Did you miss the latest events on the war in Ukraine? 20 minutes takes stock for you every evening at 7:30 p.m. Between the strong declarations, the advances on the front and the results of the battles, here are the main points of the day.
The fact of the day
Hard blow for Russian freestyle wrestling. “Abdulrashid Sadulaev was excluded from the European Olympic qualifying tournament in Baku after failing to meet the eligibility criteria set by the International Olympic Committee for individual neutral athletes,” writes the International Wrestling Federation (UWW) on its website . Olympic champion in 2016 at 86 kg, then crowned again in 2021 at 97 kg, Sadulaev was declared ineligible by the independent “United World Wrestling Eligibility” panel.
An investigation by this panel uncovered “new information” relating to the wrestler’s “support” for Russia’s war against Ukraine. It was also established that the five-time world champion was still an official member of Dynamo Moscow, a sports club linked to Russian power.
However, according to the IOC, only Russian and Belarusian athletes can participate in international competitions who do not actively support the war in Ukraine and are not under contract with either the army or national security agencies. Abdulrashid Sadulaev must therefore say goodbye to the next Paris Olympics and will not be able to defend his title.
The number of the day
6. This is the number of people killed by Russian strikes on Kharkiv, not far from the border with Russia, and the Sumy region (north-east), during the night from Wednesday to Thursday. In Kharkiv, three rescuers died during a “second strike” on a place which had just been bombed in a “densely populated district of Kharkiv”, announced Mayor Igor Terekhov. This type of attack, called a “double strike”, consists of bombing a place first time, then a second time when emergency services have arrived on site. Volodymyr Zelensky denounced a “despicable and cynical attack”. Officials in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine said three people were killed in separate Ukrainian attacks on their territories.
Today’s statement
“ It’s ridiculous, it’s saying that France could be behind, that the Ukrainians are behind… It all makes no sense. But it is a manipulation of information that is part of the arsenal of war as it is used today by Russia. » »
Emmanuel Macron reacted this Thursday to the report made by the Kremlin of the meeting on Wednesday between the French and Russian defense ministers. It is stated that Russia says it “hopes” that the French secret services are not involved in the attack in Moscow which left 144 dead on March 22, even though it was claimed by Daesh. The president justified the initiative of this exchange, the first officially since October 2022, by the fact that France had precisely “useful information” to transmit “on the origins and organization of this attack”. In this affair, Emmanuel Macron sees it as “the demonstration” of what he has been saying “since the beginning of the year”: “An increase in Russia’s aggressive posture and this is not just happening with France. »
Today’s trend
Ukraine is trying to adapt to Russian strikes on its energy infrastructure. The president of the national electricity company Ukrenergo affirmed Thursday that the “only sustainable way” to protect the Ukrainian energy system is to “decentralize” production.
Since the end of March, Russia has launched a campaign of strikes against the Ukrainian energy system, similar to that of the previous winter. This new wave of attacks, even more intense than the previous winter, has “damaged a whole series of important infrastructures”, notably thermal and hydroelectric power stations, declared Volodymyr Koudrytsky during a press conference.
Our file on the war in Ukraine
Faced with incessant strikes, “it will be quite difficult to repair damaged power plants indefinitely,” generally built in the 1960s or 1970s, noted Volodymyr Koudrytsky. For the moment, Ukraine is “very dependent on a small number” of large power plants, which makes it vulnerable to Russian attacks, added the president of Ukrenergo. “The only sustainable way to protect the system […] is to decentralize production capacity” using small power plants operating with renewable energy and placed around large cities, he argued.