Ukraine: Civilians of Sloviansk are asked to leave

Russian troops today continue to advance in Donbass – eastern Ukraine – where the residents of Sloviansk, a new target of Moscow, are being asked to leave it amid heavy shelling.

“My main advice: leave!”, the Ukrainian governor of Donetsk, Pavlo Kirilenko, said last night, addressing the residents of the city, adding that “during the week, we did not have a single day without shelling”.

A few hours earlier, it was announcing two deaths and seven injuries in strikes mainly in the city’s market.

Ruslan, a trader whom AFP spoke to two hours after the bombing, could not hold back his tears as he watched his shop go up in flames. He denounced the “genocide” of the Russians and added that the bombings are intended to “frighten people into leaving” the city.

“Once again, the Russians are deliberately targeting locations where civilians gather,” Mr. Kirilenko argued, repeating the Ukrainian complaint of Russian state “terrorism.”

After the fall of Lisitsansk, Russian troops have now taken over virtually all of Lugansk Oblast and are now aiming to do the same in Donetsk, bringing under their control all of Donbas, part of which has been in the hands of pro-Russian separatists since 2014.

“Fierce fighting is taking place (…) near Lisitsansk,” said Lugansk governor Serhii Haidai, adding that Russian forces were trying to build “passages to transport even more material” to Donetsk.

Allegations of torture

Sloviansk, which measured 100,000 inhabitants before the war, and Kramatorsk are now turning into the keys of hostilities.

Yesterday Tuesday, Russian troops were about ten kilometers from Shiversk, which they have been pounding for several days, so about fifty kilometers from Sloviansk.

Moscow also announced yesterday that it had begun an investigation into the torture it says captured Russian soldiers suffered at the hands of Ukrainian forces. These are soldiers who were recently exchanged with Kyiv.

Ukraine and Russia, which have carried out several prisoner exchanges, accuse each other of mistreating and torturing prisoners.

The Russian Ministry of Defense also last night accused “Ukrainian nationalists” in the Donetsk region of preparing a “provocation with the use of chemical substances”, referring to large quantities of chlorine that were transported to a filtration station.

He added that the Ukrainian military was using chemical factories as troop bases and weapons storage facilities, creating conditions that could lead to “accidents with thousands of dead civilians.”

Against this background, a two-day international meeting in Lugano (southern Switzerland) organized to outline the contours of Ukraine’s post-war reconstruction, the cost of which, according to Kiev’s calculations, will reach 750 billion dollars, ended last night.

In the statement they adopted last night, Ukrainian government allies, international institutions and the private sector “fully committed to supporting Ukraine throughout its journey” and promoting a “transparent and accountable” process of “rehabilitation.”

How these billions of dollars will be spent raises concerns, as corruption in Ukraine is said to be endemic.

“Unbearable”

In its 2021 corruption report, the NGO Transparency International ranked Ukraine 122nd out of 180 countries; Russia was 136th.

Kyiv wants the reconstruction to be done “quickly” and is “ready” for it, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Smikhal said in Lugano, trying to appear reassuring.

At the same time, Kyiv is pressuring its allies to force shipping companies to stop shipping goods from Russia.

The Zhibek Zholy, a Russian-flagged cargo ship, has been anchored for five days in the Black Sea, off Turkey. Ukraine, which says Russia is “stealing” its own grain crop, claims the ship is carrying 7,000 tonnes of illegally obtained grain. A Turkish diplomatic source told AFP yesterday that an “inspection” was being carried out on the ship.

On the humanitarian level, the head of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, called the conflict’s civilian toll “unbearable” (almost 5,000 civilians have been confirmed killed, including 335 children, a figure undoubtedly much lower from the real one) for many violations against the population.

“In the name of every victim of this senseless war, executions, torture and arbitrary detentions must stop,” he said, speaking at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

In Brussels, NATO’s thirty member states yesterday began the process of sanctioning the admission of Sweden and Finland, which will allow the Atlantic alliance to have a single line of defense from the Arctic to the Mediterranean against Russia. However, the procedures depend on Turkey’s goodwill.

For its part, Latvia announced on Tuesday night that military service would again become compulsory for men from 2023, citing the Russian threat.

SOURCE: AMPE