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WAR IN UKRAINE – It is a sad anniversary looming in Ukraine. Almost three months to the day after the start of the Russian invasion, Kremlin troops continued this Sunday, May 22 to bombard the Eastern front with a view to taking the city of Severodonetsk, in the Lugansk region, one of the two constituent regions of Donbass.
A decision which would be strategically very important for Moscow in view of the continuation of the conflict, and this when the latest figures show that a third of Ukrainians have already been forced to flee, elsewhere in the country or abroad. foreign, because of the fighting. Here is the update on the military and diplomatic situation, 88 days after the start of the Russian offensive.
A strategic objective in sight for the Russians
This Sunday, Russian forces “gained ground” in the Rubijne-Severodonetsk-Lyssychansk area and “intensified their efforts to capture Severodonetsk,” said the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
They notably destroyed a bridge between Lyssychansk and Severodonetsk, showing their desire to encircle the city, according to this American research center, for which Russian advances in the nearby town of Popasna were “not possible to confirm”.
Popasna is “clearly the new axis of effort” Russian, estimated Saturday the former French colonel Michel Goya, military consultant of reference for several media. The capture of the city, “a high point”, would allow “to observe and therefore to strike with artillery all Ukrainian movements, in particular between the road junction of Bakhmut (77,000 inhabitants) and Lyssytchansk-Severodonetsk”, a-t -He specifies.
Deployment of new equipment
The British Ministry of Defense underlined this Sunday the probable deployment in Severodonetsk of the only Russian company of BMP-T Terminator tanks, technologically advanced machines compared to the tanks destroyed by the hundreds by the Ukrainian troops these first three months of conflict. “With a maximum of Terminators deployed, they should not have a significant impact on the campaign”, however observed London.
“The Russians are throwing all their efforts to capture Severodonetsk” where the strikes “have been multiplied several times in recent days”, assured Saturday evening on Telegram the governor of Lugansk, Serguiï Gaïdaï, who also reported a death and of two wounded in his region.
On Saturday, seven civilians were killed and 10 others injured in shelling in the Donetsk region, governor Pavlo Kyrylenko announced on Telegram. According to the Ukrainian presidency, Russian bombardments targeted the cities of Mykolaiv and Zaporijjia, in the south of the country, as well as Kharkiv, in the north, on the night of Saturday to Sunday.
Millions of displaced
Meanwhile, as the West continues to supply offensive and defensive equipment to Kyiv, martial law and general mobilization in Ukraine was extended on Sunday by three months, until August 23. In two votes, the Ukrainian parliament, the Rada, on Sunday approved by an absolute majority the presidential decrees on martial law and general mobilization.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed these two decrees on February 24. They have already been extended twice for a period of one month.
In addition, more than eight million Ukrainians have been displaced inside the country, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). In addition, 6.4 million people fled abroad, more than half (3.4 million) to Poland.
EU membership is still a long way off
Last point discussed this Sunday about the Ukrainian crisis: Ukraine’s accession to the European Union. This will take “probably 15 or 20 years”, estimated French Minister Delegate for European Affairs Clément Beaune, recommending that kyiv enter the European political community in the meantime proposed by French President Emmanuel Macron (but which hardly convinces Volodymyr Zelensky).
“You have to be honest. (…) If we say that Ukraine will join the EU in 6 months, 1 year or 2 years, we are lying. It’s not true. It’s probably 15 or 20 years, it’s very long,” said Clément Beaune on Radio J.
“In the meantime, we owe the Ukrainians (…) a political project into which they can enter”, continued the Minister Delegate, who notably qualified the European political community put forward by President Macron as an “open door” and a “project concrete” for Ukraine.
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