2023-08-15 12:18:00
Ukraine was targeted once again at night by Russian bombardments, killing at least three people, authorities said on Tuesday, adding that the strikes targeted eight regions, including Lviv and Lutsk, major cities in the west.
Russia, for its part, is under the effect of the economic sanctions adopted since the invasion of its Ukrainian neighbor, confronted with the fall of the ruble and inflation which is picking up again, forcing the Central Bank to increase its key rate in an attempt to curb this trend.
After a new campaign of night strikes, a tactic used for months by Russia, Moscow also judged that the Ukrainian army was at the end of its resources, reaffirming that its counter-offensive to retake the occupied territories was a failure.
Summarizing the events of the night, the Ukrainian Air Force indicated that “around 4 a.m. the Russian occupiers attacked Ukraine” with “a total of at least 28 cruise missiles of various types”. Sixteen of them having been destroyed.
“Constructions were damaged in 8 regions” and “unfortunately, there are injuries and deaths”, lamented Prime Minister Denys Chmyhal.
In Lutsk, a strike hit the premises of a company in the industrial sector. “According to initial information, there are three dead and three injured,” city mayor Igor Polichchuk said on social media.
After a year and a half of war, Russia still systematically denies being responsible for civilian victims in Ukraine and ensures that its strikes are surgical and only target legitimate targets, even when residential buildings are devastated.
“There is no longer a safe place in Ukraine”
Tuesday morning, a strike also targeted Lviv, a large city in western Ukraine located a thousand kilometers from the front.
Its mayor Andriï Sadovyi explained on Telegram that once again “residential buildings” were affected, with rescuers extinguishing a fire on the top floor of a building, according to a video provided by the emergency services.
One of the missiles sank into the ground of a kindergarten playground, leaving a gaping hole, according to AFP journalists. The explosion blew the windows of the neighboring house of Olga Boura, a 64-year-old retiree.
“There is no longer a safe place in Ukraine,” she told AFP.
France on Tuesday denounced “Russia’s cynicism and complete disregard for all the principles of international humanitarian law”, in a press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
On the front side, Ukraine on Monday claimed some gains in the east and south, around Bakhmout, small advances as part of its grueling counter-offensive launched two months ago to liberate these territories occupied by Russia.
But the Ukrainian army is on the other hand in difficulty further north, around Kupyansk, so much so that it could not “concentrate (its) forces on the offensive in the Bakhmout sector”, admitted Monday the deputy Defense Minister Ganna Maliar.
Nevertheless, “the Ukrainian troops continue to slow down the Russian offensive in the directions of Kupiansk and Lyman”, according to the spokesman of the army, Andriï Kovalev.
On the southern front, where Ukrainian soldiers have been seeking for weeks to find the weak points of the Russian defense lines, made up of minefields, trenches and anti-tank booby-traps, Ms. Maliar remained vague, nevertheless mentioning progress.
Fall of the ruble
Russia, which retreated to fortified defensive positions after a series of bitter military reverses in 2022, continues to claim that the Ukrainian counteroffensive is a failure, despite Western military aid.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Tuesday that “the resources of the Ukrainian army are almost exhausted”.
“Despite the West’s total aid to the armed forces of Ukraine, there is no result,” he further proclaimed.
He claimed that the military campaign in Ukraine, launched almost a year and a half ago, had proved a “serious test” for the Russian army, but that Russia had managed to “significantly” increase its production armored vehicles.
Finally, on the economic level, Russia, which claims to be resisting international sanctions, has seen its currency collapse in recent weeks, its foreign trade, in particular its sales of hydrocarbons, bearing the brunt of the restrictive measures adopted by Westerners .
After long procrastination, faced with the fall of the rouble, rising inflation and criticism from the Kremlin, the Russian Central Bank finally resolved on Tuesday to a surprise increase in its key interest rate from 8.5% to 12 %.
This measure is supposed to curb the rise in prices and the decline in the purchasing power of Russians, while the authorities must devote ever greater sums to the war waged against Ukraine.
15/08/2023 12:17:39 – Lviv (Ukraine) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
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