Russian forces continued to advance on Tuesday in the Donbass, an industrial basin in eastern Ukraine that they want to finish conquering, with the city of Sloviansk in their sights, the target of a violent bombardment which made the less than two dead.
Pavlo Kyrylenko, the governor of the Donetsk region, where Sloviansk is located, said on Telegram that two people were killed and seven injured in the strikes, which hit the central market.
AFP journalists saw rockets hitting the place and adjacent streets. Rouslan, a shopkeeper interviewed two hours after the bombing, struggled to hold back tears as he watched his shop burn. He denounced a “genocide” perpetrated by the Russian forces, assuring that such bombardments aimed to “scare people so that they flee” the city. “Once again, the Russians are intentionally targeting places where civilians congregate. This is terrorism pure and simple,” Governor Kyrylenko denounced, calling for the city to be evacuated.
After the fall on Sunday of Lyssytchansk, a strategic city for the conquest of Donbass, the Russian forces progress towards the west and Sloviansk, which had 100,000 inhabitants before the war. “Massive bombardment of the city. The center, the north. Everyone stays safe, ”warned Vadim Liakh, the city’s mayor, on Facebook.
On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to take the rest of Donbass, already partly controlled by pro-Russian separatists since 2014. Lysychansk was the last major stronghold held by kyiv in Luhansk province, which forms the Donbass with that of Donetsk.
On Tuesday, Russian troops advanced west towards Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, the two largest cities in Donetsk province, still under Ukrainian control. In the morning, they were about ten kilometers from Siversk, which they have been shelling for several days, and therefore about fifty kilometers from Sloviansk.
In the south of the country, Moscow claimed to have shot down “a Su-25 plane and three drones of Ukrainian forces in the Kherson region”, claims impossible to verify from an independent source. A Russian official from the powerful security services (FSB) took over the government of the area occupied in this region by Russian forces on Tuesday, the local administration announced.
Mutual accusations
Russia also said on Tuesday it was investigating torture allegedly suffered by Russian soldiers captured by Ukrainian forces and released during a prisoner swap with Ukraine.
Ukraine and Russia, which have carried out several prisoner exchanges, accuse each other of ill-treatment and torture of prisoners.
The Russian Ministry of Defense also claimed on Tuesday evening that, in the Donetsk region, Ukrainian “nationalists” were preparing “a provocation with the use of toxic substances” – large quantities of chlorine brought to a mined filtration station, according to the ministry. He added that the Ukrainian military used chemical infrastructure to base its men and weapons there, creating “the preconditions for accidents that could lead to the death of thousands of civilians”.
Rebuild Ukraine
It is in this context that Tuesday evening ended a two-day international conference held in Lugano, Switzerland, organized to try to draw the outlines of the reconstruction of Ukraine, the cost of which kyiv evaluates at 750 billions of dollars.
“Colossal funds” necessary to help the population, rebuild the cities and infrastructures destroyed by the war, but also “prepare schools and universities for a new school year” and “prepare for winter”, underlined Monday evening the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky.
“The recovery process must be transparent and accountable to the Ukrainian people,” said the declaration adopted on Tuesday in Lugano, amid concerns about the influx of billions of dollars in aid, as corruption is endemic in the country.
In its 2021 report on corruption, the NGO Transparency International ranked Ukraine 122e out of 180 countries, and Russia 136e. The Lugano conference had been planned well before the war started on February 24 by the Russian invasion: it was initially to focus on reforms in this area.
Economic pressures
Ukraine is also calling on its allies to put pressure on shipping companies to stop transporting goods for Russia and helping it sell its products.
the Zhibek Zholy, a freighter flying the Russian flag, has been anchored for five days off Turkey, in the Black Sea. Ukraine, which accuses Russia of stealing its wheat crops, says the ship is carrying 7,000 tons obtained illegally. A Turkish diplomatic source told AFP on Tuesday that an “inspection” was underway on board.
She also said “ believe” that Belarus, an ally of Moscow, would not allow itself to be “dragged” into the war. An opinion shared by Svetlana Tikhanovskaïa, leader of the Belarusian dissident, who “really doubts that the troops” of the country, which are “extremely demoralized”, “are participating in the invasion of Ukraine”, a “friendly nation” .
The war also continues to weigh on the European economy: the euro plunged on Tuesday to its lowest point since the end of 2002 against the American dollar, approaching parity, carried away by tensions over energy in Europe caused by the dispute.
An “intolerable” balance sheet
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet slammed the “intolerable” civilian toll of the conflict (nearly 5,000 confirmed civilians killed, including 335 children — arguably well below the actual toll) and the numerous human rights violations targeting the population.
“In the name of each victim of this absurd war, the executions, torture and arbitrary detentions must end,” she told the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva.
The conflict has caused one of the largest population displacements in Europe — more than eight million Ukrainians — since the end of World War II. On the military level, Western security sources mention 15,000 to 20,000 Russian soldiers killed. Ukrainian forces are losing around 100 soldiers every day, according to kyiv.