Update of the situation in Ukraine at noon
The war is entering its fourth week, and it cannot be denied that the Russian army is now making a difficult advance in places. However, shelling and shelling of a number of large cities continues, including Kyiv, Nikolaev and since yesterday around Odessa, as well as even more brutally on the besieged cities of Mariupol and Kharkov. Mikhail Podolyak, one of the Ukrainian negotiators, announced on Tuesdaythat the Ukrainian armed forces launched a “counteroffensive in several operational areas”, without any details.
Explosions in Kyiv, a curfew has been introduced in the capital. Several loud explosions sounded at dawn in the Shevchenko district, where a twelve-story building was damaged. is banned from circulating in the city due to a curfew, the second since the start of the war. Fierce fighting continues in the northwestern outskirts, in the area of the cities of Irpin, Khostomel and Bucha.
Desired or imposed strategy? According to a US Defense Department spokesman quoted by the Associated Press, Russian troops are firing heavy artillery into central Kyiv precisely because they can no longer move forward. They would be fifteen kilometers away from the latter within a few days.
Mariupol, a city besieged for two weeks. The situation in a large city in the south, where 200,000 to 400,000 people are still stranded, according to authorities, is dramatic. On Tuesday, 20,000 people were evacuated; The Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister fears that today the humanitarian corridor is no longer working. The city of Zaporozhye, 220 kilometers to the west, could be the destination of a humanitarian corridor, but it came under shelling on Wednesday, the region’s governor said. Humanitarian convoys with food and water are still not allowed to enter Mariupol.
Two Associated Press reporters have been in the city for three weeks now reporting scenes of unimaginable violence, with incessant bombings – “sometimes every minute” – targeting maternity hospitals, homes, churches or schools. The city is surrounded, the surrounding roads are mined, the port is blocked. “Many of the deaths documented by AP are mothers and children, despite Russia’s claims that it does not target civilians,” the reporters wrote. Doctors advised the families to leave the bodies outside, as it was too dangerous to hold a funeral. The mayor’s office has been talking about almost 2,400 dead for several days. As city hall official Pyotr Andryushchenko, interviewed by the New York Times, admitted, the real figure could be much higher, about 20,000 dead.
Fighting continues in Kharkov. The second city of Ukraine is surrounded by Russian troops from several sides and main directions, but not surrounded. At least 500 residents have died as a result of shelling and fighting since February 24, according to emergency services.
The still undetermined human cost of this war. Around 700 civilians have died and more than 1,110 have been injured since the start of the war, according to the UN. But these figures are very difficult to verify, especially when there is still fighting or bombing on the ground, the UN insists that its daily estimates are likely far below reality. According to the President of Ukraine, about 1,300 Ukrainian soldiers were killed, while Russia released only one and only estimate on March 2: 498 soldiers were killed.
Despite its relative credibility, the assessment by the UN, which is not involved in the conflict, allows an independent assessment of civilian casualties. Because on the side of Russia or Ukraine, which are also waging an information war, the announced figures are related to very important issues regarding the offensive of the Russians or the defense of the Ukrainians. Finally, as in all conflicts in the world, the death toll is very often estimated years later.