Russian forces continue their offensive on Wednesday on several cities in Ukraine, notably in Kharkiv, with the dispatch of airborne troops and bombardments, while the Ukrainian president accused Moscow of wanting to “erase” Ukraine. While giving no sign of wanting to reduce its attacks, the Kremlin said it was ready to resume talks with the Ukrainians on Wednesday evening, after a first round without any real progress on February 28. Russia continues to demand the total demilitarization of Ukraine, considered a threat as an ally of the West, while Kiev rules out any capitulation.
The main information:
– nearly 836,000 refugees from Ukraine
– shelling in Kharkiv kills four
– the Russian army conquered the city of Kherson
– a dreaded Belarusian army attack
836,000 refugees from Ukraine
In a new report published Wednesday on its website, the number of refugees fleeing Ukraine for neighboring countries jumped again to reach almost 836,000 people as of March 1, according to a census by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees published Wednesday. . This is a jump of almost 160,000 people from the figure of 677,000 put forward on Tuesday by the High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi, during an emergency appeal for funding for humanitarian aid for the country and those who fled. the fights.
At least four dead in new bombings
At least four people were killed and nine others injured in Russian bombings that targeted the headquarters of the security services and a university in Kharkiv, Ukraine on Wednesday morning, Ukrainian relief said. “So far ten people have been rescued from the rubble, the preliminary toll is 4 dead and nine injured,” the source continued in a message on social media as the country’s second-largest city came under attack. of the Russian armed forces. Twenty-one people had been killed the day before in bombardments, in particular that of the headquarters of the local administration.
Joined by Europe 1, Svetlana, cloistered at home, heard the attack, helpless: “This morning, a building fell again. There are no more windows on the buildings. The streets are empty. took refuge in bunkers. It’s horrible,” she breathes.
Kharkiv under Russian threat
Russian airborne troops have landed in Kharkiv, the Ukrainian army announced at dawn, without giving an idea of their number. After several bombardments in the city center on Tuesday, which had killed at least 21 people, according to the regional governor, new strikes hit the regional headquarters of the security and police forces on Wednesday morning, as well as the university, according to the services of ’emergency. “There is no longer an area in Kharkiv where an artillery shell has not yet struck,” said Anton Gerashchenko, adviser to the Ukrainian interior minister.
The Russian army took the city of Kherson
“Russian army units have taken full control of the regional capital of Kherson,” Russian armed forces spokesman Igor Konashenkov said. A few minutes earlier, at 06:43 GMT, the Ukrainian mayor of the city, Igor Kolykhayev, had indicated that the locality was still under Ukrainian control.
Tanks and Russian soldiers are now moving towards the center of the city, under heavy shelling. Alexandre, a resident of the city, has not slept all night. “The Russians are in Kherson, they fired rockets. In some neighborhoods, there are plenty of bodies. But the Russians are not staying here. We see them leaving for Kiev and Nikolayev”, he explains to Europe 1 .
The Russian army has already seized another key port in Ukraine, that of Berdyansk, and is currently attacking that of Mariupoul.
Several cities were targeted on Tuesday
Kharkiv, a city of 1.4 million people near the border with Russia, was targeted by several bombardments on Tuesday, which left at least ten dead and more than 20 injured according to local authorities. In Mariupol, a port on the Sea of Azov, more than a hundred people were injured on Tuesday in Russian fire, according to the mayor of the city, Vadim Boïtchenko, quoted by Ukrainian media. In Kherson, whose entrances were already controlled by Russian forces, the latter took control of the railway station and the port overnight, according to the mayor of the city Igor Kolykhayev, quoted by local media.
In Borodianka, 50 km from Kiev, Russian airstrikes destroyed two residential buildings on Tuesday, according to Ukrainian First Deputy Foreign Minister Emine Djaparova, who shared a video of the gray buildings partially in ruins, with apartments in flames.
Belarusian troops soon to be mobilized?
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense also indicated overnight that it feared an attack from Belarus. “Belarusian troops have been put on high alert and are in the concentration areas closest to the border with Ukraine,” the ministry said in a statement on Facebook.
During the day on Tuesday, Ukrainian intelligence noted “significant activity” of aircraft in the border area, and convoys of vehicles carrying food and ammunition were observed there, the statement said. In view of these movements, Belarus “could probably support the Russian invaders in the Russian-Ukrainian war in the future”, warned the ministry. “Missile attacks against military and civilian targets” in Ukraine have been “systematically” launched from Belarusian territory since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24, he added.