At least 140,000 residential buildings in Ukraine were destroyed or damaged. More than 3.5 million people are homeless. More than 12 million people were displaced. A new statistic was added Tuesday to the ruthless accounting that measures the losses of the Russian invasion.
Every day the bloodshed, chaos and destruction grows. Ukrainian officials said on Tuesday that two civilians were killed and five others were seriously injured while trying to flee Russian-held territory in the southern Kherson region. The governor of the neighbouring Kryvyi Rih region said Russian troops were firing on their red minibus at “close range”.
In the east, the focus of the recent Russian offensive, an emergency evacuation train carrying “women, children, the elderly and many people with reduced mobility” headed for safer areas in the west on Tuesday morning, Deputy Prime Minister Irina Veresh said. Chuuk, said in a statement.
President Volodymyr Zelensky has implored some 200,000 civilians in the east to evacuate already sparsely populated areas near the front lines, where Russian artillery flattened entire towns. Those who stayed were disproportionately old, frail, Russian sympathizers or just stubborn. Most people already lack the necessary infrastructure such as electricity, heat and clean water.
Ms Vereshchuk said if they waited until the weather turned cold this fall — when Russia may have resumed a massive offensive — there would be little the Kyiv government could do.
A month after taking full control of Ukraine’s easternmost Luhansk region, Russian President Vladimir V. Putin’s forces are regrouping in a bid to conquer the neighboring Donetsk region they do not yet control . But the fighting never completely stopped, and Russians are still hitting targets across the country every day.
Ukraine’s military said on Tuesday it had repelled repeated attempts by the Russians to advance towards the city of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region. In the south, Ukrainian forces pushed the Russians back and are expected to push hard to retake the strategic city of Kherson.
On Monday, President Biden announced a $550 million increase in arms for Ukraine, bringing the U.S. investment in the war to more than $8 billion since the Feb. 24 Russian invasion. The arrival of advanced long-range artillery from the United States and its allies helped the Ukrainians stabilize defensive positions in the east and begin a counteroffensive in the south.
The latest U.S. arms transfers will include ammunition for HIMARS rocket launchers used to destroy Russian command posts and ammunition depots, as well as ammunition for U.S. 155mm howitzers already used by Ukrainian forces, spokesman John F. Kirby said. ) said for the National Security Council.
Our coverage of the Russian-Ukrainian war
“The strength of the democratic world was fully felt on the battlefield in Ukraine this week,” Zelensky said in his overnight address to the nation.
But Ukraine’s determination to defend itself came at a terrible price, and the numbers can only begin to describe. The country has not released military casualties, and civilian casualties in Russian-occupied areas are guesswork at best, but it is estimated that tens of thousands of Ukrainians have been killed and many more wounded.
The Kremlin’s insistence that it only strikes military targets is overshadowed by images of destroyed apartment buildings, houses, schools, farms, hospitals and shops. At least 140,000 residential buildings were destroyed or damaged and more than 3.5 million people were left homeless, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said on Tuesday.
More than 10 million people have left Ukraine since February 24, but many of them have since returned, the UN refugee agency said.The United Nations Matters Now Some 6.2 million Ukrainians become refugees People who moved to other parts of Europe during the war, and 6.3 million “internally displaced persons,” people who fled the war but remained in Ukraine — by far the biggest migration crisis in Europe since World War II.
That means at least 30 percent of the country’s estimated pre-war population of 41 million has been forced from their homes.
The U.S. State Department on Tuesday announced a new round of major sanctions, including economic and travel restrictions, targeting Russian companies, institutions and individuals linked to the Kremlin or its war efforts. The list includes several billionaire business magnates, as well as Alina Kabayeva, a former Olympic gymnast, member of Russia’s Duma and widely described as Putin’s romantic partner.
In the United States, lawmakers have pressed the Biden administration to designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism, something Secretary of State Anthony J. Blinken has so far refused to do. On Tuesday, Russia’s foreign ministry warned that it could respond to the move by severing direct ties with Washington and taking other unspecified steps.
“The logical consequence of this irresponsible step could be a severance of diplomatic relations, after which Washington risks crossing the point of no return,” said foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. all the consequences.”
Russia’s top court ruled Tuesday that Ukraine’s Azov regiment, a far-right group and a terrorist group, could clear the way for captured soldiers to be criminally charged with terrorism offenses rather than treated as prisoners of war. Many of the troops who gained a foothold in Mariupol, pinned down Russian troops and lived in bunkers beneath the sprawling Azov Starr steel plant for nearly three months before surrendering came from that regiment.
Under agreements with Turkey and the United Nations, Russia has agreed to allow such vessels to pass through its maritime blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, subject to inspections. Turkish officials said the first ship, Razoni, would be inspected near the entrance to the Bosphorus on Wednesday morning before continuing on to its destination, the Lebanese port of Tripoli.
More than 20 million tons of grain have been stranded in Ukrainian ports for more than five months, with the backlog growing as the harvest has grown — even as shortages and soaring prices lead to increased world hunger. Aid groups have welcomed the prospect of freeing up the grain, but say more needs to be done to prevent famine in areas affected by drought and global warming.
reported by Michael Crowley and Martina Stevies-Grineve.
