Russian forces continued their offensive to try to conquer the second province of Donbass, that of Donetsk, Thursday, July 7. Russians claim to have taken total control of the province of Luhansk, one of the two forming the mining basin, a few days ago. Russians “have still not reached the limits of the region”denied Thursday the governor of the province, Serguiï Gaïdaï.
In the south, the Russians are still bombarding the Mykolaiv region and fighting is raging around occupied Kherson since the first days of the war. Franceinfo takes stock of the assessment of the situation in Ukraine, on the 134th day of the war.
An explosion in Kramatorsk
In Kramatorsk, an explosion dug a large crater in a courtyard located between a hotel and apartment buildings, according to AFP journalists on the spot. They saw the body of one person killed and several injured, as well as two cars on fire.
“Airstrike against the central part of Kramatorsk. There are casualties”the mayor of the city, Oleksandr Gontcharenko, announced on Facebook, calling on residents to stay in the shelters.
This “deliberate attack on civilians” did at least “one dead and six injured”, according to the governor of Donetsk province Pavlo Kyrylenko, who spoke about it on Telegram. According to this same source, “six buildings were damaged, including a hotel and a residential building”.
kyiv claims to have taken over Serpents’ Island
“We have effectively restored our control over Serpents’ Island”, said a senior official of the staff of the Ukrainian army, Oleksiï Gromov, quoted by the news agency Interfax-Ukraine. He clarified that it was a “physical control” soldiers. According to him, the Ukrainian soldiers who participated in the operation, however, returned to their barracks.
“Last week we established arms control of the island and prevented the enemy from taking away the rest of their units, weapons and military equipment”, he continued. Passed under Russian control, the island of snakes was taken over by the Ukrainians following intense bombardments. Moscow claimed to withdraw from this territory “as a sign of goodwill”and after having “achieved” them “targets set”.
The Russian Ministry of Defense, however, claimed to have carried out a strike Thursday morning on the island with “high precision missiles”killing some of the Ukrainian soldiers who went to plant a flag there and causing the survivors to flee.
Vladimir Putin speaks on Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday challenged Westerners to defeat Russia “on the battlefield” in Ukraine. “Today we hear that they want to defeat us on the battlefield. What can I say? Let them try!”said the leader during a meeting with the leaders of the groups of the lower house of Parliament, broadcast on television.
“We have heard many times that the West wants to fight us to the last Ukrainian. This is a tragedy for the Ukrainian people. But it seems that everything is heading in this direction”he continued, adding that “we haven’t started serious things yet” in Ukraine.