UKRAINE. Four months after the start of the war against Russia, Ukraine is losing ground, while the fighting is concentrated in the east. The human toll is soaring day by day.
120 days. Ukraine has been at war with Russia for four months to the day. This Friday, June 24, 2022 marks a new stage in the conflict raging at the gates of Europe. For 17 weeks, Ukrainian fighters have been facing their Russian adversaries charged, on the orders of Vladimir Putin, with taking control of the neighboring country. Because it is not a simple war of political influence or threats that are uttered by Russia. The boss of the Kremlin has sent thousands of men to invade a country already marked by the loss of part of its eastern territory in 2014, but also of Crimea, and to which the whole world (or almost) comes in assistance. So much so that at the start of this fifth month of fighting, a historic decision has just been taken at international level: the European Union has recognized Ukraine as a candidate with a view to to be attached and therefore to obtain much greater protection.
Ukraine is losing ground in the war against Russia
Since February 24, Ukraine has undoubtedly lost ground. However, for several weeks, the situation seems frozen in the east and south of the country. Russia seems to have concentrated its forces in certain territories and to have disengaged itself, for the time being, from invading the rest of the country. A war of attrition on specific sites, such as the city of Sievieodonetsk, from which the Ukrainian forces must withdraw after several weeks of resistance, as announced this Friday, June 24, the governor of the Luhansk region, Serhi Haïdaï. “It no longer makes any sense to stay in positions that have been constantly bombarded for months”, he justifies, thus leaving a strategic city in the industrial region of Donbass in Russian hands.
Despite the waves of international sanctions taken by the West against Russia, nothing seems to be stopping Vladimir Putin in his attempt to conquer Ukraine, continuing to pound a country that never stops counting its dead and ravaged by colossal damage in all major cities. Without any prospect of withdrawal of the Russians, whose objective is to “denazify” this former member state of the USSR.
Ukraine-Russia war: the map of the conflict
While the war in Ukraine broke out four months ago now, this country, until then very little known to the general public, saw all the spotlights being trained on it. For weeks there has been talk of the invasion of Russia. But concretely, on which territory did the latter take control? While it only ruled a third (without it being officially recognized by the international community), Russia has extended its hold on the Donbass, this region of eastern Ukraine, bordering the country invader. A fringe of this territory still resists, although bombarded, in particular the city of Dobropillia. After the announcement of the Ukrainian withdrawal from Sievieodonetsk, Vladimir Putin’s men are mainly targeting Kharkiv.
Russia also took control of southern Ukraine, all along the Sea of Azov and inland, bringing Mariupol into its fold. The tip of the Dnieper is also in the grip of Vladimir Putin’s men, with a symbol: the battle at Kherson. Odessa, even if its strategic port is at a standstill, is, at this stage, no longer the scene of combat. The cities of Zaporijjia or Dnipro are no longer targets of the Russian army either, which is concentrating its efforts in the east.
What is the outcome of the war between Ukraine and Russia?
In four months of war, the human toll of the conflict is particularly heavy. According to the United Nations, which tries to make a daily assessment, 4,677 civilians have been killed since the start of the conflict, including 4356 adults and 321 children. A balance sheet that only includes civilian and not military losses. The UN, however, believes that “the actual figures are considerably higher, as receipt of reports from some locations where intense hostilities took place have been delayed and many reports are still awaiting confirmation.” On the military side, no official figures are communicated. RFI reported the death of 15 to 20,000 Russian soldiers since the beginning of the conflict, while Ukraine would lose a hundred men a day, that is to say ten thousand combatants.