On the 56th day of the war initiated by Russia against Ukraine, these are the key data at 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday, April 20:
Putin tests a new intercontinental missile system "unique in the world". Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced the first full test of the new RS-28 'Sarmat' intercontinental ballistic missile. The missile has been launched from Plesetsk (northwest Russia) and has reached Kamchatka (east), more than 5,000 kilometers away. According to Putin, this missile "will be unique in the world for a long time" and will make those "trying to threaten" Russia think. The US has confirmed that, according to international agreements, it was aware that these tests were going to take place because Russia had warned of them.
The evacuation of Mariupol continues. The port city of Mariupol (southeast) has become a symbol of the Ukrainian resistance, but the situation is increasingly difficult. As reported by the Ukrainian authorities, the evacuations of this city besieged by the Russian Army have continued in recent hours, but fewer than the 6,000 people who were expected to escape have managed to leave. The Ukrainian president, Volodímir Zelenski, has reported that at least 1,000 civilians, especially women, children, and the elderly, are in the underground shelters of the Azovstal steel plant, the last bastion of the Ukrainian resistance in this town. According to the Ukrainian authorities, 500,000 citizens of the country have been deported to Russia without their consent.
Moscow negotiation offer. Amid the Russian offensive to occupy the Donbas area (east), the Kremlin has delivered new negotiation proposals to Ukraine. “Now it is our turn to analyze, compare and draw conclusions, including those of a political and legal nature,” said Mijaílo Podoliak, Zelensky's main adviser. But the president himself has later assured in a meeting with the press that he has not received the Russian negotiation offer: “I have not heard anything about this nor, for sure, seen anything. I am convinced that they have not sent us anything.” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has assured that the outcome of the talks with Ukraine now depends entirely on Kyiv's willingness to take Moscow's demands into account.
Guterres asks for meetings with Putin and Zelensky. UN Secretary-General António Guterres has asked to meet with the Russian and Ukrainian presidents. Guterres has sent letters to the rulers requesting these meetings to reach an agreement to stop the war.
Charles Michel speaks in Kyiv about the EU sanctions on Russian oil and gas. The President of the European Council, Charles Michel, visited Ukraine this Wednesday and held a meeting in Kyiv with Zelensky. Michel has expressed his conviction that "sooner or later" the EU sanctions will also affect Russian oil and gas.
Germany will stop importing Russian oil by the end of the year. "We will cut the oil in half by the summer and be at zero by the end of the year, and then gas will follow," German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said during an official visit to Latvia.
The "Ukrainian special operation" will arrive in Russian schools in September. The Russian view of the occupation of Ukraine will begin to be taught in Russian schools on September 1. "Those Monday lessons will be given in what for the moment we call Conversations about what really matters", indicated the Russian Minister of Education, Sergei Kravtsov. In the next course in schools, the flag will also be raised and the anthem will be heard nationwide at the beginning of each week.
- Ukraine needs 4.6 billion euros a month to maintain its economy, according to the IMF
The Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva, said at a press conference on Wednesday that Ukraine will need 4.6 billion euros a month in financial assistance to keep its economy running, the Ukrainian Finance Ministry estimated. . For Georgieva, the priority now is to find ways to fill that void over the next three months.
Despite the uncertainty about the future of Ukraine, Georgieva has assured that the IMF will begin work on a future loan program for the country. Georgieva and World Bank President David Malpass are scheduled to meet with Ukraine's prime minister and finance minister on Thursday to discuss further aid. (Reuters)
- A small convoy with civilians manages to leave Mariupol
Dozens of civilians have managed to leave the port city of Mariupol on Wednesday in a small convoy of buses, according to Reuters. The local authorities have announced that they expect to evacuate some 6,000 people throughout the day after an agreement with Russia, the first in weeks, to establish a safe corridor. But Donetsk regional governor Pavlo Kirilenko has reported without specifying figures that the number of evacuees has been lower than expected. "People, of course, met at the agreed meeting points, but few of them got on the buses," Kirilenko said.
The mayor of the city, Vadim Boichenko, reported that the corridors would open between Mariupol and Zaporizhzhia from 2:00 p.m. local time (1:00 p.m. in Madrid). At least a thousand civilians, mainly women, children, and the elderly, are in the underground shelters of the Azovstal plant, according to local authorities. This Mariupol steelworks is the last Ukrainian point of resistance in the city.
- Guterres asks to meet with Putin and Zelensky
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has asked to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, spokesman Stéphane Dujarric announced on Wednesday. Guterres has sent letters requesting a meeting with each of them in Moscow and Kyiv to seek "urgent" measures to reach a peace agreement in Ukraine and the future of multilateral relations. On Tuesday, Guterres called on Russia and Ukraine for a four-day humanitarian ceasefire to coincide with Orthodox Easter. He has also sent deputy secretary-general for humanitarian affairs Martin Griffiths to Moscow and Kyiv to negotiate a provisional cessation of hostilities, something Griffiths has seen as "impossible" in the short term.
- Charles Michel, before Zelensky: "Sooner or later, the sanctions will also affect Russian oil and gas"
In a surprise visit to Kyiv, the president of the European Council assures that the Kremlin "will not succeed in destroying Ukraine's sovereignty or dividing the EU"
The President of the European Council, Charles Michel, assured this Wednesday in Kyiv that "sooner or later" the sanctions of the European Union will also affect Russian oil and gas. "I am personally convinced of this," he stressed at a joint press conference with the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, as part of the surprise visit that he began this morning.
Michel stressed that even though "the role of the Kremlin is also to divide the EU", the Twenty-seven have unanimously approved five rounds of sanctions against Russia and the shipment of weapons to another country, Ukraine, for the first time in its history. . "It will not succeed in destroying Ukraine's sovereignty or dividing the EU," insisted Michel, who has passed over Germany's refusal to include Russian oil in the sixth round of punishments and Hungary's ―reiterated this Tuesday, by his foreign minister, Peter Szijjarto― to touch hydrocarbons. "The main objective of the sanctions is that they are painful for the Kremlin without being painful for us," he explained.
Asked about Berlin's position, Zelenski was confident that internal pressure in the EU, together with that of the United States and the United Kingdom, will change the opinion of the government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz. "It seems to me that the EU countries are ready to introduce the oil embargo," he said.
The joint press conference between the Belgian diplomat and the Ukrainian president has revolved around three other issues: the delivery of weapons, the situation in Mariupol and Ukraine's entry into the EU, two days after Zelenski himself handed over the completed the first part of the accession questionnaire to the EU ambassador in Kyiv, Matti Maasikas. Michel has admitted that "it is not a secret that there are different opinions and sensitivities about the enlargement of the EU", but has clarified that he perceives "great support for the entry" of Ukraine.
Zelensky has assured that the West now has a "closer" and "clearer" position on "when and what" weapons Ukraine can receive. "I cannot mention the details," he added after insisting on the importance of the supply "arriving on time" and corresponding to the needs of the country at this time of the war. "We will make sure that we provide you with what you need, the necessary means to win this war," said Michel.
As for Mariupol, the Ukrainian city hardest hit by the Russian offensive, Zelenski has estimated that around a thousand civilians are present in the symbol of Ukrainian resistance, the Azovstal steel mill. “I would like to say that everything is going to be easy and that we are going to help them tomorrow, but I can't”, he pointed out. Likewise, he has admitted that "the situation is getting worse" and that his troops "are not achieving positive results there", and has insisted that the last combatants in the town "do not want to surrender", although Ukraine cannot "unblock Mariupol “neither by military means nor by diplomatic means.
Michel announced his arrival in Ukraine on Wednesday morning with a message on his Twitter account along with a photograph at the central train station in the Ukrainian capital: "In Kyiv today, the heart of a free and democratic Europe." Later, he visited Borodianka, one of the towns around Kyiv whose destruction has been visible after the withdrawal of Russian troops from the area at the beginning of the month to concentrate their offensive in the south and east of the country. There he tweeted that "history will not forgive the war crimes" committed there, "in Bucha and in too many other locations in Ukraine." Already at the press conference, he stressed that the "atrocities" and "war crimes" in Ukraine "must be punished and will be punished."
Michel's trip, which had not been announced, takes place twelve days after the one made on April 8 by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the High Representative for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell.
