The first major Ukrainian city has just fallen. One week after the operation began, Russian forces captured Kherson, a large port city in southern Ukraine. hours before the second session of discussions scheduled for Thursday morning on a ceasefire between Russian and Ukrainian negotiators.
>> War in Ukraine: follow the latest information in our lives
Ukrainian authorities confirmed overnight the presence of the Russian army in this port city with 290,000 inhabitants, after a fierce battle. Mayor Igor Kolikhaev announced that he had talked to “armed guests” in the Kherson administrative building, alluding to Russian troops without naming them. “We had no weapons and we were not aggressive. We have shown that we are working to secure the city and we are trying to prevent the consequences of the invasion“He said in a Facebook post. The head of the district administration told him in the Telegram that “the inhabitants are in all parts of the city and are very dangerous“.
For General Jean-Paul Palomeros, NATO’s former commander for the transformation of military capabilities and former chief of staff of the Air Force, the takeover of this city is logical in the Kremlin’s strategy: “That was Putin’s most material goal. This was somehow to complete the work started in 2014 [avec l’annexion de la Crimée par la Russie]. We wondered if he would push to Mariupol and a little further west. That’s right now. The question is: will it continue and insist along the Black Sea in order to completely cut off Ukraine’s access to the Black Sea, or will it keep the city of Odessa, in particular, as a bargaining chip in the forthcoming negotiations?“
The takeover of Kherson by Russia last night ➡️ “We were expecting it,” according to General Jean-Paul Palomeros, a former NATO commander. “The question that arises is: will this pressure on the Black Sea continue to cut Ukraine off from the sea?” pic.twitter.com/RvKQ5scAul
– franceinfo (@franceinfo) March 3, 2022
The seven-day conflict has forced millions of people to flee to neighboring countries, according to UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi. УThe second session of talks is also due to begin on Thursday morning: Ukrainian emissaries were on their way Wednesday night to reach the site of those talks in Belarus, near the border with Ukraine. Since mDespite the continuation of the offensive, Russia says it is ready to discuss a ceasefire. The first talks on Monday yielded nothing.
In Washington, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken talks about “human cost“already out of the war”mind-boggling“. According to him, “hundreds if not thousands of civilians were killed and wounded“and the humanitarian consequences will only be”worsens in the coming daysUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said nearly 9,000 Russian soldiers had been killed in the past week, a figure that cannot be confirmed immediately. Moscow, for its part, unveiled its first number of Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine’s offensive on Wednesday. , declaring the deaths of 498 of her soldiers and stating that another 1,597 were wounded.