Merchant ships loaded with grain leaving Ukrainian Black Sea ports again, reduced gas exports or, on the ground, armed clashes that know no respite on the Donbass front… Here is a point in four infographics on this new week of war in Ukraine, ending this Friday, the 156th day of conflict.
In the East, the Russians are relentless on Kharkiv
According to the Ukrainian general staff, the Russian forces continued this week to try to advance near Siversk and Bakhmout, in the industrial region of Donbass (eastern Ukraine), which Moscow still aims to conquer. This Friday, the governor of the Lugansk region, Serguiï Gaïdaï, meanwhile announced that the Ukrainian forces had faced six Russian assaults. “Enemy reconnaissance groups are trying to find weak points in our defense (…) They attack from different sides and have resorted to aviation on several occasions,” he said on Telegram.
And this week again, the armed forces of Vladimir Putin did not leave Kharkiv alone. Ukraine’s second city suffered two S-300 missile strikes on Thursday which caused fires, according to its mayor Igor Terekhovassen. “The aggressors are trying to turn Kharkiv into a miserable city, similar to the ones they have in Russia,” he said. Some 30% of the city’s houses and apartments were destroyed and Igor Terekhovassène estimated the number of homeless at 150,000.
More than 25 million tons of cereals released
The three Ukrainian ports designated for grain exports resumed operation on Wednesday. “The ports of Odessa, Chornomorsk and Yuzhny (Pivdenny) have resumed work, the Ukrainian Navy announced on Wednesday. The exit and entry of ships in seaports will be done by forming a convoy that will accompany the lead ship. »
This convoy is the result of the agreements signed on July 22 in Istanbul and must be controlled by the Joint Coordination Center (CCC), officially inaugurated the same day in the Turkish metropolis. This organization will register and monitor the merchant vessels that will participate in the convoys, monitor them via the Internet and by satellite, have the vessels inspected “by joint teams at the appropriate places” at the time of loading in Ukrainian ports and upon their arrival in the Turkish ports.
These agreements, signed for four months, must therefore allow the delivery abroad of some 25 million tonnes of grain stuck since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24. However, kyiv has repeatedly announced that it does not trust Moscow to ensure the security of these convoys. And to recall the firing of Russian missiles that occurred on Saturday at the port of Odessa.
Coupe, gas is expensive
As of Monday, Moscow announced a new drastic cut in gas supplies to Europe, reigniting the gas battle between Russia and the West. The Russian gas giant Gazprom has indeed announced that it will once again drastically reduce, to 33 million cubic meters daily, deliveries of Russian gas to Europe via the Nord Stream gas pipeline, arguing the need for maintenance of a turbine. Berlin immediately denounced a “pretext” and a “political” decision to weigh on Westerners in the context of the conflict in Ukraine. The fact remains that the arrival of gas from Russia in Germany was on Wednesday some 14.4 gigawatt hours (GWh), against nearly 29 GWh on average in recent days, according to the German operator Gascade, which manages the network in the territory. German.
Faced with the risk of a shortage, gas prices continued to rise. Wednesday morning the Dutch TTF, the benchmark for natural gas in Europe, had risen by more than 9%. Since the start of the week, the TTF has jumped 35%.
Death tolls still uncertain
There is still no overall assessment of the civilian victims of the conflict. For the city of Mariupol (southeast) alone, the Ukrainian authorities evoke some 20,000 deaths. And on the military level, about 15,000 Russian soldiers have lost their lives in Ukraine since the start of the war, according to the latest report from the American and British intelligence agencies revealed this week.
The Chief of the British Armed Forces, Admiral Tony Radakin, had nevertheless estimated the Russian military losses at 50,000 on Sunday, whether the soldiers were killed or wounded. And this Thursday, Elissa Slotkin, a Democratic House Representative who attended a secret US government briefing, told CNN she had been told “that more than 75,000 Russians have been killed or injured, which is huge.” Dmitry Peskov, Vladimir Putin’s press secretary, denied, indicating that this figure was “false”, the Kremlin announcing 1,351 losses on the Russian side in its latest report.
As for Ukraine, it had reported at the beginning of June of 10,000 dead in its troops by the voice of the presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych. It is important to remember that no independent statistics concerning the number of deaths linked to the war in Ukraine are available.