War in Ukraine: at least 8 dead in Russian strikes, sending of air defenses to kyiv… update on the situation

Le point sur la situation. MAXPPP – SERGEY KOZLOV

Every day, Midi Libre takes stock of the situation in Ukraine. This Thursday, April 4, 2024, discover the latest news around this conflict.

NATO wants to send more air defenses to kyiv

NATO countries agreed on Thursday to dig into their weapons stockpiles to send additional air defense systems to Ukraine so that it can better protect itself against attacks. ballistic missile attacks from Russia, as the Alliance’s 75th anniversary is marked by war near its eastern flank.

"Allies understand the urgency" of the situation, declared the Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, following a meeting in Brussels of the foreign ministers of the member countries, in which the head of the Ukrainian diplomacy, Dmitro Kouleba.

The latter repeated Kyiv's request to send additional air defense systems, in particular American-made Patriot missiles.

"Allies will now go through their inventories to see if they can supply more systems, particularly Patriots, obviously ensuring that the systems have ammunition and spare parts " necessary, said Jens Stoltenberg during a press conference. He did not communicate any specific objectives or concrete promises.

Earlier in the day, the ceremony organized to mark the 75th anniversary of the Transatlantic Alliance, with cakes and fanfare, did not mask the austere atmosphere reigning in Brussels while the war in Ukraine entered its third year in February.

A NATO representative said Moscow was likely to recruit some 30,000 additional troops per month, which would allow it to counter losses on the front lines and continue its offensive. Speaking on condition of anonymity, he added, however, that Russia still faced a lack of ammunition and maneuver units needed to achieve its goals.

At least 8 dead in Russian drone attacks

At least eight people were killed and around ten others were injured in new Russian strikes on Kharkiv, Ukraine's second city, and the Sumy regions (north- east) and Donetsk (east), the authorities announced on April 4. Officials in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories, meanwhile, said separate Ukrainian attacks left at least four people dead in their regions.

In Kharkiv, located not far from the Russian border, three rescue workers died in a "second strike" on a place which had just been bombed in a "densely populated neighborhood", announced its mayor Igor Terekhov. Twelve people were injured "to varying degrees", he added. The three rescuers were men aged 32, 41 and 52, according to Interior Minister Igor Klimenko. A fourth rescuer is among the injured.

Such attacks, called "double strikes", consist of bombing a location first time, then a second time when emergency services arrived on scene. President Volodymyr Zelensky called the bombing "despicable and cynical".

In the suburbs of Kharkiv, a man died in a separate attack, the regional governor announced. A 68-year-old woman suffered the same fate in a strike on a building in another area of ​​the city, according to police.

In the neighboring region of Sumy, a 47-year-old employee of a gas distribution network was killed in a Russian bombing, according to the Energy Ministry .

In Donetsk, a couple – a 53 year old man and a 51 year old woman – lost his life Thursday in a Russian artillery fire and two other people were injured in the town of New York, announced the Ukrainian prosecutor's office.

The Ukrainian Air Force reported a Russian raid of "20 Shahed", explosive drones of Iranian design, on the Kharkiv region, of which 11 were "destroyed" by anti-aircraft defense. Energy infrastructure was "damaged" by these strikes in this region, according to the Ukrainian Ministry of Energy.

In the area of ​​southern Ukraine under Russian occupation, two civilians traveling in a truck were killed by a Ukrainian drone in the village of Babyne, on the banks of the Dnieper, said the head of the regional authorities installed by Moscow, Andreï Alekseyenko.

Two men also died in a Ukrainian strike in Donetsk (east), very close to the front, said this Thursday evening the head of the local occupation administration, Denis Pouchiline .

What was said during the interview between Sébastien Lecornu and Sergueï Choïgou

French Minister of the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu spoke on the telephone this Wednesday, April 3, 2024, with his Russian counterpart Sergei Choïgu, a first since October 2022, the two capitals of which offered accounts in the evening made openly divergent.

The Russian minister clearly stated "to be ready to resume dialogue on Ukraine" but "France neither accepted nor offered anything" on this subject, the French minister's entourage told AFP. Sébastien Lecornu had earlier indicated in a press release that he "condemned without reservation the war of aggression that Russia launched in Ukraine" during this call.

Russian information attacks seem to be increasing against France while Paris recently concluded a bilateral security agreement with kyiv, with Moscow denouncing the growing involvement" of Paris in the conflict. Concerning the Moscow attack, the positions of the two countries also seemed marked on Wednesday by opposing readings of the events.

Lecornu "recalled the availability of France" to "increased exchanges" with Russia in the fight against &amp ;quot;terrorism", according to the press release from his ministry. He also insisted on the fact that France "did not have any information enabling a link to be established between this attack and Ukraine" and asked Moscow to "cease all instrumentalization", during a conversation of ;an hour with Choïgou.

Response from Moscow: "the Kiev regime does nothing without the approval of its Western supervisors. We hope that, in this case, the French secret services are not behind this".

Wednesday's meeting between the two ministers is in itself important, as high-level discussions are rare between the Western camp allied to Kiev and Russia since rsquo;Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.