Drowned under a deluge of fire, the city of Lyssytchansk, in eastern Ukraine, is living “hell” according to the Ukrainian authorities, recognizing the advance of Russian troops who intend to fully control the eastern region of Donbass. Faced with these military setbacks, kyiv hopes for a strong diplomatic success with the holding of the European Council on Thursday, which must decide on Ukraine’s EU candidate status.
Information to remember:
- Clément Beaune reports “total consensus” on Ukraine’s EU candidacy
- In the Donbass, the Russians now “control” the village of Tochkivka
- In Severodonetsk, workers and their families refuse to evacuate the Azot factory
- Moscow discusses the possibility of imposing the death penalty on two Americans captured by Russia in Ukraine
- Russia denounces drone attack on Ukraine border refinery
The city of Mykolaiv under the bombardments
Our special correspondent in Mykolaiv, a port city in southern Ukraine, observed bombings on Wednesday. Around 7 a.m. Wednesday morning the bombing alerts began. It was around 11 a.m. that the first were observed, with five bombardments in total on Mykolaiv.
Many civilians decide to leave “before they go mad”, according to testimonies collected on the spot by our special correspondent. They believe that the Russians are trying to strengthen their positions in recent weeks by intensifying the bombardments, before possible negotiations.
Russian strikes ‘destroy everything’
The Russian strikes “destroy everything” in Lyssytchansk, a strategic industrial city neighboring Severodonetsk in the Donbass (east), deplore on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday the Ukrainians who, at the same time, are working to obtain weapons and the official status of EU candidate. “The Russian army is pounding Lysytchansk with cannons, missiles, air bombs, rocket launchers… they are destroying everything,” Sergei Gaïdaï, the governor of the Lugansk region, the epicenter of the city, said on Telegram. the confrontation between Ukrainian and Russian armies.
“As actively as we are fighting for a positive decision by the European Union on Ukraine’s candidacy, we are fighting daily for supplies of modern weapons,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday evening. spent his day on the phone trying to rally support from the Twenty-Seven.
A “total consensus” emerged within the Twenty-Seven
This optimism is reinforced by the words of the French Minister for European Affairs Clément Beaune, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU. He reported a “total consensus” which emerged within the Twenty-Seven during a meeting with his counterparts in Luxembourg, concerning this request, which must still be officially validated Thursday at a summit.
Meanwhile, the tone has risen between Moscow and an EU member, Lithuania, after the application by this former Soviet republic of European sanctions linked to the invasion of Ukraine.
Describing as “hostile acts” the restrictions imposed by the Lithuanian authorities on the transit by rail of goods affected by these sanctions in the direction of Kaliningrad, Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of the Russian Security Council, declared, during a visit to this Russian enclave on the Baltic, that “appropriate measures” would be “adopted shortly” and that they would have “serious negative consequences for the people of Lithuania”.
kyiv received German self-propelled guns
In terms of armament, kyiv on Tuesday welcomed the arrival of German self-propelled guns Panzerhaubitze 2000 which complete its arsenal.
In Donbass (east), the Russians now “control” the village of Tochkivka on the front line, a few kilometers from Severodonetsk and the neighboring town of Lyssytchansk where fighting is raging, recognized the head of the Severodonetsk district, Roman Vlasenko.
The Lugansk region has been the scene of fierce artillery battles between Russian and Ukrainian forces for several weeks, is almost entirely controlled by forces from Moscow. Only the pocket of Ukrainian resistance around Lyssytchansk and Severodonetsk still escapes the control of the Russian army.
After the bombardment last week of Lyssytchansk, separated from Severodonetsk by the Donets, an impassable river since the bridges were destroyed there, Alla Bor, a history teacher, resolved to flee with her son-in-law and her grandson. “I got scared. We give up everything and leave. No one can survive such a strike,” she told AFP journalists.
“We gave up everything, we left our house. We left our dog with food. It’s inhuman, but what can we do?” she laments.
An AFP team saw Ukrainian soldiers digging a trench to serve as a firing post in a street in central Lysychansk and erecting barricades with barbed wire and branches. “Many locals who remained are waiting for the Russian world,” says Jaconda, alluding to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s desire to restore Russian influence in regions bordering Russia.
Fighting continues to rage in Severodonetsk
In Severodonetsk, “fighting is raging around the industrial zone” where, according to local authorities, 568 people including 38 children – mainly employees and their families – are now taking refuge inside the Azot factory, according to the head of the Severodonetsk district, Roman Vlasenko.
They refuse to evacuate, according to Mr. Gaïdaï, who assured that they receive food, water and some basic medicines.
This factory is emblematic of this industrial city which had around 100,000 inhabitants before the war. The capture of the city by Moscow would be an important step towards the conquest of all of Donbass, a mainly Russian-speaking region partly held by pro-Russian separatists since 2014.
Volodymyr Zelensky urges his army to “hold on”
The Ukrainian president urged his army to “hold on”, judging that the outcome of the war would depend on its resistance and its ability to rein in the Russian army and inflict losses on it.
In the Kharkiv region (northeast), Governor Oleg Synegoubov announced on his Telegram channel that 15 people, including an eight-year-old child, were killed on Tuesday and 16 injured under Russian artillery fire. Several cities in Donbass still under the control of kyiv are preparing for a new advance by Russian troops, such as Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, east of Severodonetsk.
New Russian drilling platforms targeted by Ukraine
Ukraine said on Tuesday that it had targeted hydrocarbon drilling platforms in the Black Sea the day before, which it said were used as military “installations” by the Russians to strengthen their control in the region.
“We are proud that (in Ukraine) our fighters act with courage, professionalism, like real heroes,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said during a speech in the Kremlin to young graduates of Russian military academies and the most senior army officers. Mr Putin also said he was “sure” that the sanctions against Russia will be “overcome”.
In Washington, a White House spokesman, John Kirby, called it “appalling” that Moscow was discussing the possibility of imposing the death penalty on two Americans captured by Russia in Ukraine, and confirmed that a second American national had been killed in action in that country.
Russia denounces drone attack on Ukraine border refinery
Two drones on Wednesday attacked an oil refinery in southwestern Russia near the border with Ukraine, its owner said, denouncing a “terrorist” act that did not cause any casualties. “Two drones attacked technological equipment at the Novochakhtinsky Petroleum Products Plant, which caused an explosion followed by a fire,” the refinery said in a statement posted on its website.
According to the same source, a first drone first carried out a “strike” at 05:40 GMT, causing an explosion. Then, a second aircraft targeted a crude oil deposit at 06:23 GMT, causing material damage, but no explosion. The attack caused no casualties, the refinery said.