The Ukrainian authorities displayed their optimism on Saturday in the war against Russia, announcing that they had repelled offensives in the East, while Finland officially informed Vladimir Putin of its intention to join NATO, a “mistake” for the Russian president.
At 80and day of the invasion of Ukraine, Russian forces continue to try to advance in Donbass, a strategic region in the east that pro-Russian separatists have partially controlled since 2014, and which they have made their main objective since their withdrawal from the surroundings of kyiv at the end of March.
Saturday evening, “the main Russian efforts are concentrated on the preparation of offensive operations” around the localities of Severodonetsk, Soledar and Bakhmout, specified the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which also observes an effort by the Russian navy to strengthen in black Sea.
On Saturday morning, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense recorded around thirty bombardments in 24 hours in the Lugansk region, one of the two provinces of Donbass with that of Donetsk. Ten Russian attacks were also repelled in 24 hours in the two regions, according to the Ukrainian general staff.
In particular, the Russians have been trying for three weeks, without success, to cross the Severskyi Donets river, at the level of the village of Bilogorivka, in the Lugansk region.
In this almost deserted village, an AFP team saw the roads strewn with abandoned military equipment.
Only three soot-covered corners remained of a school that was bombed a week ago, a strike that kyiv touts as one of the gravest crimes committed by Russian forces since they began their invasion of Ukraine, along with 60 civilians killed.
In this region of eastern Ukraine, the Russians are unable to make “significant capture”, said an American defense official on condition of anonymity.
Further north, in the province of Kharkiv, the Ukrainian authorities claimed to have launched a “counter-offensive” in the vicinity of Izium. The city itself, strategic for Moscow’s offensive on the Donbass, has been under Russian control since April 1.
“Turning”?
The situation also seems to have changed around Kharkiv, the country’s second city. Russian forces had to withdraw from several localities northeast of the city, according to the Ukrainian General Staff.
In this sector, on Saturday evening, the Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs specified that the Russian soldiers “were concentrating their efforts on maintaining their positions, controlling the supply routes […] north and east of Kharkiv, as well as preventing the advance of Ukrainian troops towards the border”.
The war will experience a “turning point” in August and Russia will be defeated “before the end of the year”, assured the head of Ukrainian military intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, in an interview with the British channel Sky News broadcast Friday evening.
But according to the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW), “Ukraine and its Western partners probably have only a small window of opportunity to support a counteroffensive in the territories occupied” by Russia. . Vladimir Putin “probably intends to annex southern and eastern Ukraine to the Russian Federation in the coming months”, according to this institute.
Time also seems to be running out for the last Ukrainian fighters in the Azovstal steelworks, the last pocket of resistance in the strategic port of Mariupol, at the southern tip of Donbass.
While Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke on Friday of “very difficult negotiations” to obtain the evacuation of 38 seriously injured fighters – out of some 600 wounded in total – some of their relatives called on Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday to intervene with of Vladimir Putin.
“I look forward to American support for new sanctions,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hoped on Saturday, in a statement after the visit to kyiv of an American parliamentary delegation led by Mitch McConnell, the leader of the Republican minority in the country. Senate.
“Direct Talk”
Outside Ukraine, the imminent candidacy of Finland – and probably also of Sweden – to NATO is the main point of tension with Moscow.
Finnish President Sauli Niinistö officially informed Vladimir Putin of this on Saturday by telephone. “The conversation was direct and straightforward and went without a hitch. Avoiding tensions was considered important, ”said Mr. Ninistö, a very regular interlocutor of the Russian president in recent years.
Mr Putin told him that Helsinki’s renunciation of its historical military non-alignment “would be a mistake, since there is no threat to Finland’s security”, according to the Kremlin.
Moscow threatened Thursday to retaliate with “technical-military” measures, without specifying which ones. On the night of Friday to Saturday, the export of electricity to Finland – around 10% of the consumption of the Nordic country – was suspended.
Most NATO countries have backed Helsinki membership, except Turkey, which is threatening to block.
Finland and Sweden can only be admitted to NATO after a unanimous vote of its members. However, the head of Turkish diplomacy Mevlut Cavusoglu did not completely close the door and offered to talk about it with his allies and the countries concerned.
Turkey accuses these two countries of harboring members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), an organization considered “terrorist” by Ankara (but also by the EU and the United States), and could ask them for compensation .
“Extend the sanctions”
In this context, the heads of diplomacy of the G7 (Germany, France, Italy, Canada, United States, Japan and United Kingdom), meeting in Wangels (Germany), indicated that they would “never” recognize the borders that Russia wants to impose on Ukraine. And again called on Belarus, a neighbor of Ukraine and an ally of Moscow, to “stop facilitating the intervention of Russia”.
In their final communiqué, the seven powers promised to “extend economic sanctions” to “sectors on which Russia is particularly dependent”, while urging China “not to undermine” these measures.
The European Union also pledged on Friday to provide additional aid of half a billion euros to support Ukraine’s fight, bringing it “to two billion euros in total”.
However, the 27 EU countries are struggling to agree on an embargo on Russian oil, Hungary having deemed the waiver obtained insufficient.
An informal meeting of NATO foreign ministers began on Saturday in Berlin, devoted to Ukraine. Sweden and Finland will hold bilateral talks with Turkey to try to overcome its hostility.
Ukraine favorite of Eurovision
In kyiv, where daily life is returning to normal, the city council on Saturday renamed an emblematic Soviet monument: the Ark of Friendship of Peoples became the Ark of Freedom of the Ukrainian People, announced the mayor of the city. capital, Vitali Klitschko.
If many places or monuments of the capital are called to be thus “decommunized”, the mayor stressed that the designation of the new names would involve “specialists”, in particular historians, “in order not to take a hasty decision”.
Ukraine also won the Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday evening in Italy, ahead of the United Kingdom and Spain, thanks to the vote of viewers who voted for the group representing the country invaded at the end of February by Russian troops.
The group Kalush Orchestra, whose song Stefania mixes hip-hop and traditional music, garnered 631 points. Favorites of the competition, the Ukrainians are ahead of the Briton Sam Ryder and his title space man (466 points) and the Spanish Chanel with Slo-Mo (459 points).
“Our courage impresses the world, our music conquers Europe”, reacted the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, on Facebook.