Did you miss the latest events on the tensions 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:
news of the day
A Frenchman who went to fight alongside Ukrainian soldiers against Russia jumped on a mine at the end of November in the Donbass (east) and is now awaiting his repatriation, organized by the Quai d’Orsay. “I was wounded on November 27 in a forest, as our battalion began to enter the Lugansk region, northeast of Svatove”, in eastern Ukraine, where fighting is raging against the Russian forces, explained Maxime Bronchain, 32, currently being treated in a military hospital in Kiev.
“I jumped on a mine, I am seriously injured in the left foot”, details the Frenchman, who was part of a reconnaissance unit of around twenty foreign fighters, “including 5 French”, within the Legion international. He has undergone five operations since his injury, and refused amputation but now fears losing his foot. In contact with the French embassy in Ukraine, he is now waiting to be repatriated to France. The Quai d’Orsay “wishes to remind you on this occasion of the risks associated with traveling to Ukraine, which is classified in the red zone. Any travel of any kind is strictly discouraged.
sentence of the day
France is very concerned about the campaign of repression waged by the Russian authorities against critical voices of power and its war of aggression against Ukraine.”
Paris “strongly” deplores the conviction of Russian opposition politician Ilya Iachine. A Moscow court sentenced him to eight and a half years in prison on Friday for criticizing the military offensive against Ukraine, after a trial illustrating the climate of repression in Russia.
The number of the day
54%. This is the share of territory occupied by the Russians since the start of the invasion last February and that Ukraine has managed to liberate, according to the British Ministry of Defense. London specifies that “Russia now controls around 18%” of Ukraine, including Donbass and Crimea under Russian control since 2014.
The trend of the day
Russian President Vladimir Putin will not hold his traditional year-end press conference, the Kremlin announced on Monday, amid Russia’s accumulated military setbacks in Ukraine and Western sanctions imposed on Moscow. “By the start of the new year, there will be no” presidential press conference, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a telephone briefing, noting that Vladimir Putin was speaking to the press on other occasions, particularly when traveling abroad.
Vladimir Putin’s big face-to-face with the press had been organized every year since 2001, with the exception of the period between 2008 and 2012, when he held the post of Prime Minister. Bringing together hundreds of Russian and foreign journalists, this annual press conference usually lasts several hours, with the Russian leader answering live questions on all sorts of topics, from diplomacy to everyday Russian issues.
The decision not to hold the end-of-year press conference comes as Russia, which launched a military offensive against Ukraine in February, has suffered several military setbacks in recent months and decreed a partial mobilization in September.