ciudadanía chipriota será revocada. Se encuentran entre las 1.091 personas sancionadas por la UE. Parisinou dijo que sus familiares también perderán su ciudadanía chipriota.

Los rusos recibieron pasaportes chipriotas bajo el otrora lucrativo programa de ciudadanía por inversión del país que fue desechado en 2020 luego de un informe televisivo encubierto que supuestamente mostraba al presidente parlamentario y a un poderoso legislador sugiriendo que podrían eludir las reglas para otorgar un pasaporte a un inversor chino ficticio supuestamente condenado por fraude.

Un informe de 2021 encontró que más de la mitad de un total de 6,779 pasaportes fueron emitidos ilegalmente a familiares de inversionistas ricos durante los 13 años de ejecución del programa, y que a otras 770 personas se les otorgó la ciudadanía erróneamente principalmente debido a una investigación inadecuada.

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KyIV, Ucrania — El presidente de Ucrania dijo que no ha visto ninguna nueva propuesta rusa para detener las hostilidades.

A Volodymyr Zelenskyy se le preguntó el miércoles sobre una declaración del Kremlin de que Rusia está esperando la respuesta de Ucrania a un borrador de documento y “la pelota está en su tejado”.

El asesor de Zelenskyy, Mykhailo Podolyak, dijo el miércoles que la parte ucraniana había recibido propuestas rusas y las estaba revisando. Pero Zelenskyy dijo que no es así. Dijo que jugó al fútbol bastante bien en tiempos de paz, y las reglas dicen que debe haber dos equipos y una pelota. Dice que el portavoz del Kremlin parece estar “jugando consigo mismo”.

Zelenskyy dijo que ha estado listo durante años para discutir con el presidente ruso Vladimir Putin el fin de la guerra de Rusia en el este de Ucrania. Dijo que enviaron las mismas señales sobre las conversaciones antes de su invasión a gran escala, por lo que no están listos para un acuerdo de paz.

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KyIV, Ucrania — Un asesor del presidente de Ucrania desafió a Rusia a llevar a cabo una ronda urgente de conversaciones en Mariupol.

Mykhailo Podolyak, asesor del presidente Volodymyr Zelenskyy, dijo en Twitter que él y otros negociadores ucranianos están listos para cualquier formato de negociaciones para salvar vidas de defensores de Mariupol y civiles atrapados en la ciudad.

Tuiteó que “estamos listos para celebrar una “ronda especial de negociaciones” justo en Mariupol. Uno a uno. Dos contra dos”.

Podolyak dijo que Ucrania está lista para las conversaciones sin ninguna condición “para salvar a nuestros muchachos, Azov, militares, civiles, niños, vivos y heridos. Todos. Porque son nuestros. Porque están en mi corazón. Para siempre”.

No hubo una respuesta inmediata de Rusia a la oferta de Podolyak.

Mariupol se ha enfrentado a un asedio ruso y un bombardeo implacable durante siete semanas, y los últimos defensores ucranianos restantes están actualmente atrapados en una gigantesca fábrica de acero rodeada por los rusos. Han rechazado el ultimátum ruso para rendirse o ser asesinados.

Zelenskyy dijo que hasta 1.000 civiles podrían quedar atrapados en la planta siderúrgica de Azovstal.

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El presidente Volodymyr Zelenskyy dijo que la situación en el este y el sur de Ucrania sigue siendo difícil con las tropas rusas que impulsan sus ataques.

Hablando en un discurso en video a la nación el miércoles por la noche, Zelenskyy dijo que “los ocupantes no están abandonando sus intentos de obtener al menos alguna victoria lanzando una nueva ofensiva a gran escala”.

Dijo que los aliados occidentales de Ucrania han “llegado a comprender mejor nuestras necesidades”, por lo que están recibiendo nuevos envíos de armas occidentales “ahora, cuando Rusia está tratando de intensificar sus ataques, no en semanas o en un mes”.

Zelenskyy también instó a Occidente a seguir aumentando las sanciones contra Moscú e implementar rápidamente una prohibición total de las importaciones de petróleo y productos petroleros rusos.

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KYIV, Ucrania — Un sobreviviente del Holocausto de 91 años murió en un sótano en el sitiado puerto ucraniano de Mariupol.

El sitio web del judaísmo Chabad.org y el Memorial de Auschwitz anunciaron la muerte de Vanda Semyonovna Obiedkova.

Chabad.org, un sitio web dirigido por el movimiento Jabad-Lubavitch, informó que la hija de Obiedkova compartió la noticia sobre su madre después de llegar a un lugar seguro con el resto de su familia. La hija dijo que Obiedkova murió pidiendo agua en un sótano helado el 4 de abril.

Obiedkova tenía 10 años cuando los nazis ocuparon Mariupol en 1941 y mataron a miles de judíos en un solo día, incluida su madre. Ella sobrevivió en un sótano entonces, y murió en un sótano en la misma ciudad 81 años después.

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KyIV, Ucrania ( AP) — Un alto funcionario ucraniano dijo que la evacuación planeada el miércoles de civiles de Mariupol ha fracasado debido a que Rusia no ha observado un alto el fuego.

La viceprimera ministra Iryna Vereshchuk dijo que “el corredor humanitario no funcionó según lo planeado” el miércoles. Agregó que “los ocupantes no han podido garantizar un alto el fuego adecuado debido a la falta de control sobre sus propios militares”.

Vereshchuk también acusó que “debido a la dejadez” del ejército ruso, no ha entregado a tiempo a aquellos que estaban dispuestos a evacuar a un área donde los esperaban autobuses ucranianos.

She said that efforts to evacuate civilians from Mariupol will resume Thursday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said about 120,000 people remain under siege in the city.

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WASHINGTON — Pentagon press secretary John Kirby is downplaying Russia’s launch of a new intercontinental ballistic missile that the Kremlin is counting on as the center of its nuclear strategy.

Russian President Vladimir Putin calls the Sarmat missile uniquely capable of penetrating anti-missile defenses. And Russia’s space agency chief Dmitry Rogozin provocatively called Wednesday’s test flight “a present to NATO.”

But Kirby said “Russia properly notified the United States under its New START obligations that it planned to test this ICBM. Such testing is routine. It was not a surprise. We did not deem the test to be a threat to the United States or its allies.”

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KYIV, Ukraine — About 1,000 civilians are trapped at a steel mill in Mariupol along with Ukrainian soldiers, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday.

“Behind the backs of our guys in Mariupol there are around a thousand civilians, including women and children,” he said after talks with European Council President Charles Michel.

Zelenskyy added that Russia has stonewalled Ukraine’s attempts to negotiate a safe exit for them. “We are open to different formats of exchange of our people for Russian people, Russian military that they have left behind,” he said.

Ukraine also has tried to get Russia to agree on a humanitarian corridor to evacuate the 120,000 people who Zelenskyy said remain under siege in Mariupol.

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WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Ukraine’s Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko walked out of a Group of 20 meeting Wednesday as Russia’s representative started talking.

Several finance ministers and central bank governors also left the room, and some ministers and central bank governors who attended virtually turned their cameras off, according to an official familiar with the meetings, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the event was not public.

The brutal effects of Russia’s war against Ukraine have taken center stage at the International Monetary Fund and World Bank spring meetings.

President Joe Biden has said that Russia should not remain a member of the G-20, which promotes cooperations between the world’s biggest economies.

— AP writer Fatima Hussein in Washington contributed to this story.

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PANAMA CITY, Panama — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expressing concerns about a humanitarian corridor Ukraine is trying to set up to evacuate people trapped by Russian forces in Mariupol.

“Por supuesto, queremos ver a las personas que están en peligro, si pueden, dejarlo de manera segura”, dijo Blinken el miércoles. Estados Unidos está compartiendo sus evaluaciones, pero el gobierno ucraniano y el propio pueblo deben decidir si asumen el riesgo.

“Lo que da una pausa es el hecho de que ha habido acuerdos sobre corredores humanitarios establecidos antes que se han desmoronado muy, muy rápidamente, si no inmediatamente, principalmente porque la seguridad ha sido violada por las fuerzas rusas. Y así, las personas que se iban, creyendo que podían hacerlo de manera segura y protegida, fueron atacadas a tiros”.

Blinken dijo que el mundo fue testigo de “muerte, destrucción y atrocidades” después de que los rusos se retiraron de Bucha, y “solo podemos anticipar que cuando esta marea también retroceda de Mariupol vamos a ver mucho peor, si eso es posible de imaginar”.

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Un oficial militar ucraniano instó a los líderes mundiales a ayudar a evacuar a cientos de soldados y civiles de una fábrica de acero en Mariupol, el último bastión ucraniano que queda en la ciudad.

El oficial se identificó como Serhiy Volynskyy de la 36ª Brigada de Marines que defendía la gigantesca fábrica de acero de Azovstal. Publicó un video en Facebook el miércoles diciendo que “tenemos más de 500 soldados heridos y cientos de civiles con nosotros, incluidas mujeres y niños”.

“Le pedimos que nos brinde seguridad en el territorio de un tercer estado”, dijo Volynskyy en el mensaje de video, que no pudo ser verificado de forma independiente.

“Esta puede ser nuestra última apelación. Es posible que solo nos queden unos pocos días u horas”, agregó.

Oficiales ucranianos han dicho que las fuerzas rusas han estado lanzando bombas pesadas que destruyen búnkeres en la fábrica de acero, donde la gente se ha refugiado en túneles subterráneos y cámaras.

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El secretario general de la ONU, António Guterres, quiere reunirse con los líderes de Rusia y Ucrania en Moscú y Kviv para presionar por la paz.

Guterres pidió por carta el martes que el presidente ucraniano, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, y el presidente ruso, Vladimir Putin, se reúnan con él en sus respectivas capitales, con el objetivo de “discutir cualquier paso urgente que se pueda tomar para detener los combates”, dijo el portavoz Stephane Dujarric.

Hasta el miércoles, Dujarric dijo que la ONU no ha recibido respuesta.

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Moscú (AP) — El Ministerio de Defensa ruso informó del primer lanzamiento de su nuevo misil balístico intercontinental Sarmat. El presidente Vladimir Putin dijo que esta arma es única y hará que aquellos que amenazan a Rusia “se lo piensen dos veces”.

El ministerio dijo que el misil fue lanzado el miércoles desde la instalación de lanzamiento de Plesetsk en el norte de Rusia y sus ojivas de práctica alcanzaron objetivos designados en el campo de tiro de Kura en el extremo oriental de la península de Kamchatka.

El Sarmat es un misil pesado, destinado a reemplazar el misil Voyevoda de fabricación soviética que fue nombrado en código Satanás por Occidente. Putin dijo que puede penetrar cualquier posible defensa antimisiles.

Putin llamó a esto “un evento grande y significativo” para la industria de defensa de Rusia. Dijo que el Sarmat garantizará la seguridad de Rusia de las amenazas externas y “hará que aquellos que, en el calor de la retórica frenética y agresiva, intentan amenazar a nuestro país, lo piensen dos veces”.

Rusia depende de los ICBM terrestres como el núcleo de su disuasión nuclear, y cuenta con el Sarmat en las próximas décadas. Estados Unidos tiene sus propios ICBM con capacidad nuclear, pero recientemente canceló una prueba para evitar la escalada de tensiones.

Dmitry Rogozin, el jefe de la agencia estatal Roscosmos que supervisa la fábrica de misiles que construye el Sarmat, describió la prueba del miércoles como un “regalo a la OTAN” en un comentario en su canal de aplicaciones de mensajería.

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Los tenistas de Rusia y Bielorrusia no podrán jugar en Wimbledon este año debido a la guerra en Ucrania, anunció el miércoles el All England Club.

Los jugadores prominentes afectados por la prohibición incluyen al actual campeón del Abierto de Estados Unidos, Daniil Medvedev, quien recientemente alcanzó el No. 1 en el ranking ATP y actualmente es el No. 2; el número 8 masculino Andrey Rublev; Aryna Sabalenka, que fue semifinalista de Wimbledon en 2021 y es la número 4 del ranking WTA; Victoria Azarenka, ex No. 1 femenina que ha ganado el Abierto de Australia dos veces; y Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, subcampeona del Abierto de Francia el año pasado.

Wimbledon comienza el 27 de junio. A los atletas rusos se les ha prohibido competir en muchos deportes después de la invasión de Ucrania por parte de su país. Bielorrusia ha ayudado a Rusia en la guerra.

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SOFIA, Bulgaria — El ministro de Relaciones Exteriores de Ucrania, Dmytro Kuleba, pidió a Bulgaria que se alinee con los esfuerzos internacionales para apoyar a su país con ayuda militar.

“El gobierno búlgaro y el Parlamento saben muy bien cuáles son las solicitudes ucranianas (…) Cuando luchas en una guerra, necesitas de todo, desde balas hasta aviones de combate. Dimos la misma lista a todos los estados miembros de la OTAN”, dijo Kuleba el miércoles después de reuniones con funcionarios búlgaros.

El presidente búlgaro, Rumen Radev, ha advertido contra el suministro de armas a Ucrania, citando los peligros de involucrar a su país más directamente en la guerra.

La coalición gobernante en Sofía está bloqueada por el Partido Socialista que se opone a cualquier ayuda militar a Ucrania, dejando a Bulgaria como el único miembro de la UE, además de Hungría, que hasta ahora se ha mostrado reacio a enviar armas a Kiev.

“Tengo que tener en cuenta la situación política en su país y dejar el asunto al gobierno de Bulgaria”, dijo Kuleba. Advirtió, sin embargo, que aquellos que eligen no ayudar a Ucrania “de hecho apoyan la agresión rusa y el asesinato de nuestros ciudadanos”.

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Estonia dice que está prohibiendo las reuniones públicas donde las personas exhiben símbolos militares de banderas rusas durante las celebraciones del Día de la Victoria el 9 de mayo, que tradicionalmente celebra la considerable población étnica rusa del país báltico para marcar el final de la Segunda Guerra Mundial.

“El estado estonio hasta ahora ha sido tolerante con los eventos del 9 de mayo, pero las actividades actuales de Rusia en Ucrania impiden reuniones públicas en Estonia que expresen su apoyo al estado agresor y muestren símbolos de guerra”, dijo el miércoles el jefe de la Policía y la Guardia fronteriza, Elmar Vaher.

Entre los símbolos prohibidos se encuentran las banderas de la Unión Soviética y Rusia, los uniformes militares de la URSS y la cinta negro-naranja de San Jorge usada en Rusia para conmemorar la victoria de la Unión Soviética sobre la Alemania nazi en la Segunda Guerra Mundial.

Los rusos étnicos representan alrededor del 25% de los 1,3 millones de habitantes de Estonia y tradicionalmente se reúnen para depositar flores el 9 de mayo en la estatua del Soldado de Bronce de Tallin que conmemora a las tropas caídas del Ejército Rojo en las batallas de la Segunda Guerra Mundial en Estonia.

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Rusia “actuará consistentemente” para asegurarse de que la vida en el corazón industrial oriental de Ucrania “se normalice”, dijo el miércoles el presidente Vladimir Putin.

Hablando en una reunión con miembros de un grupo sin fines de lucro financiado por el estado, Putin prometió que “actuaremos de manera consistente y nos aseguraremos de que (esa) vida en Donbas se normalice”.

Putin dijo que las hostilidades en el este de Ucrania, donde los rebeldes respaldados por Rusia han estado luchando contra las fuerzas ucranianas desde 2014, llevaron a Rusia a lanzar una operación militar.

“Todos estos ocho años, los bombardeos, los ataques de artillería y las hostilidades continuaron allí. Y, por supuesto, fue muy, muy difícil para la gente”, dijo Putin. “El objetivo de la operación es ayudar a nuestra gente que vive en Donbás”.

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El portavoz del Kremlin dijo que Rusia ha presentado a Ucrania un borrador de documento que describe sus demandas como parte de las conversaciones de paz y ahora está esperando una respuesta de Kiev.

Un asesor presidencial ucraniano dijo que Kiev estaba revisando las propuestas.

Dmitry Peskov dijo en una conferencia telefónica con periodistas el miércoles que Rusia ha pasado un borrador de documento que contiene “una redacción absolutamente clara y elaborada” a Ucrania y ahora “la pelota está en su tejado, estamos esperando una respuesta”.

Peskov no dio más detalles. Culpó a Ucrania por el lento progreso, alegando que Kiev se desvía constantemente de los acuerdos confirmados. “Los ucranianos no muestran una gran inclinación a intensificar el proceso de negociación”, dijo.

Ucrania presentó a Rusia su propio borrador el mes pasado en Estambul. Moscú ha exigido durante mucho tiempo, entre otras cosas, que Ucrania abandone cualquier intento de unirse a la OTAN. Ucrania ha dicho que estaría de acuerdo con eso a cambio de garantías de seguridad de varios otros países.

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Berlín (AP) — El gobierno y el ejército alemanes rechazaron una afirmación del embajador de Ucrania de que el país podría ahorrar vehículos blindados de combate y entregarlos a Kiev.

El embajador Andriy Melnyk, quien ha criticado con frecuencia la lentitud alemana percibida en las entregas de armas y otros temas, argumentó que la Bundeswehr de Alemania utiliza alrededor de 100 vehículos Marder para entrenamiento y que podrían ser entregados a Ucrania de inmediato.

Pero el portavoz del Ministerio de Defensa, Arne Collatz, dijo el miércoles que Alemania necesita los vehículos para los despliegues en el flanco oriental de la OTAN y para el entrenamiento. Dijo que “una entrega de las existencias de la Bundeswehr de ‘material pesado’ … no está previsto”.

Habló después de que el subjefe de personal del ejército alemán, el teniente general Markus Laubenthal, dijera a la televisión ZDF que el ejército tiene “amplios compromisos” y necesita los sistemas de armas que tiene.

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La agencia de refugiados de las Naciones Unidas dice que más de 5 millones de personas han huido de Ucrania desde que comenzó la invasión rusa el 24 de febrero.

El Alto Comisionado de las Naciones Unidas para los Refugiados, con sede en Ginebra, estimó el miércoles el número total de refugiados en 5,01 millones.

Más de la mitad del total, más de 2,8 millones, huyeron al menos al principio a Polonia. Aunque muchos se han quedado allí, un número desconocido ha viajado hacia adelante. Hay pocos controles fronterizos dentro de la Unión Europea.

ACNUR dijo el 30 de marzo que 4 millones de personas habían huido de Ucrania. El éxodo fue algo más lento en las últimas semanas que al comienzo de la guerra.

Además de los refugiados, la ONU dice que más de 7 millones de personas han sido desplazadas dentro de Ucrania.

Ucrania tenía una población de 44 millones antes de la guerra.

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KYIV, Ukraine — Mariupol mayor Vadym Boychenko is urging residents to leave the city.

Boychenko appealed Wednesday to people who had already left Mariupol to contact relatives still in the city and urge them to evacuate. He said 200,000 people had already left the city, which had a pre-war population of more than 400,000.

“Do not be frightened, and evacuate to Zaporizhzhia, where you can receive all the help you need — food, medicine, essentials — and the main thing is that you will be in safety,” he wrote in a statement issued by the city council.

Boychenko said buses would be used for the evacuation and there will be three pickup points, one of them near the Azovstal steel mill which has become Ukrainian forces’ last stronghold in the city. Many previous evacuation efforts relied on civilians being able to leave in private cars after efforts to bring buses from Ukraine-held territory into the city failed.

Mariupol, Ukraine’s tenth-largest city, came under attack from Russian forces almost immediately after the invasion began in late February. The port city has strategic value as a link between territories in the south and east of Ukraine which are held by Russian forces or Russia-backed separatists.

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COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Norway is donating about 100 air defense systems to Ukraine with the Scandinavian country’s defense minister saying that “the country is depending on international support to resist Russian aggression.”

Bjørn Arild Gram said Norway had donated French-made Mistral short-range missile systems which currently are being phased out by the Norwegian Armed Forces, “but it is still a modern and effective weapon that will be of great benefit to Ukraine,” Arild Gram said.

The weapons have already left Norway which previously has donated 4,000 anti-tank missiles, protective equipment and other military equipment to Ukraine, he added.

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LONDON — Britain’s defense ministry says the Russian military is expanding its presence on Ukraine’s eastern border as fighting in the Donbas region intensifies.

In an intelligence update released Wednesday morning, the ministry says Russian attacks on cities across Ukraine are an attempt to disrupt the movement of Ukrainian reinforcements and weapons to the east.

Si bien es probable que las operaciones aéreas rusas en el norte de Ucrania permanezcan en un nivel bajo después de la retirada de las fuerzas de la región de Kiev, todavía existe el riesgo de “ataques de precisión contra objetivos prioritarios en toda Ucrania”, dice el ministerio.

En una sesión informativa publicada el martes por la noche, el ministerio dijo que las fuerzas ucranianas habían repelido “numerosos intentos de avances” de las tropas rusas a medida que aumentaban los bombardeos y los ataques a lo largo de la línea de control que ha separado a las fuerzas ucranianas y respaldadas por Rusia en la región de Donbas durante los últimos ocho años.

“La capacidad de Rusia para progresar continúa viéndose afectada por los desafíos ambientales, logísticos y técnicos que los han acosado hasta ahora, combinados con la resistencia de las fuerzas armadas ucranianas altamente motivadas”, dijo el ministerio.

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Esta historia se publicó por primera vez el 21 de abril de 2022. Se actualizó el 21 de abril de 2022 para corregir.

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