UPDATE ON THE SITUATION – Le Figaro provides an update on the latest information from journalists, Ukrainian and Russian official statements, Western sources and international organizations.
On the 137th day of conflict, Russian forces continued to shell eastern Ukraine on Sunday July 10, killing at least 15 people in a strike that ripped open a residential building in Chassiv Iar, according to Ukrainian authorities.
Vladimir Putin claimed that he “had not yet started serious things in Ukraine“. At the same time, his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensly, accused Moscow of hitting “deliberately, intentionally, mere homes, civilian purposes, peoplewhich is contrary to international law.
A building hit in the Donbass
Sunday, July 10, a Russian strike fell on a building which collapsed in Chassiv Iar, a small town in the Donbass of 12,000 inhabitants. According to Pavlo Kyrylenko, Governor of Donetsk:At least 30 people are under the rubble“, he said on Telegram. The four-story building was hit by a Russian Hurricane missile, Pavlo Kyrylenko said.
AFP journalists who arrived on the spot after the strike saw the partially collapsed building, rescuers and a backhoe working to clear the area. “I was in the bedroom, I came out and everything started shaking, falling apart. What saved me was the wave of the explosion that propelled me, bleeding, into the toilet“, Testified a resident interviewed by AFP, refusing to give her name.
According to Pavlo Kyrylenko, at least 591 civilians have been killed and 1,548 others injured so far in the Donetsk region since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24. On Friday, he said Moscow was preparing “new shares” in the East. The Russian army, which announced in early July that it had taken control of the Lugansk region, is now targeting Donetsk to occupy the entire Donbass mining basin.
Strikes in the fields to destroy crops, according to kyiv
It has been partially controlled since 2014 by separatists backed by Moscow after the Russian annexation of the Ukrainian Crimean peninsula. “The brutal Russian artillery strikes do not stop for a day, Sloviansk, Bakhmout, Avdiivka…“, condemned Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday evening, still demanding weapons “modern and powerful” to defend.
SEE ALSO – War in Ukraine: Zelensky asks for “powerful weaponsto fight theterrorist actions» russians
Volodymyr Zelensky also accused Moscow of hitting “deliberately, intentionally, mere houses, civilian objects, people. There are victims, dead, injured“. Several Ukrainian officials have also accused the Russian forces of setting fires in the fields with their fire to destroy the crops.
Artillery strikes, but almost no ground assaults
The staff of the Ukrainian army reported Saturday, as the day before, many Russian bombardments but almost no ground assaults by Moscow forces. kyiv, for its part, assured that it had targeted two “command pointsand Russian depots in the Chornobaivka region (south).
Read alsoSchool, hospitals, shops: in a war, is it forbidden to bomb civilian buildings?
In Kharkiv (north-east), the second largest city in the country, Governor Oleg Synegoubov reported on Telegram new missile fire which hit a “educational institutionand a house and injured one person. Other Russian strikes are reported in particular near Siversk and Sloviansk (East) as well as in the Mykolaiv region (South).
L'”ambassadorin Moscow from the separatist republic of Lugansk, Rodion Mirotchnik, said on Telegram on Sunday morning that in the Donetsk region an offensive was “launched against Siversk from the north» and the locality of Grygorivka was «captured after fighting“. According to him, “our troops continue to carry out military operations to free Serebrianka“, another locality in the region.
The Russian Ministry of Defense accused in a statement on Saturday evening the Ukrainians of installing men and armaments in schools and civilian buildings in several localities of the territory of Donetsk and Kharkiv.
On the side of the separatists, wheat harvest campaign
At the same time, the authorities installed by Russia in Kharkiv indicated that “the wheat harvest campaign had started in the liberated territories of the region“, according to the Russian agency Ria Novosti. Ukraine has been accusing Russia for weeks of stealing its wheat harvests in the occupied regions to resell it illegally on the international market. The staff of the Ukrainian army reported Sunday, as the day before, many Russian bombardments but almost no ground assaults by Moscow forces.
kyiv, for its part, assured that it had targeted two “command pointsand Russian depots in the Chornobaivka region. Ukrainian forces also claimed responsibility for a strike on a Russian base in the occupied Kherson region, without further details.
L'”ambassadorin Moscow from the separatist Lugansk Republic, Rodion Mirotchnik, said on Telegram on Sunday morning that in the Donetsk region an offensive had been “launched against Siversk from the northand that the locality of Grygorivka had beencaptured after fighting“. “Our troops continue to carry out military operations to free Serebrianka“, Another locality in the region, he added.
Turbines for Nord Stream
On the economic front, Canada decided on Saturday, despite the sanctions imposed on Russia, to return to Germany turbines intended for the Russian gas pipeline Nord Stream, currently in Siemens workshops near Montreal. kyiv had however called not to “blackmail the Kremlin“.
The Russian gas group Gazprom had invoked this work to justify in mid-June a reduction in its deliveries to Germany via Nord Stream.
Read alsoWar in Ukraine: Lech Walesa suggests “reducing” Russia to “less than 50 million inhabitants”
“Canada will grant Siemens Canada a revocable, time-limited permit to allow repaired Nordstream 1 turbines to return to Germany, supporting Europe’s ability to access reliable and affordable energysaid Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson. The minister accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of wanting “to sow division among the allies“.
In addition, Canada on Saturday announced its intention to extend its economic sanctions against Russia to industrial manufacturing. “The new sanctions will apply to land and pipeline transportation as well as the manufacturing of metals and transportation, computer, electronic and electrical equipment, and machinery“, indicated the Minister of Foreign Affairs Mélanie Joly.