Eastern Ukraine prepares for heavy fighting, new sanctions against Moscow

Eastern Ukraine, now a priority target of the Kremlin, has called on its civilian population to flee the looming fighting, despite new "devastating" US sanctions against Russia. Russian forces on Wednesday bombed several localities in eastern Ukraine, including Severodonetsk or Rubizhne, killing at least one person, denounced on Wednesday evening the governor of the Lugansk region (east), still under Ukrainian control, Serguiï Gaïdaï . "I'm asking people to evacuate, because we clearly see that before going on the all-out offensive, the enemy will just completely destroy all these places," he said when interviewed by a television channel. Ukrainian. “Please go” while there is still time, he insisted.

"We have nowhere to go, it's been like this for days," a 38-year-old Severodonetsk resident, Volodymyr, told AFP on Wednesday as he watched a burning building. "I don't know who this war is for, but we are here under the bombs..." The United States announced on Wednesday a new round of economic and financial sanctions against Russia, which they describe as "devastating " and which notably target the big banks and the daughters of Russian President Vladimir Putin. According to Washington, Russia could see its economy collapse by some 15% this year.

McKinsey: justice opens an investigation into the tax component

The National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF) announced on Wednesday that it had opened an investigation into the "tax optimization" practices of the consulting firm McKinsey revealed by the Senate inquiry committee and denounced by the opposition. Since the beginning of the controversy, the opposition has called for justice with insistence: in a press release, the national financial prosecutor indicated that after having read the report of the Senate commission of inquiry into the influence of the cabinets of private advice on public policies and carried out "verifications", his prosecutor's office had opened a preliminary investigation on March 31 for aggravated money laundering of tax evasion. The investigations were entrusted to the Service of judicial investigations of finances (SEJF), specifies Jean-François Bohnert in this press release which does not mention the name of McKinsey. The SEJF is a "fiscal police" service created in 2019 and placed under the supervision of the Ministry of Action and Public Accounts.

IN SHORT

The developed countries members of the International Energy Agency (IEA) will draw 120 million additional barrels of oil from their reserves, in an attempt to calm prices shaken by the war in Ukraine.

Between the thousands of invitations and the cult devoted to Elon Musk by his fans, the inauguration of the new Tesla factory in Austin on Thursday looks like a star concert, in the now established tradition of the whimsical billionaire who celebrates extraordinary growth of his company and his establishment in Texas, far from the Californian culture.

A new hat-trick for number 9 of Real. Karim Benzema scored three goals to thrash defending champions Chelsea (3-1) on Wednesday in the Champions League, a huge performance that makes the Real Madrid star a contender for the Ballon d'Or. In the other quarter-final played on Wednesday evening, Villareal beat Bayern Munich (0-1).