Surrender Says Russia, and We'll Give You Peace

"[The dosage and type of toxin used was not enough to be life-threatening] and most likely was intended to scare the victims as opposed to cause permanent damage."

"The victims said they were not aware of who might have had an interest in an attack."

Bellincat

"We have destroyed the myth of the invincible Russian army."

"We are resisting against the aggression of one of the strongest armies in the world and have succeeded in making them change their goals."

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko

The gutted remains of Russian military vehicles on a road in the town of Bucha, close to the capital, Kyiv,

 

The Wall Street Journal published a report on a little-commented incident whereby during peace negotiations Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich -- whom Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskii prevailed upon to use his access to Russian elite circles and involve himself in negotiations between Ukraine and Russia -- and the Ukrainian team of negotiators were exposed to a toxic substance from which they are recovering. The symptoms were visibly red eyes, painful tearing and skin peeling on hands and faces.

Their deteriorated health condition resulting from the poisoning by an as-yet-unknown substance did not keep either the negotiators nor Mr. Abramovich, from being fully engaged in matters around arranging for ongoing negotiations to put a halt to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and its deadly destruction. Experts who examined the event reached the conclusion that "poisoning with n undefined chemical weapon" was the likely cause.

As for the ongoing and maddeningly inconclusive peace talks to convince Vladimir Putin to withdraw his troops from Ukraine, Dimytro Kuleba, Ukraine's foreign minister felt a ceasefire remained the only hope his country could have from the talks. "We are not trading people, land or sovereignty", he said in response to the Kremlin's demands and intention to hive off the Donbas from Ukraine to be included within Russian territory.

 

The aftermath of Russian artillery shelling on a residential area in Mariupol where a rocket hit a house, according to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, is seen in this screengrab from a video uploaded on social media  (Armed Forces of Ukraine/Handout via REUTERS)

The threat of Russian attacks continue to block exit routes east and west for civilians desperate to leave their besieged towns and cities. The devastated port of Mariupol's situation appears doomed. Within the Russian troop encirclement, an estimated 160,000 residents remain trapped in the siege.  The city with its formerly 400,000 population has been reduced by constant artillery shelling and bombs to a ghostly vestige of its once-vibrant presence  with 90 percent of its infrastructure in rubble.

 

In the city of Kharkiv a pre-dawn missile hit a school. "They've not been able to take the city, so they've decided to destroy it", observed a Ukrainian who had taken shelter in the school when his home had been bombed out. In Irpin, close to Kyiv, the mayor spoke of Ukrainian forces in full control. Ukrainian military had recaptured the eastern town of Trostyanets as the military continued their offensive to restore their ground.

 

The Russian defence ministry stated that its  troops destroyed ammunition depots in the Zhytomyr region west of Kyiv, the prize goal that Moscow keeps seeing eluding their grasp. As well, they claimed that 41 Ukrainian military depots  had been hit in the past two days, reports that remained unverified in a conflict known as much for its propaganda as for its total lack of human scruples.

 

 Kyiv Mayor Klitschko spoke of 100 people killed in the capital, four children among them. Russian bombing had destroyed 82 multi-storey buildings in the capital as well. Also figures that elude verification. Even while the inescapable reality is that one is a staunchly fierce defender of its territorial integrity, the other a brutally unscrupulous imperialist dictatorship.

A charred Russian tank and captured tanks in the Sumy region of Ukraine  (REUTERS)