SLOVIANSK | Kyiv tries Monday to slow the advance of the Russian army in eastern Ukraine, after the fall of the strategic city of Lysytchansk, as an international conference opens in Switzerland to prepare for the country’s future reconstruction. .
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The staff of the Ukrainian armed forces announced Sunday evening its withdrawal from the city of Lyssytchansk, the last stronghold held by the Ukrainians in the Lugansk region, recognizing the “superiority” of Russian troops on the ground.
“We continue to defend a tiny part [du territoire] of the region of Lugansk so that our army can “prepare a new line of defense, declared Monday morning Serguiï Gaïdaï, governor of this province which Moscow announced Sunday to control completely.
According to Mr. Gaïdaï, fighting was taking place near Bilogorivka, a locality bordering the Donetsk region, a few kilometers west of Lyssytchansk.
After taking Lyssytchansk, the centerpiece of the plan to conquer Donbass, a largely Russian-speaking industrial basin and partly controlled by pro-Russian separatists since 2014, the Russian army now seems to be concentrating its efforts on Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, two major cities further east. west, pounded since Sunday.
“The Russians are killing civilians!” said Monday morning the governor of the Donetsk region, reporting ten dead, including two children, the day before in Russian strikes, in Sloviansk and the surrounding area.
“A day will come”…
On Sunday evening, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky tried to put on a good face, insisting on the other front lines, where Kyiv claims to be “progressing”, in the regions of Kharkiv (northeast) or Kherson (south). “A day will come when we will say the same about Donbass,” assured President Zelensky.
As the frontline moves closer to Sloviansk, Ukrainian authorities are now calling on residents to leave the area.
The streets of the city were almost deserted Monday morning, according to AFP journalists on the spot. In the large market in the city center largely ravaged by a fire caused by a Russian strike, a few vendors offered basic necessities while others cleared charred debris.
Vendors and residents interviewed by AFP, some still in shock, expressed their concern for the days and weeks to come, when the sounds of bombardments can be heard.
In Siversk, between Lyssytchansk and Sloviansk, the Ukrainian forces seem to want to rely on a line of defense between this city and Bakhmout further south. The inhabitants interviewed by AFP evoke more intense bombardments on Siversk, these last days.
“The enemy has intensified its bombardments on our positions in the direction of Bakhmout,” confirmed the staff of the Ukrainian army, in its first point Monday morning.
The Russian Defense Ministry said it had destroyed “seven Ukrainian command posts” in the past 24 hours, “including that of the 25th Airborne Division in the Siversk region”.
$104 billion
In Boutcha, a city-martyrdom in the suburbs of the capital, even if some have gone back to planting flowers at the foot of buildings or busying themselves with the vegetable garden, the inhabitants do not yet dare to think of reconstruction, when the outcome of the fighting remains so uncertain. Here, the scars of the fighting are still visible everywhere: broken windows, bullet holes, holed walls…
“We go to bed without knowing if we will wake up tomorrow,” breathes Vera Semeniouk, 65. “Everyone is back, starting to repair houses, many are putting up new windows. It would be terrible if it started again and we had to leave everything again.
While the outcome of the war is uncertain, the Lugano conference must try Monday and Tuesday to draw the outlines of the future reconstruction of Ukraine.
The “task is really colossal” if only in the liberated territories, acknowledged Sunday Mr. Zelensky, referring to the conference. His Swiss hosts were hoping for him to come in person, but he will participate, as he is now used to, by videoconference in this meeting bringing together officials from Ukraine’s allies, international institutions and also the private sector.
The conference had been planned well before the war and was initially to focus on reforms in Ukraine and in particular the fight against endemic corruption.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Chmygal and Speaker of Parliament Rouslan Stefantchouk arrived in Lugano on Sunday. They must meet there in particular the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, to lay the foundations of the “Marshall Plan” for Ukraine, even though there is no end in sight to the war and that figures range from tens to hundreds of billions of dollars.
Robert Mardini, director general of the International Committee of the Red Cross, judged on the Swiss public channel RTS that if the reconstruction strictly speaking will have to wait for the end of the fighting, it is however vital to give “a positive perspective to civilians”.
The Kyiv School of Economics (KSE) has estimated the damage to buildings and infrastructure so far at nearly $104 billion. The country’s economy has already lost 600 billion dollars according to some estimates.
The European Investment Bank (EIB) is to propose the creation of a new fund for Ukraine, which could reach 100 billion euros, according to sources familiar with the plan.
The United Kingdom, one of Ukraine’s most active allies, will notably support the reconstruction of the city and region of Kyiv, at the request of President Zelensky, the Foreign Office said on Sunday.