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The evacuation of civilians continued Wednesday in the Ukrainian city of Sloviansk before the advance of Russian forces, trying to take over the entire Donbas mining basin in the east of the country.
The city, which had 100,000 inhabitants before the war, is the target massive Russian bombing for a few days.
“Twenty-two years of work, I lost everything,” complains Yevgen Oleksandrovych, 66, to the agency, looking at his wrecked auto parts shop.
Residents and reporters witnessed the fall of Tuesday on Tuesday several rockets on the city market and in the adjacent streets, where the firefighters have multiplied the interventions to put out the fires.
The part of the market that was not harmed continued to function and serve customers.
On Tuesday, a large market in Sloviansk was the target of one of the Russian attacks. Photo: AFP
Day 133 of the war: At least five civilians were killed by Russian bombing in Donetsk
exodus and desolation
“I’ll liquidate what’s left, and we’ll stay home. We have cellars, we’ll hide there. What can we do? We have nowhere to go, nobody needs us,” said Galyna Vasyliivna, a fruit and seller of vegetables, 72 years old.
Sloviansk Mayor Vadym Lyaj said there were still about 23,000 people left in the city, saying the Russians had failed to surround the township.
“Since hostilities began, 17 community residents have been killed and 67 injured,” he said.
“The evacuation is ongoing. We take people out every day. There are about 23,000 residents left. Many have been evacuated by bus to Dnipro further west,” he explained.
“The city is well fortified. Russia is unable to advance,” he said.
Many Sloviansk residents leave the city before the advance of the Russian forces. Photo: AFP
Vitaliy, a plumber, said his wife and daughter, who is six months pregnant, were evacuated from Sloviansk on Wednesday.
“I’m afraid for my wife,” he told AFP. “Here, after what happened yesterday when they attacked the city center, we have to leave,” she explained.
“I sent my wife, I have no choice: tomorrow I will enlist,” he said.
Ukrainian resistance forced Russia to abandon its goal of quickly taking Kiev after launching the invasion on February 24.
control of the east
The offensive then focused on Donbas, a region already partially controlled by pro-Russian separatists since 2014.
That mining basin is formed by the regions of Lugansk – of which the Russian forces have almost completely taken control – and of Donetsk, where they are currently concentrating their attacks.
The fall of Lysychansk on Sunday, a week after the withdrawal of the Ukrainian army from nearby Severodonetsk, opened the way for the city of Donetsk.
The advance of Russian troops in eastern Ukraine. / AFP
Donetsk Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said Russian forces killed five civilians and injured 21 others in the region on Tuesday.
And the governor of Luhansk, Sergei Gaidai, pointed out that the Ukrainian army was managing to push back the Russian troops.
“Yesterday the Russians wanted to advance towards Donetsk Oblast and cut the highway between Bakhmut and Lysychansk, but the enemy had to turn back due to pressure from our army,” he said.
combat and endurance
Gaidai insisted that Russia does not control the entire Luhansk region, noting that “there is still fighting in two villages”.
On Tuesday, anti-aircraft alarms rang across much of the country, including the capital, kiev.
Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky said he was continuing to lobby Western powers to provide it. better anti-missile systems.
“Bombings and attacks on civilians are nothing more than war crimes,” said the Irish prime minister, visiting Kiev on Wednesday.
The remains of the Sloviansk market, which was attacked on Tuesday. Photo: AFP
The Russian offensive is an “unprovoked and immoral war of terror,” he added.
Former Russian President Dmitri Medvedev mentioned a possible use of nuclear weapons and ruled out his country being sanctioned by international justice at a time when the criminal court in The Hague is investigating war crimes allegations in Ukraine.
“The mere idea of punishing a country that possesses the largest nuclear arsenal in the world is in itself absurd. And this creates a potential threat to the existence of humanity,” the current vice president of Russia’s powerful Security Council.
Russia, on the other hand, on Wednesday introduced harsh prison terms, up to 7 years, for those calling for action against security, in a context of strong repression of voices opposing its offensive in Ukraine.
The war in Ukraine and the sanctions against Russia caused a interruption of exports of both countries, with consequences for the increase in the prices of cereals and fertilizers in the world and for the energy supply in Europe.
The European Union (EU) has announced that it will hold an extraordinary meeting at the end of the month to discuss the situation of the energy sector in the bloc.
“We have to prepare for more gas supply outages, even a complete shutdown [del suministro] from Russia “, said the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
Source: AFP
CB
Nicola Garcia
Source: Clarin
