War in Ukraine | Capture of Kherson by the Russian army, discussions on a ceasefire

(Kyiv) A week after the launch of their operation, Russian forces took Kherson, a major city in southern Ukraine, shortly before a second session of talks on Thursday morning on a ceasefire between Russian and Ukrainian negotiators.

It is the largest city taken by Russian forces in a conflict which, in seven days, has caused a million people to flee to neighboring countries, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi.

The mayor of this city of 290,000 inhabitants, Igor Kolykhaiev, announced that he had discussed with “armed guests” in a building of the administration of Kherson, implying, without naming them, Russian troops.

“We had no weapons and were not aggressive. We have shown that we are working to secure the city and trying to deal with the consequences of the invasion,” he said in a Facebook post.

” Very dangerous ”

The head of the regional administration, Gennadi Lakhouta, called on Telegram residents to stay at home, indicating that “the (Russian) occupiers are in all parts of the city and are very dangerous”.

The acts committed by Russia on Ukrainian territory will now be all the more scrutinized as the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), the British Karim Khan, announced Wednesday evening “the immediate opening” of an investigation for crimes of war.

The Russian army announced on Wednesday morning that it had seized Kherson, located not far from the Crimean peninsula annexed in 2014 by Moscow. This port city and its outskirts suffered intense bombardments.

Further east, in Mariupol, the main Ukrainian port on the Sea of ​​Azov, “it is deteriorating from hour to hour”, testified one of its inhabitants, Maryna, 28, according to whom the city center has been pounded.

If it took control, the Russian army could ensure territorial continuity between its forces coming from Crimea and those arriving from the separatist territories further north-east.

Russia’s military advance comes just hours away from ceasefire talks it has agreed to.

These negotiations will begin Thursday morning in a place in Belarus located “not far from the border with Poland”, specified the Russian negotiator Vladimir Medinski.

Initial discussions on Monday, also in Belarus, had yielded no tangible results, Kyiv having demanded an immediate end to the invasion, while Moscow had seemed to expect a surrender.

The United States will “support diplomatic efforts” by Ukraine to obtain a ceasefire with Russia, even if “it is much more difficult to achieve this when the shots ring out and the tanks advance”, reacted the head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken.

The Secretary of State also emphasized an already “staggering” “human cost”. “Hundreds if not thousands of civilians have been killed and injured,” Mr. Blinken lamented at a press conference, and “the number of civilians killed and injured, the humanitarian consequences, will only worsen in the coming months. coming days”.

French President Emmanuel Macron has meanwhile shown his desire to “stay in touch” with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in order to “convince him to give up arms”, launching in a televised address a vibrant “we are not at war against Russia “.

1 million refugees

At the same time, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution which “demands that Russia immediately cease to use force against Ukraine”, only five countries opposing it and 35 abstaining, including China, out of the 193 members of this organization.

On the ground, on the seventh day of Vladimir Putin’s offensive in Ukraine, Russian airborne units landed in Kharkiv, the country’s second city, located in the east 50 km from the border with Russia, said the Ukrainian army.

After several bombings in the city center the day before, which killed at least 21 people according to the regional governor, buildings housing security forces and the university were hit. At least four people were killed and nine injured.

And the OSCE announced on Wednesday evening the death the day before of a Ukrainian member of its local mission during the “bombing” of Kharkiv.

In the Dorohozhychi station, inside the Kyiv metro transformed into an air-raid shelter, AFP saw dozens of families. Many have spent the last six nights on the floor, lying on sheets and towels.

The strikes on Kyiv and Kharkiv have aroused great emotion in the world, where demonstrations against the war, gestures of solidarity with Ukraine and all-out sanctions have multiplied in recent days.

Among the economic measures, the EU has confirmed that seven Russian banks will, from March 12, be excluded from the Swift messaging system, a key cog in international finance, while the World Bank has cut all its programs. help in Russia and Belarus.

As a result of Russia’s growing economic isolation, the prices of hydrocarbons and aluminum, of which Russia is a major exporter, soared, with oil prices at their highest for nearly a decade.

The ruble lost in a few days more than a third of its value in foreign currencies. Jobs, wages and bank loans are potentially at risk.

Russia is also increasingly isolated in sports and culture. Music streaming giant Spotify announced late Wednesday the closure of its offices in Russia and the removal of Russian state-sponsored content from its site.