Europe 1 with AFP 07:06, March 26, 2022, modified at 07:06, March 26, 2022

It is the 31st day of the Russian invasion.

Vladimir Putin's army announced on Friday that it would limit its offensive on eastern Ukraine, while kyiv forces launched a counter-offensive on the city of Kherson.

At the same time, US President Joe Biden visited US military personnel based in Poland.

Europe 1 takes stock of the evolution of the situation.

THE ESSENTIAL

The Russian army announced on Friday that it would limit its offensive on eastern Ukraine, while the forces of kyiv launched a counter-offensive on the city of Kherson.

At the same time, US President Joe Biden visited US servicemen based in Poland, the second leg after Brussels of a trip to Europe intended to cement the union of Westerners against Russia, both on the diplomatic front than economic.

On the 31st day of the Russian invasion in Ukraine, Europe 1 takes stock.

The main information: 

  • The Russian army is limited to eastern Ukraine

  • Ukraine launches counter-offensive on Kherson

  • 135 children killed since the beginning of the war

The Russian command, through Deputy Chief of Staff Sergei Rudskoy, announced that "the combat capabilities of the Ukrainian forces have been significantly reduced, which allows (...) to concentrate the bulk of the efforts on the main objective: the liberation of Donbass".

Pro-Russian separatists have created two "republics" recognized by Moscow in this industrial region in the eastern part of Ukrainian territory.

And this shortly after the Vice-President of the Russian Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, using the rhetoric dear to Vladimir Putin, had stressed that the current military operation must "continue until it achieves its objective of demilitarize and denazify Ukraine".

Ukrainian counter-offensive in Kherson

In Washington, a senior Pentagon official said that Ukrainian forces had launched a counter-offensive on the city of Kherson (south), the only major urban center completely conquered by Moscow forces, which is now "contested".

"The Ukrainians are trying to take back Kherson," said the official, who requested anonymity.

"We cannot say exactly who is in control of Kherson, but the fact is that it is no longer as firmly under Russian control as before."

In Vinnytsia, in the center of the country, the command center of the Ukrainian air forces was hit on Friday by a salvo of cruise missiles, which caused "significant damage", according to the Ukrainian army.

Without causing any casualties, said the town hall.

"The Russians fired six cruise missiles. Some were shot down by anti-aircraft defenses. The others hit several buildings, causing significant damage," the air force command announced on Telegram.

Presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych claimed that a Russian general had been killed near Kherson, becoming the seventh Russian general killed in Ukraine.

It is General Yakov Rezantsev, according to Western officials on condition of anonymity.

According to these same sources, another general, Vladislav Yerchov, was removed from his post by the Kremlin because of the heavy losses suffered by the Russian troops.

"The Russian command has made many mistakes and we are using these mistakes," General Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukrainian military intelligence

, told the American weekly

The Nation .

"Medieval" Russian army

"The Ukrainian army has shown that the Russian army, the second army in the world, was just a myth. It's just a concentration of medieval power, old methods of combat," added the 36-year-old general. , promising the Russians a "real hell" in Ukraine.

During his two-day trip to Poland, Joe Biden, who was in the Rzeszow region on Friday, about 100 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, will meet on Saturday in Warsaw with Polish leaders and will go to a center for reception of Ukrainian refugees.

Since February 24, more than 2.2 million people fleeing the conflict have indeed entered Poland, according to Polish border guards, out of around 3.7 million in total who have gone abroad, according to the 'UN.

In the morning, the American president had announced in a joint press release with the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen the creation of a working group aimed at reducing Europe's dependence on Russian fossil fuels and the project of Washington to supply Europe with an additional 15 billion cubic meters of liquefied natural gas (LNG) this year.

Group purchase of gas for the EU

At the same time, Germany, which before the Russian offensive imported a third of its oil and some 45% of its coal from Russia, assured that it would do without Russian coal by the fall and would very much reduce strongly its dependence on Russian oil by the end of the year, also counting on mid-2024 to be "largely independent" of Russian gas.

In the evening, the Twenty-Seven concluded their summit in Brussels by announcing to give a mandate to the European Commission to make grouped gas purchases, on the model of orders for anti-Covid vaccines.

“Group purchasing, the ability to define long contracts together, is the best instrument to bring down prices,” argued French President Emmanuel Macron, whose country holds the half-yearly EU presidency.

300 dead in the Mariupol theater?

On the battlefield, Mariupol, a strategic Ukrainian port on the Sea of ​​Azov, feared that around 300 people died in the bombed theater on March 16.

Hundreds of people, "mainly women, children and the elderly", had taken refuge in this building, recalled the town hall, referring to testimonies.

More than 2,000 civilians have been killed in this besieged city, according to the municipality, and some 100,000 of its inhabitants are still stranded there and lack everything, said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Friday evening, Emmanuel Macron announced that France, Turkey and Greece were going to carry out "a humanitarian operation" to evacuate civilians from Mariupol "in the very next few days".

"We are going, in conjunction with Turkey and Greece, to launch a humanitarian operation to evacuate all those who wish to leave Mariupol", declared the French president at the end of the European summit in Brussels.

"I will have a new discussion within 48 to 72 hours with the (Russian) President Vladimir Putin to properly settle the details and secure the terms."

On the Mariupol front as on the others, the Russian invasion, which is entering its second month, is turning more and more into a war of attrition, while Russia has admitted that 1,351 of its soldiers had perished in Ukraine and that 3,825 had been injured.

"The situation in the city remains tragic," denounced President Zelensky in his last video released Friday evening.

"Really Powerful"

On Friday, the Russian military claimed to have destroyed with cruise missiles the largest fuel reserve of the Ukrainian army, located near kyiv, which was used according to them to "supply the units in the central part of the country".

An attack confirmed by the Ukrainian government.

A fire was still going on Friday morning, releasing thick black smoke, AFP journalists noted.

"We saw the explosion, it was really powerful," a security guard at the site, who requested anonymity, told AFP.

"Fortunately, there are no casualties," he said.

In the east, four civilians were killed and three others injured when rocket launchers fired at a medical center in Kharkiv, regional police said.

The mayor of Kharkiv, Ihor Terekhov, denounced "blind" and incessant Russian bombardments on his city, the second in Ukraine.

135 children killed

In a month of war, thousands of Ukrainians have been killed, including 135 children, the prosecutor's office said.

On Friday, Joe Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, clarified that the United States has "no intention of using chemical weapons under any circumstances."

The day before, in Brussels, where he has multiplied summits - NATO, G7, EU - the American president had promised for the first time a "response" from NATO if Russia resorted to chemical weapons in Ukraine, a threat he had deemed "credible".

Moreover, the Russian-Ukrainian negotiations seemed to be stalling.

"Positions are converging on secondary points. But on the main political (issues), we are treading water," said Vladimir Medinsky, Russia's chief negotiator.

The discussions are "very difficult", added Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kouleba, denying any "consensus" for the moment with Moscow.

In Russia, President Putin signed a law on Friday evening punishing prison sentences of up to 15 years for "false information" about Moscow's action abroad, an additional repressive weapon to control information on its offensive in Ukraine.