US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday praised the “extraordinary resilience” of Ukrainians in the face of the Russian invasion after visiting the basement of a school in northern Ukraine where villagers had been crowded into inhuman conditions.
“We have heard stories like the one that took place in this building over and over again,” he said after wandering through the maze of sordid cellars where Russian soldiers had detained almost all of the inhabitants. from the village of Yagidné.
“But through this, we also see something incredibly powerful, namely the extraordinary resilience of the Ukrainian people,” he said while traveling in the Cherniguiv region.
367 of the approximately 400 residents of Yaguidne, including around fifty children, were forcibly grouped by the Russians in these basements where they remained for 27 days between March 3 and 30, 2022, the day Ukrainian forces liberated this locality.
The conditions of their detention were very harsh: the atmosphere in the windowless premises was stifling and they slept on the floor, without toilets.
Eleven people died and these caves, nicknamed the “cellars of death”, became a symbol of war crimes committed against civilians.
Since Ukraine regained these territories, several leaders of Western countries allied with Ukraine have visited these premises.
The Russian army has also left cities destroyed and lands heavily mined and, according to Mr. Blinken, almost a third of Ukrainian territory is now mined or riddled with unexploded ordnance.
“Ukrainians are uniting to get rid of munitions and mines and to literally reclaim the land,” said Mr. Blinken, assuring that the United States was “proud” to support a country that “is facing aggression while recovering and rebuilding”.
Visiting Ukraine since Wednesday for the fourth time since the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022, the American Secretary of State announced new aid of one billion dollars, in particular to support the difficult Ukrainian counter-offensive .
Antony Blinken then visited the site of a hydroelectric dam, alongside Prime Minister Denys Chmygal, before leaving kyiv in the early evening.
In a statement released by the State Department in Washington, he also denounced the forthcoming holding, on September 10, of “phony elections” in the areas occupied by Russia in Ukraine, speaking of a “propaganda exercise ” like the annexation referendums organized a year ago and denounced by Kiev and the West.
“The United States will never recognize Russia’s claims to any part of Ukraine’s sovereign territory,” he said.
Moscow occupies just under 20% of Ukrainian territory: Crimea, annexed in 2014, as well as most of the Lugansk region, and part of Donetsk, Zaporizhia and Kherson.
Russia is organizing local elections there on September 10 to appoint regional deputies and elected municipal officials.
07/09/2023 22:47:45 – Kiev (Ukraine) (AFP) © 2023 AFP
