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.
The fact of the day
New “massive” Russian attacks targeted kyiv and the Ukrainian cities of Lviv (west) and Zaporozhye (south) overnight from Monday to Tuesday, without causing any casualties, according to military authorities. “New massive air attack on the capital,” wrote the Kyiv military administration on its Telegram channel. According to her, about 20 explosive drones were launched at the city in waves from different directions.
“There is no information regarding casualties or destruction at this time,” she added, adding that the alert had lasted more than three hours. The Ukrainian Air Force said in the morning on Telegram that the anti-aircraft defense had destroyed “32 of the 35 drones” launched overnight by Russia and which were “mainly”, according to it, targeting the Kiev region.
sentence of the day
You can put a symbolic stripe on your bulletproof vest, which does not comply with the regulations, and the photo goes viral. That’s charisma.”
The force is with him. An image of Ukrainian army commander-in-chief Valery Zaluzhny has gone viral on social media, due to a ‘Baby Yoda’ patch on his bulletproof vest. Baby Yoda, called Grogu in The Mandalorian series, is a character from the Star Wars universe.
On Monday evening, the Ukrainian army press service published a video of General Zalouzhny visiting Ukrainian positions. And right in the middle of his chest is the effigy of the little being with green skin and big ears. The image caused a wave of memes about Valery Zalouzhny, nicknamed the “iron general” in his country and who has become an icon of Ukrainian resistance to the Russian invasion launched in February 2022.
The number of the day
50. The European Commission on Tuesday asked member states for a €50 billion budget extension to the EU budget to help Ukraine until 2027. “We are proposing a financial reserve for the next four years of €50 billion. euros. This includes both loans and grants,” EU executive president Ursula von der Leyen told a press briefing.
This reserve will give a “perspective” to the Ukrainians and “should also encourage other donors to get involved”, continued the German official. It “will allow us to really calibrate our financial support according to the evolution of the situation on the ground, because we all know that a war requires the greatest flexibility from us”, explained the President of the Commission. This extension to the 2021-2027 multi-annual budget will have to be approved unanimously by the Member States, and receive the approval of the European Parliament.
The trend of the day
Russia threatened on Tuesday to hit Ukrainian “decision-making centers” in the event of bombings on Russian soil or annexed Crimea with Western weapons, which Moscow accuses Kiev of preparing. “According to our information, the leaders of the Ukrainian armed forces are planning to strike the territory of Russia, including Crimea, with (American systems) Himars and (British missiles) Storm Shadows”, affirmed the Russian Minister of Defense, Sergei Shoigu.
“The use of these missiles outside the (combat) zone would mean full involvement of the United States and the United Kingdom in the conflict and would lead to immediate strikes on decision-making centers in Ukraine,” he said. he added. He did not specify whether these threats related to the military command centers, which Moscow claims to already be hitting, or the political decision-making centers in kyiv.
Since the start of its military campaign against Ukraine in February 2022, Moscow has repeatedly warned of an escalation of the conflict in the event of direct attacks on its soil. Russia has considered Crimea part of its territory since it annexed the Ukrainian peninsula in 2014.