More than 170,000 square kilometers are “dangerous territories” because of the mines left by the Russians, estimated Volodymyr Zelensky Thursday, December 8. “Buried landmines, trip wires, mined buildings, cars and infrastructure…” he listed.
The Ukrainian president accused Russian forces of intensively mining and trapping the territories they abandoned during their withdrawals, assuring that “mine terrorism will be among the charges brought against Russia”. “Terrorists deliberately try to leave behind as many deadly traps as possible,” he said in his daily address on the Internet.
- Putin accuses Ukraine of starting the bombings
Vladimir Putin had promised earlier in the day to continue strikes against Ukrainian energy infrastructure, a response according to him to attacks by kyiv, particularly in Crimea, an annexed peninsula whose vulnerability Moscow has admitted. Presenting medals to soldiers and other figures in the Kremlin, he brushed aside Western criticism of Russian strikes that in recent weeks have left millions of Ukrainians without power, even without water and without heating, in the midst of winter temperatures.
“Yes, we are doing it, but who started it?” Putin said, presenting the bombings as a response to the explosion that damaged the Crimean bridge built by Russia in early October and other attacks attributed to kyiv. He also accused kyiv of having “blown up the power lines of the nuclear power plant in Kursk”, a Russian region bordering Ukraine, and of “not supplying water” to the pro-Russian separatist stronghold of Donetsk, in the east of the country.
“On our side, as soon as we start doing something in response, the noise, the clamor, the crackling spread throughout the universe,” quipped Vladimir Putin. “It will not hinder us to fulfill our combat missions,” he assured.
- Crimea, Russia’s Achilles heel
Earlier Thursday, the Kremlin admitted to being vulnerable to Ukrainian attacks in Crimea, a peninsula annexed in 2014, after several attacks attributed to Ukraine far from the front. On Thursday, a drone was shot down by the Russian fleet in Sevastopol in Crimea, local authorities said, a sign of the risks that continue to hang over the annexed peninsula that kyiv has vowed to retake. These attacks, combined with a series of Russian reverses in Ukraine, seem to testify to the fact that, nine months after the start of the offensive, Russia is struggling not only to consolidate its positions but also to protect its rear bases.
Map of the conflict situation in occupied Crimea.
© / Dario Ingiusto / L’Express
Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, based in the port of Sevastopol, was hit in late October by what authorities called a “massive” drone attack, which damaged at least one ship. And in early October, the bridge connecting the peninsula to Russia was partially destroyed by an explosion that Moscow attributed to Ukrainian forces.
With front lines in danger of freezing with winter, Ukrainians are increasingly turning to drones to strike Russian bases in the rear, away from the front, as Russians bomb Ukraine’s energy infrastructure , even if it means plunging civilians into the cold. Sign of tensions in the area, the Russian security services (FSB) also announced Thursday the arrest of two residents of Sevastopol suspected of having transmitted to Ukraine information on military targets.
- A Russian freighter hidden in Cape Town
South Africa’s main opposition party on Thursday called on the government to explain why a Russian cargo ship targeted by Western sanctions is docked at a naval base in Cape Town. The cargo ship arrived at the country’s largest naval base, Simon’s Town, on Tuesday, the Democratic Alliance (DA) party said, adding that it appeared to have turned off its automatic identification system which, among other things, gives position.
At night, cranes unloaded the boat’s cargo onto trucks protected by armed personnel, he added. “This behavior has worried local residents because the boat is under sanctions from the United States and the European Union following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” said Kobus Marais, who handles defense issues within the opposition party.
South Africa did not take sides after Russia invaded Ukraine last February, a war that triggered sweeping Western sanctions. The Ministry of Defense and the Navy did not react immediately to the request for justification. The South African government was already criticized in October for not refusing to allow a mega luxury yacht linked to a sanctioned Russian oligarch, close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, to dock in territorial waters.
- TotalEnergie moves away from Russian gas giant
The French group TotalEnergies announced on Friday that it would distance itself from its historic Russian partner Novatek and no longer recognize in its results the 19.4% it holds in the gas giant, consequently providing for an asset depreciation of 3.7 billion. dollars in the fourth quarter. Unlike other Western majors, TotalEnergies has maintained most of its investments in Russia since the outbreak of war in Ukraine in February, notably in liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects.
This operation will lead the group to record in its accounts for the fourth quarter of 2022 “a depreciation of around 3.7 billion dollars”, specified the group, which also announces that it will record 1.7 billion fewer barrels in its reserves, excluding now those of Novatek. Total nevertheless explains this Friday, December 9 not “to be able to sell” its shares in the company Novatek, “since it is prohibited from selling assets to one of the main shareholders of Novatek because of the European sanctions targeting Russia. .