Europe 1 with AFP 10:06 p.m., September 29, 2022
On the 218th day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Vladimir Putin continues his process of annexation of four Ukrainian regions, which must be finalized this Friday.
Ukraine continues its counter-offensive in the East and the South, while the bombardments continue in Ukrainian cities.
THE ESSENTIAL
Russian President Vladimir Putin will finalize Russia's annexation of four Ukrainian regions on Friday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for his part called an emergency meeting of his Security Council for Friday.
Far from laying down their arms in this war, kyiv is on the contrary demanding more from its Western allies to continue its counter-offensive against Moscow.
Information to remember:
Vladimir Putin will finalize this Friday the annexation of four Ukrainian regions by Russia.
Ukraine continues its counter-offensive in the East and the South.
In Russia, hundreds of thousands of civilian reservists are mobilized.
Russians preferred to leave everything behind to flee the country.
Vladimir Putin formalizes the annexation of Ukrainian regions
After the publication of the results of the referendum on the attachment of Ukrainian regions to Russia, Vladimir Putin will finalize their annexation this Friday from Moscow.
The Kremlin will therefore host a ceremony on Friday at 12:00 GMT during which the annexation of the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Lugansk (east) and Kherson and Zaporijjia (south) will be formalized.
Vladimir Putin will deliver "a voluminous speech" on this occasion, according to his spokesman Dmitri Peskov.
The Russian capital was also preparing for festivities with restricted traffic on Friday and the organization of a concert in the shadow of the Kremlin walls, at which Putin could make an appearance.
Officials installed by Moscow in the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk, Zaporijjia and Kherson are already in the Russian capital, according to local media.
A maneuver that provoked the disagreement of the international community.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken denounced a "land grab" by Russia and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres behavior that has "no place in the modern world".
The Ukrainians continue their counter-offensive
Ukraine denounced these annexations and swept aside Vladimir Putin's threats to resort to nuclear weapons, while pursuing a counter-offensive in the East and South.
After having reconquered most of the North-East, Ukraine seems launched in the recovery of Lyman, a city in the Donetsk region and an important railway hub that the Russian army has controlled since May.
"The adversary is making regular attempts to attack to create the conditions for an encirclement," a senior pro-Russian local separatist official, Alexei Nikonorov, told Russian television.
On the ground, Russian bombardments continued to hit Ukrainian cities, killing a child in particular in the night in Dnipro.
At least five civilians were killed in the Ukrainian-controlled part of the Donetsk region on Wednesday.
Ukrainian forces had also regained full control of the Kupyansk railway junction in the northeast, managing to drive Russian troops from the eastern bank of the city, AFP journalists noted on Thursday, who saw five corpses. in military uniform near vehicles with Russian recognition signs.
On the other hand, the two camps proceeded on Friday to a new exchange of prisoners with six Ukrainians released from captivity, including civilians.
Russia did not say how many people it had recovered.
The mobilization of reservists in Russia
In Russia, the mobilization of hundreds of thousands of civilian reservists to reinforce the Russian lines continued, as did the exodus of tens of thousands of people fearing being mobilized.
A young man in his twenties, who arrived in Mongolia via the land border, prefers to remain anonymous to explain the reasons which led him to flee.
"It was very difficult to leave everything behind. My home, my homeland, my loved ones. But it's always better than killing people," he said in Ulaanbaatar, the capital.
As discontent mounts in Russia in the face of an often chaotic mobilization, Vladimir Putin on Thursday acknowledged "errors to be corrected", asking to "bring home those who have been summoned without appropriate reason".
On the international front of the conflict, it was leaks due to mysterious explosions on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines that fueled new Russian-Western tensions.