'Massive shelling' on Sloviansk, Eastern Ukraine | War in Ukraine

Des Ukrainian firefighters are trying to put out the flames in a Sloviansk market hit by a Russian strike on Tuesday.

Russian forces continued to advance on Tuesday in the Donbass, an industrial basin in eastern Ukraine that they want to finish conquering, with the city of Sloviansk in their sights, target of x27;a massive shelling that killed at least two people.

The governor of the Donetsk region, to which Sloviansk is attached, Pavlo Kyrylenko, said on Telegram that two people had were killed and seven others were injured in the strikes that targeted the city's central market.

AFP journalists present in Sloviansk during the bombardment saw rockets hitting the market and three others adjacent streets. The market was on fire, with firefighters trying to bring the blaze under control.

“Once again the Russians are intentionally targeting places where people gather civilians. This is terrorism pure and simple.

—Pavlo Kyrylenko, Governor of Sloviansk

Rouslan, a shopkeeper interviewed two hours after the bombing, struggles to hold back tears as he watches his shop burn. He denounces a genocide perpetrated by the Russian forces, assuring that such strikes aim to scare people into fleeing the city.

After the fall of Lysytchansk on Sunday, a centerpiece of the Donbass conquest plan, Russian forces were advancing west and heading towards this city of some 100,000 people before the war.

Sloviansk! Massive bombardment of the city. The center, the north. Everyone stays safe, Vadim Liakh, the city's mayor, warned on Facebook.

Two people were killed and seven others, wounded, in the Russian strike on the Sloviansk market.

On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to take the rest of Donbass, already partly controlled by pro-Russian separatists since 2014.

Lysychansk was the last stronghold held by kyiv in the province of Luhansk, one of the two forming the Donbass with that of Donetsk.

Tuesday morning, Russian troops were advancing towards west towards Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, the two largest cities in Donetsk province, still under Ukrainian control.

They were about ten kilometers from the city ​​of Siversk, which they have been pounding for several days, and therefore about fifty kilometers from Sloviansk.

A man injured in the Sloviansk market bombing receives treatment at a hospital in Kramatorsk.

The Russian army said in the morning that it had bombed two Ukrainian command posts in Donetsk. According to the Ukrainian presidency on Tuesday, at least two civilians were killed and six injured by Russian shelling in the province.

Russian forces also said on Tuesday morning that they had shelled four ammunition and artillery depots in the northeastern Kharkiv region in the past 24 hours, where the Ukrainians said on Monday evening they had repelled attempts to attack them. x27;Russian assault.

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In the south, Moscow also claimed to have shot down a Su-25 plane and three Ukrainian forces drones in the Kherson region, claims that cannot be independently verified.

A Russian official from the powerful security services (FSB) took over the government of the zone occupied in this region by Russian forces on Tuesday, the administration announced locale.

Russia also said on Tuesday it was investigating alleged torture of Russian soldiers captured by Ukrainian forces before being released in a prisoner swap with Ukraine.

Ukraine and Russia, which have carried out several prisoner exchanges, accuse each other of ill-treating or torturing prisoners.

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It is in this context that the two-day international conference organized in Lugano was to end on Tuesday to try to draw the outlines of the future reconstruction of Ukraine, which kyiv estimates to cost $750 billion.

Ukraine needs these colossal funds to help the population, to rebuild the cities and the infrastructures destroyed by the war, but also to prepare schools and universities for a new school year and to prepare for the winter, underlined Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday evening.

The declaration adopted on Tuesday in Lugano indicates that the signatories are fully committed to supporting Ukraine throughout its route.

The document stresses that the recovery process should contribute to accelerating, deepening, broadening and realizing Ukraine's reform efforts and resilience in line with Ukraine's European path.

The recovery process must be transparent and accountable to the Ukrainian people, he says, as the prospect of the influx of billions of dollars in aid has rekindled concerns over the corruption, endemic in the country.

In its 2021 report on corruption, the NGO Transparency International ranks Ukraine 122nd out of 180, Russia 136th.< /p>

The text insists that the recovery process be inclusive and ensure gender equality, and it called for the reconstruction of Ukraine in a sustainable way.

When we say that we are ready to go fast, we really mean fast, assured for his part the Ukrainian Prime Minister, Denys Chmygal.

The conference, which brings together officials from Ukraine's allies, international institutions, but also the private sector, had been planned long before the war sparked by the Russian invasion on February 24, and was originally intended to focus on reforms in Ukraine and in particular the fight against corruption.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) must propose the creation of a new fund for the x27;Ukraine, which could reach 100 billion euros, according to informed sources.

In Brussels, NATO's 30 member countries on Tuesday launched the ratification process for the memberships of Sweden and Finland, which will allow the Alliance to organize a united line of defense of the Arctic to the Mediterranean in the face of threats from Russia, but will also depend on the goodwill of Ankara.

At 32, we will be even stronger…as we face the worst security crisis in decades, said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. Many allies have been preparing for the fastest possible ratification, but it will take several months, he then warned.

L' Ukraine is also calling on its allies to put pressure on the shipping companies based there to stop transporting goods for Russia and thus help it sell its production and support its economy. Volodymyr Zelensky thus denounced on Tuesday the role of Greek companies in the export of Russian oil.

He also said he believed that Belarus, an ally of Moscow, would not will not be drawn into the war waged by Russia against its country.

The consequences of the war on the European economy also continue to worry: the The euro plunged to near 20-year lows against the dollar on Tuesday, nearing parity, dragged down by conflict-driven energy tensions in Europe.