Did you miss the latest events on the war in Ukraine? 20 minutes takes stock for you every evening. 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
The refinery in Volgograd, an important city in southern Russia, suffered a fire following a Ukrainian drone attack on the night of Saturday to Sunday, lamented the governor of the eponymous region, Andreï Botcharov. “On the night of May 12, air defense and electronic warfare forces repelled a drone attack on the territory of the Volgograd region,” he first reported on Telegram.
The official clarified that “the fire has since been extinguished” and “there are no victims”. Owned by the giant Lukoil, the refinery claims on its website to be “the largest producer of petroleum products in the Southern Federal District”, which brings together eight regions in southwest Russia.
Sentence of the day
“ Lithuania’s understanding of the Russian threat is unanimous and indisputable, and the main candidates agree on it.” »
These are the words that Linas Kojala, director of the Center for Eastern European Studies in Vilnius, sums up the atmosphere and the issues surrounding the presidential election in Lithuania, the first round of which is takes place this Sunday. The Baltic country of 2.8 million inhabitants, a former Soviet republic which borders the highly militarized Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, fears it will be the next target if Moscow were to win its war against Ukraine.
Polls give the outgoing president, Gitanas Nauseda, a 59-year-old former banker, a comfortable lead over the seven other candidates, including Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte and a well-known lawyer, Ignas Vegele. In the first round, he should obtain more than 35% of the votes, according to a latest poll which gives 12% to Ignas Vegele and 10% to Ingrida Simonyte.
The number of the day
4. Four people were found dead in the rubble of a building hit by a Ukrainian strike on the Russian town of Belgorod, near the border with Ukraine, the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry said on Sunday. “Two more bodies were pulled out of the rubble in Belgorod,” the ministry said on social media, after reporting two bodies in the same place. A previous report also mentioned 20 injured.
Today’s trend
The Russian attack on the Kharkiv region remains the main marker of the weekend on the front. Russia said this Sunday it was moving forward, claiming the capture of four additional localities near the border as part of the offensive it launched Friday, leading to the evacuation of thousands of civilians.
“All areas of the northern border are under enemy fire almost 24 hours a day. The situation is difficult,” Oleg Synegubov, governor of the Kharkiv region, said on social media. “The number of localities where active hostilities are underway has increased,” he added. “In total, 4,073 people were evacuated,” he also announced.