Fighting is still raging in eastern and southern Ukraine, but some kind of “normalization” is taking place in kyiv, where nearly two-thirds of the inhabitants have returned and where European leaders are increasing support visits.
Franceinfo looks back on the events of the day on Tuesday May 10.
44 bodies discovered in the rubble of a building in the east
The bodies of 44 civilians were found in the rubble of a building destroyed in March in Izium, a Russian-held town in the Kharkiv region of eastern Ukraine. The bodies were found “in the rubble of a five-storey building destroyed during the first decade of March” by Russia, the governor of the Kharkiv region said on Telegram.
He did not specify under what conditions the bodies had been collected or by whom, the town of Izium and its surroundings being occupied by Russian troops who took the town on April 1, after several weeks of heavy fighting. The Kharkiv region prosecutor’s office for its part announced that it had opened an investigation for “violation of the laws and customs of war and premeditated murder”, specifying that 14 bodies had been identified.
More than a thousand soldiers still surrounded in the Azovstal steelworks
In Mariupol, a martyr city in the south-east of the country, “more than a thousand” of Ukrainian soldiers including “hundreds injured” are still in the Azovstal steel plant besieged by Russian troops, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said. “There are serious injuries who require urgent evacuation”she pointed out.
The civilians who were holed up with the combatants were evacuated last week with UN assistance.
Residents of Kyiv have mostly returned
Nearly two-thirds of kyiv’s 3.5 million residents have returned to the Ukrainian capital, which had emptied most of its residents at the start of the Russian invasion on February 24, Mayor Vitali Klitschko announced. . Even though there is still a curfew, roadblocks, “if these limitations do not scare you, you can indeed come back”added the city councilor, who until now called on the inhabitants to be patient.
Visits by leaders are also continuing in the capital and its suburbs. The head of German diplomacy, Annalena Baerbock, and her Dutch counterpart Wopke Hoekstra were in Ukraine on Tuesday, notably visiting towns on the outskirts of kyiv where the Ukrainians accuse the Russians of having massacred civilians during their occupation of this region in March .
Washington fears a Russian offensive in Transnistria
Vladimir Putin does not intend to limit his desire for occupation to the Donbass region of Ukraine alone, but wants to take the conflict to Transnistria, a region of Moldova which seceded in 1990, says the intelligence chief American, April Haines.
The Russian president, who she says is counting on a weakening of Western support for Ukraine, is preparing for a long conflict, for which he will “most likely” impose martial law in Russia, Avril Haines told Congress. “We continue to believe that President Putin will only authorize the use of nuclear weapons if he perceives an existential threat to the Russian state or regime”she added.
A human toll still impossible to establish
There is no overall assessment of the civilian victims of the conflict. In Mariupol alone, the Ukrainian authorities spoke several weeks ago of 2,000 deaths. And Ukrainian investigators claim to have identified “more than 8,000 cases” suspected of war crimes.
On the military level, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense estimates Russian losses at more than 25,000 men, 199 planes and 1,130 tanks since the start of the invasion on February 24. The Kremlin has admitted “significant losses”.