War in Ukraine | Moscow loses Moskva, its flagship

The Russian army suffered a severe loss on Thursday, that of its flagship in the Black Sea, the cruiser Moskva, which Kyiv claims to have hit with its cruise missiles. The event raises fears of an escalation of the conflict at a time when Russia accuses Ukrainian forces of bombing villages on its territory.

Russian cruiser sunk

Damaged during the offensive against Ukraine, the flagship of the Russian fleet in the Black Sea, the cruiser Moskva, sank while being towed, the Russian Defense Ministry announced Thursday evening. “The vessel lost stability due to hull damage sustained in the fire following the detonation of ammunition. In rough sea conditions, the ship sank,” the Ministry said, adding that its crew of more than 500 men had been evacuated. The Ukrainians claimed for their part to have hit the ship with cruise missiles.

Mariupol still holds

The mayor of Mariupol, Vadim Boitchenko, denied Thursday the capture by Russian forces of its port area announced the day before by the Russian Ministry of Defense. “We hold our line and Mariupol remains a Ukrainian city, which makes Russia furious,” he said, according to AFP. The conquest of this city would allow the Russians to consolidate their territorial gains by connecting the Donbass region to Crimea. But in the charred ruins of the city, its inhabitants are starving, warned the director of the UN World Food Program, David Beasley.

Mutual accusations

The Ukrainian Parliament passed a resolution on Thursday describing the Russian offensive as “genocide”. In response, Russia accused Ukraine of bombing Russian border villages, with its investigative committee claiming that two Ukrainian helicopters flew over Russia and carried out “at least six strikes on apartment buildings” in Bryansk region. The Ukrainians rejected these claims, in turn accusing the Russian secret service of carrying out “terrorist attacks” in the border region to fuel “anti-Ukrainian hysteria”.

Favorable weather conditions for Ukrainians in the Donbass

The bad weather in the Donbass could favor the Ukrainian army against the Russian forces. With the rain and warming temperatures, “it is more difficult for [elles] to maneuver off paved roads,” a senior US intelligence official told AFP who requested anonymity. The weather had already played a role at the start of the invasion in the north of the country, when insufficiently frozen ground forced Russian tanks to travel in long convoys on asphalt roads, which made them vulnerable to anti-tank systems from the Ukrainian forces.

Over 500 civilians killed in Kharkiv region

More than 500 civilians, including 24 children, have been killed in the Kharkiv region of eastern Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion. In the past 24 hours alone, it has suffered 34 strikes that left one dead and eight injured, regional governor Oleg Sinegoubov said on Telegram on Thursday. Its capital, Kharkiv, the second largest city in the country with nearly 1.5 million inhabitants before the war, is located about forty kilometers from the Russian border.

Biden considers sending US officials to Ukraine

U.S. President Joe Biden said on Thursday he was considering sending senior U.S. officials to Ukraine, like several European countries whose leaders have recently traveled there as a sign. of solidarity with Kyiv in the face of the Russian invasion. In a press scrum, Mr Biden said he was ready to travel to the war-torn country himself. Last week, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson became the first leader of a G7 country to visit Ukraine since the outbreak of hostilities. He notably met the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky.

CIA fears Putin’s reaction

Military setbacks in Ukraine could prompt President Vladimir Putin to resort to a tactical or low-power nuclear weapon there, CIA chief William Burns said Thursday. During a speech in Atlanta, the latter spoke of the possibility that the Russian leaders “sink into despair”. The Kremlin has talked about putting its nuclear forces on alert, “but we haven’t really seen any concrete signs like deployments or military measures”, added Mr. Burns, who was speaking in front of students of the Georgia Tech University.

Putin wants to redirect Russian gas exports

Russian President Vladimir Putin called on Thursday to redirect his country’s energy exports to Asia, accusing the Europeans of “destabilizing the market” by wanting to do without Russian hydrocarbons. A possible embargo on Russian gas is the subject of bitter discussions between the Member States of the European Union, Germany being one of the main opponents of an immediate halt to these imports, on which it is very dependent.

With Agence France-Presse and the Associated Press