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.
news of the day
Moscow and kyiv continue to accuse each other. This time it is the destruction of a pipeline linking the Russian city of Togliatti to the Ukrainian port of Odessa. On the Ukrainian side, the head of the military administration of the Kharkiv region, Oleg Sinegoubov, accused Russia on Tuesday of being responsible for the destruction of the pipeline. On Wednesday, Russia accused Ukraine of blowing it up.
“A Ukrainian sabotage group blew up the Togliatti-Odessa ammonia pipeline”, about 2,400 km long, the longest in the world, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement. This explosion took place Monday evening near Massioutovka, a small village controlled by Russian forces in the Kharkiv region (north-eastern Ukraine), according to the same source. “Several civilians were injured. They were given all the necessary medical assistance,” the statement said.
The pipeline, which connects the Russian city of Togliatti, on the banks of the Volga, with Odessa, the most important Ukrainian port on the Black Sea, allowed Russia to export more than 2.5 million tons of ammonia – a key component of mineral fertilizers – in particular for the European Union. Deactivated since February 2022, Moscow hoped to restart it.
sentence of the day
One of the worst environmental disasters of recent decades”
The destruction of the Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine will have catastrophic environmental and security consequences. “The greatest harm and future threat posed by this act of terror is the ecological devastation it inflicts on southern Ukraine,” Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmygal said.
According to the politician, “dozens of towns and villages will find themselves grappling with the problems of drinking water, access to water supplies for irrigation, which will cease, resulting in droughts and bad harvests. “This threatens global food security,” he added, calling the act attributed by his government to Russia an “act of terror”, “crime against humanity” and “ecocide.” »
The number of the day
€19.2 billion. This is the amount of trade last month between China and Russia, the highest since the start of the invasion. Trade between the two countries is booming. Chinese imports from Russia accounted for $11.3 billion. At the same time, exports to Russia experienced their strongest acceleration in May since the beginning of the invasion (+75.6% over one year).
The detail of the imported and exported products should be announced only in a few days. Former rivals during the Cold War, China and Russia have been strengthening their diplomatic, commercial and military relations for the past ten years.
The trend of the day
Evacuations continue after the destruction of the Kakhovka dam. According to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, 1,752 people have been evacuated from the affected areas under Kiev control, where more than 1,600 rescuers and police have been mobilized. According to him, 29 localities were flooded, including 10 currently under Russian control. “The water rises (…) by two centimeters every half hour,” Laura Moussiïane, from the Kherson meteorological center, told AFP.
The Ukrainian authorities will have to evacuate “more than 17,000” civilians, Attorney General Andriï Kostin said on Tuesday. On the Russian side, the authorities evacuated 1,274 people and a state of emergency was declared in the part of the Kherson region controlled by Moscow. An unknown number of civilians also left the flooded areas on both sides on their own.