Russia continues to gain ground in eastern Ukraine. On Saturday March 23, Moscow claimed the conquest of a new village in an important sector of the front, near the key town of Chassiv Iar.
Ukraine, which has been struggling since its failed offensive in the summer of 2023, lacks men and weapons and begs the West to speed up military aid, blocked in the United States and late on the European side. .
The capture of the village of Ivanivské announced by Russian forces on Saturday comes the day after an attack on a Moscow concert hall claimed by the Islamic State organization, which left 133 dead. The Russian authorities, for their part, mentioned a Ukrainian lead, but did not mention the jihadist group.
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The Ukrainian village of Ivanivské is located between Bakhmut, a town destroyed and occupied by Russia since May 2023, and Chassiv Iar, which Moscow wants to conquer.
If Russian forces succeeded, they could intensify their attacks against Kramatorsk, a large city in Donbass controlled by kyiv and targeted more and more often by Russian bombings.
Kharkiv targeted again
Further south, the Russian army claimed Thursday the capture of another village near Avdiïvka, a ruined town conquered in February by Moscow.
In addition, Ukraine and Russia again carried out reciprocal air attacks during the night from Friday to Saturday, which left two dead on the Russian side, while the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, still partially deprived of electricity after strikes on the eve, was targeted again.
Two civilians were killed and seven others injured during a drone attack and strikes in the Russian region of Belgorod, which borders Ukraine, the regional governor said.
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Ukraine, for its part, was targeted by 34 Shahed explosive drones, 31 of which were shot down. Four people were injured in Kharkiv, a city with a population of 1.5 million before the war, near the Russian border.
“The morning was difficult,” the governor of the Russian region of Belgorod, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said on Telegram.
According to him, two districts in his region were attacked by Ukrainian drones. One of these attacks, which occurred in the Cherniansky district, left one civilian dead and two injured.
Belgorod, the regional capital, was targeted by rocket strikes on Saturday morning, which damaged several residential buildings. In one building, three balconies collapsed, killing a man who lived in one of the apartments.
The region has been the target of numerous attacks for several weeks, but they have increased in the run-up to the presidential election in mid-March, won by Vladimir Putin in the absence of any opposition, which was eradicated by the repression.
An urgent need for ammunition
kyiv, faced with the Russian invasion and daily bombings of its cities for two years, has promised to respond by bringing the fighting to Russian soil.
Russia responded Friday with an escalation of its own strikes, firing dozens of missiles and launching dozens of explosive drones to destroy Ukraine's energy infrastructure.
The country's second city, Kharkiv, was plunged into darkness on Friday and, as of Saturday morning, some 275,000 people were still without electricity, according to Governor Oleg Synegoubov.
The city was, however, attacked again during the night from Friday to Saturday by Russian drones.
A municipal building was hit first time, then a second time when help arrived on site. Two rescuers and a police officer were then injured. An 18-year-old young man was also injured, according to the governor.
In the evening, residents of Kharkiv told AFP that they had lost the habit of power cuts of this magnitude, which led to the shutdown of water and heating, because the distribution systems run on electricity. .
“We are used to bombings, they are quite frequent, (but) there hasn't been a power outage for a long time,” explains Bogdan Kuriashiy, 21.
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Ukraine experienced a massive bombing campaign against its electrical installations during the winter of 2022 and 2023, but this year, these infrastructures were rather spared, due to stronger anti-aircraft defenses.
Friday's strikes, however, demonstrated that Ukraine was far from safe and the authorities insisted they urgently needed anti-aircraft systems and munitions.
However, American aid, wanted by Democratic President Joe Biden, has been blocked for months in Congress by the Republican camp supporting his predecessor in the White House, Donald Trump. European aid, for its part, has fallen far behind schedule.
With AFP
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