WAR IN UKRAINE. Between the appointment of an operations commander with a sulphurous reputation and strikes on cities spared, for some time, by the war, Russia seems to want to change its tune and sow terror on civilians in Ukraine.
All-out strikes, regardless of the targets and victims, Russia’s new “strategy” in Ukraine? This is believed by Ihor Zhovkva, deputy head of the office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, as he told the BBC, in an interview broadcast Tuesday, October 11, 2022. According to the diplomat, Vladimir Putin’s army plans to “fight against civilians rather than against soldiers.” Another new escalation in a conflict whose climax would not ultimately be the annexation of four Ukrainian regions by Russia? It’s a safe bet that the conflict will go in this direction.
Civilians, targets of Russian strikes
The fears originated in the reprisals launched by the Russian President after the strike which hit the Crimean bridge. New target of the belligerent: kyiv. For several weeks, the main Ukrainian city had been spared the war. But the head of the Kremlin has decided to strike hard and to mark the spirits again, he whose army is cornered on the front. The capital was targeted by missiles on Monday, which fell in the center of the city, at a particularly busy crossroads, but also near a university or a kindergarten. At least five people were reportedly killed. Other strikes were also perpetrated across the country, with a total of 19 civilian casualties and more than a hundred wounded.
In a statement, the Russian Ministry of Defense never mentioned the capital or the civilian targets: “The Russian armed forces carried out today (Monday, editor’s note) a massive high-precision and long-range attack against the military command, communication and energy systems of Ukraine. The objective of the attack has been achieved. All designated objects are affected.” Ukraine confirmed that some of its equipment had been hit.
A new Russian commander without qualms
This Russian offensive should not remain without a future. Dmitry Medvedev, number 2 of the Security Council of Russia, announced that this was only the “first episode”. Remarks which intervene at the time of the assumption of functions of the new commander-in-chief of the operations of Russia in Ukraine, Sergueï Sourovikine. The latter, who has already had similar functions in Syria, is notably accused of having organized an indiscriminate bombardment of the city of Aleppo. “It was illustrated by brutality and repeated violation of human rights, by bombardments of residential areas and civilian infrastructures”, explains Dimitri Minic, doctor in history of international relations and researcher at the Russia / NEI center from Ifri (French Institute for International Relations) in Parisian.
The man is also involved in the death of three Russian demonstrators, opposed to the putsch to depose Mikhail Gorbachev, in August 1991. “”It is highly symbolic that Sergei Surovikin, the only officer who ordered the shooting of the revolutionaries in August 1991 and who actually killed three people, is now in charge of this latest effort to restore the Soviet Union,” Grigory Yudin, a Russian political scientist and sociologist, said on Twitter on Saturday. In Ukraine, Vladimir Putin’s abrupt turn towards civilians could therefore increase in the days and weeks to come with such an appointment to the command of operations.