Hrianykivka under grapeshot
Ukraine’s General Staff claims its forces repelled “Russian attacks in areas of the village of Hrianykivka” east of Khatkiv, while Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed responsibility for its capture on Saturday. According to Kiev, the Russians continue to bombard the area heavily with their artillery.
Flashing in Turkey
While Joe Biden is in Poland, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara today.
gain time
“Russia doesn’t need to score on the Ukrainian stage, it needs to freeze the situation because time is ticking against us, against Ukraine, against Europe, even against the United States, which is being hijacked by its main target, China,” he estimates. via France Inter, Dominique de Villepin.
Whatever happens, Moscow will announce a victory at Bakhmout, London claims
“It is likely that Russia will claim Bakhmout was captured to align with the anniversary, regardless of the reality on the ground,” Britain’s MoD said in its daily update. As a result, “Russian forces are likely to come under increasing political pressure as the anniversary of the invasion approaches.”
Locally, London continued, the losses were high. “The elite 155th and 40th Marine Brigades suffered very heavy casualties at Vuhledar and are likely to be ineffective in combat,” the ministry said.
Villepin: “There are pitfalls along the way”
“We have our eyes on the battlefield in Europe and tend to forget what is happening in the rest of the world and what will weigh heavily on this conflict,” said France Inter Dominique de Villepin. “There is of course the war between Russia and Ukraine, but there is also the part between the United States and China, the risk of conflict between autocracies and democracies, there are pitfalls along the way,” the former prime minister said.
As for the expression “war against the West”, “it is the ideological trap that is being set for us and that could lure many countries of the South” to Russia, “we must take into account this allergy to Western imperialism” and “get in the minds of others,” he said a little later.
The short life of Elina
Elina was 6 years old, she lived in Avdiivka, in the basement of the building, with her grandparents. She died of cardiac arrest in early January. No doubt his heart gave out under too much stress. That’s what the chief doctor of the hospital and the police chief of Avdiivka told our special envoys Christel Brigaudeau and Philippe de Poulpiquet. The history of this story can be read in this article.
The Ukrainians would run out of ammunition
It is one of their opponents who says: “The Ukrainian army lacks ammunition and we actually destroyed a large amount of artillery, in particular M777 howitzers and American MLRS,” Yan Gagin told TASS. , Council of the Donetsk Autonomous Republic . “The enemy had to move most of the artillery precisely to Artyomovsk and Ugledar, which are the two hottest fronts at the moment,” he adds.
Artyomovsk is not in an area controlled by Kiev and is an important transport hub for supplying Ukrainian troops in the Donbass. Larger clashes to retake the city are underway.
On the Eastern Front
In his daily address last night, President Zelenskyy admitted that “the situation in Donbass is very difficult”. “We are fighting. We are crushing the invader and inflicting extremely tangible losses on Russia,” he said.
And to add: “I keep repeating: the more Russia loses there, in the Donbass – Bakhmout, Vuhledar, Maryinka, Kreminna, the sooner we can end this war with the victory of Ukraine.”
The Donbass, core of the conflict
The mining basin of eastern Ukraine has been the subject of a latent war between Ukraine and Moscow-backed separatists since 2014 and the annexation of Crimea.
On February 21, 2022, President Putin announced that Moscow recognizes the sovereignty of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR, respectively), the two regions that make up Donbass. Three days later, he claimed that he had responded to a request for help from those two republics to launch the invasion of Ukraine, which Russia called a “military special operation in Ukraine.”
Last September, during controversial consultations, the peoples of the DPR and LPR decided to join the Russian Federation. These referendums, organized in a few days under disputed conditions, were not recognized by the international community, nor were those held in the Kherson and Zaporijia regions.
Tomorrow Vladimir Putin was supposed to deliver a great speech in which he invoked the integration of the four regions into Russia.
Foreign mercenaries: Moscow charges
The head of the Russian investigative committee, Alexander Bastrykin, in an interview with TASS, accused “the Ukrainian side (the use) of all possible methods to disguise the identity of foreign mercenaries,” who come to the fight in their assessments. According to him, several bodies were found “with severed heads and hands”, they were identified as Polish mercenaries thanks to the records on their smartphones.
Besides, these mercenaries were handsomely paid. According to Bastrykin, “we established their order of recruitment, training and participation in combat operations in the amount of bonus payments from 30,000 to 100,000 hryvnia” (from 770 to 2550 euros), he claims.
Defend Bakhmout, but not at all costs
Ukraine will maintain the defense of the city of Bakhmout, taking into account the price paid in human lives. In an interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera, President Zelenskyy claims that the city, which had a population of 70,000 before the war, “like many others in the Donbass, was devastated by the Russians”. “It is important for us to defend them, but not at any cost and not so that everyone dies,” he adds.
Macron assures Zelenskyy that he will support his peace plan
President Emmanuel Macron had a phone conversation with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday. Macron “reaffirmed his commitment to the 10-point peace plan proposed by President Zelenskyy and assured him that he would support this initiative at international level in the forthcoming diplomatic events,” according to the Elysée. They also referred to “the reminder (on Friday at the annual Munich Security Conference) to European and NATO partners of the need to increase and accelerate military support to Ukraine and the Ukrainian people.”
Macron “is wasting his time,” according to Zelenskyy
The sentence is clear. In an interview with Corriere della Sera, Volodymyr Zelenskyy believes that Emmanuel Macron is “wasting his time” by wanting to keep the dialogue with Vladimir Putin open.
“It will be a useless dialogue, in reality Macron is wasting his time,” assures the Ukrainian president. I have come to the conclusion that we are unable to change the Russian attitude. If they have decided to isolate themselves in the dream of rebuilding the former Soviet empire, there is nothing to be done about it, it is up to them to cooperate with the international community on the basis of mutual respect or not. »