Fierce fighting is raging in Soledar, eastern Ukraine, where Russia is trying to turn the tide of the war at all costs, once again changing military leaders just as kyiv seems closer to securing Western heavy weapons. In addition, Poland said it was ready to deliver to Ukraine a company of Leopard 2 tanks requested by kyiv, as part of an international coalition, the Polish President said on Wednesday January 11.
The intense international mobilization to defend human rights in Ukraine since the Russian invasion should be duplicated in other countries where these rights are violated, pleads the organization Human Rights Watch, which publishes its annual report Thursday.
- Fierce fighting in eastern Ukraine
“Everything that is happening today in the direction of Bakhmout or Soledar is the bloodiest scenario of this war,” said Mykhaïlo Podoliak, an adviser to the Ukrainian presidency, in an interview with AFP. The fighting “continues” in Soledar, the front “holds”, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in the evening. “We are doing everything to strengthen the Ukrainian defense without any break, even for a day” in the eastern region of Donetsk, he hammered.
According to Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Ganna Maliar, the Russians have “unsuccessfully” sought to “completely” seize this mining town of 10,000 inhabitants located near the larger city of Bakhmout which the Ukrainians defend without respite for several months. According to Mykhaïlo Podoliak, the Russian military losses there are “enormous” and “the Ukrainian army is also losing men”. “Certainly, it’s more than what there has been elsewhere before,” he told Agence France Presse.
In the region of Lugansk, neighboring that of Donetsk, the Russians have “gathered” around 30,000 soldiers, also reported its Ukrainian governor, Serguiï Gaïdaï. At the same time in Moscow, in a new change at the top of the military hierarchy, the last episodes of which were considered to be dictated by the major disappointments encountered on the ground, it was the Chief of the Defense Staff, General Valéri Guerassimov – a direct interlocutor of Vladimir Putin -, who was appointed “commander of the combined group of troops” deployed in Ukraine. In a publication Wednesday evening, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a US-based body, believes that “Gerasimov’s appointment is likely to support a decisive Russian military effort in 2023, likely under the form of a resumption of Russian offensive operations”.
- The Russian army denies the capture of the city of Soledar by Wagner
While the Russian mercenary group Wagner announced the capture of Soledar, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky assured that the fighting “continued”. “We are doing everything to strengthen the Ukrainian defense without any break, even for a day” in the eastern region of Donetsk, he hammered. The group of Russian mercenaries Wagner, which claimed responsibility for its capture, which would constitute a military victory for Moscow after several humiliating setbacks since September, has however been denied not only by the Ukrainian military but also by the Russian army. “Assault forces are fighting in the city,” for its part assured the Russian Ministry of Defense, specifying that “airborne units blocked the northern and southern parts” of Soledar.
For his part, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin told reporters on Wednesday that the United States could not confirm reports that Soledar had fallen and that the city had “cycled back and forth repeatedly , and that these were really some pretty brutal fights.”
- Poland ready to deliver Leopard tanks to Ukraine
“A company of Leopard tanks (14 armored vehicles, editor’s note) will be sent there as part of a coalition that is being built,” declared Andrzej Duda, during a joint press conference with his Ukrainian and Lithuanian counterparts in Lviv in western Ukraine. “As you know, you have to fulfill a whole series of formal requirements, (obtain) agreements, etc.”, said the Polish president before adding: “We want above all that it is an international coalition”.
Any shipment of German-made Leopard tanks must have the prior green light from Berlin. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the Polish announcement “very positive” and stressed that his country was waiting for “a joint decision” from several countries regarding the Leopard tanks. “One state alone cannot help us, because we are fighting against thousands of Russian tanks,” he insisted. Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda meanwhile announced the delivery to Ukraine of Zenit anti-aircraft systems and the necessary ammunition.
On Tuesday, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kouleba asked Germany for the delivery of the Leopards, during the visit of his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock to Kharkiv, in the North-West. “The longer such a decision is delayed, the more casualties there will be, the more civilian deaths there will be,” said Dmytro Kouleba.
- Human rights: the mobilization for Ukraine must be duplicated elsewhere (HRW)
In its annual report, published Thursday, which refers to the denunciation of human rights violations, the organization Human Rights Watch documents the “litany of abuses” committed in 2022 in the world, from China to Afghanistan, via Iran, Ethiopia and of course Ukraine. “In the fog of war (in Ukraine) and the darkness in which this war has plunged Ukraine, there is a light that has been lit: it is the international response and the commitment for international justice” , said Tirana Hassan, its acting executive director in an interview with AFP.
If the NGO noted “abuses by all parties”, the Russian forces are at the origin of a “plethora” of violations, in particular on the civilian population. And HRW welcomes the speed with which the International Criminal Court (ICC) was seized for investigation and with which the European Union, the United States, the United Kingdom and other governments imposed unprecedented sanctions. against Moscow. “We have never seen in the history of conflict responses such a coordinated international response” and “what we need to do now is ensure that states are held accountable at the same level as what has been observed in Ukraine , in all other situations” of human rights violations, she added.
In its report, the NGO thus accuses the “double standards” often at work in the face of human rights violations committed in the world. HRW cites, for example, US President Joe Biden, who returned to Saudi Arabia in the midst of an energy crisis after promising to make it a “pariah” state, or even Europe, which opens its arms to Ukrainian refugees but where many many countries cast doubt on the future of the Afghan or Syrian refugees they have taken in.
- Russian opponent Alexei Navalny denounces new deprivations
Russian opponent Alexei Navalny, imprisoned for two years, said on Wednesday that he suffered from flu-like symptoms and was deprived of satisfactory access to care, his supporters denouncing an attempt by the Kremlin to “kill” him slowly. From his cell, Alexeï Navalny was to attend three hearings during the day by videoconference concerning complaints against restrictions taken against him by the prison administration. He spoke before the judge and asked for a postponement of these three hearings for health reasons, which he obtained, his spokesperson, Kira Larmych, confirmed to AFP.
Alexei Navalny, 46, said he had to fight “a fierce struggle” to obtain “basic medicines” and was refused hospitalization in the medical unit of his prison, located 200 kilometers from Moscow. “I took four days to get a little more hot water,” he said, quoted by his team, claiming to have “fever and tension”. Russian President “(Vladimir) Putin tries again and again to kill Navalny, but in a more discreet and slower way”, denounced his team on Wednesday.
Alexei Navalny, Vladimir Putin’s pet peeve and opponent of the military offensive in Ukraine, was arrested in Russia in January 2021, on his return to the country after suffering serious poisoning which he attributes to the Kremlin. In March, he was sentenced to nine years in “severe” prison for charges of “fraud” which he considers fictitious.