Moscow intensifies its bombardments on the Donbass, in the south-east of Ukraine. Designated by the military staff as the key offensive of the invasion of the Russian army, the region is at the heart of all the battles. The fighting has been concentrated in recent hours around Severodonetsk, an industrial city in the Lugansk region. The situation is becoming “more and more difficult”, says kyiv.
Meanwhile, the verdict in the first war crimes trial against a Russian soldier is due on Monday as Volodymyr Zelensky speaks at the Davos economic forum in Switzerland, where he will be the first head of State to speak. Discussions are expected to focus on the war in Ukraine, which started nearly three months ago.
- Severodonetsk, same fate as Mariupol?
In the Donbass, bombs are raining down, in the words of the governor of the Lugansk region. Severodonetsk, industrial city of the region and crucial point of the Russian conquest, is bombed “24 hours a day”. “They are using scorched earth tactics, they are deliberately destroying the city” with aerial bombardments, multiple rocket launchers, mortars or tanks that fire on buildings, detailed Governor Serguiï Gaïdaï.
Severodonetsk, after Mariupol, has established itself as the new obsession of the Russian army. In the same way as the port city, the city today presents an apocalyptic landscape after several weeks of siege. Several neighborhoods are nothing but a tangle of sheet metal and debris, bars of buildings ripped open by missiles and shells. Thousands of inhabitants fled, others died.
This intensification of the bombardments is explained by the concentration of Russian forces in the Donbass. Units withdrawn from the Kharkiv region (north-east), attackers from the siege of Mariupol (south-east), militias from the separatist republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, Chechen forces and troops mobilized as reinforcements from Siberia and the Russian Far East are grouped in the area, according to Ukrainian authorities. “Everything is concentrated here,” confirmed Serguiï Gaïdaï. Weapons are also plentiful in the area. We find the anti-aircraft and anti-missile complexes S-300 and S-400, equivalent to the American Patriot, particularly strategic equipment.
- Verdict expected in first war crimes trial
What fate will be reserved for Vadim Chichimarine? This 21-year-old Russian soldier admitted to killing Oleksandr Chelipov, a 62-year-old civilian, on February 28 in northeastern Ukraine. While riding alongside other soldiers near the village of Choupakhivka, in the Sumy region, the soldier shot dead the old man who was pushing his bicycle while on the phone. On the fourth day of this first trial punishing the abuses of the Russian army in Ukraine, the verdict should be delivered during the day. Vadim Chichimarine risks life imprisonment for facts he has never disputed. “I was nervous in this situation. I didn’t want to kill. I want to apologize for what I did,” said the young man on Friday before saying he was deeply sorry. An element on which his lawyer, Viktor Ovsiannykov, relied during his argument on Friday.
“Given all the evidence and testimonies, I believe that Mr. Chichimarine is not guilty of the crime with which he is accused,” immediately presented the defense lawyer, demanding an acquittal. Master Viktor Ovsiannykov has continued to refer the responsibility for the act of his client to his superiors. The lawyer assured that his client did not want, at the start, to carry out the order to shoot, arguing that he had not obeyed at first. Arguments swept away by the prosecution supporting life imprisonment. “He was carrying out a criminal order and was well aware of it,” retorted one of the prosecutors.
According to the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office, the country has opened more than 12,000 war crimes investigations since February 24, the start of the Russian invasion.
- Zelensky, headliner of the Davos Economic Forum
Volodymyr Zelensky always seeks to federate around the Ukrainian cause. The president is due to speak on Monday, by videoconference, before the World Economic Forum (WEF), which is meeting again in Davos after two years of suspension due to the pandemic. This platform should be an opportunity to again claim military equipment but above all financial aid.
Sign of the importance given by the Ukrainian leaders to the economic meeting, several of them will be present in the Swiss ski resort, including the Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kouleba or the mayor of kyiv Vitali Klitschko. No risk of tension with Russian diplomats or businessmen since no personality from Moscow will be received during this 2022 edition.
Ukraine’s EU membership receives first European support
A central question raised by the continuation of the fighting in Ukraine, which began 89 days ago, Ukraine’s accession to the European Union received strong support. Polish President Andrzej Duda gave his approval to Ukraine’s candidacy on Sunday during a speech before the Ukrainian parliament. He is the first Head of State since the beginning of the war who has come out in favor of Ukraine’s entry into the Union.
“We must respect” the peoples who “shed their blood” to belong to Europe, said French President Emmanuel Macron, who supports a proposal for a “European political community”. A solution to which Germany seems more attached. Its Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has expressed his opposition to granting the country led by Volodymyr Zelensky a “shortcut” in favor of joining the European Union.