Kyiv: Ukraine’s military intelligence chief says that Russia could try to break Ukraine in two.
Kyrylo Budanov said in remarks released by the Defense Ministry on Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin has realised “he can’t swallow the entire country” and would likely try to split the country under “the Korean scenario.”
That’s a reference to the decades-old division between North and South Korea.
Budanov said that “the occupiers will try to pull the occupied territories into a single quasi-state structure and pit it against independent Ukraine.”
He pointed to Russian attempts to set up parallel government structures in occupied cities and to bar people from using the Ukrainian currency, the hryvnia.
Budanov predicted that Ukrainian resistance will grow into a “total” guerrilla warfare, derailing Russia’s attempts.
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OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:
PARIS – French President Emmanuel Macron has distanced himself from U.S. President Joe Biden’s comment that Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power.” He is urging efforts to de-escalate tensions.
Macron, who has spoken several times to the Russian president in so-far unsuccessful peace-making efforts, is due to speak again with Putin Sunday or Monday.
“We should be factual and … Do everything so that the situation doesn’t get out of control,” Macron said Sunday on France-3 television, when asked about Biden’s remark.
Macron said: “I wouldn’t use those terms, because I continue to speak to President Putin, because what we want to do collectively is that we want to stop the war Russia launched in Ukraine, without waging war and without an escalation.”
He stressed that the U.S. Remains an important ally, saying, “We share many common values, but those who live next to Russia are the Europeans.” Macron said he will talk with Putin about a proposed humanitarian corridor for the besieged city of Mariupol, also discussed with Turkey and Greece.
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ISTANBUL – The Ukrainian embassy in Ankara says a group of 159 Ukrainian orphans has arrived in the southern Turkish city of Antalya.
The boys and girls aged 4 to 18 were evacuated from care homes in the Dnipro region, traveling first to Poland by train before flying to Turkey.
Welcoming the children and 26 care staff, Ukrainian Ambassador Vasyl Bodnar said the aim was to shelter 2,000 children and staff in Turkey.
“This is the first group to come but we are waiting for the second group,” the Demiroren news agency quoted Bodnar as saying at Antalya airport. “Children will come from cities that the Russian army has bombed or may bomb.”
The group will stay in hotels in the Mediterranean resort.
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VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis has stepped up his pleas for negotiations to end the fighting in Ukraine.
Francis told the public in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday that “this cruel and senseless war” continues after more than a month, representing “a defeat for all.”
He lamented that parents are burying their children, and “the powerful decide and the poor die.” Once again, he didn’t cite Russia by name as the aggressor.
Referring to reports that about one-half of all the children in Ukraine have been displaced by the conflict, Francis said that “war doesn’t just devastate the present but also the future of society.” The pontiff reiterated his condemnation of war as barbarous and sacrilegious. He said that “humanity must understand that the moment has come to abolish war, to cancel war from the history of man before it cancels man from history.”
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MOSCOW – Russian President Vladimir Putin has praised Russia’s National Guard on the sixth anniversary of its creation.
Putin specially addressed the service staff of the National Guard units involved in the military operation in Ukraine.
“Comrades, indeed, combat conditions involve increased risk. I am well aware of how you act in this situation: highly courageously and professionally, skillfully and fearlessly. You resolve the most complicated tasks set before you competently and precisely while showing personal heroism,” Putin said in a video statement issued Sunday.
The National Guard, which numbers over 300,000 personnel, was established by Putin in 2016 as an internal military force to fight terrorism and organized crime, guard state facilities, control weapons turnover and to provide riot control.
The service reports directly to the president.
“Our entire vast country is rightly proud of each of you,” Putin said. “I want to thank you for your stamina and your impeccable service to Russia, for your loyalty to our fatherland, to your oath of allegiance and your duty.”
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KYIV, Ukraine – A manager at a UNESCO world heritage site in Kyiv says bombings in the capital are being felt in the landmark building and could threaten its foundations.
“We and the landmark feel the vibrations,” said Vadim Kyrylenko, an engineer who now is the most senior on-site manager at the St. Sophia Cathedral. “It’s a minimal threat but we feel it. If there would be a strike nearby as I say it would be a point of no return for our landmark because it is very fragile and vulnerable.”
The site shut its doors to visitors as soon as the war in Ukraine started last month. Kyrylenko said that the only people left on site apart from him are a cook, a carpenter and engineers who are keeping the main functions running.
The Orthodox shrine dates back nearly 1,000 years to the dawn of Christianity in the region. It is considered the heart of Ukrainian spiritual and national identity. The grand structure survived despite being in the crosshairs of numerous invaders and armies.
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A separatist leader in eastern Ukraine says that his region wants to hold a vote on joining Russia.
Leonid Pasechnik, the head of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic, said Sunday that it could hold a referendum “in the nearest time” asking voters whether they support making the region part of Russia.
Russia has supported the separatist rebels in Luhansk and the neighboring Donetsk regions since an insurgency erupted there in 2014 shortly after Moscow’s annexation of the Crimean Peninsula. Moscow recognized their independence on Feb. 21 and then cited their call for military assistance to launch the invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.
In talks with Ukraine, Moscow has urged it to acknowledge Russia’s sovereignty over Crimea and the independence of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Pasechnik’s statement could herald a shift in the Russian position.
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BERLIN — Germany’s president is hosting a “solidarity concert” with Ukraine featuring musicians from Ukraine, Russia and Belarus.
The Berlin Philharmonic was playing pieces by Ukrainian, Russian and Polish composers at President Frank-Walter Steinmeier’s Bellevue palace in Berlin. Steinmeier – who addressed the event by video because he tested positive for the coronavirus last week – described it Sunday as a “signal for freedom and peace.”
Steinmeier said: “Let us be vigilant against sweeping animosities, and let us not succumb to (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s pseudo-historical nationalist delusion. Let us not allow Putin’s hatred to become a hatred between people … in our own society either.”
However, Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany tweeted that he had spurned an invitation. Andriy Melnyk wrote that “ONLY RUSSIAN (!) SOLOISTS” were performing, “no Ukrainians.” He added: “An affront. Sorry, I’m staying away.”
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JERUSALEM – Secretary of State Antony Blinken says the U.S. Is not trying to topple Russian President Vladimir Putin, despite its harsh condemnations of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Blinken spoke a day after President Joe Biden said of Putin during a speech in Warsaw: “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power.” At a news conference in Jerusalem, Blinken said Biden’s point was that “Putin cannot be empowered to wage war or engage in aggression against Ukraine or anyone else.”
He said the U.S. Has repeatedly said that “we do not have a strategy of regime change in Russia, or anywhere else for that matter.”
“In this case, as in any case, it’s up to the people of the country in question. It’s up to the Russian people,” Blinken said.
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BERLIN — Germany’s president is hosting a “solidarity concert” with Ukraine featuring musicians from Ukraine, Russia and Belarus.
The Berlin Philharmonic was playing pieces by Ukrainian, Russian and Polish composers at President Frank-Walter Steinmeier’s Bellevue palace in Berlin. Steinmeier described it Sunday as a “signal for freedom and peace.” Steinmeier said: “Let us be vigilant against sweeping animosities, and let us not succumb to (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s pseudo-historical nationalist delusion. Let us not allow Putin’s hatred to become a hatred between people … in our own society either.”
However, Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany tweeted that he had spurned an invitation. Andriy Melnyk wrote that “ONLY RUSSIAN (!) SOLOISTS” were performing, “no Ukrainians.” He added: “An affront. Sorry, I’m staying away.”
AP