War in Ukraine | The Russian aggression, a month later

Vladimir Putin launched the biggest war in Europe in more than 75 years a month ago. Review and explanations.

Posted at 5:00 a.m.

Nicolas Berube

Nicolas Berube
The Press

Refugees

  • Lviv Central Station crowded with people fleeing war, especially women and children

    PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, PRESS ARCHIVES

    Lviv Central Station crowded with people fleeing war, especially women and children

  • Civilians try to flee the town of Irpin shelled by Russian forces by taking shelter under a destroyed bridge on March 8

    PHOTO VADIM GHIRDA, ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVES

    Civilians try to flee the town of Irpin shelled by Russian forces by taking shelter under a destroyed bridge on March 8

  • The Medyka border post in Poland was overwhelmed by thousands of refugees.

    PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, PRESS ARCHIVES

    The Medyka border post in Poland was overwhelmed by thousands of refugees.

  • Refugees receive clothes after arriving in the city of Krakow, Poland.

    PHOTO SARAH MONGEAU-BIRKETT, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES

    Refugees receive clothes after arriving in the city of Krakow, Poland.

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The flow of refugees began in the first hours of the invasion. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 10 million people are currently displaced “within Ukraine, or as refugees abroad”. The High Commission estimates that 3.5 million Ukrainians – mostly women and children – have fled the country so far. On Monday, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said the European Union should expect more refugees from Ukraine to cross the border – 8 million people will have to be relocated outside of Ukraine, she said.

Number of refugees hosted in neighboring countries

  • Poland: 2,144,244
  • Romania: 555,021
  • Moldova: 371 104
  • Hungary: 324 397
  • Slovakia: 256,838
  • Russia: 271 254
  • Belarus: 4,938

Since March 17, 20,000 Ukrainians have applied for expedited visas to gain temporary residency in Canada, and 4,733 have entered the country since the start of the invasion. “We can expect tens of thousands of Ukrainians to arrive in Canada over the next few weeks,” Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Minister Sean Fraser said earlier this week.

Civilian casualties

  • A pregnant woman is evacuated from a maternity hospital bombed by the Russian army on March 9 in Mariupol.  The mother will succumb to her injuries, as will the child she was carrying.

    PHOTO EVGENIY MALOLETKA, ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVES

    A pregnant woman is evacuated from a maternity hospital bombed by the Russian army on March 9 in Mariupol. The mother will succumb to her injuries, as will the child she was carrying.

  • A Ukrainian man mourns the death of a loved one in the middle of the street after a Russian strike on a residential building in Kyiv last week.

    PHOTO GENYA SAVILOV, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES

    A Ukrainian man mourns the death of a loved one in the middle of the street after a Russian strike on a residential building in Kyiv last week.

  • Residential building gutted in Kyiv last Sunday

    PHOTO SERGEI SUPINSKY, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES

    Residential building gutted in Kyiv last Sunday

  • A man looks out of the window of what remains of his home damaged by Russian airstrikes on the outskirts of Odessa, in the south of the country, last Monday.

    PHOTO OLEKSANDR GIMANOV, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES

    A man looks out of the window of what remains of his home damaged by Russian airstrikes on the outskirts of Odessa, in the south of the country, last Monday.

  • Elderly lady in front of a house destroyed by Russian shelling in a village east of Kyiv last Monday

    PHOTO ARIS MESSINIS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES

    Elderly lady in front of a house destroyed by Russian shelling in a village east of Kyiv last Monday

  • Boris Romantchenko, 96, who had survived the Holocaust during World War II, perished in a Russian bombardment in Kharkiv.

    PHOTO FROM TWITTER ACCOUNT @BUCHENWALD_DORA

    Boris Romantchenko, 96, who had survived the Holocaust during World War II, perished in a Russian bombardment in Kharkiv.

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As of March 22, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) reported a verified total of 925 Ukrainian civilian deaths in the Russian military attack. Among them, 75 were children. In addition, 1496 people are said to have been injured, while the actual numbers are probably much higher. According to local media, Russian soldiers also fired on unarmed civilian protesters on Monday in the occupied city of Kherson in the south of the country. This week authorities announced that 96-year-old Boris Romanchenko, a survivor of the Nazi Holocaust in World War II, was killed in a bombing of his building in the eastern city of Kharkiv. country.

Penalties


PHOTO ARCHIVES AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

McDonald’s restaurant in Moscow closed following Western sanctions

Unprecedented sanctions have been adopted against Russia by the United States, Canada and the European Union, among others. At the same time, more than 400 companies, including Apple, Microsoft, Alcoa, Daimler, Volkswagen, Toyota, McDonald’s and Starbucks, have announced the cessation or withdrawal of their activities in Russia. Despite everything, the European Union remains divided on the question of an embargo on Russian hydrocarbons, massively imported into its territory. And some Western companies continue their activities in Russia: the giant Nestlé continues to sell certain products there, drawing criticism from the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, and the French company Decathlon, which has about sixty stores in Russia. , remains active there.


PHOTO ARCHIVES AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Russian speakers celebrate, last Friday, the 8and anniversary of the annexation of Crimea by Russia, in Simferopol, capital of the small territory bordering the Black Sea.

Why was the annexation of Crimea in 2014 warmly applauded by the Russian people? Because there was no violence! It is the violence of the Ukrainian invasion that makes this, in my opinion, absolutely unjustifiable for the Russian people.

Ekaterina Piskunova, lecturer in the political science department of the University of Montreal

Censorship


PHOTO ARCHIVE REUTERS

News bulletin from the first channel of Russian state television interrupted on March 14 by a station employee brandishing this message: “No to war, don’t believe the propaganda, we are lying to you. »

The war and the horrific images it engenders are making headlines all over the world – except in Russia. There, the “special operation” launched by Putin in Ukraine is heavily censored. Unthinkable just a few weeks ago, the social networks Instagram (64 million users in Russia, around 40% of the population) and Facebook (13 million) were shut down by Russian authorities – even though Russian users find the way to access it using applications that blur the geographical location. However, the instant messaging application Telegramwhich is difficult for governments to block, is still used by 38 million people in Russia, and uncensored videos of the war in Ukraine, as well as speeches by Volodymyr Zelensky, circulate there abundantly.

With the collaboration of Mélanie Marquis, The Press


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