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
Finland will close its last border crossing still open with Russia during the night from Wednesday to Thursday. Helsinki closed four of its eight crossing points with Russia in mid-November, before restricting passage to a single border crossing, the most northerly of the country in the Arctic zone, last week.
“Finland is the target of a Russian hybrid operation. This is a question of national security,” emphasized Interior Minister Mari Rantanen. The Raja-Jooseppi border post will remain closed until December 13, she said. Nearly 1,000 undocumented asylum seekers have presented themselves since the beginning of August at the 1,340 kilometer long eastern border separating the two countries, according to the Finnish authorities.
Sentence of the day
The period of detention of Evan Gershkovich (…) is extended by two months until January 30, 2024.”
In a press release, the press service of the Lefortovski court indicated that it had extended by two months, until January 30, the pre-trial detention of American journalist Evan Gershkovich, arrested at the end of March in Russia for “espionage”. An accusation he rejects. “Evan has been unjustly imprisoned for approximately 250 days, and every day is too long,” his employer, the Wall Street Journalin a press release sent to AFP.
The number of the day
10. This is the number of people who died in the violent storm that hit Ukraine, according to a new report announced Tuesday by the Minister of the Interior. “In total, ten people died”, including five in the Odessa region, two in the Mykolaiv region (south), in the Kharkiv region (east) and in the city of Kiev (north), said Minister Igor Klymenko on Telegram. “Twenty-three people including two children were injured,” he added.
Rescuers towed 1,530 vehicles stuck in the snow, including dozens of buses and ambulances. More than 400 localities in 11 regions of the country remain without electricity due to bad weather and eight highways are still blocked.
Today’s trend
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Tuesday that he was “confident” about the continuation of American military support for Ukraine, however calling on the Allies to maintain their effort. “I am confident that the United States will continue to provide support (to Ukraine) because it is in their interest to do so,” he told reporters shortly before the start of a meeting of foreign ministers from NATO countries in Brussels.
The United States has already provided $40 billion in military aid to Ukraine, but additional funds are blocked in Congress, due to the reluctance of several elected Republicans. European aid is also partly blocked by the reluctance of certain countries to pay more. The Allies “have done a lot” and remain “committed”, he added Stoltenberg, calling on them, however, to continue their efforts in favor of the Ukrainians, an “obligation” for NATO.
The fact remains that Olaf Scholz for his part considered that maintaining aid to Ukraine in its war against Russia is of “existential” importance for Europe. After the United States, Germany is the country that provides the most aid to Ukraine, including arms deliveries. It is “clear that we must not relax our support for Ukraine” and in “the resolution of the energy crisis” which followed the Russian invasion war since February 2022, he insisted Scholz in a speech before German MPs in Berlin, where he pleaded to obtain budgetary resources accordingly, particularly for next year.