Missile strikes on Lviv kill seven. Three of 11 injured in intensive care. On the morning of April 18, the Russian troops conducted a series of missile strikes on Lviv. Three missiles hit military infrastructure sites, and a fourth hit a tire repair shop. The air strikes started fires. The affected sites were heavily damaged. The air strikes destroyed or damaged around 40 vehicles. The blast wave shattered windows in a nearby hotel that shelters evacuees from other parts of Ukraine. Three-year-old Artem who fled Kharkiv with his mother was injured. “The morning attack injured 11. Among them is three-year-old Artem. He moved from Kharkiv with his mother in search of a safe place. But a Russian missile targeted them in Lviv. The child received medical treatment. There is no threat to his life,” Lviv mayor Andriy Sadovyi said in a Facebook post.
Artillery strike in Kharkiv kills five. Russian artillery strike hit a residential building in Kharkiv’s Nemyshlyanskyi district killing at least three. Details on the number of injured will follow. Russia shelled the city between 10:30 and 10:45 on Monday. As a shell fell near a residential house, the house was damaged by a blast. Two more people were killed on a children’s playground.
Russian troops advance in Luhansk region, enter Kreminna. Russian forces entered the town of Kreminna in Luhansk region, head of the Luhansk regional military administration Serhiy Hayday said. Russia made artillery strikes on Kreminna on April 17 and intensified them at night. Seven residential buildings, several nonresidential sites, and forest areas caught fire, Hayday earlier said. Russia’s goal is to capture all of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Russia “literally wants to destroy Donbas,” President Zelenskyi said. “[Russia] wants to destroy everything that once made the industrial region famous. (…) They want to raze the towns of Donetsk and Luhansk to the ground in the same fashion as Mariupol,” the President said in a video address.
The entire region could incur a similar fate, Hayday said.
Russia drops heavy bombs on Mariupol’s Azovstal plant, the city council said. At least 1,000 civilians shelter inside the steel works.
Child death toll stands at 205 since Russia’s invasion. Two hundred and five children were killed and more than 362 were injured as Russia conducted a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The toll is being updated as works proceed in areas of fighting, temporarily occupied and liberated areas.
Donetsk region has the highest toll – 117 casualties, juvenile prosecutors said. There are 107 casualties in Kyiv region, 91 in Kharkiv region, 54 in Chernihiv region, 43 in Kherson region, 40 in Mykolayiv region, 36 in Luhansk region, 23 in Zaporizhzhia region, 16 in Kyiv, 16 in Sumy region, and 15 in Zhytomyr region. Russia’s attacks damaged 1,018 schools and kindergartens, of which 95 are fully destroyed.
Ukraine in Flames #38 Who’s behind international support for Putin?
Despite obvious war crimes of Russia in Ukraine, some European states still hesitate in their choice between the values of a united Europe and particular interests. They help promote Putin’s narratives and passively justify the war against Ukraine. Recent European elections illustrate this vividly. The distance between incumbent President Macron and the far-right candidate Le Pen was about 4% after the first round of the French presidential race. Le Pen is an active supporter of Euroscepticism and part of Putin’s active lobby in France and the EU.
Parliamentary elections in Hungary gave Fidesz and its leader Orban the opportunity to form a government. Orban is another sympathizer of Putin and those who have repeatedly blocked Ukraine’s NATO integration process. He has notoriously refused to transit weapons to Ukraine after the start of a large-scale Russian invasion.
Serbian President Vucic is voicing support for Putin, which became possible due to Serbs reelecting him President and his political power to the Parliament.
Finally, Belarus is a direct ally of the Kremlin letting Russia shell Ukraine from its territory. Ukraine in Flames #38 will discuss these and more “useful idiots” who support Putin’s actions in Ukraine.
Speakers:
Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, MP and Head of the committee for integration of Ukraine to European Union
Olexiy Haran, Prof. of Comparative Politics, University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy; Research Director, Democratic Initiatives Foundation
Andrii Miadzvedzev, Belarusian journalist, Radio Unet
Jakub Janda, Director of the European Values Center for Security Policy
Mykhailo Drapak, analyst at Foreign Policy Council “Ukrainian Prism”
Sergei Sumlenny, former Director of the Heinrich Böll Foundation Kyiv Office. Berlin
Tetyana Ogarkova, head of International Outreach at Ukraine Crisis Media Center
Ukraine in Flames #37. What is the Russian support of war based on?
Ukraine in Flames #39 Russian aggression in Ukraine – the reason of world food crisis
