Ukraine on Thursday demanded “long-range” Western artillery weapons which it said would allow it to quickly retake the strategic city of Severodonetsk (east), where the entire battle of Donbass could be played out, according to the Ukrainian president.
Ukrainian soldiers are fighting one of the “toughest battles” in Severodonetsk since the war began on February 24, according to President Volodymyr Zelensky. “In many ways, the fate of our Donbass is decided there,” said Mr. Zelensky in a video released Wednesday evening.
Seizing this city would open the road to another major city in the Donbass, Kramatorsk, to Moscow and would mark an important stage in the conquest of the entirety of this border region of Russia, already partly held since then. 2014 by pro-Russian separatists.
“Two, Three Days”
However, Ukraine could retake Severodonetsk “in two, three days”, as soon as it has “long-range” Western artillery weapons, Sergei Gaïdaï, governor of Lugansk, one of the two regions of the country, assured on Thursday. Donbass.
Faced with pressure from troops in Moscow, the Ukrainians are constantly asking their Western allies for more powerful weapons than those of lesser range at their disposal.
The delivery of multiple rocket launcher systems, with a range of some 80 km, slightly greater than the Russian systems, has been announced by Washington and London, but it is unclear when the Ukrainians will be able to start using them.
These weapons are all the more urgent for Ukraine as it deplores “up to 100 soldiers” killed and “500 wounded” every day in battles with the Russian army, the Ukrainian Defense Minister said on Thursday, Oleksii Reznikov. Mr. Zelensky had indicated on June 1 that his army was losing between 60 and 100 soldiers a day.
targeted chemical plant
According to Governor Gaïdaï, street fighting and “constant” Russian shelling continued Thursday in the industrial areas of Severodonetsk still controlled by the Ukrainians. “Our forces push them back, then the artillery fire resumes, and it goes on like this all the time,” he said.
Last week, Severodonetsk seemed on the verge of falling to the Russian army, but Ukrainian troops fought back, despite being outnumbered. However, Russian forces have since regained ground and controlled “a major part” of the city on Wednesday evening, according to the governor.
Russian forces notably bombed the large Azot chemical plant at least twice, hitting an ammonium production center, he said.
Some 800 civilians would be trapped in this factory, where they took refuge, according to the lawyer of the Ukrainian tycoon Dmytro Firtach whose company owns the installation. The Ukrainian authorities have not confirmed this information.
“No one to help me”
Lysytchansk, a neighboring town of Severodonetsk, is entirely controlled by the Ukrainian army but is also under “powerful” bombardment, Governor Gaidai said, accusing Russian forces of “deliberately” targeting hospitals and drug distribution centers. humanitarian aid.
While many civilians evacuated Severodonetsk and Lysychansk, several thousand nevertheless remained – elderly people, people caring for them or those who could not afford to go elsewhere.
“Every day, there are bombardments, every day something burns”, testifies Yuri Krassnikov, seated in a district of Lysytchansk with many damaged buildings and charred pavilions, while artillery rumbles not far from there. “There is no one to help me,” laments this retiree.
War of attrition
The Russians are also intensely bombarding the Donetsk region, the other part of the Donbass, “all along the front line”, with in particular attacks on the cities of Sloviansk and Bakhmout, according to kyiv, which has identified 4 dead and 11 injured in the last 24 hours.
Moscow’s forces have made only slow progress so far, leading Western analysts to say that the Russian invasion launched on February 24 had turned into a war of attrition, with limited advances achieved at the cost of massive destruction and heavy losses.
“Wave of misery”, according to the UN
More than 100 days after the Russian offensive, the consequences of the war continue to worsen in the world, both in terms of finance and food and energy, affecting 1.6 billion people, alerted Wednesday the Secretary General of the UN Antonio Guterres.
“For people around the world, war threatens to unleash an unprecedented wave of hunger and misery, leaving social and economic chaos in its wake,” Guterres warned.
“There is only one way to stop this brewing storm: the Russian invasion of Ukraine must stop.”
The blocking of Ukrainian ports by the Russian Black Sea Fleet, starting with that of Odessa, the country’s main port, paralyzes its grain exports, particularly wheat, of which it was before the war on the way to becoming the third largest exporter. global.
African and Middle Eastern countries are the first to be affected and fear serious food crises.
Exclusion from FAO
President Zelensky on Thursday called for Russia’s exclusion from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). “What would Russia’s place be there if it causes famine for at least 400 million people, or even more than a billion?”, He launched in a videoconference speech before an OECD ministerial meeting. .
While Moscow accuses the West of being the cause of this shortage because of their sanctions, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu in Ankara on Wednesday to discuss “secure maritime corridors” that would allow to resume grain transport in the Black Sea.
Skyrocketing inflation
At the request of the UN, Turkey offered to help escort maritime convoys from Ukrainian ports, despite the presence of mines.
During a press conference, Mr. Lavrov assured that Russia was “ready to guarantee the safety of ships leaving Ukrainian ports (…) in cooperation with our Turkish colleagues”. But no concrete proposal was announced after their discussions.
Rising prices are also hitting Russia hard, where inflation has skyrocketed to a twenty-year high. Despite a decline in May, it reached 17.1% over one year, according to official data.
The Institute of International Finance (IFF) forecasts a contraction of the Russian economy of 15% this year and an additional 3% in 2023.
6.5 million refugees
The war claimed thousands of lives: at least 4,200 civilians, according to the latest UN assessment, which estimates the real figures “considerably higher”, and thousands of soldiers, even if the belligerents rarely communicate on their losses.
The conflict has led some 6.5 million Ukrainians to flee their country. Nearly 5 million have been registered as refugees across Europe since February 24, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Thursday.
This article has been published automatically. Sources: ats / afp