In his daily address on Sunday evening, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russian forces of committing “atrocities” in the city of Kherson. Many residents of the city told AFP on the spot that the Russian forces, which finished evacuating the city on Friday after eight months of presence, have sown desolation there. According to Volodymyr Zelensky, 400 Russian “war crimes” have been documented, he did not specify whether they concerned only the Kherson region.
“They looted all the apartments, they destroyed the doors, they lived in the apartments. They took all the electronic equipment. They are thieves”, enrages Svetlana Vilna, 47, who says she “felt like in jail for nine months. Oleg Nazarenko, 25, says that “the young people were stopped and searched. They terrified us. They were worse than the fascists. It was like that”. President Zelensky had accused the Russians on Saturday evening of having destroyed essential infrastructure before fleeing, explaining that the Ukrainian forces were in the process of restoring communications, internet, television as well as electricity and water.
Despite this energy and logistical chaos, jubilation has prevailed since Friday. Ukrainian flags, hugs with soldiers from kyiv, horns and whistles still brightened up the city on Sunday, AFP noted. You could also see destroyed military vehicles, mutilated buildings, and smell the smell of burning wood in this strategic Black Sea port, where war was still raging a few days ago. On Sunday, the population expressed above all a great relief to see the occupier gone.
- The Russians still present on the left bank of the Dnieper
During the night from Sunday to Monday, the southern command of the Ukrainian army affirmed that the Russian forces continued to “establish a defense on the left bank of the Dnieper” and “additional lines of defense at several levels to hold the occupied borders”. Moscow “continues to inflict fire damage on our troops and liberated localities along the right bank of the Dnieper using aviation, heavy artillery, MLRS (rocket launchers, editor’s note) and mortars”, he said. added.
- At the G20, the war in Ukraine, a priority for the United States
Officially, the invasion of Ukraine is not on the agenda of the club of 20 major economies whose leaders meet on Tuesday and Wednesday on the Indonesian island of Bali. But US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Monday that ending the war in Ukraine was “simply the best thing to do for the global economy”. The invasion launched nine months ago by Russian President Vladimir Putin has profound economic repercussions, with the surge energy prices and food products.
The Kremlin meanwhile called on the G20 to focus on economic and financial issues rather than political and security issues. Vladimir Putin has also decided not to take the risk of going to the G20, justifying this absence for reasons of “diary”. The Russian president thus spares himself the humiliation of an icy welcome, but risks further isolating his country, already targeted by heavy western sanctions.
- Alleged execution of Russian soldier accused of desertion
Telegram accounts close to Wagner posted a video showing a man identifying as Yevgeni Nouzhin, his skull taped to a block of stone, being hit in the head with a sledgehammer. According to these sources, it would be a soldier of the group accused of desertion, having been taken over by the Russians. “In this show, we see that (this man) did not find his happiness in Ukraine, but that he met unkind but fair people”, commented Evguéni Prigojine, the leader of the mercenaries of the Wagner group, quoted Sunday by its press service.
“It’s a magnificent work of realization, it can be seen in one go. I hope that no animal was injured during the filming”, he added. AFP was unable to confirm the authenticity of this video, nor its authors. The NGO Gulagu.net, which specializes in the defense of detainees in Russia, claims that Yevgeny Nuzhin was a prisoner who had been recruited from a Russian penal colony to fight in Ukraine.
Since 2014, Wagner Group mercenaries have been accused of serving the interests of Vladimir Putin’s regime and committing abuses in numerous conflict zones, from Syria to Ukraine, from Africa to America from South. In recent months, the group has been actively operating on the Ukrainian front, in support of the Russian army. He is suspected of having toured Russian prisons to recruit prisoners in exchange for sentence reductions.