Intense fighting between Russians and Ukrainians on Monday for control of the center of Bakhmout, a city in eastern Ukraine where the longest and bloodiest battle since the start of the Russian invasion is taking place.
On the same day, Russia offered to extend the agreement on Ukrainian grain exports, which expires on March 18, for only 60 days, an offer criticized by Kiev which sees it as a questioning of the initial agreement.
“Assault detachments (of the Russian paramilitary group) Wagner are attacking from several places, trying to break through the defense of our troops and advance towards the central districts” of Bakhmout, Ukrainian ground forces commander Oleksandr said on Monday. Syrsky.
“The closer we are to the city center, the harder the fighting, the more artillery there is,” echoed Yevgeny Prigojine, Wagner’s boss.
His men are on the front line in the attacks that the Russians have been launching since last summer to try to take this city which has become a symbol of the fierce resistance of the Ukrainians who hope for their part to exhaust the attackers there in order to be able to trigger a massive counter-offensive.
General Syrsky assured that the Ukrainian soldiers “inflicted significant losses on the enemy” in these clashes.
“With the fire of artillery, tanks (…), all attempts to seize the city are repelled”, he argued.
Mr. Prigojine acknowledged that Wagner, who has already succeeded in cutting off several important supply routes for the Ukrainian soldiers deployed there, was encountering fierce resistance.
“The situation in Bakhmout is difficult, very difficult. The enemy is fighting for every meter,” he noted in a social media post. “The Ukrainians throw endless reserves” into the battle.
This city, which had 70,000 inhabitants before the February 2022 invasion, has for months been the epicenter of fighting on the eastern front, even if its strategic importance is disputed by experts and if its defense also involves a large number of deaths and casualties. wounded in the ranks of the Ukrainian forces.
Internationally, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Verchinin said after talks in Geneva that Moscow “does not oppose a further extension” of the Ukrainian grain deal reached in last July for 120 days between the UN, Ukraine, Russia and Turkey.
“But only for 60 days,” he said, stressing that “our future position will be determined by tangible progress in normalizing our agricultural exports, not in words but in deeds.”
According to kyiv, this is a questioning of the initial agreement.
“The Black Sea Grain Initiative deal involves at least 120 days of extension, Russia’s stance to extend it by only 60 days therefore contradicts the document signed by Turkey and the UN,” he tweeted. Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov,
A little later, Stéphane Dujarric, the spokesman for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, assured that “the United Nations remained fully involved in (this agreement) and to strive to facilitate the export of fertilizers and of Russian food”.
The deal, which eased the global food crisis caused by the conflict in Ukraine by allowing more than 24 million tonnes of grain to be exported from Ukrainian ports, according to the United Nations, was renewed in November for four months.
For its part, the International Criminal Court (ICC) wants to prosecute Russians for war crimes in Ukraine, the New York Times wrote on Monday, citing two first cases: that of children transferred to Russia and that of deliberate strikes on civilian infrastructure. .
The office of the prosecutor of this court which sits in The Hague, however, indicated that it would make “no comment”.
According to the American newspaper, the first case concerns the kidnapping of Ukrainian children who were then destined for adoption or were sent from re-education camps.
The second relates to accusations that the Russian military intentionally fired missiles at non-military installations, such as power stations.
“The return of children who have been illegally captured by Russian forces should be an international priority,” said the NGO Human Rights Watch, which denounced in a report the “devastating” consequences of the war on orphans in particular.
As for Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto, he accused the Wagner group on Monday of encouraging illegal migration to Europe to punish countries supporting Ukraine.
“The exponential increase in the phenomenon of migration from the African coasts is also part, to a non-negligible extent, of a clear strategy of hybrid warfare that the Wagner group (…) is implementing by using its significant weight in several African countries,” he said.
13/03/2023 21:49:13 – Kiev (Ukraine) (AFP) © 2023 AFP
