Three wounded and five missing after a Russian strike in a town in the east, about twenty villages in the north-east evacuated by the Ukrainian authorities... Le Figaro takes stock of the war in Ukraine on Tuesday 16 January.
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Three injured, five missing after strike in eastern city of New York
Russian shelling injured at least three people in the eastern Ukrainian city of New York on Monday night, but five more people are believed to still be under the rubble of the buildings hit, the Interior Ministry said Tuesday. On Monday evening, the Russian army attacked the town, located in the Donetsk region, with guided bombs, the ministry said.
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We know of three wounded. There are probably five more people under the rubble," he added. Six three-story buildings and five houses were damaged, according to authorities. New York City is located very close to the Eastern Frontline. In recent weeks, Kyiv and Moscow have stepped up shelling, a sign of an escalation as the conflict has lasted for almost two years.
The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) said on Tuesday it had seen a 26 percent increase in the number of civilians killed or injured in attacks in the country in December compared to November. This figure relates only to cases that have been verified by this institution. The real increase is therefore "likely higher," the HRMMU warned.
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The number of civilian casualties had decreased steadily in 2023, but the wave of attacks from late December to early January interrupted this trend," said its head of mission, Danielle Bell, quoted in the statement. The arrival of very cold weather is further complicating the lives of civilians, HRMMU noted.
About twenty villages in the North-East evacuated
Ukraine on Tuesday ordered the evacuation of 26 villages in the northeastern Kharkiv region due to repeated Russian military assaults in the area. "In view of the situation, we are implementing a mandatory evacuation of the population of the communities of Kindrachivska and Kurylivska in the Kupiansk district," regional governor Oleg Sinegoubov said on social media.
Its publication lists the names of the 26 localities concerned, where 3043 people, including 279 children, live. The Kupiansk district has been under attack by Russian forces for months. They have made minimal gains there, but still hope to break through Ukrainian defenses.
This entire area had been occupied by Russia at the beginning of the invasion ordered in February 2022 by Vladimir Putin, until a hit-and-run attack by the Ukrainians liberated the region in September of the same year, forcing Moscow's troops into a humiliating retreat. Russia went back on the offensive in this area in the summer of 2023, while Ukraine tried, unsuccessfully, a major counteroffensive in the Donbass (east) and the south.
Since the autumn and the failure of Ukrainian reconquest ambitions, Russian forces have been pushing in the northeast, in the Kupiansk area, and in the east, particularly around the city of Avdiivka. Kiev says it is holding out and inflicting significant losses on the Russians, but also insists to its Western allies that it needs weapons and ammunition to be able to continue resisting.
The Kharkiv region, where Kupiansk is located, borders Russia and its eponymous capital is Ukraine's second-largest city. Moscow is shelling the area constantly, including residential areas. In October, a particularly deadly Russian strike killed more than 330 people in the village of Groza, while they were attending a funeral ceremony in the town, which had a population of <> before the bombing.