Did you miss the latest events on the tensions in Ukraine? Don’t 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
kyiv was targeted in the morning by 13 Iranian-made suicide drones. According to Volodymyr Zelensky, who praised the effectiveness of the anti-aircraft forces, all of these drones were intercepted. In the west of kyiv, AFP journalists saw in the morning police and emergency services deployed on the spot where, according to the military administration, debris from the downed aircraft “fell on an administrative building” and caused “minor damage” to “four apartment buildings”. But “there are no injuries”, she welcomed on Telegram.
The number of the day
7. According to Unicef, “almost all children in Ukraine, nearly seven million”, are threatened by Russian attacks on energy infrastructure. “The situation of Ukraine’s energy system remains difficult,” repeated the national operator, Ukrenergo. According to the company, the East is the most affected area because the bombardments there are “almost daily”. “Repair work is slowed down because of the danger to the lives of employees”, leaving the inhabitants in the cold and the dark.
sentence of the day
We cannot wait until the end of the war to bring to justice all those who started this war.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky again called for the establishment “as quickly as possible” of a special tribunal to try Russia’s crimes in his country, speaking by videoconference in the hemicycle of the European Parliament in Strasbourg , on the occasion of the official presentation to the Ukrainian people of the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.
“This tribunal must be set up and must start working very soon,” he continued, receiving a standing ovation from MEPs, who also observed a minute’s silence in tribute to the Ukrainian victims of the conflict. At the end of November, the European Commission had proposed to work on the creation of such a special tribunal, already demanded on several occasions by Volodymyr Zelensky and by the Baltic States.
The trend of the day
kyiv and Moscow carried out a new exchange of prisoners, despite the announcements of the Kremlin on the absence of truce for Christmas. “Sixty-four soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, who fought in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, in particular, […] return home”, welcomed on Telegram the chief of staff of the presidency, Andriï Iermak, specifying that an American, Suedi Murekezi, “was also released” in the exchange.
According to the Russian news agency Tass, Suedi Murekezi was arrested in June in eastern Ukraine before being charged in early August for “participating in pro-Ukrainian and anti-Russian demonstrations” and “inciting hatred race” in Kherson at the start of the conflict. According to his lawyer, quoted by Tass at the time of his indictment, he had found himself in these gatherings “by chance”. His client “never took part in military operations” in the Donetsk region, he said, adding that “he worked in a nightclub in Kherson”.