UPDATE ON THE SITUATION – Based on information from journalists on site, official Ukrainian and Russian statements, Western sources, analysts and international organizations, Le Figaro takes stock of the 223rd day of the conflict.
Significant decline of the Russians in the Kherson region, human rights violations exacerbated by annexations according to the UN, more than 200,000 people mobilized in the Russian army in two weeks… Le Figaro takes stock this Tuesday, October 4 on the conflict in Ukraine.
Annexations in Ukraine: emergency meeting of the UN General Assembly on Monday
After the annexations of four regions of Ukraine by Russia, the UN General Assembly will meet on Monday for a new emergency meeting on the situation in Ukraine, announced the spokesperson for the General Assembly. According to several diplomatic sources, the 193 member states of the United Nations should consider, during this session without an end date, a resolution currently in preparation concerning annexations, after the Russian veto during a meeting of the Security Council on this issue. .
Read alsoAnnexation of Ukrainian territories: “Russian Theatre”
Washington to send Ukraine $625 million in additional military aid
Joe Biden announced in a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday a new US shipment of military equipment, worth a total of $625 million, according to a White House statement. The American President “promised to continue supporting Ukraine for as long as it takes while it defends itself against Russian aggression.” This shipment to the Ukrainian army includes in particular four new Himars, said the State Department.
These highly accurate and powerful rocket launcher systems have played an important role in recent Ukrainian military advances. The remainder of this new component of American military aid includes in particular 32 Howitzer guns, tens of thousands of light ammunition and artillery ammunition, mine systems, and 200 armored vehicles. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked Joe Biden for the “continued military and financial support” of the United States in the face of the Russian invasion
Read alsoBiden says Zelensky ‘didn’t want to hear’ his warnings about a Russian invasion
Significant Russian retreat in the Kherson region, according to Russian army maps
A military map shown Tuesday by the Russian Defense Ministry during its daily briefing shows a significant retreat of Russian forces in the northern Kherson region of southern Ukraine. This map shows that the Russian forces have left a large number of localities, including Dudtchany, on the western bank of the Dnipro river, while the Ukrainian army is conducting a counter-offensive in this region.
The Russian occupation authorities in southern Ukraine called on Tuesday not to “not to panic”. Since early September, Ukrainian forces have already inflicted a series of crushing setbacks on the Russians in the northeast and east of the country. The head of the Russian occupation in Kherson, Vladimir Saldo, was the first to admit a “breakthrough” Ukraine and in particular the loss of the village of Dudtchany, before ensuring that the Russian air force had “stopped” the Ukrainian advance, according to an interview Monday afternoon published Tuesday on the Telegram page of the person concerned.
WAR IN UKRAINE: MAJOR RUSSIAN SETBACK
Security zone in Zaporizhia: the head of the IAEA will visit kyiv and Moscow
IAEA Director General “will travel to Kyiv and then Moscow this week” to discuss setting up a protection zone around Ukraine’s Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, according to a statement released on Tuesday evening. Rafael Grossi goes “continue consultations” to establish such a device “as soon as possible”, said the UN body, without specifying when he is expected in the two enemy countries. The head of the IAEA also indicated that there was no “no risk” security for the Zaporijjia plant in Ukraine the day after the expulsion of its director from the site by the Russians. “There is no risk at all”told AFP Rafael Grossi, on the sidelines of a trip to Yerevan in Armenia.
Read also“As soon as I heard Putin’s announcements, I packed my bags”: the account of the special envoy of the Figaro in Zaporizhia
More than 200,000 people mobilized in the Russian army in two weeks
More than 200,000 people have been mobilized into the Russian army since the announcement of a military mobilization “partial” in the country on September 21 to fight in Ukraine, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Tuesday. Officially, this mobilization, ordered by President Vladimir Putin, should make it possible to recruit 300,000 reservists with military experience or useful skills, while the Russian army is in difficulty on the Ukrainian front. “The training of the personnel of the (new) formed units is carried out on 80 military fields and in six training centers”indicated Sergei Shoigu, during a government meeting, assuring that these recruits will be sent to the front with other units having already fought in Ukraine.
» SEE ALSO – Russia: more than 200,000 people mobilized in the army in two weeks
“No reason for Russia to use tactical nuclear weapons”, according to the Russian ambassador in France
“There is currently no reason for Russia to use tactical nuclear weapons“, hammered Alexei Meshkov, the Russian ambassador to France, guest of the morning of the Cnews channel Tuesday, October 4. The tone is set for the diplomat, who wants to be reassuring about a potential nuclear escalation. Alexei Meshkov returned to the threat of such a strike “tacticalin Ukraine, which has worried Westerners since the start of the war. “Firstly, it is not us who have started brandishing nuclear weapons, it is the Westerners”. “Ministers from some NATO member stateshave declared the presence of nuclear weapons in their country“, and therefore the possibility “to press the red button“.
WAR IN UKRAINE: “NO REASON THAT THE
Zelensky hails India’s ‘support’
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hailed the “support” from India to Ukraine in the face of Russian invasion in a rare phone conversation with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He also underlined the importance of the recent statement by Narendra Modi, who took a stand against this war during an interview with Vladimir Putin in mid-September, where he told him: “The time is not for war”.
New Delhi had been criticized by kyiv for its neutrality until then in the face of the Russian invasion. The head of Ukrainian diplomacy Dmytro Kouleba had even accused India of “benefit” of the “sacrifice” Ukrainians and Westerners, alluding to the deep discounts obtained by India on Russian crude. Much more conciliatory, Volodymyr Zelensky underlined Tuesday with Narendra Modi “the importance of strengthening the Ukrainian-Indian partnership against the background of Russian aggression against Ukraine”according to the Ukrainian presidency.
Read alsoWar in Ukraine: India begins to lose patience and urges Russia to end it
Ukraine: human rights violations further exacerbated by annexations, according to the UN
The annexation of Ukrainian territories by Russia will only exacerbate the human rights violations committed by Moscow, and add to the “unspeakable suffering and devastation” inflicted on Ukrainians, the UN denounced on Tuesday. Christian Salazar Volkmann, who was presenting a report on the human rights situation in Ukraine to the Human Rights Council in Geneva, stressed that the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights had the evidence“a series of violations of the rights to life, liberty and security”. “The Ukrainian people have experienced untold suffering and destruction, as the armed conflict has resulted in a wide range of violations of human rights and international humanitarian law affecting both civilians and combatants”he insisted.
» SEE ALSO – Crying, angry, these Ukrainians from the annexed territories who cannot return home
The GDP collapses by 35% under the effect of the war, the president of the central bank resigns for “health reasons”
The Ukrainian economy is suffering greatly from the effects of the war with Russia, with a contraction in its GDP of 35% expected for 2022, the World Bank (WB) estimated on Tuesday. A devastating effect that should last because “of the destruction of industrial capacity, damage to agricultural land and the decline of the workforce as more than 14 million people have been displaced”, details the BM in a press release. According to an estimate by the institution, carried out at the beginning of September, the needs for reconstruction and economic recovery currently reach nearly 350 billion dollars, “which is more than 1.5 times the size of Ukraine’s economy before the war” and this sum is constantly increasing.
The President of the Ukrainian Central Bank, Kyrylo Shevchenko, also announced on Tuesday on Facebook his resignation for reasons of “health”more than seven months after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “I sent the president the request to accept my resignation”he wrote, specifying that it was a “difficult decision” taken for “reasons related to (his) health”.
Read alsoSix months of conflict in Ukraine: from economic war to the end of abundance
The United States takes a Russian cosmonaut to the ISS
The United States will transport a Russian cosmonaut to the International Space Station on Wednesday aboard a SpaceX rocket, a mission that is highly symbolic in the midst of the war in Ukraine. Anna Kikina, the only female Russian cosmonaut currently in active service, is part of the Crew-5 crew, also made up of two Americans and a Japanese. This is the fifth regular mission to the Space Station (ISS) carried out by SpaceX on behalf of NASA. Takeoff is scheduled for noon Wednesday from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where the weather is expected to be mild.
Two weeks ago, an American took off aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket to the ISS. This long-planned astronaut exchange program has been maintained despite the very high tensions between the two countries since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February. Ensuring the operation of the ISS has thus become one of the very few subjects of cooperation between the United States and Russia.
Russia: Miss Crimea sentenced for a Ukrainian patriotic song
A Russian court has fined the winner of a beauty pageant for married women in Crimea for posting a video of her performing a Ukrainian patriotic song, police in the annexed peninsula said on Tuesday. In the video released in September on social media, two young women, including Miss Crimea 2022, Olga Valeeva, 34, sing the song a capella Chervona Kalina, considered by the Russian authorities as the anthem of Ukrainian nationalists. Since deleted, the video has however been the subject of an investigation. According to the Interior Ministry, the two young women were found guilty of having discredited the Russian army and sentenced – one to ten days in prison and the other to a fine of 40,000 rubles (680 euros).