The balance sheet is still provisional. A residential building was hit by a missile strike before dawn on Tuesday in the town of Kryvyi Rih in the Dnipropetrovsk region of central-eastern Ukraine, killing three and injuring 25, local authorities reported early Tuesday morning.
The long-awaited offensive of the Ukrainian army is “difficult” but “progressing”, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday, after his administration assured during the day that it had taken back at least seven villages from Russian forces. A counter-offensive which French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday could last “weeks or even months”. US Foreign Minister Antony Blinken told him he hoped success would force Vladimir Putin to negotiate.
The director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, will be in Kiev on Tuesday before going to the Ukrainian power plant in Zaporijjia, weakened after the destruction of a dam on the Dnieper river. In addition, Congolese President Denis Sassou Nguesso said on Monday that Africa could not “remain silent” in the face of the conflict in Ukraine, a few days before mediation by several heads of state of the continent in Kiev and Moscow.
Ukraine: Residential building hit by strikes near Kryvyi Rih
A residential building was hit by a missile strike before dawn on Tuesday in the town of Kryvyi Rih in the central-eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, killing at least three people and injuring 25 seriously, authorities said. local. The head of the city’s military administration, Oleksandr Vilkul, said on his Telegram account that “high-precision monsters” hit the city in several places, including a five-story residential building. “There are victims in extremely serious condition, there are probably people under the rubble,” he said. “All the emergency services are hard at work and the work of the firefighters is still in progress,” said Oleksandr Vilkul.
In kyiv, the military administration also reported night strikes by “cruise missiles”. “All enemy targets in the airspace around kyiv have been successfully detected and destroyed,” the source said.
A “difficult” but “progressing” offensive, says Zelensky
“The fighting is difficult, but we are making progress, and that is very important,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his daily address. “Enemy casualties are exactly at the level we need.” The weather is not favorable – the rain makes our task more difficult – but the strength of our soldiers is giving good results”, he added, welcoming the return of the Ukrainian flag to “newly liberated territories”.
Earlier in the day, the Ukrainian government had claimed to have taken over seven villages in the south and east of the country since this weekend. “Ukrainian troops advanced 250 to 700 meters in the direction of Bakhmout,” the defense ministry said. Moscow for its part claimed to have repelled the Ukrainian attacks in the Donetsk region, near Velyka Novosilka as well as near the village of Levadne, near Zaporijia.
According to military analysts, Ukraine has not yet launched the bulk of its forces in its major counter-offensive. She is currently still testing the front with targeted attacks to determine weak points. French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed on Monday that the Ukrainian army’s counter-offensive against Russian forces had begun, estimating that it would last “several weeks, even months” as he gathered German leaders last night and Poland in the Weimar Triangle format, a platform for regular summit meetings between the three countries.
Ukraine: seven villages recaptured from Russian forces
The Ukrainian government said on Monday that it had taken over seven villages from Russian forces in the south and east of the country since the weekend, as part of its offensive. “Seven villages have been liberated,” Deputy Defense Minister Ganna Malyar announced on the social network Telegram, referring in particular to several localities taken over in the Zaporizhja region. Ganna Malyar said that the villages of Lobkovo, Levadne and Novodarivka, near Zaporizhja, had been taken over, as well as the village of Storozheve, in the south of the Donetsk region. “The area of the territory returned to our control amounts to 90 square kilometers,” assured Ganna Malyar.
Blinken says he hopes successful counterattack will force Putin to negotiate
“A successful counter-offensive could do two things: it would strengthen (Ukraine’s) position at the negotiating table and it could have the effect of finally getting Putin to negotiate an end to this war he has started,” Antony Blinken told reporters alongside his Italian counterpart Antonio Tajani. In that sense, it could bring peace closer, not further away,” he added during a press conference.
He said he was ‘confident’ that Ukrainian forces will see success as Kyiv announced on Monday the recapture of seven villages in the eastern region of Donetsk, the first territorial gains made following the mentioned ‘counter-offensive actions’ the day before by President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“Africa cannot remain silent” (Sassou Nguesso)
“Faced with such a tragedy, Africa cannot remain silent or indifferent,” Congolese President Denis Sassou Nguesso said during a press briefing on the sidelines of a state visit to Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. Ivory. Denis Sassou Nguesso is part of a mission of several African presidents who are to travel to kyiv and Moscow on Friday and Saturday, where they will meet Volodymyr Zelensky then Vladimir Poutine.
According to a diplomatic source, in addition to the Congolese president, the delegation will be composed of Cyril Ramaphosa (South Africa), Macky Sall (Senegal), Yoweri Museveni (Uganda), Hakainde Hichilema (Zambia), Abdel Fattah al-Sissi (Egypt) and Azali Assoumani (Comoros and Chairman-in-Office of the African Union). They will carry “a message of peace or at least appeasement” to “make the belligerents understand the suffering caused by this war to the weak peoples of the world and in particular to the peoples of Africa”, declared Monday the Congolese president.
Nuclear: the head of the IAEA expected Tuesday in Ukraine
“On the way to Ukraine to meet the president” Volodymyr Zelensky, tweeted Rafael Grossi on Monday, in a message accompanied by photos showing him with his team ready to leave Vienna, headquarters of the UN body. After Kiev, the head of the IAEA will take over the management of the ZNPP plant occupied by the Russians “to assess the situation and organize a new rotation of experts”, the number of which will be increased.
Since the start of the invasion, he has constantly warned of the risk of a nuclear accident at this site in south-eastern Ukraine, where he has already visited twice and deployed agents Permanently. The destruction of the Kakhovka dam, which caused a sharp drop in the level of the reservoir used to cool the six reactors, degrades “a little more an already difficult and unpredictable situation”, lamented last week Rafael Grossi.
Faced with divergent data, he reiterated on Sunday his request for access to the place where the water level is measured in order to carry out an “independent” examination. Even if the reactors have been shut down for months, the fuel in the unit cores as well as that placed in the storage pools must be constantly cooled “in order to avoid a potential meltdown accident and radioactive releases into the environment”.