(Kyiv) Ukraine, hit in its infrastructure and confronted with Russian forces in the south and east, was alarmed on Thursday by the possible opening of a new front in the north from Belarus, at a time when the alleged military aid from Tehran to Moscow, according to Washington, goes as far as the presence of Iranian soldiers in Crimea.
Updated yesterday at 3:02 p.m.
These assertions by the White House further heighten the accusations against Iran, already sanctioned Thursday by Ukraine’s Western allies for deliveries of kamikaze drones that Moscow and Tehran continue to deny.
“We believe that Iranian military personnel have been on the ground in Crimea and assisted Russia in these operations,” US presidential National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said of the suicide drone attacks. on Ukrainian cities and infrastructure in recent days, and in particular on Kyiv.
At the same time, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, speaking remotely before the European Council, accused Russia, thwarted at the front since September, of turning Ukraine’s electricity grid into a “battlefield” to cripple the country. as winter approaches.
He called on European countries to provide Kyiv with more sophisticated air defenses and impose more economic sanctions on Moscow.
Thursday evening, Mr. Zelensky accused the Russians of having mined a dam at the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station, located in the Kherson region, fearing a “large-scale disaster” if the structure was destroyed.
Ukrainian soldiers said Thursday they also feared the opening by Moscow of a new front in the north, from Belarus, which could threaten the routes of transport of Western weapons.
“The threat of a resumption of the offensive on the northern front by the Russian armed forces is growing,” Oleksiï Gromov, an official of the Ukrainian general staff, told the press.
According to him, “this time, the offensive could be west of the Belarusian border to cut off the main supply routes for foreign weapons and military equipment” which arrive in particular via Poland.
Mr Zelensky underlined in this context before the European Council that the Ukrainian proposal to deploy an international monitoring mission on the border between Ukraine and Belarus “is becoming more relevant every day”.
Sanctions against Iran
In the immediate future, in the face of alleged arms deliveries by Iran to Russia, the Western allies have adopted a series of sanctions against Tehran despite the denials of the two countries.
London joined the measures adopted the same day by the EU by announcing the imposition of new sanctions against Iran targeting three generals and an arms company “responsible for supplying Russia with kamikaze drones” to bomb Ukraine.
EU member states had previously agreed to sanction the Iranian company, Shahed Aviation Industries, linked to the powerful Revolutionary Guards, and the three military officials, including General Mohammed Hossein Bagheri, chief of staff of the Iranian armed forces.
Kyiv hailed the “rapid” response from the European Union.
For his part, Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid said Thursday that he was “deeply worried” about the military ties between Iran and Russia during a meeting with the head of Ukrainian diplomacy Dmytro Kuleba.
But Russia again called accusations that it used Iranian drones “outlandish speculations”.
Mr. Zelensky claimed on Wednesday that his army had destroyed 233 of these Iranian drones in a month.
Iran also called “baseless” Thursday reports from the Washington Post that the Islamic Republic was planning to send missiles to Russia for use in Ukraine.
After several waves of Russian strikes on its infrastructure, Ukraine on Thursday limited the electricity consumption of its population and businesses, particularly in Kyiv.
In the Ukrainian capital, Mayor Vitali Klitschko has urged businesses, shops, cafes and restaurants to “save as much as possible” on lighting and illuminated advertising.
In several other regions, local authorities called on residents to reduce their consumption, while Russia destroyed 30% of Ukrainian power plants in a week, according to Volodymyr Zelensky.
Restrictions have been taken in particular in the regions of Lviv and Chernivtsi, the company Chernivtsioblenergo said in a press release.
Evacuations from Kherson
In southern Ukraine, the Russian administration of the Kherson region assured that the evacuations of civilians had begun, with Thursday 15,000 people evacuated from this territory annexed by Moscow.
It plans to move “50,000 to 60,000” in a few days to the other bank of the Dnieper.
PHOTO ALEXEY PAVLISHAK, REUTERS
Civilians evacuated from Ukraine’s Russian-controlled region of Kherson sit inside a bus as they arrive at the train station in the Crimean city of Jankoy.
General Sergey Surovikin, recently appointed head of Russian operations in Ukraine, admitted on Tuesday that the situation there was “very difficult”.
For the secretary of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council, Oleksiy Danilov, we are witnessing “the preparation of the massive deportation of the Ukrainian population” to Russia “in order to modify the ethnic composition of the occupied territories”.
The establishment of martial law this week by Vladimir Putin in the annexed territories in Ukraine shows that the Ukrainians did not want to join Russia contrary to the assertions of the Russian president, according to the spokesman for the American diplomacy Ned Price.
Russian President Vladimir Putin for his part visited a training ground for mobilized soldiers in the Ryazan region, southeast of Moscow, on Thursday, according to images broadcast on Russian television.