137th day of war in Ukraine. The incessant bombardments continue in the east of the country.
Russian forces, which announced in early July that they had taken control of the Lugansk region, are now targeting the Donetsk region to occupy the entire Donbass mining basin, partially controlled since 2014 by Moscow-backed separatists after Russian annexation of the Ukrainian Crimean Peninsula.
Local authorities now fear “further actions” from Russia. The British Ministry of Defense said Moscow was moving reservist forces from across Russia to bring them together near
of Ukraine for future offensives. The Russian army is “regrouping, or rather reconstituting its groups and preparing new actions in Sloviansk, Kramatorsk, Bakhmout“, had for his part estimated Friday on Telegram the governor of the Donetsk region, Pavlo Kyrylenko.
On the diplomatic front, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced on Saturday that he had spoken with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, about the Russian invasion of Ukraine during a meeting with more than five hours after a meeting of G20 foreign ministers in
Bali, Indonesia.
This meeting, the first in person between the two diplomats since October, aims to prevent the already difficult relationship between Beijing and Washington from worsening.