After taking Lyssytchansk on Sunday July 3, the Russian army claims that almost all of the province of Lugansk is in its hands. What the Ukrainians continue to deny. “There is still fighting in two villages”, assured, Wednesday July 6, the regional governor Serguiï Gaïdaï. The Russians are now seeking to conquer the second province of Donbass, that of Donetsk, in order to occupy the entirety of this mining basin, which the pro-Russian separatists have partially controlled since 2014. But for this they need to take Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, the two most great cities preserved by the Ukrainians.
Civilians continued on Wednesday to evacuate the bombed city of Sloviansk in eastern Ukraine, the next objective and priority of Russian forces in their plan to completely conquer the Donbass basin, after four and a half months of conflict. . “The evacuation is underway,” Mayor Vadim Liakh said. “There are currently 23,000 inhabitants left” in Sloviansk, which had around 110,000 before the conflict, he added in a video. And “17 have died and 67 have been injured” since the start of hostilities.
In this city that has been bombed for several weeks, “the essential infrastructure is still functioning, but there has been no central water supply network for a month and a third of the city regularly finds itself without electricity”, underlined Vadim Liakh. .
Staff from the Russian representation in Strasbourg were to board a Russian flight on Wednesday and leave French territory three months after Moscow was expelled from the Council of Europe, the Quai d’Orsay said. “Following the exclusion of the Russian Federation from the Council of Europe last March and the consequent closure of its representation in Strasbourg, this repatriation flight organized by Russia enabled staff and their families to permanently leave French territory”, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
When questioned, the ministry gave no additional details on the number of people affected, the exact time or their airport of departure. The various sources contacted by AFP in Strasbourg or Paris did not comment on this information.
Soaring food and energy prices around the world have plunged into poverty since March, and in just three months 71 million people living in low-income countries, says a report by the United Nations Program for Development (UNDP), published this Thursday.
This acceleration of poverty “is considerably faster than the shock of the Covid-19 pandemic”, notes the UNDP in a press release, which partly blames the war in Ukraine for the soaring prices. What Russia denies. The States in the most critical situation are in the Balkans, in the Caspian Sea region and in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in the Sahel.
The Russian informational influence apparatus is in working order to exploit the coming divisions within European public opinion on support for Ukraine, according to a study by a US firm published on Thursday.
The longer the war lasts, “the more likely it is that it will naturally lead to an erosion of support for the Western coalition, caused by war fatigue and lack of enthusiasm for suffering long-term economic effects”, estimates the cabinet. American intelligence specialist, Recorded Future. And “it is almost certain that Russian information operations will try even more to exploit this opportunity to turn international opinion in their favor”, he adds.
Lithuania on Wednesday exhibited a Turkish combat drone it is about to send to Ukraine to help fight Russia. “This weapon will be sent to Ukraine immediately after being presented to the public,” Lithuanian Defense Minister Arvydas Anusauskas said at a press conference at the Siauliai air base (North). The Lithuanians collected 5.9 million euros in three and a half days during a public quest to buy this Turkish military drone TB2 for Ukraine, before the manufacturer Bayraktar announced that it was offering it.
