The UK and Germany lead the European alliance for Ukraine

The reporter and journalist María Senovilla, contributor to Atalayar, analysed the Russian attack with ballistic missiles on the city of Sumy and the meeting of the contact group for Ukraine in Brussels on the programme ‘De cara al mundo’ on Onda Madrid. 

She also mentioned Prince Harry's visit to wounded combatants in Lviv.

The city of Sumy was bombarded with ballistic missiles on Sunday 13th April, killing more than 30 people. 

In fact, this time 34 civilians were killed and more than a hundred wounded in Sumy. It should be remembered that Russia carried out the attack with two missiles - against the civilian population - at a time when people were leaving churches on Palm Sunday. 

Putin's interest in this region has increased in this phase of the war. Civilians, of all ages, many of them leaving churches because it was Palm Sunday in Ukraine. I will never tire of repeating it: Russia systematically bombs civilian targets in Ukraine. 

These are war crimes that nobody denounces any more. This is how Russia celebrates Palm Sunday: it has bombarded the centre of the city of Sumy with ballistic missiles at the time when people, civilians, were leaving the churches with their bouquets in their hands. 

Maria, meeting of the contact group for Ukraine in Brussels. A 450 million aid package led by the UK was approved earlier. How is this meeting shaping up, these negotiations for the aid packages, but also the possible sending of troops to Ukraine?  

The main fact that has attracted attention is that until now it was the US Secretary of Defence who chaired these meetings of the defence contact group for Ukraine and for the first time it has been led by his German counterpart, Defence Minister Boris Pistorius. 

It has been a clear staging of the divorce that is taking place between Europe and the United States, especially with the issue of the war in Ukraine, although there are more things in the background. 

A total of 50 countries attended the meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels. The UK and Germany have led this new meeting, which has attempted to put pressure on Kiev's partners to continue unanimously supporting both the sending of military aid and taking steps towards those troops that would ensure peacekeeping in Ukraine, if necessary. 

With the exception of Hungary, there has been unanimity on this issue and the announcement of the aid package of 450 million pounds, more than 500 million euros, which will be used for the repair and maintenance of vehicles and equipment used in the battlefield, has been made public. 

Also radar systems and for the purchase of anti-tank mines and hundreds of thousands of drones because Kiev's partners are aware that it is the drones that are playing the leading role on the front line and the tactics that are currently being used on the different fronts. This new staging of support for President Zelensky from Europe and other partners of Kiev and this distancing from the United States is becoming increasingly noticeable. 

Meanwhile, on the ground, there is a stir because Chinese soldiers who were fighting with Russia have been captured.  

This has been the topic of the week in the local and international news. Zelensky released a video of two Chinese citizens dressed in Russian military uniforms who had been captured on the Donetsk front. He also called on the Chinese government to explain what was happening, whether this was a regular dispatch of troops like the one carried out, for example, by North Korea. 

The Chinese government has distanced itself, saying that they, through their institutions, urge all Chinese citizens not to go to any country where there is war, much less to participate in it, and it seems that these soldiers were not part of a contingent, let's say, sent by the government, but rather citizens who went to Russia and voluntarily signed a contract with the Russian army. 

There have not only been two because days later, one of the mechanised brigades I usually work with on the Torez front captured another Chinese citizen who was actively working with a military group, with a Russian assault battalion. 

It is believed that these are not three isolated cases, but that it is becoming widespread and among the reasons why Chinese citizens are now being seen among the Russian lines on the Donetsk front, is a very important campaign that Russia has carried out to recruit soldiers of this nationality from China through social networks. 

These campaigns were already frequent and continue to be carried out assiduously, especially in Latin American countries such as Colombia or Mexico, mainly through the social network TikTok. There are very active profiles where they sell the benefits of joining, of signing a contract with the Russian Army for which very high salaries are paid, especially for the standard of living in Latin America, where the salary offered by the Russian Government is nine or ten times more than what you can earn at home. 

In addition, they offer advantageous conditions for citizens who want to bring their families to Russia and they facilitate all the paperwork, residence and family installation issues and they have achieved very good results with these recruitment campaigns through TikTok. 

And it seems that they are now replicating this model of recruiting in China. The videos that have been leaked, that have been found, send messages to Chinese citizens about how to be tough guys. Some of them sound almost like gym advertisements, selling you services on how to be a better version of yourself. 

They use influencers who they are paying to carry out these recruitment campaigns and they sell, as I said, the advantages of signing a contract with the Russian Army. Even if you know that you are going to be sent to a war like the one in Ukraine and that you could die, they sell it to you as if it were a real television advert. It's tremendous. 

One last question, María. Prince Harry has visited wounded combatants in Lviv. 

Yes, he took the opportunity when he had to travel from the United States, where he is currently living, to London to participate in the legal proceedings through which he is trying to challenge the fact that he has been stripped of the protection he previously had as a prince. They withdrew it from him a few years ago and now they are in court. 

And he made the leap from the UK to Lviv, very close to the border with Poland, to visit an orthopaedic clinic in Ukraine where they treat combatants who have lost a limb, an arm, a leg, both, etc. 

He spent a day there visiting and greeting these injured veterans at the Superhumans centre, which is the best known in Ukraine, it is very big. Hundreds of combatants who have been maimed on the battlefield are treated there, as well as civilians, including children, who have stepped on these terrible anti-personnel mines. 

Let's remember that Ukraine is currently the most mined country in the world. Unfortunately, the centres that take in these people with these mutilations do not stop receiving patients, not only military personnel, but also civilians. 

It has been pointed out that Harry served 10 years in the British Army and it seems that he has a special affinity with these veterans, with these Ukrainian combatants who welcomed him, as you can imagine, on a beautiful day. It is also a way for them to understand that the support of Kiev's partners, of these Western countries, is still alive. 

Yes, Prince Harry even went on one of the international missions. When you were talking about the mines and the children, I was reminded of something that demonstrates the vileness of some human beings. I'm thinking of butterfly mines, those mines that are painted in colours that look like a butterfly to bring children to them so they can be hunted. 

On the subject of mines, Russian troops have been using drones to launch them for months, even in urban areas such as the city of Kherson. 

Apart from these butterfly mines, which are green, they are launching another model of a similar size, which is very small, brown in colour and looks like a leaf. Imagine if they launch that in an urban area where there are parks, where there are trees in autumn and they are confused with leaves falling from the trees and falling to the ground. 

There are still civilians, especially in these areas of Kherson, very close to the river, which are within range of the artillery, of the Russian drones. There is very little population left, especially elderly people who have nowhere else to go and so they stay. They are being treated in hospitals more and more for stepping on these mines, as I said, similar to butterfly mines, but now shaped like leaves to camouflage themselves in wooded areas. 

They would also be launching them on the front line. Apart from launching FPV drones, there are attack drones that are launched directly armed with explosives against individuals, and there are also drones that can carry grenades. In addition to grenades, they are arming them with clusters of these mines that look like leaves and are launching them on the battlefield so that when the soldiers come out of the trenches, they step on them.