A woman, in shock, holding the hand of her husband, whose lifeless body has been covered with a blanket amid broken glass. The photo was taken on the morning of Thursday July 21 in Kharkiv: Ukraine’s second city adineen the target of a Russian bombardment. Local authorities mention 3 dead and 23 injured. Franceinfo takes stock of the situation, on the 148th day of war.
Three killed in strike in Kharkiv
In Kharkiv, a new strike killed three people and injured 23 on Thursday morning. Four of the injured are in serious condition as a result of the multiple rocket launcher bombardment, oblast governor Oleh Synehoubov announced on Telegram.
Located about 40 kilometers from the Russian border, the city of Kharkiv has been shelled by the Russian army since the start of the invasion at the end of February, but troops from Moscow have never managed to take it. The day before, ofThree people had already been killed, including a teenager near a bus stop.
kyiv accuses Moscow of storing weapons in the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant
Ukraine accuses Russia of storing heavy weapons and ammunition at the site of the occupied nuclear power plant in Zaporizhia, in the south of the country. According to Energoatom, the Ukrainian nuclear energy operator, at least fourteen units of heavy military equipment with their ammunition are stored in the engine room of reactor 1 of the plant, which is the largest in Europe. “The whole of the heavy arsenal brought with all the ammunition is now very close to the equipment which ensures the operation of the turbo-generator”, alarms the company on its Telegram channel.
The Russian equipment is located in the immediate vicinity of the main oil tank, whose flammable product is used to cool the steam turbine, as is the hydrogen used to cool the generator, according to Energoatom. The Ukrainian company is concerned about the risk of accidental detonation and fire.
Belarusian President calls on kyiv and the West to end the war in Ukraine
“Come on, let’s stop. We must not go any further.” In an interview with AFP, the Belarusian president calls on kyiv and the West to end the war in Ukraine. “Further, it is the precipice. Further, it is nuclear war. (…) We must stop, get along, stop this chaos”pleaded Alexander Lukashenko.
Main ally of Moscow, Alexander Lukashenko had lent the territory of his country to the Russian army, at the beginning of the year, so that it could launch its offensive on Ukraine on February 24. According to him, it is today the Europeans and the Americans who encourage Ukraine to fight: “It all depends on Ukraine, currently, the peculiarity of the moment is that the war can end in more preferable conditions for Ukraine”.
Russia has reopened the floodgates
End of suspense. Moscow reopened the gas tap to Europe by restarting the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline after ten days of annual pipeline maintenance. Arguing that there is no turbine under maintenance in Canada, Gazprom has already reduced deliveries via Nord Stream to 40% of capacity since mid-June. The Kremlin judges that Western restrictions cause the technical problems of Russian gas delivery to Europe. “It is these restrictions that prevent repairs to equipment, including turbines at compressor stations”Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Moscow and kyiv will sign an agreement in Turkey on Friday on the cUkrainian cereals
They had been blocked for several months because of the war: Ukrainian cereals should soon be able to leave the country via the Black Sea. Russia and Ukraine will sign an export agreement in Istanbul on Friday afternoon, the Turkish presidency announced on Thursday evening.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, along with representatives from Russia and Ukraine, will attend the signing ceremony. The agreement should also allow for an easing of obstacles to the export of Russian grain and fertilizers.
The hryvnia loses value
The Central Bank of Ukraine announced the 25% devaluation Ukrainian national currency. It establishes the exchange rate at 36.57 hryvnias for one dollar against 29.25 hryvnias for one dollar previously, a rate which was in effect from the beginning of the Russian invasion at the end of February.
Zelensky personally denies rumors about his condition
“Volodymyr Zelensky is in intensive care in serious condition. His duties are now carried out by the President of the Rada”, Ruslan Stefanchuk. This Thursday, a surprise awaited the listeners of Bayaktar and Melodie FM radios, two popular stations in Ukraine. The usual programs were disrupted by an announcement that was surprising to say the least, and totally false, relating to the state of health of the Ukrainian president. A video, shot in the passenger compartment of a vehicle, thus circulates on social networks, with the audio message in question.
The TAVR Media group, owner of the two antennas, quickly published a press release evoking a “cyberattack carried out on its servers”stating that “the services concerned were trying to resolve the problem”. While insisting, in passing, on the fact that these statements on the state of health of Volodymyr Zelensky “did not correspond to reality”. the interested party later himself denied the rumors on Instagram.