Ukraine congratulated itself on Thursday for having carried out a rare commando operation in annexed Crimea and for having hoisted the national flag there, a symbolic success in this bastion considered impregnable by Moscow for Independence Day.
“The enemy suffered casualties among its men and equipment was destroyed. And the national flag flew again in Ukrainian Crimea,” Ukrainian military intelligence said on Telegram.
He did not specify the mission of these special forces units, but he pointed out that they came from the sea, landing near the villages of Olenivka and Mayak, in the west of the peninsula, before leaving ” without loss”.
“All objectives and tasks have been accomplished,” assured Ukrainian intelligence, which does not always comment publicly on operations carried out in occupied territories.
The day before, he had claimed the destruction in this same area of ??a Russian surface-to-air missile system.
Ukraine has sworn to liberate all of its territory occupied by Russia since its February 2022 invasion, as well as Crimea annexed since 2014, yet heavily defended by the Russian army.
The operation and the claim of a Ukrainian flag hoisted on the peninsula is all the more symbolic as it comes on Independence Day and the day after Ukrainian Flag Day.
“Together with Olena, we honored the memory of fallen defenders of our country,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said on the occasion in a message on Telegram, after visiting Saint Sophia Cathedral in the center -city of Kyiv.
Dressed all in khaki green, as usual, the Ukrainian president, alongside his wife Olena, laid a wreath of flowers at the foot of a memorial wall with the portraits of soldiers killed at the front in this historic district of the capital. , flooded with sunshine in the morning.
“We remember all those who gave their lives for freedom and independence, for the free future of Ukraine,” he added, calling on Ukrainians “not to lose faith in these times. difficult”.
Ukraine’s Independence Day this year comes a year and a half to the day after the invasion began on February 24 as Kiev has been waging a staunch counter-offensive since June in an attempt to drive the Russians out of its territory.
“The party of a free people. The party of strong people. The party of worthy people”, had hammered Zelensky early Thursday in a written message.
On Khrechtchatyk Avenue, the main artery of kyiv, residents were strolling Thursday morning.
Some took pictures with Russian tanks on display, while others wore the famous “vyshyvanka”, these loose embroidered shirts that have become a symbol of national unity against invasion.
This festive atmosphere, however, contrasted with the reality of the fighting, several hundred kilometers east and south of kyiv.
In central-eastern Ukraine, in Dnipro, a strike left at least ten injured, including three currently hospitalized, lamented the regional governor, Serguiï Lissak.
The official posted several photos on Telegram, showing gutted buildings, blown windows and debris on the ground, a sign of the power of the bombardment.
Further south, in Kherson, a city recaptured in November by the Kiev army but which is still under regular fire from the Russian army, a seven-year-old girl was injured “in the back, arms and legs in a strike “on the city center”, reported the governor of the region, Oleksandr Prokudin.
Thursday, DTEK, the largest private player in the energy sector in Ukraine, also denounced a Russian bombardment on one of its thermal power plants.
The operator specified that this one, again “damaged”, “had already suffered repeated attacks” from the Russian army, while Moscow had carried out a campaign of strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure at last winter to plunge the population into darkness and cold.
The authorities fear the resumption of such a strategy in the coming weeks.
On the diplomatic level, Norway will donate F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, according to Norwegian media, thus joining the Netherlands and Denmark which announced such a decision last weekend.
After several visits to various European countries, Volodymyr Zelensky also welcomes Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa to kyiv on Thursday.
24/08/2023 14:21:52 – Kiev (Ukraine) (AFP) © 2023 AFP
