This happened last night: UN reports record number of refugees of 100 million, battle for Donbas continues | Abroad

Filippo Grandi, the head of the UN refugee agency UNHCR, calls it “a record that should never have been set”. “The number of people forced to flee war, violence, human rights violations and persecution has now passed 100 million for the first time in history. This is a grim figure: sobering and alarming at the same time.”

According to the UN, more than fourteen million people are now displaced in Ukraine: eight million within the country and more than six million abroad. Last year, the organization counted 90 million refugees worldwide, because of violence and war in countries such as Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Nigeria and Congo.

The battle in eastern Ukraine now seems to focus on the city of Shevyerodonetsk. It is located in the Luhansk province and is one of the most important Ukrainian towns in the area. For the Russians, the intake is important, because from there they can better cover the rest of the Donbas region.

The Donetsk province is also located in the Donbas. Both provinces have been targets of the Russian army since the failed siege of the capital Kiev and the second city of Kharkov. This is also where the separatist ‘people’s republics’ Luhansk and Donetsk lie. According to Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky, 50 to 100 of his soldiers are killed every day in the fighting in the east.

In Shevyerodonetsk, the Russians attack from four sides. It is difficult for both armies to operate in the area. It consists mainly of fields and meadows, small mining towns and abandoned villages. The front is constantly moving up and down. Russia has deployed a company of so-called Terminator tanks, which were first involved in the failed attack on Kiev.

These are state-of-the-art armored vehicles equipped with, among other things, rocket launchers and grenade launchers. This shows, according to British intelligence, how eager the Russians are to conquer the area. “But at the same time there are only ten at the most,” according to a report. “So they won’t have a big influence on the battle.”

Ukraine has said it is not interested in a ceasefire if it means handing over territories. According to Michailo Podoljak, adviser to the president, concessions will only lead to a bigger and bloodier offensive. This seems to contradict what President Zelensky said earlier yesterday. He believed that the war can only end through negotiations. This view is also shared by some European countries, including Italy. Russia would then be allowed to keep some of the territories it has conquered.

Ukraine received support from Polish President Duda yesterday. He was the first Western leader to address parliament in Kiev, where he received a standing ovation. Duda said Poland will do everything possible to bring Ukraine into the European Union as soon as possible. This was immediately tempered by the French Minister for European Affairs. According to Clément Beaune it will take at least “fifteen to twenty years” before Ukraine will become an EU member.

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Ukraine’s culture minister said yesterday that Russia has destroyed more than 350 cultural and historical buildings since the war started (on February 24). “And there are more every day,” said Oleksandr Tkashenko. “The cultural heritage in the region around Kharkov has been the hardest hit with 94 direct hits. A total of 21 monuments of national importance have been destroyed by shelling and bombing and 88 of local importance. We are already working with international partners to protect our heritage.”

The Russians have since started clearing mines in the captured Azovstal complex in Mariupol. These have been placed by both Ukrainian and Russian troops. A soldier told Reuters news agency that this will take at least another two weeks: “It is extremely difficult. Hundreds have already been detonated in the past two days.” The streets of the huge factory site are now being swept clean with bulldozers.

Russian leader Vladimir Putin is meeting his colleague Alexander Lukashenko from Belarus in Sochi today. They will discuss their collaboration, the Interfax news agency reported last night. The agenda includes the possible formation of a so-called ‘union state’. More industrial and scientific cooperation will also be discussed. Belarus is still an independent country, according to Lukashenko, but since his controversial re-election in 2020, he has tightened ties with Moscow. Observers do not consider Belarus’s affiliation to Russia impossible.

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