street fighting and Russian shelling in Severodonetsk, key city of Donbass

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his soldiers were “resisting” in Severodonetsk, where intense street fighting continued against Russian troops, a strategic town on which the control of the entire Donbass region in eastern Ukraine depends. ‘Ukraine. “Severodonetsk, Lysychansk, and other towns in Donbass, which the occupiers now see as their targets, are holding their own,” Volodymyr Zelensky said in a speech on Thursday evening. The Ice Palace, one of the symbols of the city, was destroyed in a fire caused by Russian bombing, Sergei Gaïdaï, the governor of the Lugansk region, announced on Friday on Telegram.

Taking Severodonetsk would open up Moscow’s route to another major Donbass city, Kramatorsk, an important step to conquering the entirety of this region bordering Russia, partly held by pro-Russian separatists since 2014. Ukraine could, however, retake Severodonetsk “in two, three days”, as soon as it has “long-range” Western artillery, Sergei Gaïdaï had previously assured.

“Heavy Weapons”

The Ukrainians keep asking their Western allies for new, more powerful weapons. Volodymyr Zelensky said he discussed Thursday with Emmanuel Macron the military aid from France to Ukraine, including “heavy weapons”, said the French president. They also discussed kyiv’s candidacy for entry into the European Union. The delivery of multiple rocket launcher systems, with a range of about 80 km, slightly greater than the Russian systems, has been announced by Washington and London, but it is unclear when the Ukrainians will be able to start using them.

kyiv deplores every day “up to 100 soldiers” killed and “500 injured” in the fighting, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiï Reznikov said on Thursday. Lyssytchansk, a neighbor of Severodonetsk, remains entirely under Ukrainian control, but is under “powerful” bombardment, according to Sergueiï Gaïdaï, who accuses the Russians of “deliberately” targeting hospitals and centers for the distribution of humanitarian aid.

The Russians are also bombing the Donetsk region, the other part of Donbass, “all along the front line”, including attacks on Sloviansk and Bakhmout, according to kyiv. According to a Ukrainian army report published on Facebook, the Russians bombed more than twenty localities in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions. Ukrainian forces repelled seven Russian attacks on Thursday, it added.

“Mercenaries” sentenced to death

In this context, the pro-Russian separatist authorities announced on Thursday the death sentences of two Britons and a Moroccan. Britons Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner and Moroccan Brahim Saadoun, who will appeal, are accused of having participated in the fighting as “mercenaries” alongside the Ukrainians, announced the official Russian news agency TASS. London expressed its “serious concern”.

Four foreign volunteer soldiers, including a Frenchman, were killed fighting the Russian invasion in Ukraine, according to the International Legion for the Defense of Ukraine (LIDU), the official organization of foreign volunteer fighters. Russia claimed this week to have killed “hundreds” of foreign fighters since its invasion began on February 24 and to have stemmed the flow of new arrivals.

The exact number of these foreigners is not known. In early March, shortly after the start of the Russian invasion, President Zelensky claimed that 16,000 foreigners had volunteered, an unverifiable figure from independent sources.

Exclusion from the FAO?

Due to the war, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), soaring cereal and fertilizer prices should result in a dramatic increase in the bill for importing countries in 2022. , who will pay “more for less”. Ukrainian grain exports are crippled by the blockade of its ports by the Russian Black Sea Fleet. African and Middle Eastern countries are the first affected. Senegalese head of state Macky Sall, current chairman of the African Union, called on Thursday for the demining of the Ukrainian port of Odessa and said he had received assurances from President Vladimir Putin that Russia would not attack.

Macky Sall is due to meet Emmanuel Macron in France on Friday. He intends to ask him for the lifting of European sanctions against Russia, in particular the exclusion of Russian banks from the Swift system, secure messaging and essential cog in international fund transfers, he said.

For his part, Volodymyr Zelensky called on Thursday for the exclusion of Russia from the FAO. When questioned, the FAO did not immediately react to this call. A meeting on Wednesday in Ankara between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu to discuss “secure maritime corridors” that would allow grain transport to resume in the Black Sea came to nothing.

Record inflation

The rise in prices also affects Russia, where inflation had experienced a vertiginous rise in April to beat a twenty-year record. Despite a decline in May, it reached 17.1% over one year, according to official data.

The Institute of International Finance (IFF) forecasts a contraction of the Russian economy by 15% this year and another 3% in 2023. For Ukraine, GDP has already fallen by 15.1% in the first quarter of 2022 compared to the same period of the previous year, according to official Ukrainian figures.