UPDATE ON THE SITUATION – Le Figaro summarizes the latest information from journalists, official Ukrainian and Russian statements, Western sources and international organizations.
Almost six months after his invasion by Russia, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will meet Ukrainian Presidents Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Lviv, western Ukraine, on Thursday. Grain exports are on the menu of the discussions, but also the possibilities of a political solution to the conflict.
In Crimea, a logistics base for Russian forces, targeted attacks, particularly on a Russian military depot on Tuesday, initially thought to be an accident, ultimately stemmed from a Ukrainian attempt to weaken Russian bases. Fighting continued eastwards without major advances. Demotivation peaks among the pro-Russian militias. Here is an update on the situation on the 175th day of the war, based on information from AFP journalists on the ground, official Ukrainian and Russian statements, western sources, analysts and international organizations.
Meeting between Guterres, Zelensky and Erdogan in Lviv
Antonio Guterres, Volodymyr Zelensky and Recep Tayyip Erdogan are set to meet in Lviv, western Ukraine, on Thursday. The three men will discuss the recent agreement to export Ukrainian grain, but also “the need for a political solution to this conflict,” UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said. “I have no doubt that the issue of the nuclear power plant (of Zaporizhia) and others will also be discussed.”
In his traditional evening statement on Wednesday, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Antonio Guterres had “already arrived in Ukraine. We will work together to achieve the necessary results for Ukraine.” The Secretary General is also scheduled to hold bilateral talks with the Ukrainian President. He then planned to travel to Odessa, one of the three ports used under the grain export agreement, on Friday before traveling to Turkey to visit the Joint Coordination Center (JCC) responsible for overseeing the agreement.
Crimea is under attack again
On Tuesday, the Russian army announced that a military depot near Jankoy in northern Crimea “was damaged as a result of an act of sabotage (…)”, without naming those responsible. . In video provided to AFP, we can see several large plumes of smoke spouting many fireballs after the munitions caught fire in an intense recoil. “A number of civilian infrastructures, including a high-voltage power line, a power plant, a railway line and several houses, were also damaged,” the Russian army said.
Andriï Iermak, the head of Ukraine’s presidential administration, welcomed a “demilitarization operation like a goldsmith’s work of the Ukrainian armed forces” on Telegram. Smoke could also be seen above Gvardeyskoye, whose facilities and those of Djankoy are “two of the most important Russian military airports in Crimea”, according to the British Ministry of Defense citing Russian media on Tuesday.
The blasts come a week after another Russian military airfield was damaged in Saki, Crimea. Moscow then mentioned an accident as experts and satellite imagery seemed to reveal the result of a Ukrainian attack. At least nine aircraft were destroyed, according to Danish analyst Oliver Alexander.
Nuclear Fear in the South
NATO on Wednesday called for an urgent “inspection” by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of the Zaporijjia nuclear power plant (south), which has been the target of several attacks the two warring parties blame each other for, raising fears of a nuclear catastrophe. “It is urgently necessary to authorize an inspection by the IAEA,” said its Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who has also been calling for the “withdrawal of all Russian armed forces” from the largest nuclear power plant in Europe they control since the beginning of March.
On Tuesday, Ukrainian public nuclear power plant operator Energoatom denounced an “unprecedented” Russian cyberattack on its online site and said operations had not been disrupted. The Russian group “People’s Cyberarmy” deployed 7.25 million Internet robots that attacked the Energoatom site for three hours, the Ukrainian company had assured, but without “significant effects”.
For his part, Valentyn Reznitchenko, the governor of the Dnipro region, on Wednesday reported eight Russian attacks on Nikopol, which faces the Zaporijjia power plant, and 40 others in Chervonogrygorivka. No casualties have been reported, he said.
Also readRenaud Girard: “Stop nuclear danger in Zaporijjia”
Russian attack on Kharkiv
At least six people were killed and 16 wounded in a Russian bombing raid on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, on Wednesday, local authorities said. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned a “vile and cynical attack”. “There is a massive fire at the place of the strike in an apartment building,” said the mayor of that city, Igor Terekhov. Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke of a residential building “totally destroyed” by the strike.
Kharkiv, located about 40 kilometers from the Russian border in northeastern Ukraine, has been regularly attacked by the Russian army since the invasion began on February 24, but troops from Moscow have never been able to take the city.
A video raises doubts about the motivation of the pro-Russian forces
Part of the pro-Russian militia of the “Republic” of Lugansk (LNR), which forms the Donbass with that of Donetsk (DNR), refuses to fight in the DNR, ISW estimates, citing a video available there Ukrainian social networks . “The soldiers claim to have celebrated the victory on July 3, when the LNR troops reached the borders of Lugansk, and that their work is over,” says the American research center, which, if it says, does not verify the authenticity of the video , assures that it is part of a “broader trend of declining investment” by pro-Russian militias.
Similarly, some of the DNR troops have complained in recent months when they have been transferred to the Lugansk region or to Kherson (south), the ISW notes. On Wednesday, the pro-Ukrainian governor of the Donetsk region, Pavlo Kyrylenko, reported on several Russian bombings that left at least two dead and 13 wounded at the scene.