The battle for Bakhmout, a devastated city now almost 95% controlled by Russian forces, is the longest and deadliest since the start of the Russian invasion launched in February 2022. If Russian troops, and in first and foremost the fighters of the paramilitary group Wagner, have gradually and slowly gained ground in recent months in Bakhmout, the Ukrainian resistance to the west of the city remains fierce.
London to supply long-range Storm Shadow missiles to Ukraine
The United Kingdom will become the first country to supply long-range missiles to Ukraine in response to “continued aggression” from Russia, British Defense Minister Ben Wallace announced on Thursday (May 11th).
“The UK is giving Storm Shadow missiles to Ukraine,” the minister told parliament, as these cruise missiles have a range of more than 250 kilometers, more than all other weapons supplied to Kyiv by countries Westerners. “The donation of these weapons systems gives Ukraine the best chance to defend itself against Russia’s continued brutality,” he added. With their long range, these missiles have the ability to reach areas in eastern Ukraine controlled by Russian forces.
Pretoria delivered arms to Russia, US ambassador accuses
The US ambassador to Pretoria on Thursday accused South Africa of providing military support to Russia, despite its declared neutrality in the conflict with Ukraine, during a meeting with local media. According to Reuben Brigety, the United States is convinced that “weapons and ammunition were loaded” on board a Russian cargo ship, moored near Cape Town in early December, “before it left for Russia”.
“Arming the Russians is extremely serious” and “fundamentally unacceptable”, he added during this meeting. “We are convinced that weapons were loaded on this vessel and I would bet my life on the accuracy of this assertion”, insisted the ambassador, considering that “South Africa’s deviation from its policy of non- alignment is inexplicable”.
Asked in Parliament about the matter, President Cyril Ramaphosa said matters relating to that ship, the Lady R, were “under review”, adding that “when the time comes we will be able to talk “. His spokesman Vincent Magwenya said for his part that “no evidence has been provided to date to support the allegations of weapons sent by South Africa to Russia”, adding that the case would make the subject of an investigation.
Ukraine needs time
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky assured this Thursday in an interview with the BBC that his army still needed time to prepare a widely expected counter-offensive against Russian forces. “With (what we have) we can go ahead and be successful. But we would lose a lot of people. I think that’s unacceptable. So we have to wait. We still need a little extra time.” , said the Ukrainian president according to the BBC.
The boss of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, Evgueni Prigojine, accused him on Thursday Volodymyr Zelensky of being “dishonest” in his remarks to the BBC because the Ukrainian counter-offensive “is in full swing”.
Ukraine claims counterattacks in Bakhmout that drove Russians back
Oleksandre Syrsky, commander of the ground forces of the Ukrainian army, affirmed Wednesday May 10 that the forces of kyiv carried out counter-attacks in Bakhmout, and forced the Russian troops to retreat in certain places.
“We are carrying out effective counterattacks. In some areas of the front, the enemy could not resist the onslaught of the Ukrainian defenders and withdrew at a distance of up to two kilometers”, affirmed on Telegram Oleksandr Syrsky. According to him, Wagner’s fighters on the spot have been replaced in some places by units of the Russian regular army, which are less well prepared.
Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Ganna Maliar assured on Telegram that Kiev troops had “not lost a single position in Bakhmout during the day” past. These assertions were immediately unverifiable from an independent source.
“Our defense forces reliably hold the front and prevent the enemy from advancing. The battle for Bakhmout continues,” Oleksandre Syrsky added. Wagner’s boss, Evguéni Prigojine, in open conflict with the Russian general staff, accused on Tuesday May 9 the soldiers of the Russian regular army of having fled their positions in Bakhmout.
US transfers seized Russian funds and directs them to Ukraine
The US Minister of Justice announced on Wednesday that he had finalized the first transfer of confiscated Russian funds to help rebuild Ukraine. In February 2023, Merrick Garland authorized the allocation to Ukraine of $5.3 million seized from the accounts of Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev.
“I had authorized the transfer of these funds (…) to remedy the evils of the unjust war” led by Moscow in Ukraine, he recalls in a press release. The sum “has now been transferred to the State Department and will be dedicated to this cause”, he adds. “This is the first transfer by the United States of seized Russian funds to rebuild Ukraine, but not the last,” he wrote.
The United States announced in March 2022, shortly after the start of the invasion, the creation of a cell dedicated to the prosecution of “corrupt Russian oligarchs” and all those who violate the sanctions adopted by Washington against Moscow. Since then, the Americans have sanctioned and blocked ships and planes worth more than a billion dollars, as well as freezing hundreds of millions of assets of Russian elites in American accounts.
More than 71 million internally displaced people in the world, 2022 is a record
One crisis piled on top of another forced more than 71 million people to flee into their own country last year. A new record. In 2022, 71.1 million people were registered as internally displaced, a 20% jump from the previous year caused by mass exoduses after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine but also catastrophic floods in Pakistan, according to a joint report by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC) and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).
The number of newly displaced people has jumped to almost 61 million people, some of whom have been forced to flee several times. This is 60% more than in 2021. This number is “extremely high”, IDMC head Alexandra Bilak told AFP. “Much of the increase is caused, of course, by the war in Ukraine, but also by the floods in Pakistan, by new and ongoing conflicts around the world, and by a number of sudden or slow-moving disasters. that we have seen from the Americas to the Pacific.”
Last year, new internal displacement due to conflict soared to 28.3 million, nearly double the previous year and three times the annual average for the past decade. Beyond the 17 million displacements inside Ukraine, eight million people have been driven from their homes by the monster floods in Pakistan.
Belarus: OSCE denounces repression of opponents of war
Belarusian opponents of the Russian invasion of Ukraine are targeted by the regime of President Alexander Lukashenko, according to an OSCE report which has identified around 30 cases where people face heavy sentences, including the death penalty .
Since February 2022, the already massive repression has been “particularly directed against those who express their opposition to the war or their support for the Ukrainian people”, writes the International Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in a report consulted this Thursday by the AFP.
In the days following the invasion, operated partially from Belarusian territory, around 1,500 anti-war protesters were arrested and in May 2022, the penal code was amended. It provides for terrorism prosecutions for those who damage railways to slow down Russian troops or their equipment, or sabotage Russian military installations. They face several years in prison and even the death penalty, the report says. Thirty cases of this type are currently being investigated, according to the OSCE.
Lawsuits have also been brought against Internet users who “simply” express their solidarity with the Ukrainian people on social networks, denounces the text. The study evokes “a new wave of repression”, echoing the situation in Russia where the repression of all forms of dissent has intensified.
An investigation opened for war crimes after the death of AFP journalist Arman Soldin
An investigation was opened in France on Wednesday for a war crime after the death on Tuesday in Ukraine of AFP journalist Arman Soldin, the national anti-terrorist prosecution (Pnat) told the Agency. This investigation, entrusted to the gendarmes of the Central Office for the Fight against Crimes against Humanity and Hate Crimes (OCLCH), will aim to determine the circumstances of this death.
The Pnat specified in a press release that the investigation opened by its crimes against humanity unit targets several war crimes: willful attack on the life and physical or psychological integrity of a person protected by international humanitarian law; deliberate attack against the civilian population as such or against individual civilians taking no direct part in hostilities.
Third intended offence, deliberate attack knowing that it will cause incidental loss of human life in the civilian population or injuries among this population, which would be manifestly disproportionate to the concrete and direct military advantage expected of the whole of the population. ‘offensive.
Arman Soldin, AFP’s video coordinator in Ukraine, was killed on Tuesday at the age of 32 by a salvo from Grad rockets. This French journalist born in Sarajevo was part of a team of five AFP reporters who accompanied Ukrainian soldiers on the most active front of the war, in the vicinity of Chassiv Iar, a Ukrainian town near Bakhmout and targeted daily by Russian forces.
