While claiming that Mariupol has been taken, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops not to storm the Azovstal steelworks where the last Ukrainian defenders of this city are entrenched. This decision forces him to keep battalions in place that he could have sent further north in his attempt to isolate the Ukrainian fighters in Donbass.
Posted at 7:01 p.m.
“The completion of combat work to liberate Mariupol is a success,” the Russian leader said Thursday morning at 57and war day. Bringing under control such an important center in the south as Mariupol is a success. »
As for the conquest of the Azovstal steel complex, the Russian leader considered the plan of attack impractical, reported The Guardian Thursday morning. Instead, he ordered a hermetic blockade of the steelworks, to the point that “not even a fly will pass”, in order to deprive the defenders of food, water and ammunition.
“The strategy of besieging the steel plant instead of storming it shows that the second option would cost enormously in terms of human lives for the Russians. And we know that they have suffered considerable losses so far,” analyzes Justin Massie, full professor of political science at UQAM and co-director of the Strategic Analysis Network (RAS).
PHOTO ALEXANDER ERMOCHENKO, REUTERS
Mariupol resident sitting outside a heavily damaged building on Thursday
Siege troops cannot be moved, which is an irritant to the Russians’ strategic plan, the expert adds. “There are still 12 units of Russian battalions [le nombre de soldats demeure inconnu] which represent resources not available to go further north in the attempt to encircle Ukrainian forces in the Donbass,” he remarks.
In the meantime, Russian forces can be expected to continue shelling Mariupol, a strategic port on the Sea of Azov, and especially its steel complex.
A thousand civilians trapped
Built in the 1930s, the Azovstal complex includes several kilometers of underground galleries. An unknown number of Ukrainian fighters are currently holed up there. However, we know a little more about the number of civilians trapped in the enclave. According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, about a thousand women and children as well as hundreds of wounded are there. Mariupol had some 400,000 inhabitants two months ago, when the invasion began. Some 100,000 remain, according to the most recent estimates.
Washington: new military aid of 800 million
PHOTO LANCE CORPORAL DAVIN TENBUSCH, SUPPLIED BY THE NAVY
A Howitzer gun of the type that will shortly be sent to Ukraine by the United States
On Thursday morning, US President Joe Biden announced $800 million in new military aid to Ukraine. The United States will provide, among other things, heavy artillery weapons, dozens of 155 mm Howitzer guns, some 144,000 munitions and drones. To this military aid is added an additional economic aid of 500 million intended to ensure the maintenance of the functioning of the Ukrainian government.
7 billion per month
PHOTO GENYA SAVILOV, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Volodymyr Zelensky, President of Ukraine, during a press conference with the Prime Ministers of Denmark and Spain, in Kyiv on Thursday
In the wake of this announcement by President Biden, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that the 500 million economic aid will allow the Ukrainian state to continue to function and to pay salaries and pensions. However, according to President Zelensky, the country needs 7 billion dollars a month to compensate for its economic losses. “And we will need hundreds of billions of dollars for reconstruction,” he said after meeting with representatives of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. The managing director of the IMF, Kristalina Georgieva, for her part urged countries to make donations and not loans to Ukraine, so that the country does not have to face a monstrous debt at the end of the war.
Biden not firm enough, according to the Americans
PHOTO JONATHAN ERNST, REUTERS
Joe Biden, President of the United States
On the sidelines of the announcements made by the White House, a poll conducted on behalf of the Associated Press and the National Opinion Research Center (NORC), an organization of the University of Chicago, indicates that 54% of Americans believe that President Biden is not strong enough in its response to Russian aggression, while 36% consider its approach acceptable and 8% believe it goes too far.
Signs of ambivalence
However, according to Christophe Cloutier-Roy, postdoctoral researcher and acting director of the United States Observatory of the Raoul-Dandurand Chair in Strategic and Diplomatic Studies, these results show a certain ambivalence among Americans. “People say Biden is too weak, but there are no alternatives offered,” he said. And even, we note that the percentage of Americans wishing to see the United States play an important role in the conflict has been falling since the beginning of it. What Americans expect is unclear. I have the impression that we want this crisis to end, but we don’t know how to go about it. And in this case, President Biden becomes a scapegoat. »
Kamala Harris and Mark Zuckerberg personæ non gratæ
Separately, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced on Thursday that US Vice President Kamala Harris, Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg and 27 other influential Americans have been ostracized and banned from entering Russia. Added to them are 61 Canadians, including 5 provincial premiers, including Doug Ford (Ontario) and Jason Kenney (Alberta), former Senator Roméo Dallaire and Governor of the Bank of Canada Tiff Macklem.
With The Canadian Press, The GuardianAgence France-Presse and Associated Press