Two months of war in Ukraine | The cruel toll of the Russian invasion

This Sunday marks the 60^and day of the beginning of the Russian invasion in Ukraine. Balance sheet.

Andre Duchesne
The Press

2435

This is the number of civilians dead in the conflict in Ukraine as of April 21, according to a UN report. The size of the concentric circles indicates that the cities with the highest number of civilian casualties are Kyiv, Mariupol, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Odessa and a few others. But the real toll could be much heavier: only in Mariupol, at least 20,000 people have died since the start of the conflict, according to regional authorities.

5,000,000

The number of Ukrainians who have left their country since the start of the invasion passed the 5 million mark on 20 April. About 90% of these people are women and children. Added to this number are more than 7.7 million internally displaced persons. The dispersion of refugees according to the main host countries is as follows:

• Poland: 2,825,463
• Romania: 757,047
• Russia: 549,805
• Hungary: 471,080
• Moldova: 426,964
• Slovakia: 342,813
• Belarus: 23,759

20,000

Russia has deployed 10,000 to 20,000 mercenaries from Syria, Libya and other countries for its recent offensive in Donbass. Their monthly salary fluctuates between US$600 and US$3,000 depending on their experience, indicates an article published on Wednesday in The Guardian. These mercenaries do not have heavy equipment or armored vehicles, a European official told the British daily.

141 against 5 (and 35 abstentions)

On March 2, the seventh day of the aggression, the United Nations General Assembly adopted by 141 votes to 5 a resolution calling for the withdrawal of Russian forces from Ukraine. Only Russia, Belarus, Eritrea, Syria and North Korea voted against this resolution. An ally of Russia, China abstained, as did some twenty African countries, some of which are close to the Russian giant.

East, all!

The Russian strategy has changed in the last month. After an all-out offensive in the north, east and south of Ukraine, Vladimir Putin’s troops are concentrating on the east of the country to “liberate” the Donbass mining basin. “We can now say that Russian troops have started the battle for Donbass, for which they have been preparing for a long time,” Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said on April 18. A very large part of the entire Russian army is now devoted to this offensive. In this Russian-speaking region, Ukrainian forces have been in conflict with pro-Russian separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk provinces since spring 2014.

Mariupol

In the far south of Donbass, Mariupol is the martyr city of this offensive. The conquest of this strategic port in the Sea of ​​Azov is the key to creating a continuous corridor under Russian control between Crimea, occupied since 2014, and Donbass. Such a gain would also open the way to Moldova, where Russia supports the separatist region of Transnistria, even hinted on Friday a senior Russian military official. For several days, Mariupol has been besieged by Russian troops. The last Ukrainian resistance fighters are holed up in the Azovstal steelworks site. Russia is trying by all means to close the Donbass by May 9, a patriotic holiday.

Genocide

Following the withdrawal of Russian forces from northern Ukraine, the bodies of dozens of civilians who had been shot and left abandoned were discovered on the streets of the town of Bucha, near Kyiv. In the days that followed, Western leaders, including US President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, began to utter the word “genocide” about Russia’s offensive in Ukraine. Visiting the scene, International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan said: “Ukraine is a crime scene. »

750

Since February 24, Canada has imposed sanctions on more than 750 people from Russia, Belarus and Ukraine in connection with the conflict. A month earlier, that number was 500. Since Russia invaded Crimea in 2014, Canada has imposed sanctions on more than 1,200 individuals associated with Vladimir Putin’s regime.