Europe 1 with AFP 4:13 p.m., July 8, 2022

The Russian army was pounding the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine on Friday in preparation for a renewed offensive to seize the entire Donbass basin despite international calls to end the war .

Vladimir Putin challenged Western countries to "defeat on the battlefield" his army, claiming to have "not yet started serious things" in Ukraine.

THE ESSENTIAL

On the 135th day of the war, the Russian army was pounding the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine on Friday, in preparation for a resumption of the offensive to seize the entire Donbass basin despite international calls to end the war.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has challenged Western countries to "defeat on the battlefield" his army, claiming to have "not yet started serious things" in Ukraine.

On the ground, Russia is continuing its "operational pause" begun since the capture of the strategic city of Lyssytchansk on July 3, which gives it control of Lugansk, one of the two regions of Donbass, affirms the American Institute for the Study of war (ISW).

However, Russian troops are still carrying out "limited ground offensives and air, artillery and missile strikes on all axes", according to the ISW, which sees them "continuing to be limited to small-scale actions, time to rebuild their forces and create the conditions for a more significant offensive in the coming weeks or months".

Information to remember:

  • Vladimir Putin says he has "not yet started serious things" in Ukraine

  • Four dead and nine injured in Kharkiv region

  • Six dead and 21 injured in the Donetsk region

  • Sergei Lavrov shuns G20 meetings

Heavy shelling in the east

Russian strikes in the Donetsk region left six dead and 21 injured in 24 hours, Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko announced.

“Russia is probably concentrating equipment towards Siversk, about 8 km west of its current front line”, and east of Sloviansk, specifies the British Ministry of Defense.

"There is a realistic possibility that Siversk is the immediate tactical objective of Russia, whose forces are trying to advance towards their most likely operational goal, the urban area of ​​Sloviansk-Kramatorsk," he said.

The Ukrainian army claimed to have repelled an attempted Russian advance near Sloviansk but recognized an enemy advance south of Siversk.

Russian attempt in the northeast

In the region of Kharkiv, the second largest city in the country, Russian bombardments left four civilians dead and nine injured in 24 hours, Governor Oleg Sinegoubov said.

"Russian forces launched a limited and unsuccessful assault north of the city of Kharkiv," according to the ISW.

Ukrainian pressure on the south

"Ukrainian forces continued to gradually advance in the south-west of the Kherson sector," according to the British Ministry of Defence.

The Ukrainian presidency reported explosions on Friday morning in the neighboring region of Mykolaiv, from where attempts to counterattack towards Kherson, a city occupied since the first days of the war, started.

Moscow challenged at the G20

At the G20 of foreign ministers on the Indonesian island of Bali, the first meeting since the start of the invasion between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, the latter shunned meetings with his counterparts after a flood of Western statements condemning the war.

Antony Blinken noted "an important chorus from all over the world, not just from the United States for (...) that the aggression cease".

Host country Indonesia called for "resolving differences at the negotiating table, not on the battlefield", stressing that "as always, poor and developing countries are the most affected" by the fallout from the conflict .

Sergei Lavrov criticized his Western colleagues for having obscured global economic issues to engage in "frantic criticism of Russia on the situation in Ukraine".

Antony Blinken notably called on Russia to "let out the cereals" blocked in Ukrainian ports.

World food prices, which peaked in March due to the invasion of Ukraine, continue to fall for the third consecutive month, with the first decline in wheat, according to the United Nations Food Organization. food and agriculture (FAO).

This drop is explained by "the seasonal availability of new crops in the northern hemisphere, the improvement of growing conditions in certain major producing countries (such as Canada)" and production in Russia which promises to be exceptional.

Tens of thousands dead

There is no overall assessment of the civilian victims of the conflict.

The UN has counted nearly 5,000 confirmed deaths, including more than 300 children, but acknowledges that the true number is undoubtedly much higher.

For the city of Mariupol (southeast), which fell in May after a terrible siege, the Ukrainian authorities mentioned some 20,000 dead, without providing any proof.

On the military level, Western security sources are now talking about 15,000 to 20,000 Russian soldiers killed.

Ukrainian forces are losing around 100 soldiers every day, according to kyiv.

No independent statistics are available.

Displaced or Refugee Ukrainians

More than six million Ukrainians are internally displaced, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

They join some 5.5 million Ukrainians registered as refugees in other European states since the invasion began on February 24.