War in Ukraine, live: twenty people killed by a Russian strike in Kharkiv, France announces aid of 300 million euros – Le Monde

Midday update on the situation on the ground The Russian army entered Ukrainian territory exactly three weeks ago, and after advancing on several fronts, the lines have stabilized. “Russian forces have not launched any large-scale attacks since March 4,” summarizes Michel Goya, former soldier and historian on his Twitter account. The American intelligence and defense services make the same observation: a halted progression, and therefore a massive use of missiles. According to sources quoted by the New York Times, Russia has fired more than 980 missiles since the start of the war. The bomb shelter in the bombed Mariupol theater was not destroyed, the toll is still uncertain. The Dramatic Theater, in the city center of the city besieged for sixteen days, had been bombed by Russian aircraft on Wednesday, according to the town hall. The three-story building was totally destroyed but the bomb shelter, in which “more than a thousand” civilians had taken refuge, is intact, according to two Ukrainian deputies. On his Facebook page, Sergiy Taruta says that “people come out alive”, without being able to give precise figures. This is explained by the fact that relief has been searching the rubble since Thursday morning, according to the town hall. Russia denies having bombed the place and accuses the Azov regiment, a Ukrainian far-right formation, on which it had already rejected the responsibility for the attack on a maternity hospital. Human Rights Watch said Wednesday that it could not “rule out the possibility of a Ukrainian military target in the area of ​​the theater, but we know the theater housed at least 500 civilians.” Besieged, deprived of lasting humanitarian corridors and bombarded incessantly for sixteen days, the great port of southern Ukraine has suffered unimaginable destruction for its inhabitants. They would still be 300,000 to survive in terrible conditions. Le Monde was able to reach, on Wednesday by telephone, two residents who had just been evacuated. One said: “Today Mariupol is an open hell. Whole neighborhoods were razed. » INFOGRAPHY LE MONDE End of curfew in kyiv, air raids in Kharkiv. The Russian army has been using the same tactics for several weeks – a gradual encirclement and a continuous barrage of artillery fire – in an attempt to take control of Ukraine’s second largest city, where at least 500 people have been killed since 24 February, according to local officials. “We are suffering great losses, 53 citizens were killed yesterday,” said the governor, Viacheslav Chaus, without this assessment being able to be independently verified. The curfew in the capital, in force since Tuesday evening, was lifted on Thursday morning. Hours earlier, debris from a missile fell on a residential building and killed a woman. In the North-West, fighting continues sporadically in the localities of Irpin, Boutcha and Hostomel. A man cries next to the body of his mother, who was killed when an intercepted missile hit a residential building, in kyiv on March 17. THOMAS PETER / REUTERS The human toll. Nearly 700 civilians have been killed since the start of the war and more than 1,110 others injured, according to the UN. But these figures are very difficult to verify, especially when on the ground fighting or bombings are still taking place, the UN insists on the fact that its daily assessments are probably much lower than the reality. Since the start of the war, the Ukrainian presidency has released an official report of 1,300 soldiers killed, while Russia has released, on March 2, only one report so far: 498 soldiers killed. US intelligence estimates the actual Russian military casualties at around 7,000 troops, according to The New York Times.