May 5, 2022

Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 05.05.2022, 14:57

SANCTIONS The sixth EU sanction package against
Russia is targeting high officials and high-ranking officers, the banking
sector, mass-media and for the first time envisages a complete import ban on Russian
oil. The head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, cautioned that
it would not be easy for Europe as some EU countries are strongly dependent on
Russian oil.

AID The European Union has a duty to support the
Republic of Moldova, the president of the European Council, Charles Michel
says. According to the EU official, the union will step up aid for Moldova in
the ‘field of logistics, of cyberdefence and is looking at ways of adding ‘more
military-building capacities’. Michel also says the bloc will assist Chisinau
in dealing with the consequences of the spillover from the Russian aggression
in Ukraine. According to the Department of state spokesman Ned Price, the USA
is committed to the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of its
important partners, Georgia and Moldova.

REFUGEES The number of Ukrainian nationals who entered the neighboring
Romania on Wednesday rose by 4.9% as compared to the previous day – a border police
communiqué announced on Thursday. According to this data, on May 4th, 71,581
people entered Romania, out of which 8,148 Ukrainian citizens, a 4.9% rise as
compared to the previous day. 4,583 Ukrainian nationals have crossed their
country’s border into Romania, while 1,764 have entered Romania via the
neighboring Republic of Moldova. Since the onset of the Russian invasion,
859,183 Ukrainian citizens have entered Romania.

VISIT Over May 5th and 9th,
the first lady of the United States, Jill Biden, will be visiting Romania and
Slovakia, countries neighboring Ukraine. According to US sources, Jill Biden
will be meeting US diplomats and military personnel, Ukrainian refugees, aid
workers and teachers. On Sunday, which is celebrated in the USA as Mother’s Day,
Jill Biden will be seeing Ukrainian mothers and children who were forced to
leave their homes because of the war Russia is waging on that country. On May 6th,
Joe Biden’s wife will be meeting US servicemen at the airbase in Mihail
Kogalniceanu, southern Romania. She will then go to Bucharest for talks with
the Romanian government officials, members of the US embassy staff, aid workers
and teachers working with the children of the Ukrainian refugees. This tour
will also take Jill Biden to the Slovakian cities of Bratislava, Kosice and
Vysne Nemecke.

UKRAINE Russia announced that its forces would halt
shelling the Azovstal steelworks in the city of Mariupol and starting on
Thursday they would made a humanitarian corridor available for three days to
allow for the evacuation of the civilians who had taken refuge in the plant
together with the last Ukrainian soldiers. Earlier the city mayor Vadim
Boicenko had said that fierce heavy fighting was taking place around the plant,
which was being shelled by the Russian troops with all kind of ordnance.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has called on the UN secretary general
Antonio Guterres to intervene for the evacuation of the wounded in Azovstal. He
earlier announced that 344 people had been evacuated from Mariupol and its
surroundings. Russia on Wednesday said its
forces had practiced simulated nuclear-capable missile strikes in the western
enclave of Kaliningrad, amid Moscow’s military campaign in Ukraine.

(bill)