Russian attacks spread to various locations, including Ukrainian railways
Cities in western, central and southwestern Ukraine have been targeted by Russian attacks. Ukraine says the Russian military has also bombed the country's railway infrastructure. Biden urged Congress to approve billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine.
Ukrainian sources reported that various cities, including Lviv in the west, Vinnytsia and Kirovograd in the center, and Odessa in the southwest, were targeted by Russian missiles. Viktor Mykyta, the governor of the Transcarpathia region, which is located near the Hungarian border, reported that this region was also targeted by missiles for the first time since the beginning of the war.
According to the same sources, the Russian military has attacked railway infrastructure across Ukraine. Oleksandr Kamyshin, head of Ukrainian Railways, said that six train stations in the center and west of the country were seriously damaged in the attacks on Ukrainian railway services on Tuesday, May 3. Ukrainian sources reported an unknown number of victims.
Biden promises more aid and German Christian Democratic Party leader visits Ukraine
As Russia's attacks intensified, US President Joe Biden stressed his country's military support for Ukraine, saying he had asked Congress for billions of dollars in military and humanitarian aid. The US has provided more than $3.7 billion in arms aid to the country since the start of the war in Ukraine.
While German Chancellor Olaf Schulz has yet to accept Volodymyr Zelensky's invitation to visit Ukraine, Friedrich Mertz, leader of Germany's Christian Democratic Union, met with the Ukrainian president in Kiev on Tuesday. The move has drawn criticism from some German political circles. Schulz said he would not travel to Ukraine because the Ukrainian government had treated German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier "disrespectfully." Ukraine had previously opposed Steinmeier's visit to the country.
Russia has confiscated thousands of tons of Ukrainian grain
Ukrainian sources say Russia has transferred 400,000 tons of grain from occupied Ukrainian territories to its territory. This is about a third of the grain reserves in the Kherson, Zaporizhia, Donetsk and Luhansk regions, said Deputy Agriculture Minister Taras Vyzotsky.
The Ukrainian official said that before the war, about 1.3 million tons of grain were stored in these regions for daily supply and also for sowing. He warned that if grain reserves were reduced by more than this, these regions would face the risk of famine. The forced transfer of grain from Ukraine also brings back painful memories from a historical perspective. When Joseph Stalin forcibly confiscated grain from peasants in this region of the former Soviet Union, about four million people died of starvation between 1932 and 1933.
Source: DW
