Violent fighting in the Donbass, civilian victims… The conflict in four infographics

The Russian army continues its offensive on Ukraine. Moscow is now concentrating its forces in the east and south of the country. The city of Severodonetsk is particularly the subject of a bitter battle. 20 Minutes provides an update on the war in Ukraine in four infographics.

The slow advance of Russian forces on the 114th day of war

Ukrainian soldiers are fighting fiercely in Donbass (east), which the Russians want to take control of. Russia has “already lost strategically” and “will never take control” of the country, said British Chief of Defense Staff Admiral Tony Radakin.

“President Putin has used 25% of the power of his army to reap tiny territorial gains,” said the soldier in remarks reported by the British agency PA. The Russian forces have tried to regain momentum on the Popasna axis, “from where they hope to encircle the Severodonetsk pocket from the south”, estimates the British Ministry of Defense.

According to the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW), they launch ground assaults against Ukrainian positions and lines of communication towards Lyssychansk. The ISW also reports clashes to the north and northeast of the city of Kharkiv (northeast), but without any change in territorial possessions.

The Donbass in an “extremely alarming” situation

On Friday, the UN stressed that “the humanitarian situation throughout Ukraine, particularly in eastern Donbass, is extremely alarming and continues to deteriorate rapidly”. According to Ocha, the UN humanitarian agency, the situation is “particularly worrying” in Severodonetsk and its surroundings.

The fighting has been concentrated for several weeks on Severodonetsk and Lyssytchansk, two key cities for the control of Donbass, subjected to constant bombardments. The large Azot chemical plant in Severodonetsk, where around 500 civilians have taken refuge alongside Ukrainian servicemen, is impossible to evacuate without a “full ceasefire” due to “constant shelling and fighting”, the governor of the city said on Friday. the Lugansk region, Sergiï Gaïdaï.

The thorny problem of Ukrainian cereals

Ukraine was, before the Russian invasion, the world’s largest producer of sunflower oil and one of the main exporters of wheat, and millions of tonnes of cereals are currently blocked, unable to export them because of the Russian blockade. At the end of his visit to Ukraine, French President Emmanuel Macron said that it was possible that he would contact Moscow on this subject.

However, he assured that this was not the most likely scenario and that a plan, in particular with Romania, which shares a border with Ukraine, was being put in place. Kyiv currently exports two million tons of grain by train each month, but this remains well below what the country usually exports.

Thousands of civilians killed

There is no overall assessment of the civilian victims of the conflict and the figures which are confirmed by international organizations are probably drastically lower than the reality. For the city of Mariupol (southeast), which fell in May after a terrible siege, the Ukrainian authorities had mentioned some 20,000 dead.

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On the military level, Western security sources now speak of 15,000 to 20,000 Russian soldiers killed. Ukrainian forces are losing around 100 soldiers every day, according to kyiv. For its part, the Russian army said on Friday that just under 7,000 “foreign mercenaries” from 64 countries had arrived in Ukraine since the start of the conflict and that nearly 2,000 of them had been killed.