In the 134th day of the conflict, the Russian army is still trying to eliminate the last pockets of resistance in Luhansk and push its advantage in Donetsk, another Donbas region, against Ukrainian forces entrenched around the city of Sloviansk. This is the next goal and priority of the Russian forces in their plan for the complete conquest of the Donbas basin, and the evacuation of the civilian population there continues.
Civilians are being evacuated from Sloviansk to the west
“Evacuation is in progressMayor Vadim Liakh said. “Currently, there are 23 thousand residents left.In Sloviansk, which had about 110,000 before the conflict, he added in the video. And “17 people died, 67 were injuredsince the start of hostilities. In this city, which has been bombarded for several weeks, “basic infrastructure is still functioning, but there has been no central water supply for a month, and a third of the city is regularly without power.“, he emphasized.
“My main advice: evacuate.“At the same time, the governor of Donetsk region, Pavlo Kirilenko, emphasized that “there was not a day of the week without a bombardmentin Sloviansk. There, the strikes have significantly destroyed nearly a third of the market. Residents went to see the extent of the damage through the charred debris. A little further away, some continued to sell their fruits and vegetables.
Pavlo Kirilenko said on Tuesday that the latest Russian bombings, including those in a market, had left two dead and seven wounded. Like other local officials, Vadim Liakh claimed that Ukrainian forces were repelling Russian attempts to break through to Sloviansk and its twin city of Kramatorsk, the administrative center of Kiev-controlled Donbass. According to him, “Russians can’t get closeSloviansk or jcirclebecause they are blocked by Ukrainian soldiers about forty kilometers away.
“Between Sloviansk and Bakhmut is the fiercest confrontation at the momentPresident of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky summarized in his evening speech.
The Russians want to occupy the entire Donbas
After capturing Lysichansk on Sunday, the Russian army claims that it has almost all of Luhansk province in its hands, which the Ukrainians continue to deny. “There is always a fight between the two villagesIts governor, Sergui Gaida, assured on Wednesday. The Russians are now seeking to conquer the second Donbas province, Donetsk, thus occupying the entirety of this mining basin, which pro-Russian separatists have partially controlled since 2014. But for that they need to take Sloviansk and Kramatorsk. two of its most magnificent cities preserved by Ukrainians.
According to Gaïdaï, the Russian militaryconstantly trying to build passages to transfer even more materialto Donetsk region. On Tuesday they were about ten kilometers from Siversk, which they had been shelling for several days, so about fifty kilometers from Sloviansk.
On Wednesday evening, separatist authorities in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) announced on Telegram that Ukrainian shelling had killed two children and wounded three others, along with three adults.
The Russian Ministry of Defense also accused “Ukrainian nationalists“prepare in Donetsk region”.provocation with the use of toxic substances“, whose”a large amount of chlorine was brought to the mined filtration plant“.
Decay on the Southern Front
The Ukrainian authorities condemn the bombings in Mykolaiv region, with strikes that killed at least two people on Tuesday and Wednesday. “The threat of rocket fire continues in Mykola region“because Russia”Guards four ships equipped with high-precision weapons in the Black Sea“, the Ukrainian army assesses. But, according to the President of Ukraine, this may change, because “The western artillery, the weapons we received from our partners, began to work very effectively“and”our defenders are hitting hardto Russian logistics.
Status quo in the Northeast
In the north of Kharkiv region, the country’s second largest city, “Russian forces continued their limited and unsuccessful attacks,” according to ISW.
Accused of war crimes, Russia points to nuclear threat
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev spoke on Wednesday about using nuclear weapons to better rule out any possibility of sanctions against Moscow by international justice as the International Criminal Court (ICC) investigates alleged war crimes in Ukraine.
“The idea of punishing the country with the largest nuclear arsenal in the world is absurd in itself. And it creates a potential threat to the existence of humanity.“The current vice-chairman of Russia’s powerful Security Council wrote in his Telegram microblog.
Reconstruction of Ukraine is already being prepared
On Tuesday evening in Lugano (Switzerland), the international conference, which was planned to outline the reconstruction of Ukraine, the cost of which Kiev estimates at 750 billion dollars, ended.
In their final declaration, allied countries, international organizations and the private sector committed to “fully support Ukraine on its way“. However, the use of these billions of dollars worries a state crippled by corruption.
Tens of thousands of victims
There is no overall estimate of civilian casualties during the conflict. For Mariupol (Southeast), the only city to fall at the end of a horrific siege in May, Ukrainian authorities put the death toll at around 20,000.
At the military level, Western security sources are now talking about the killing of 15,000-20,000 Russian soldiers. According to Kyiv, Ukrainian forces lose about 100 soldiers per day.
Displaced or refugee Ukrainians
More than six million Ukrainians are internally displaced, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
They join an estimated 5.5 million Ukrainians who have been registered as refugees in other European countries since the invasion began on February 24.
Source: Le Figaro
