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 dramatic results of the fighting, here is the gist of the day.
The fact of the day
A Russian court on Monday ordered the pre-trial detention “until December 5” of Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, arrested last week. The latter is accused of breaches linked to its registration in the register of “foreign agents” while it was engaged in “the intentional collection of information concerning military activities” which could be harmful to “the security of Russia” , the court said last week.
Alsu Kurmasheva, who works for the American media Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), faces up to five years in prison. Its interim president, Jeffrey Gedmin, called for his “immediate release”. Alsu Kurmasheva, who usually lives in Prague with her husband and two teenage daughters, went to Russia for a “family emergency” on May 20 but was unable to leave because her American and Russian passports were confiscated. confiscated. According to the Tatar Inform website, she was fined on October 11 for not having declared her American citizenship to Russian authorities.
The number of the day
840. This is the number of Ukrainian companies that have left the regions most affected by the war under a government-backed relocation program, says Kyiv Independent media. Unsurprisingly, businesses have mainly migrated to the Lviv region, the westernmost part of Ukraine and therefore the front.
Sentence of the day
The Avdiïvka and Marinka areas are particularly difficult. Numerous attacks by the Russians. But our positions are protected. »
Volodymyr Zelensky was keen to provide his support to Avdiïvka, an industrial city, targeted in recent weeks by intense attacks by Russian troops, who seek to surround it. The Ukrainian army, for its part, spoke of “repulsed offensives”, particularly from the air, around Avdiïvka and several other towns in the Donetsk region. On Friday, the Ukrainian army claimed to have once again repelled a Russian offensive, claiming to have inflicted “catastrophic losses” on the adversary. Almost located on the front line since 2014, Avdiïvka is located 13 km north of Donetsk, the capital, under Moscow control, of the eponymous region whose annexation Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed a year ago.
Today’s trend
“Three enemy missiles in the direction of Crimea were shot down” in the Kherson region at the end of the afternoon, Vladimir Saldo, installed by Moscow at the head of the occupied zones of this area of southern Ukraine, said on Telegram. Ukraine.
Earlier, an air alert was issued by the Crimean authorities, and traffic on the Crimean Bridge, which connects this peninsula to the Russian mainland, was temporarily interrupted. kyiv has been seeking for several weeks to bring the fight to this strategic zone for Russia. The peninsula is at the heart of the Russian military posture for its offensive in Ukraine, both to supply troops in southern Ukraine and to carry out missile strikes from the sea. The Ukrainian armed forces want to both disrupt the Russian logistics chain and end Russia’s military control of the Black Sea.