Here is an update on the situation in Ukraine, on the 153rd day of the war, based on information from AFP journalists on the spot, official Ukrainian and Russian statements, Western sources, analysts and international organizations.
Footage released by Ukraine's state emergency services showed the damage inflicted on Zatoka, a Black Sea resort west of Odessa, after a Russian night bombardment.
Gutted houses, torn roofs, rubble strewn on the ground... Early in the morning, firefighters were busy putting out the flames in a small block of houses completely destroyed. "It's morning. An ordinary village, Zatoka. People were resting and living," President Volodymyr Zelensky reacted on Instagram.
"No (military) bases, no troops. The Russian terrorists just wanted to shoot. They will have to answer for all that," he said.
Ukrainian authorities have so far reported only one injured in the attack.
Port infrastructure was also bombed in the Mykolaiv region, according to the Ukrainian army, which reported destruction in the suburbs of this city committed by Russian missiles fired from the Kherson region, under Moscow control.
The port of Odessa was also hit on Saturday by the Russian army, which claims to have targeted military infrastructure there. But "there is no indication that such targets were where the missiles crashed," the British Ministry of Defense commented on Tuesday.
The anti-ship missiles that Russia claims to have targeted, supplied to Ukraine by the West, severely limit the "effectiveness" of the Russian fleet in the Black Sea, London explained.
"This has significantly compromised Russia's overall invasion plan, which cannot realistically attempt an amphibious assault to seize Odessa" and will therefore still attempt to strike the anti-ship missiles with which kyiv is equipped, further added. tweeted the British ministry.
According to Serguiï Gaïdaï, the Ukrainian governor of the Lugansk region, entirely under Russian control since the beginning of July, 12 Russians perished in Ukrainian bombardments on Lyssytchansk, the last city in this territory to fall into the hands of Moscow.
Three civilians have been killed in the past 24 hours in the eastern Donetsk region, which together with Lugansk makes up the Donbass, Donetsk Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko announced on Tuesday.
"There is not a single locality left in the Donetsk region that has not been hit and is relatively safe," Kyrylenko said in an interview with Ukrainian national television.
In the Donetsk region, the localities of "Toretsk, Avdiïvka, Mariïnka, Krasnogorivka were hit overnight from Monday to Tuesday", according to the governor. Bakhmout "was the object of artillery fire and airstrikes. Artillery fire was observed on the outskirts of Sloviansk".
The American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) for its part highlighted the "tactical and operational limits" with which Russian troops are "continually confronted on the battlefield", taking the example of the city of Novougansk, which they "have been attacking without success for two months".
Novolugansk, near Bakhmout, "is neither a large agglomeration nor particularly difficult terrain, but the Russian forces have been smashing through it for weeks" and its final conquest will not even create an "advantageous salient through which they can advance". towards Bakhmout, says the ISW.
- European Gas Agreement -
The energy ministers of the European Union, meeting in Brussels, agreed on Tuesday for their countries to reduce their gas consumption in a coordinated way, thus flying to the aid of Germany, after the announcement of a new drastic drop in Russian deliveries.
"The European Union confirmed today (Tuesday) that it is united and united. We have taken a huge step forward to secure the supply of gas this winter," said Czech Minister Jozef Sikela, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU.
Hungary, however, on Tuesday denounced an "unjustifiable, unnecessary, unenforceable and harmful" agreement. Among the Twenty-Seven, only this country opposed the text, which is therefore adopted by qualified majority.
- Tens of thousands dead -
There is 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.
Militarily, about 15,000 Russian soldiers have lost their lives in Ukraine since the start of the war, US and British intelligence agencies estimate. The Chief of the British Armed Forces, Admiral Tony Radakin, had estimated Sunday at 50,000 the number of Russian soldiers killed or wounded.
Ukraine reported for its part 10,000 dead in the ranks of its troops.
No independent statistics are available.
- Displaced or refugee Ukrainians -
More than six million Ukrainians are internally displaced, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
They join the approximately 5.5 million Ukrainians registered as refugees in other European states since the start of the invasion.
