Pope Francis meets Kirill’s former foreign minister: goal to see Putin
Upon his arrival at the Nunciature, Pope Francis received Metropolitan Hilarion of Budapest and Hungary, former “foreign minister” whom Patriarch Kirill of Moscow he removed in June 2022 because he had expressed reservations about the Russian invasion. The Vatican Press Office reports that the cordial meeting lasted about 20 minutes.
During the conversation – reports the website of the diocese of Hungary of the Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan Hilarion he spoke to the Pontiff about the life of the Hungarian-Hungarian diocese of the Moscow Patriarchate, its social and educational activities, as well as its interaction with the Archdiocese of Esztergom and Budapest of the Roman Catholic Church and the structures of other Christian denominations.
In memory of the meeting, Metropolitan Hilarion gave Pope Francis four volumes translated into Italian of his monograph “Jesus Christ. Life and teaching”. According to La Repubblica, the goal is to reopen dialogue with the Kremlin and obtain a meeting in Moscow with Russian leader Vladimir Putin”.
The counteroffensive that the Ukrainian armed forces are planning to liberate the territories occupied by Russia it also foresees the liberation of Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014. The president of Ukraine said in an interview with Finnish public broadcaster Yle, Volodymyr Zelensky.
Kiev wants to take back Crimea. Medvedev: “We will overthrow Nazi Zelensky”
One of the objectives of this counter-offensive, for which the defense minister of Kiev has said that the Ukrainian military is almost ready, is precisely to regain control of the peninsula on the Black Sea.
But, he added, to succeed is always more the support of the Western allies is needed. According to Zelensky, Russian troops lose motivation every day and at the same time fear the consequences of their retreat.
Although the Ukrainian president obviously did not want to provide details on when the counteroffensive will actually be launched, according to Yle, the analyzes agree on the fact that it won’t be until late spring or early summer.
The signs of Kiev’s willingness to aim for Crimea have become more frequent in recent times, an article by the Ukrainian agency recalls UNIAN. In particular, the Colonel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Petro Chernykrecently said that liberating Crimea is now much easier than crossing the demarcation line drawn on February 24 last year with the start of the invasion but it requires long-range missiles and good aviation.
According to military expert Roman Svitan, quoted by UNIAN, the Ukrainian armed forces can liberate Crimea from the occupiers by the autumn of this year if they have the necessary strength and means.
Fire in a fuel depot attacked by a drone in the port of Sevastopol
A fire broke out in an oil depot in Sevastopol. According to local authorities, the flames were caused by a drone attack.
The burning depot is located in the port of Sevastopol, the base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet on the Crimean peninsula, whose annexation to the Federation dates back to 2014.
“According to preliminary data, the fire was caused by the impact of a drone”, said Mikhail Razvozhaev, governor of Sevastopol. The fire, which spread over an area of almost 1,000 square meters, was put out by the emergency services.
The flames burned the fuel contained in four tanks, but they did not cause injuries or pose a danger to the civilian infrastructure in the area. Additionally, the governor stressed that the incident will not affect fuel supplies to the city.
In recent days, the Federal Security Service said it had thwarted a bomb attack on the naval hospital in the peninsula’s capital, Simferopol.
In view of the expected Ukrainian counter-offensive, Crimean leader Sergey Axyonov has ordered the construction of a fortified defensive line between the peninsula and the rest of Ukraine.
Medvedev: destruction and defeat of Kiev is the only answer
The only Russian response to the plan for a Ukrainian counter-offensive may be “the mass destruction of military personnel and equipment engaged by the Nazi regime in the counter-offensiveinflicting the maximum military defeat on them”, and as a result “the complete defeat of the enemy and the final overthrow of the Nazi regime in Kiev with its complete demilitarization throughout the territory of Ukraine”, replied the former Russian president, current deputy head of the Federation Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev.
With a post on his Telegram profile, Medvedev responds to the increasingly frequent Ukrainian declarations on the imminence of a counter-offensive aimed at reconquering the territories occupied since the beginning of the war but also before, such as the Crimea.
Medvedev’s third threat, in addition to “destruction” and “defeat”, is “the implementation of acts of retaliation against key figures of the Nazi regimeregardless of their location and without time limits”.
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