War in Ukraine: two French people killed in a Russian attack, destruction of Ivanovets… update on the situation

Le point sur la situation. MAXPPP – Kaniuka Ruslan/Avalon

Tous les jours, Midi Libre fait le point sur la situation en Ukraine. Ce vendredi 2 février 2024, découvrez les dernières actualités autour de ce conflit.

kyiv claims destruction of Ivanovets, Russian missile corvette

On January 31, 2024, kyiv reportedly sank, in the Black Sea off the coast of Crimea, a Russian corvette called Ivanovets, which is a small missile ship.

A new defeat for Russia. Vladimir Putin's fleet suffered a new blow in the Black Sea after the destruction of a ship on January 31, off the coast of Crimea. This is a Russian missile corvette, the Ivanovets. Kiev claims responsibility for the attack carried out using several naval drones, reports the Figaro.

If Ukraine is not able to demonstrate maritime force, Volodymyr Zelensky's country nevertheless inflicts a lot of damage on the Russian fleet. As evidenced by the video of the destruction of Ivanovets, widely relayed on social networks. "Due to a number of direct impacts on the hull, the Russian ship suffered damage making any movement impossible, the Ivanovets sank", said the General Directorate of Military Intelligence of Ukraine.

This Ukrainian attack was carried out with six remote-controlled kamikaze drones, several of which appear to have reached their target, explains General Kyrylo Boudanov to the media The War Zone. Russia tried as best it could to stop the offensive, in particular by firing on Ukrainian aircraft, but that was not enough. Once the impact between the naval drones and the ship of around fifty meters was estimated at nearly 70 million dollars according to the magazine Géo, a spectacular explosion occurs, as can be seen in the images.

If 40 to 50 people were to be part of the crew, their fate remains completely unknown for the moment, details Le Figaro .

If Ukraine is cruelly lacking in ships in this conflict zone, Volodymyr Zelensky's army nevertheless continues its exploits, with no less than 11 boats and submarines seriously damaged or completely destroyed. The loss of the Russian fleet is estimated at 20% in the area.

Two French people killed in Ukraine, Macron denounces a "cowardly and unworthy act"

President Emmanuel Macron denounced this Friday, February 2, a "cowardly and unworthy act" the day after the death of two French aid workers in an attack by the Russian army in Ukraine.

The head of French diplomacy, Stéphane Séjourné, for his part declared on the social network /p>

The two French victims were members of Entraide protestante suisse (EPER), the NGO announced in a press release on Friday.

"A group of collaborators were attacked around 2:30 p.m. (Thursday) during a humanitarian intervention. On this occasion, two of the team's valued colleagues tragically lost their lives and other collaborators were injured, specifies the Swiss organization. She said she "strongly condemns this brutal and unjustifiable attack, which constitutes a serious violation of international humanitarian law."

The French president had previously confirmed the death of the two humanitarian workers on X.

The governor of the Kherson region, Oleksandr Prokudin, said Thursday that a Russian airstrike with armed drones had killed two French humanitarian workers and injured three other foreign nationals in the town of Berislav .

The ICJ says it has jurisdiction to settle the dispute between Kyiv and Moscow

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) declared itself, this Friday, February 2, 2024, competent to judge the dispute between Ukraine and Russia, accused by Kyiv of violation of international law after the invasion of February 24, 2022.

The Ukrainian authorities seized the court in The Hague on February 26 after Russia justified its "special operation" against their country with accusations of "genocide" in the Russian-speaking East.

Kyiv believes that Moscow violated the 1948 Genocide Convention by justifying its invasion by the need to end an alleged genocide of the Russian-speaking populations of eastern Ukraine .

At hearings held last September, lawyers representing Russia asked judges to dismiss the case, saying the legal arguments presented by Russia # 39;Ukraine were erroneous and that the Court did not have jurisdiction to judge this case.

Kyiv has said there is no risk of genocide in eastern Ukraine, where it is fighting forces backed by Russia since 2014. Moscow believed that Kyiv was using this affair as a backdoor way to obtain a decision on the legality of Russia's military action.

More than twenty European states, as well as Australia and Canada, have supported Ukraine by submitting declarations officials to the Court, emphasizing that they believed the case should be pursued.