Moscow claims new advance in Ukraine

Russia, à the offensive against à a Ukraine lacking ammunition, claimedé the conquest of a new village on Saturday in an important sector of the front, near the key town of Chassiv Iar.

Ukraine, which has been struggling since its failed offensive in the summer of 2023, lacks men and weapons and is begging the West to speed up military aid, blocked to the United States. United and behind on the European side.

The capture of the village of Ivanivské announced by Russian forces on Saturday comes the day after an attack on a Moscow concert hall claimed by the Islamic State (IS) which left 133 dead. The Russian authorities mentioned a Ukrainian lead, but did not mention the jihadist group.

The Ukrainian village of Ivanivské is located between Bakhmut, a town destroyed and occupied by Russia since May 2023, and Chassiv Yar, which Moscow wants to conquer.

If Russian forces succeeded, they could intensify their attacks against Kramatorsk, a large city in Donbass controlled by Kiev and targeted more and more often by Russian bombings.

Further south, the The Russian army claimed Thursday the capture of another village near Avdiïvka, a ruined town conquered in February by Moscow.

Russia also claimed on Saturday evening having repelled an attack by ten Ukrainian missiles targeting the city of Sevastopol in Crimea, a peninsula annexed in 2014 by Moscow, said its governor.

“Our military repels a massive attack on Sevastopol. According to initial information, more than ten missiles have been shot down,” Mikhail Razvozhayev said on Telegram. He then specified that the attack had left one dead, a 65-year-old civilian hit by missile debris, and four injured, including a teenager.

Crimea is regularly targeted by the Ukrainian army using missiles and drones because it is important for the logistics of the Russian forces occupying southern Ukraine.

In addition, Ukraine and Russia again carried out reciprocal air attacks during the night from Friday to Saturday, which left two dead on the Russian side, while the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, still partially deprived of electricity after strikes the day before, was targeted again.

Residents of Kharkiv recharge their mobile phones at a post office powered by a generator, March 22, 2024 © AFP – Genya SAVILOV

Two civilians were killed and seven others injured during a drone attack and strikes in the Russian region of Belgorod, bordering Ukraine, the regional governor said.

Ukraine, for its part, was targeted by 34 Shahed explosive drones, of which 31 were shot down. Four people were injured in Kharkiv, a city with a pre-war population of 1.5 million near the Russian border.

According to the governor of Russia's Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, two districts in his region were attacked by Ukrainian drones. One of these attacks, which occurred in the Cherniansky district, left one civilian dead and two injured.

Belgorod, the regional capital, was for its part targeted Saturday morning by rocket strikes which damaged several residential buildings.

– Kharkiv in the dark –

The region has been the target of numerous attacks for several weeks. These attacks increased in the run-up to the presidential election in mid-March, won by Vladimir Putin in the absence of any opposition.

Kharkiv National University plunged into darkness after Russian attacks on Ukrainian electricity infrastructure, March 22, 2024 © AFP – Genya SAVILOV

Kiev, faced with the Russian invasion and daily bombardments of its cities for two years, has promised to respond by bringing the fighting to Russian soil.

Russia responded Friday with an escalation of its own strikes, firing dozens of missiles and launching dozens of explosive drones to destroy Ukraine's energy infrastructure.

The country's second city, Kharkiv, was plunged into darkness on Friday and, on Saturday morning, some 275,000 people were still without electricity, according to Governor Oleg Synegoubov.

The city was, however, attacked again during the night from Friday to Saturday by Russian drones.

A municipal building was hit first time and then again when help arrived on site. Two rescuers and a police officer were then injured. An 18-year-old was also injured, according to the governor.

Ukraine: positions of military forces © AFP – Valentin RAKOVSKY, Sophie RAMIS, Cléa PECULIER

In the evening in Kharkiv, residents told AFP that they had lost the habit of power cuts of this magnitude, which led to the shutdown of water and heating, because the systems distribution systems run on electricity.

“We are used to bombings, they are quite frequent, (but) there was no power outage for a long time”, explains Bogdan Kuriashiy, 21 years old.

Ukraine experienced a massive bombing campaign against its electrical installations during the winter of 2022 and 2023, but this year these infrastructures had been rather spared, due to more solid anti-aircraft defenses.

Friday's strikes, however, demonstrated that Ukraine was far from safe and the authorities insisted they urgently needed anti-aircraft systems and ammunition.

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