UKRAINE WAR. The Russian bombardments resumed with renewed vigor this Saturday, March 12, 2022. While the noose seems to be tightening on Kiev and the Russians are no more than 25 km from its center, several Ukrainian cities are said to be on the verge of humanitarian catastrophe. .
Live
12:01 – Vladimir Poutine and Emmanuel Macron are on the phone announces the Élysée
The Élysée announces in a press release that Emmanuel Macron, Vladimir Putin and Olaf Scholz are currently talking by phone. In recent weeks, conversations have multiplied between heads of state.
11:37 – Rocket fire hits an airfield in southern Kiev
The Ukrinform online platform said on Twitter that an airfield in southern Kiev had been targeted by rocket fire. According to her, these infrastructures are targeted by Russian strikes regularly.
11:10 – A mosque was bombed in Mariupol
Mariupol is still targeted by Russian bombardments. The Foreign Ministry announced that a mosque housing 80 civilians was destroyed: “The mosque of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent and his wife Roxolana in Mariupol was bombed by the Russian invaders. More than 80 adults and children are sheltering there, including Turkish citizens.”
10:49 – Mayor of Melitopol reportedly kidnapped by Russians
According to the Ukrainian authorities, the mayor of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov, was kidnapped by the Russian armed forces on Friday 11 March. According to the president Volodymyr Zelensky, the mayor of the small town in southern Ukraine is said to be “a mayor who courageously defends Ukraine and the members of his community”.
10:25 – Russian forces are 25 km from the center of Kiev
According to the British Ministry of Defence, the Russians would be 25 km from the center of Kiev. According to his information, a column of armored vehicles would have dispersed in the north of the Ukrainian capital “surely with the aim of encircling the city”.
10:10 – The situation in Ukraine at ten o’clock
Situation update in Ukraine :
- Kiev braces as the Russians seem to have changed their strategy there, scattering their tanks as if to encircle the Ukrainian capital. On the spot, many Ukrainian soldiers are ready and food reserves are made up in order to resist in the event of a blockade.
- The evacuation of residents of Izium in the Kharkiv region was interrupted by heavy fighting between Russian and Ukrainian soldiers in the humanitarian corridor. According to a municipal official, the city is on the verge of a humanitarian disaster, civilians are deprived of water, food, heating and electricity.
- The situation is also critical in Mariupol (south-east) and Chernihiv (north-east of Kiev). Many civilians would be “besieged” according to the head of the Swiss branch of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in the first, while Chernihiv would be on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe. In addition to suffering attacks, many civilians would now be deprived of heating. On the spot, it would also be impossible to bury the dead.
- In Kharkiv, a Russian bombardment hit an establishment housing 330 disabled people, 73 of them were evacuated according to the state emergency services which do not report any deaths for the moment. Regional administration chief Oleg Sinegoubov slams Moscow’s attack on civilians: “It’s a war crime against civilians, a genocide of the Ukrainian nation!”
- Three Russian airstrikes were launched on the morning of this Friday, March 11 on the city of Dnipro, east of Kiev. Only civilian targets were hit including a kindergarten, a residential building and a business. One death has been reported so far by Ukraine’s emergency service.
- The Russian army attacked the humanitarian corridor of Mariupol, a port city in southern Ukraine besieged by Moscow, preventing supplies and especially the evacuation of civilians. Volodymyr Zelensky denounces this Russian offensive. “The Russian troops did not cease fire. […] The occupiers launched a tank attack exactly where this corridor was supposed to pass,” he said.
- In the west and north-west of Ukraine, the military bases of Ivano-Frankivsk and Loutsk have been targeted by Russian bombardments and “decommissioned” according to the Russian Defense Minister. Four Ukrainian soldiers lost their lives there.
- The city of Mykolaiv, the last rampart before Odessa in the south-west of the country, is also the victim of intense bombardments.
Balance sheet of the war in Ukraine :
- More than 2.5 million people have left Ukraine since the start of the war, said UN refugee chief Filippo Grandi. Another two million people have reportedly been evacuated to Ukrainian towns spared from the fighting.
- The Ukrainian Human Rights Office, a body belonging to the UN, draws up a balance sheet of “549 people killed, including 41 children [et] 957 injured, including 52 children” between February 24 and March 9. But according to the organization, the figures are “considerably higher”.
- According to Ukraine, more than 12,000 Russian soldiers have been killed since the start of the war. A balance sheet which could however prove to be extremely inflated.
- Russia, for its part, did not give a new assessment. The latest, dated Wednesday March 2, announced the death of 498 soldiers and 1,597 wounded.
Latest major news :
- Joe Biden announced a new round of sanctions against Russia on Friday, including an embargo on certain Russian products, such as vodka and diamonds. The American president has also pledged to “avoid” a direct confrontation between Russia and NATO, because according to him, this would cause “World War III”.
- This Friday, March 11, Volodymyr Zelensky solemnly called on the European Union to “do more” to protect Ukraine and to take real sanctions against Russia. Emmanuel Macron’s response was not long in coming, the French president swears that the 27 are ready “to adopt new sanctions” to obtain “the withdrawal of Russian troops” and a ceasefire.
- Vladimir Putin calls for facilitating the sending of “volunteer” fighters to the front in Ukraine, a response to the desire of Westerners to provide “mercenaries” to Ukraine, explains the Russian president. In addition, the head of the Kremlin announced on Friday March 11 the deployment of his troops on the borders between Russia and the NATO countries.
- At the summit in Versailles, the European Union, meeting on the initiative of Emmanuel Macron, ruled out rapid accession by Ukraine. However, “we want to work intensively with Ukraine,” assured Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.
- Ukraine and Russia said they were “ready” on Thursday March 10 to work with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to guarantee the security of Ukrainian nuclear sites.
Learn more
After weeks of lying poker and an escalation not officially declared in recent days, Russia has therefore announced that it will go to war with Ukraine on Thursday, February 24, 2022. In a televised speech published early Thursday, Vladimir Putin announced a “special military operation” to “protect people who have been intimidated for eight years by the Kiev regime”. The Russian president’s decision comes after the latter recognized the independence of the self-proclaimed People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, territories established in Ukraine but ruled by pro-Russian separatists since 2014. “Treaties of friendship and mutual aid” had been signed on February 22 between Russia and these territories in the east of the country, paving the way for a military intervention by Russia, to which Vladimir Putin has therefore committed.
If for several years, tensions have been high in the separatist regions of Ukraine, where the conflict escalated in the days preceding the Russian invasion of February 24, war was finally declared throughout the country. Although Russia borders only to the east of Ukraine, it is all the main cities of the country, everywhere on the territory, which are under the bombings and armed raids. Starting with the capital Kiev, and its surroundings, attacked by Russian forces. Yet located several hundred kilometers from the Russian border, the country’s first city is only 150 km by road from Belarus, a country friendly to Russia through which Vladimir Putin’s forces entered Ukraine. .
Southern Ukraine and the shores of the Black Sea are the scene of fierce fighting between Russians and Ukrainians. The Soviet army got the better of the cities of Kherson and Berdiansk, it is in a position of strength along the entire coast as far as Odessa, in the west, where an assault by the Russian navy is preparing. In the south-east, Mariupol is the last city to resist and to obstruct the junction between the conquered territories of Donbass and the Russian advance in the south of the country. To the north and east the Kremlin soldiers are advancing and striking at Chernihiv and Kharkiv in addition to Donetsk and Lugansk, which have been concentrating tensions for eight years and the beginning of the war in Donbass. Western Ukraine was spared despite isolated attacks and bombardments near Poland, in Lutsk, Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk.