In a farewell looking message, the Ukrainian Navy announced in Mariupol that it is preparing for the "last battle" to control the city's southern port, which the Russians have besieged for 40 days.

The fate of some will be death, while others will fall into captivity, "especially since they are besieged by the Russian forces." He continued, "We are slowly disappearing," the navy added. 

"We don't know what will happen, but we really ask you to remember us with kind words," the Ukrainians remarked.

No ammunition, no food

The Mariupol navy explained that Ukrainian forces fought for more than a month without new ammunition supplies and food or water.

He pointed out that about half of the members of this regiment were wounded, saying, "During more than 40 days of intense battles, the enemy has gradually repelled us, surrounded us, and is now trying to destroy us."

The lack of assistance from the army command and President Volodymyr Zelensky. He explained that "the regiment received only once 50 shells and 20 mines and anti-tank missiles, without anything else," the navy complained. 

80% of the city is under separatist control

This statement came after the deputy head of the forces of the separatist Donetsk Republic, Eduard Basurin, announced earlier that Russia had captured 80% of Mariupol.

He also added in an interview on "Russia 24" television when asked about the situation in the coastal city: "There is still resistance," noting that "the rest of the Ukrainian army is trying to retreat to Azovstal."

Earlier today, Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov announced that Russian forces would attack Mariupol and other regions.

Since the Russian invasion on February 24, Mariupol has been a strategic target for Russia, especially since its capture will link the areas controlled by the pro-Russian separatists in the east with the Crimea, which Russia annaxed in 2014.

The alliance "plans a permanent military presence on the borders of member states, with the aim of confronting any future Russian aggression." Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Sunday.

He also added in an interview with the British Telegraph newspaper that NATO "is in the midst of a fundamental and very important transformation that expresses the long-term consequences of the actions of Russian President Vladimir Putin."

He considered what the world now sees as a "new reality for European security." He stressed that NATO is currently asking its military leaders to present options for the so-called reset plan for long-term adaptation.
He also made it clear that decisions related to that plan will be taken at the NATO summit held in Madrid next June. 

It is noteworthy that the military operation launched by Moscow last February on the territory of Ukraine prompted Western countries to rethink their defense policy, especially after the escalation of tension between the two sides, recalling the specter of World War II.

It also urged NATO countries to support Kyiv with weapons and humanitarian aid, while support for its inclusion in the alliance increased among some European countries.

While Moscow has threatened more than once that any military presence in its vicinity, which may threaten its security, will be considered the party participating in the war.
Since the Russian-Ukrainian crisis, the Kremlin has repeatedly called on the alliance to stop its military expansion in eastern Europe.

Moscow has usually accused the West and NATO in particular of not taking its security concerns seriously.

Prosecutor Irina Venediktova explained that the judiciary had identified 500 people as war criminals from Russia and the separatists in the east of the country, local media reported.
She also posted a tweet with the name of the deputy of the Southern City of Mariupol.

She said that the official mentioned earlier "has agreed to serve the occupiers and help the activities of the aggressors in Mariupol, so the prosecution charged him with treason as well."

Kyiv had vowed more than once not to tolerate traitors, despite the unity of Ukraine to a large extent in the face of Russian aggression.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had announced earlier this month (April 2022) the dismissal of the former head of the Internal Security Administration, Olehovich, and the former director of the Security Service Bureau in the Kherson region, Krivoruchko Serhiy Aleksandrovich, from their posts, which was the first sign of internal dissent.

He also stressed that "high-ranking officials and officers who violate the oath of military loyalty to protect the country and its independence will be severely punished, and they will inevitably be deprived of their high military ranks in accordance with Article 48 of the Armed Forces Discipline Charter."

It is noteworthy that the southern city of Mariupol, overlooking the Sea of Azov, was a strategic target for the Russian forces. Russia moved to its vicinity and besieged it for weeks. Controlling it would open the way for Russia to connect eastern Ukraine, specifically the Donbas region, to Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014.

The two most prominent candidates in the first round of the French elections will qualify for a second round, scheduled for April 24.

Agence France-Presse reviewed quick information about the most likely candidates and their electoral programs:

Emmanuel Macron (44 years old)

Macron has been at the forefront of international talks to support Ukraine amid the war and impose sanctions on Russia.

Economy: Macron promises is "full employment" after unemployment fell during his 2017-2022 term to its lowest level in a long time.

He wants to gradually raise the retirement age from 62 to 65 and increase the minimum monthly pension.

Migration: Macron is pushing to strengthen the external borders of the "Schengen" area, which includes 26 European countries, and seeks to create a new force to better control national borders.

Marine Le Pen (53 years old)

Chairwoman of the far-right National Assembly.

Ukraine: She admitted that the Russian attack on Ukraine changed its view of Russian President Vladimir Putin "in part", saying that he was "wrong". She says she supports the Ukrainian people, and refugees should be welcomed.

Immigration: Le Pen's plans include ending family reunification policies, restricting social benefits to the French, and deporting foreigners who have been unemployed for more than a year and other immigrants who have entered illegally.

Economy: I promised to cut taxes on energy and essential commodities. It wants to keep the minimum retirement age at 62 and raise the minimum pension.

Policies relating to Muslims: Le Pen promised to enact a law banning the wearing of the veil in all public places and banning events and financing, which is a means to spread "Islamization".

Jean-Luc Melenchon (70 years old)

Extreme left.

Ukraine: Melenchon used to call Russia "a partner," even as European governments were scrambling to find ways to avoid a Russian attack on Ukraine. Now he supports the Ukrainian "resistance" and the Russians fighting what he calls "dictatorship" in their country.

Economy: Melenchon promised to raise the minimum wage and minimum pension in France and reduce the retirement age to 60 years.

Eric Zemmour (63 years old)

A former far-right television analyst was repeatedly convicted of hate speech.

Ukraine: He initially said he would prefer Ukrainian refugees to stay in Poland but later supported granting them visas if they had relations with France.

Immigration: He wants to limit the granting of asylum to a minimal number of foreigners.

Policies relating to Muslims: Zammour wants a ban on wearing the headscarf in all public places and a ban on the construction of large mosques and foreign funding of the Islamic faith.

Economy: He promised to cut taxes on corporations, low-income workers and retirees with small pensions and give families a bonus for children born in rural areas. He wants to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 by 2030.

Valerie Pecres (54 years old)

Conservative Republican Party candidate.

Ukraine: Pecres denounced the Russian attack on Ukraine and demanded strict sanctions on Russia.

Policies for Muslims: Pecres want to ban headscarves for young girls and in gyms. It also wants to ban the burkini, a full-body swimsuit worn by conservative Muslim women in swimming pools.

Immigration: Pecres plans to set immigration quotas.

Economy: Pecres promised to raise the workers' salaries with low and middle incomes by 10 per cent and reduce taxes on companies and workers. It wants to raise the retirement age from 62 to 65 by 2030.

Head of the city's military administration, Valentin Ryzhnichenko, wrote on the Telegram, "On a new attack on the Dnipro airport, nothing remains of it. The airport and the nearby infrastructure were destroyed. The missiles are still falling," adding: "We are counting the casualties."

The Interfax news agency, citing the Russian Defense Ministry, reported that Russian attack helicopters destroyed a convoy of Ukrainian armored vehicles and anti-aircraft weapons.

President Emmanuel Macron is seeking a second five-year term, with a strong challenge from the far right.

Unless someone gets more than half of the nationwide vote, there will be a second and decisive round between the top two candidates on Sunday, April 24.

Aside from Macron, far-right candidate Marine Le Pen and far-left firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon are among the prominent figures vying to take the presidential Elysee.

Pakistan's parliament will vote on Saturday on whether to remove Imran Khan as prime minister, days after Khan blocked a similar attempt, potentially adding to political and economic uncertainty in the nuclear-armed country.

Ahead of the vote, Khan is widely expected to lose. The former cricket star vowed to "fight" against any move to oust him, the latest development in a crisis that threatens the political and economic stability of the South Asian nation of 220 million people.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court ruled that Khan broke the constitution last Sunday by blocking a confidence vote scheduled for Sunday, dissolving parliament and calling for early elections. The court ordered the parliament to reconvene.

Members of Parliament will return to the House on Saturday morning. The vote request submitted by opposition leader Shahbaz Sharif is the fourth item on today's agenda.

Khan, 69, rose to power in 2018 with the support of the military. But he recently lost his parliamentary majority when allies withdrew from his coalition government. Opposition parties say he has failed to revive the economy hit by the COVID-19 pandemic and has not fulfilled his promises to root out corruption from the country and make Pakistan a prosperous nation respected on the world stage.

The opposition and some analysts say Khan is at odds with the military, a charge he and the military denied. The military has ruled the country for half of its 75-year post-colonial history, and no prime minister has completed his full five-year term.

Khan enjoyed broad public support when he took office and said he was disappointed with the court's decision but agreed. He had called for elections after the dissolution of the parliament. But he made it clear that he would not recognize any opposition government to replace him.

Imran Khan: 'I am ready to struggle'

"I will not accept an imported government," he said in an address to the nation late yesterday, noting that the move to oust him as part of a foreign plot and called for peaceful protests on Sunday. "I am ready to fight," he said.

Khan opposed the US-led intervention in Afghanistan and has strengthened ties with Russia since becoming prime minister. He accuses the United States of supporting a plot to overthrow him without providing evidence of his accusation. Washington denies the accusation.

And if Khan loses the no-confidence vote, the opposition can nominate a prime minister from among its ranks.

After the court ruling, Shahbaz Sharif, the younger brother of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, said that the opposition had nominated him to take over if the parliament impeached Khan.

Former US President Bill Clinton indicated that he offered his Russian counterparts, Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin, the possibility of Russia joining NATO.

In an opinion piece for The Atlantic, he emphasized the "development of relations between Russia and the Alliance in the 1990s," pointing to Moscow's Partnership for Peace program participation.

After the conclusion of the Russia and NATO founding law, American funding for the withdrawal of Russian forces from the Baltic states and bilateral participation in some peacekeeping operations. "All this time, we kept the gates of NATO open for Russia, which was made clear to Yeltsin and then to his successor, Vladimir Putin," he wrote.

The former US president denied allegations that "the United States ignored and disrespected and tried to isolate Russia, describing these allegations as false." Stressing that his first foreign visit after assuming the presidency of the United States of America was to Vancouver to meet with President Yeltsin. He also confirmed that he met Yeltsin 18 times and Putin 5 times, including twice during his position as Russian Vice President, while three other meetings took place within ten months.

According to Russian "Novosti," Putin said that "during Clinton's visit to Moscow in 2000, he asked him how the United States would react to Moscow's possible admission to NATO?"

He added, "the real position of the United States regarding such a possibility was embodied in its unfriendly steps toward Moscow. Such as open support for terrorists in the North Caucasus, ignoring Russian security demands and Moscow's concern about NATO expansion, withdrawal from the missile treaty, and others."

On a visit to Kyiv, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has promised UK armored vehicles and anti-ship missiles for Ukraine as he acclaimed its military for “the greatest feat of arms of the 21st century”.

“It is because of President [Volodymyr] Zelensky’s resolute leadership and the invincible heroism and courage of the Ukrainian people that [Vladimir] Putin’s monstrous aims are being thwarted,” he said after meeting Zelensky, a Downing Street statement read.

Speaking at Nato headquarters, where Nato foreign ministers are meeting later today, Kuleba said there are three items on his agenda when he talks to the allies: “Weapons, weapons and weapons”.

The Ukrainian foreign minister said there is no distinction between offensive and defensive weapons - any weapons, including tanks and fast jets, would be used to defend Ukraine.

He added that any country making this distinction are being duplicitous.

In the last century, the rank of "Marshal of the Soviet Union" represented the highest military rank in the Soviet Union. In addition, all Soviet military leaders dreamt of attaining this rank, which would give them important prestige and influence in the country and the army.

Thanks to their command of entire fronts and their success in achieving victory over the Germans in World War II, several Soviet generals such as Zhukov, Rokossovsky, Konev, Govorov, and Vasilevsky were awarded the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union.

In addition to these names that made the Soviet victory over the Germans, Marshal Grigory Ivanovich Kulik stands out as one of the strangest soldiers who received the highest military rank in the Soviet Union. Instead of military successes, the latter caused disasters in the Soviet army and disobeyed orders before being stripped of his rank and executed.

Artillery commander

In the midst of World War I, Grigory Ivanovich Kulik was in the ranks of the Imperial Russian Army, where he received many promotions to become a lieutenant in one of the artillery divisions. In the Russian Civil War, he participated in the operation to defend Tsaritsyn, which later became Stalingrad and commanded one of the artillery divisions. During this battle, Kulik became acquainted with the future Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.

With the end of the Russian Civil War, Grigory Ivanovich Kulik became in charge of the Main Artillery Directorate of the Soviet Red Army. Unlike many of his colleagues, Kollek was unwilling to take up important positions in the Soviet army and was often critical of what was going on around him. For example, during the Great Purge, Kollek wrote to Stalin about the decline in the capabilities of the Soviet army due to the executions that reduced the number of experienced people in the army.

Reprimand and promotion

In the late thirties, Kollek returned to participate again in the battles of the Soviet army. Amid the border conflict with Japan, this general came to the support of his colleague Zhukov in late July 1939 with the battle of the Khalkhin-Gol River. During a crucial period of the battle, Kulik attempted to interfere in military decisions among Zhukov's tasks. Because of this, Kulik was scolded by Moscow officials and summoned to return to the capital.

Kulik was sent to the front at the beginning of the Soviet-Finnish war in late November 1939. There, the latter failed for weeks to make tangible progress. Finally, with the Finns running out of ammunition, the artillery divisions, which Kollek had supervised, played an important role in breaching the Mannerheim line.

With his achievements in the Soviet-Finnish war and the execution of senior leaders of the Soviet army, Kulik was awarded the rank of Marshal and was awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union on May 7, 1940.

Military failure and execution

In World War II, Kulik caused many disasters in the Soviet Army. With the beginning of the German invasion of Soviet lands on June 22, 1941, this Marshal was sent to the front. Upon his arrival on the spot, his military squad was surrounded by the Germans. Instead of resisting, Kollek ordered his soldiers to lay down their weapons, dispose of their uniforms and military documents, and disguise themselves as peasants in preparation for withdrawal.

By this step, Kollek, who disguised himself as a peasant, believed that he could escape the clutches of the Germans, who allowed the peasants to move freely to leave the battlefield.

In September 1941, Marshal Kollek was sent to participate in the operation to break the siege of Leningrad. However, because of his differences with his colleague Zhukov, Kulik avoided coordination with the rest of the forces, preferring to launch a single military campaign. Because of this decision, Kulik failed against Leningrad, and his forces suffered heavy losses.

By November 1941, Kollek had made the last of the slips that angered Stalin. Having been sent to defend the Kerch region of Crimea, Marshal Kollek preferred to withdraw and hand it over to the Germans.

Also, the latter allowed his forces to leave Rostov in the face of the German advance, angering the military leadership, which demanded that he be brought before a military court. As a result of these military mistakes, Kulik was stripped of his rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union, and many of his medals were taken away. However, this Soviet soldier escaped execution at the time thanks to his knowledge of Stalin.

Despite his military failures, Kollek played a vital role in saving the lives of significant numbers of Poles. With the success of the Soviet invasion of Poland, according to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Stalin demanded that all Polish prisoners be executed. 

Faced with this situation, Kollek met with Stalin and convinced him to execute only high-ranking officers.

With the end of World War II, Stalin feared the increasing influence of the country's top military officers. Hoping to end his fears, the Soviet commander ordered a campaign against several of the army's leaders. Kollek was among the soldiers whom Stalin ordered removed. After his arrest in 1947, Kollek spent three years in prison before his death sentence was issued, which was carried out on August 24, 1950.

Alexander Grushko said that European countries disrupting the work of Russian diplomats were damaging their interests, Interfax reported. Western sanction on Russia have increased dramatically since Russian began its invasion of Ukraine in late February. 

Laurence Norman and Ann M. Simmons write:

The European Union has proposed sanctioning two daughters of President Vladimir Putin, according to diplomats familiar with the plan, a move that would add the Russian leader’s closest family members to a growing list of individuals sanctioned in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

 Putin doesn’t speak publicly about his family. He has two daughters with his former wife, Lyudmila Putina, according to the Kremlin. It isn’t known if Putin has other children, and it couldn’t be learned if the daughters being targeted in the EU sanctions were those he has publicly acknowledged.

A Ukrainian man lay sprawled by the roadside in the Ukrainian city of Bucha on Sunday, his hands tied behind his back and a bullet wound to his head, one of hundreds of local residents that officials say have been found dead in the wake of five weeks of Russian occupation.

Bucha's deputy mayor, Taras Shapravskyi, said 50 of the dead residents, found after Russian forces withdrew from the city late last week, were the victims of extra-judicial killings carried out by Russian troops, and the officials have accused Moscow of war crimes.

“I am deeply shocked by the images of civilians killed in Bucha, Ukraine,” said UN chief, Mr. Guterres in a briefly worded statement, which was also posted on his official Twitter account.

“It is essential that an independent investigation leads to effective accountability.” Guterres said.

Osnat Lubrani, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Ukraine, tweeted. "Ukrainians are enduring a living hell for more than a month, thousands of civilians have died," she said.  "This horrific war needs to stop."