War in Ukraine: Paris offers to help unblock the port of Odessa, fighting continues in the east and south

Europe 1 with AFP 06:36, June 11, 2022

THE ESSENTIAL

France said on Friday it was ready to help lift the blockade of the Ukrainian port of Odessa, in order to unblock the cereals at the origin of a world food crisis, as deadly fighting continued in the south and the east. east of Ukraine.

"We are at the disposal of the parties so that, basically, an operation is put in place which would allow access to the port of Odessa in complete safety, that is to say to be able to allow boats to pass despite the fact that the sea is mined," said an adviser to President Emmanuel Macron.

These statements come as Mr. Macron received Senegalese President Macky Sall, current chairman of the African Union, on Friday.

Mr. Sall had called on Thursday for the demining of the port of Odessa, and indicated that he had received assurances from President Vladimir Putin that the Russians would not take advantage of it to attack, as the Ukrainians fear.

The Russian invasion launched on February 24 paralyzed grain exports from Ukraine and caused a spike in grain and fertilizer prices, threatening a food crisis in many countries, especially in Africa and the Middle East.

The French president is due to travel to Romania and Moldova on Tuesday and Wednesday, pending a visit to Ukraine, the date of which has not yet been set, according to the Elysee.

The main information:

• Ukrainian forces on the offensive in Kherson

• Constant strikes in Severodonetsk 

• Macron and Zelensky discuss Ukraine's entry into the EU

• France ready to lift the blockade of the Ukrainian port of Odessa 

Ukrainian bombardment of Kherson

On the ground, Ukrainian forces said on Friday that they had bombed Russian positions in the occupied region of Kherson (south), which kyiv fears will be annexed by Moscow.

For several days, the Ukrainians have reported fighting in this region, almost all of which has been occupied by Russian troops since the first days of the invasion.

The local authorities put in place by Moscow are loudly calling for annexation.

A Russian negotiator mentioned on June 1 the forthcoming organization – perhaps in July – of a referendum in the occupied territories on this question.

A project described as "illegal" by kyiv and which recalls the referendum organized by Russia in Crimea in 2014, before annexing the Ukrainian peninsula in stride.

The fighting is also intense in the region of Mykolaiv, close to Odessa.

"The Russians are targeting us with heavy artillery, whether in town or in the villages," said Vitali Kim, governor of this region, to AFP, while welcoming that the Russians have retreated in recent days.

"They won't come back, we won't let them come back," he said.

Constant strikes on Severodonetsk

In the Donbass, the battle for the key city of Severodonetsk and its twin Lyssytchansk continues, increasingly deadly.

"Severodonetsk, Lysychansk and other cities in Donbass, which the occupiers now see as their targets, are holding their own," President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an address Thursday evening.

A little later, in his usual daily evening message, he reported "very heavy fighting" in the Donbass.

"Russia wants to devastate every city in the Donbass, every one, without exaggeration. Like Volnovakha, like Mariupol," he noted.

"The Ukrainian military is doing everything to stop the attacks of the occupiers," he said.

But the fighting continues in Severodonetsk and the shelling is constant, said Friday Serguiï Gaïdaï, governor of the region.

He pointed out in particular that the Palace of Mirrors, one of the symbols of the city, had been destroyed in a fire resulting from a Russian bombardment.

After claiming three days ago that Moscow had set itself the goal of taking the city by June 10, he congratulated himself that they had "not succeeded".

Taking Severodonetsk would open up Moscow's route to another major Donbass city, Kramatorsk, an important step in conquering the entire Donbass basin, a predominantly Russian-speaking region in eastern Ukraine partly held by pro-Russian separatists since 2014.

The battle is particularly deadly, with "up to 100 Ukrainian soldiers" killed and 500 injured every day, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said Thursday.

The Russians say nothing about their losses.

Ukrainians demand more powerful weapons

Ukraine could, however, take back Severodonetsk "in two, three days", as soon as it has "long-range" Western artillery, Mr. Gaïdaï assured Thursday.

The Ukrainians keep asking their Western allies for new, more powerful weapons.

The delivery of multiple rocket launcher systems, including Himars with a range of about 80 km, slightly longer than Russian systems, has been announced by Washington and London, but it is unclear when the Ukrainians will be able to start using them.

Western weaponry is trickling in as allies want to ensure kyiv is able to safely absorb it and limit the risk of bombing its ammunition stockpiles, according to US military sources.

In this context, British Defense Minister Ben Wallace made an unannounced two-day visit to Kyiv.

President Zelensky thanked him for London's leading role in Western support for Ukraine.

"Words turn into actions. This is what makes the difference between relations between Ukraine and the United Kingdom and those between Ukraine and other countries," said Mr. Zelensky, who received him. in an apparent sting at other European countries, which he did not name.

“The British are showing real leadership on defense issues,” the Ukrainian president stressed in his evening message. Earlier, he said: “For 107 days, Ukraine and our people have been heroically resisting to Russian aggression. Our resilience is a mystery and almost a miracle to many. We are passing a survival test."

Strengthening NATO's eastern flank

Mr. Wallace's visit comes the day after the announcement by the authorities of the pro-Russian separatist "republic" of Donetsk of the death sentence for mercenarism of two Britons and a Moroccan who fought on the Ukrainian side - Aiden Aslin, Shaun Pinner and Brahim Saadoun.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is "appalled" by the sentence, Downing Street said on Friday, saying he was working with kyiv on their release.

"Clearly they were serving in the Ukrainian Armed Forces and are prisoners of war" and not mercenaries, Mr Johnson's spokesman said.

Berlin also described as "shocking" this condemnation while the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed concern.

“Since 2015, we have observed that the so-called judicial system of these self-declared republics does not meet essential guarantees for a fair trial,” a spokeswoman said from Geneva.

On the 107th day of the war, the heads of state of nine countries of central and eastern Europe (Romania, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Slovakia) also met on Friday in Bucharest, to demand a reinforcement of NATO's eastern flank in the face of Russian aggression in Ukraine, less than three weeks before an Alliance summit in Madrid.

“Faced with increased security risks in Romania and the Black Sea, consolidating NATO on its eastern flank (…) becomes all the more urgent and crucial,” Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said opening the meeting. co-chaired by her Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda.