One year after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the balance is
devastating
, with tens of thousands of deaths, millions of refugees and internally displaced persons, bombed and destroyed cities, and a badly hit economy.
Some 180,000 Russian soldiers were killed or wounded, as well as 100,000 Ukrainian servicemen, according to Norway.
Other western sources speak of 150,000 casualties on each side.
By comparison, during the war in Afghanistan (1979-1989), the then Soviet Union lost 15,000 soldiers.
The Ukrainian side often uses the terms
"cannon fodder" and "carnage"
to define the strategy of Vladimir Putin's army: poorly trained recruits sent to near-certain death.
Thousands of Russian prisoners also joined the Wagner militia, forced by their comrades in arms to press on even in the face of impossible targets, according to kyiv and its allies.
The
multiple Russian assaults also cause heavy losses on the Ukrainian side,
as evidenced by the numerous blue and yellow flags present in the cemeteries.
A local damaged by a Russian attack in the Donetsk region, this Sunday.
Photo: REUTERS
Between 30,000 and 40,000 would have lost their lives in a year of conflict, according to Western sources.
At the end of January, the UN estimated the number of civilians killed and wounded at 18,000, although it acknowledged that "the real figures are much higher."
Among the dead, Ukraine speaks of
"more than 400 children."
Most of the victims were killed by Russian airstrikes, according to the UN.
In the port city of Mariupol (south), the bodies lay in the streets after three months of attacks.
Mines, less deadly for now, could be deadlier in the long run.
30% of the Ukrainian territory would be plagued, according to kyiv.
For its part, the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) accuses Ukraine of planting the Izium region (east) with antipersonnel mines.
Ukrainian flags at a cemetery where the graves of fallen soldiers are, in Kramatorsk, this Sunday.
Photo: AFP
According to experts, it will take several years to clear the territory.
war crimes
The war in Ukraine will remain in the collective memory for its harsh images:
corpses of civilians with their hands tied behind their backs
in the streets of Bucha after the Russian withdrawal, a bloody stuffed animal at the Kramatorsk station, a bombed maternity hospital in Mariupol.
And there are more examples.
Nearly 65,000 suspected war crimes
have been reported
, according to European Commission Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders.
Russian troops are accused of executions, rapes, torture and kidnapping of children (more than 16,000 sent to Russia or territories under its control, according to kyiv).
UN investigators accused them in September of committing war crimes "on a large scale".
Ukraine, in turn, was accused of committing war crimes against Russian prisoners, but without comparison with the facts imputed to Moscow.
The International Criminal Court opened on March 2, 2022 an investigation for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine.
Eastern Ukraine is reminiscent of the images of the First World War: exhausted soldiers at the bottom of muddy trenches, huge craters caused by shells, apocalyptic landscape in towns and cities, etc.
The horror of the corpses in the streets in Bucha.
Photo: EFE
The "active" front line stretches for 1,500 kilometers on a north-south axis in eastern Ukraine, according to Ukrainian army chief Valeri Zalujny.
the battle of bakhmut
In Bakhmut, one of the hot spots, a bloody battle has pitted the Ukrainian army against Russian forces and Wagner's mercenaries, who are slowly advancing since the summer.
Thousands of civilians still live in the bombed cities,
hiding in basements
, without water or electricity and dependent on humanitarian aid.
In the rear, shelling also hit cities like Kramatorsk.
On the areas liberated by Ukraine and ravaged by destruction, the risk of falling back into Russian hands still weighs.
A Russian-bombed building in kyiv, pictured from October.
Photo: AP
Moscow troops occupy 18% of Ukraine, but, according to General Zalujny, kyiv retook 40% of the territories occupied by Russia since the invasion on February 24, 2022.
Devastated buildings, stopped factories, destroyed infrastructure are some of the images in southern and eastern Ukraine, where fighting has been concentrated since Moscow's failed attempt to take Kiev in April.
economic cost
The economic cost to Ukraine was enormous: its GDP contracted by 35% in 2022, according to the World Bank.
The Kiev School of Economics (KSE) estimated the damage at $138 billion and losses to agriculture at more than $34 billion.
The Ukrainian government counts more than 3,000 affected schools and Unesco, 239 cultural sites.
Since September, Moscow has systematically attacked energy infrastructure.
By December, almost half were damaged, plunging the Ukrainians into darkness and cold.
According to the UN, the fighting
forced almost 8 million people to leave Ukraine
and caused more than 5 million internal displacement.
Poland is one of the first host countries, with more than a million people.
Those responsible for the Russian occupation affirm for their part that at least 5 million Ukrainians left for Russia.
For kyiv, these are "forced evacuations".
In April, columns of Soviet-era Ukrainian military vehicles crossed the country towards Donbas (east).
Ukrainian soldiers were then calling for Western weapons to repel the Russians, a call that was answered.
The German think tank Kiel Institute estimated Western promises of military aid to kyiv at around 37.9 billion euros (about 40.465 billion dollars).
US Himars rocket launchers, whose range of 80 kilometers is longer than that of Russian equipment, helped Ukraine make major gains in the fall.
In January, the West decided to supply main battle tanks to kyiv, breaking a first taboo.
Sending fighters to Ukraine could be the next step.
Source: AFP agency
BC
look too
War in Ukraine: Zelensky called for speeding up military aid at the Munich Security Summit
War in Ukraine: US diplomat chief warns China considering sending arms to Russia
