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
After three decades of military non-alignment and in the midst of war in Ukraine, Finland became the 31st member of NATO on Tuesday. A “historic day” hailed by the leaders of the Alliance which now turns to Sweden.
In a strong signal sent to Russia, which denounced an “attack” on its security and promised “countermeasures”, NATO’s allied countries welcomed the Nordic country with great fanfare and immediately called for the accession of its Swedish neighbor “as quickly as possible”.
US President Joe Biden said he was “proud” to welcome Helsinki to the Western military alliance. His French counterpart Emmanuel Macron tweeted: “Welcome Finland to NATO! “, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky offered his “sincere congratulations” as kyiv also aspires to one day join the military organization.
sentence of the day
The scale and brutality of Russia’s atrocities in Ukraine are simply beyond human comprehension. The most appalling of these is the forcible transfer (…) of children to Russia for re-education and adoption”
Ukrainian Ambassador Yevheniia Filipenko reacted to a resolution passed by the UN Human Rights Council on Tuesday demanding that Russia allow international organizations to visit children and other civilians “who have been deported by force” in Ukraine to territories controlled by Moscow.
The resolution also calls on Moscow to “stop the illegal forcible transfer and deportation of civilians and other protected persons inside Ukraine or to the Russian Federation (…), in particular children, including those who are institutionalized, those who are unaccompanied and those who are separated”. The text was adopted by 28 votes for, 17 abstentions and two against (China and Eritrea).
According to kyiv, 16,221 children were deported to Russia until the end of February, figures which the UN Commission could not verify.
The number of the day
56. This is, in billions of cubic meters, the quantity of liquefied natural gas (LNG) exported to the EU in 2022 by the United States, compared to 22 billion in 2021, i.e. a jump of 140%. Washington and Brussels have indicated that they want to maintain LNG deliveries to Europeans at “a high level” in 2023, the doubling of which last year helped the Twenty-Seven to reduce their dependence on Russian hydrocarbons.
Following the invasion of Ukraine, Washington and Brussels “have worked like never before to help make Europe more energy secure”, US Foreign Minister Antony Blinken said during a meeting with the head of EU diplomacy Josep Borrell. In a joint statement, the United States and the EU committed “to work to maintain a high level of American LNG supply to Europe in 2023, of at least 50 billion m3”.
The trend of the day
Belarusian soldiers have begun to be trained in Russia in the use of “tactical” nuclear weapons, Moscow and Minsk said on Tuesday, the Kremlin having recently announced the sending of this type of weaponry to Belarus. “An Iskander-M tactical operational missile system has been delivered to the Belarusian armed forces. It allows the use of ordinary but also nuclear missiles,” said Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.
“Since April 3, Belarusian personnel have been trained in its use (…) in a Russian training center”, he added, during a meeting. “The personnel of these units will study in detail the issues relating to the content and use of tactical nuclear munitions,” the Belarusian Ministry of Defense said in a statement. “Belarusian soldiers will follow a complete training cycle in a training center of the Russian armed forces”, indicated the ministry, without specifying how long this training should last.