Did you miss the latest events on the war in Ukraine? Do not panic, 20 minutes takes stock for you every evening at 7:30 p.m. Who did what ? Who said what? Where are we ? The answer below.
The fact of the day
He was on the passenger list of a plane that crashed in Russia. Yevgueni Prigojine, boss of the Russian mercenary group Wagner who reappeared in a video shot, according to him, in Africa on Tuesday, would have died in a crash on Wednesday, announce the Russian press agencies. The private plane with 10 people on board crashed in the Tver region of Russia while en route from Moscow to Saint Petersburg, leaving no survivors, the emergency services said.
“There were 10 people on board, including 3 crew members. According to the first information, all the people on board died,” the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations said on Telegram.
The number of the day
270,000. Like the number of tons of grain destroyed in a month due to bombardments in Ukrainian ports. The Black Sea has become an outlet for Ukrainian agricultural products since Moscow ended a grain deal in July. Drawing up an initial assessment of these attacks, Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov deplored the loss for foreign customers of “270,000 tonnes of cereals” in one month.
kyiv, on the other hand, denied the loss of one of its military ships in the Black Sea, claimed the day before by Moscow. “In fact, the Russian missile fell into the water,” the Defense Ministry said. On Tuesday, Russia claimed to have “destroyed” two Ukrainian military ships in the Black Sea.
sentence of the day
France recognizes neither the annexation by Russia of Ukrainian territories nor the results of the sham elections that have been organised.
Emmanuel Macron hammered Wednesday that France does not recognize “the annexation by Russia of Ukrainian territories”. A declaration which follows the controversial remarks of his predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy who had considered “illusory” a “backtracking” on Crimea. “I want to say it here once again in front of you, by your side, very clearly: France recognizes neither Russia’s annexation of Ukrainian territories nor the results of the sham elections that have been organised”, said the French president in a pre-recorded video message broadcast during a summit of the “Crimea Platform”.
Since the annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014, “we have seen the constant deterioration of the humanitarian situation and human rights” on the spot, he further estimated. The former French head of state Nicolas Sarkozy (2007-2012) for his part declared in mid-August that in Crimea “any step back is illusory”. For him, “an indisputable referendum (…) will be necessary to ratify the current state of affairs”.
The trend of the day
At least four employees were killed on Wednesday in a Russian strike that destroyed a Ukrainian school ten days before the start of the school year, another deadly day as Ukraine will enter its 19th month of war. The Russian army continued its daily strikes on its neighbor on Wednesday, often very far from the front. The strike took place some 400 kilometers from the front lines, in Romny, in the Sumy region (northeast).
“Rescuers found the bodies of the school director, deputy director, a secretary and a librarian,” Interior Minister Igor Klymenko said on Telegram. Three civilians were also killed near Lyman, in the Donetsk region (east), according to local authorities.