This week in Ukraine was marked by the strike on Dnipro (center-east), which killed 45 people including six children on Saturday as well as by the crash of a helicopter in which the Minister of the Interior was. The aircraft crashed Thursday and hit a kindergarten near kyiv, killing at least 14 people including Minister Denys Monastyrsky, who was on his way to the front line.
President Volodymyr Zelensky continues to call for more aid from the West and several countries have announced new shipments to Ukraine. 20 minutes invites you to take stock of this new week of war in Ukraine which ends this Friday, the 331st day of conflict, thanks to four infographics.
A tense front line
The situation on the ground continues to be electric, particularly in the south and east of the country, on the front lines. On Friday, the Russian occupation authorities said they noted a “sharp increase in the intensity” of the fighting in the Zaporozhye region in southern Ukraine, where clashes are taking place “along the entire front line”. . Elsewhere in Ukraine, the Russian army has announced that it has taken control of Klichchiivka, a small town south of Bakhmout (east), a city that has become the epicenter of the fighting. Klichchiivka, which had a population of around 500 before the war, lies less than 10 kilometers southwest of Bakhmout, the target of the Russian offensive in the region for several months.
Its capture, a few days after Moscow said it took control of Soledar northeast of Bakhmout – which kyiv denies – would seem to indicate that Russia is now trying to encircle the big city, after having attempted an unsuccessful frontal assault. from the east. Since last summer, the Russian army, supported at the same time by mercenaries from the paramilitary group Wagner, has been trying to seize Bakhmout, without however succeeding. The city is now largely destroyed and almost emptied of its civilian population.
One of the deadliest strikes for civilians
Ukraine experienced one of the deadliest bombings on a civilian site on Saturday since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of the country on February 24, 2022. A residential building was destroyed by a Russian missile in Dnipro, in the center-east of the country, killing 45 people, including six children. An entire section of the building collapsed, trapping dozens of people in the rubble. According to the presidency, some 1,700 people lived in the building. “236 apartments were damaged. More than 400 people are homeless,” added an adviser to the Ukrainian presidency, Kyrylo Tymoshenko.
Volodymyr Zelensky has vowed to bring “everyone guilty of this war crime” to justice. His chief of staff Andriï Iermak, speaking by videoconference before the World Economic Forum in Davos (Switzerland), “stressed the importance of creating a special international tribunal” to try “the Russian leadership and all the criminals” for “the “Russian aggression against Ukraine,” according to a statement.
Interior Minister killed in helicopter crash
Ukrainian Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky was killed on Wednesday near kyiv in a helicopter crash that killed at least 14 people. The helicopter, a Super Puma EC-225 (Airbus Helicopters) according to the State Service for Emergency Situations (SES) to which it belonged, crashed Wednesday morning in Brovary, near kyiv.
“The kindergarten building was hit, and the fire later spread to the windows of a 14-storey building and three cars,” SES said on Telegram, adding that there were nine people at the scene. on board, including the minister and his deputy. According to a latest report from the SES, there are 14 dead, including one child, and 25 injured in hospital, including 11 children. Ukrainian officials, like Prime Minister Denys Chmygal on Telegram, called the death of Denys Monastyrsky, 42, a former lawyer who joined Volodymyr Zelensky’s party, a “great loss”.
Europe continues to stockpile gas
The war in Ukraine has brought to light Europe’s dependence on Russian gas, which the Old Continent has struggled to reduce as much as possible, by combining crises and calling for energy sobriety. This change in strategy combined with the exceptionally mild temperatures of this winter have enabled European nations to stock up and not resort to it. “Gas stocks in Europe have hovered around 82% of capacity in recent weeks, down from 50% a year ago and well above the five-year seasonal norm of 70%,” says John Plassard. , from Mirabaud. And the reassuring speeches are multiplying.
“Prices are falling in Europe”, after the surge of recent months, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Saturday, welcoming the “decisions” taken to do without Russian gas. But on the bill side, high gas and electricity prices are here to stay, Anders Opedal, chief executive of Norwegian energy giant Equinor, warned Monday at the BBC, saying consumers should not expect this. return to levels seen prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.