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 results of the battles, here are the main points of the day.
The fact of the day
A Russian missile attack killed at least two people and injured eight people in the large port city of Odessa, in southwestern Ukraine, the local Ukrainian governor announced on Monday. A 12-year-old child was among the victims. A civilian was also injured in Kharkiv, the country’s second city.
Furthermore, kyiv claimed to have “repelled 55 attacks” in several villages in the Donetsk region, after admitting the day before a deterioration of the situation on the front line. Among these localities is Otcheretyne, where violent fighting was reported on Sunday.
The Russian army, which is effectively gaining ground against Ukrainian forces in difficulty, for its part, claimed this Monday the capture of a new village, Semenivka, located in a sector of the east of the country where it is advancing quickly.
Today’s statement
“ It was bad, I accept it »
This is what Thomas H., 54, a former German army officer, told the court in Düsseldorf (Germany). The latter admitted this Monday, on the first day of his trial, to having spied for the benefit of Russia, explaining his act by his desire to avoid a nuclear escalation in the war in Ukraine.
The man worked with the rank of captain in the main IT and logistics department of the Bundeswehr. Last May, the suspect “approached the Russian Consulate General in Bonn and the Russian Embassy in Berlin and offered cooperation,” according to the prosecution’s indictment read at the start of the hearing. He allegedly photographed, in addition to several saved computer files, old documents on the use of munitions and aeronautical technology.
The man then left these documents in a mailbox at the consulate in Bonn, in addition to his contact details and allegedly offered to provide others. In the absence of a response, he would then have made other contacts. The accused admitted to having offered his services as a spy but denies having given a CD with sensitive technical data as the prosecution accuses him of.
The number of the day
Two Ukrainians, aged 23 and 36, were found lifeless on Saturday evening near a supermarket in the Bavarian municipality of Murnau, both victims of fatal stabbings. German justice indicated Monday that it could not rule out a “political motive” after the death of two young Ukrainian soldiers over the weekend, fatally stabbed by a Russian while they were receiving treatment in the country.
The Munich public prosecutor’s office “has taken up the investigation because a political motive for these facts cannot be excluded”, court spokesperson Sebastian Murer told AFP.
The bodies of the two Ukrainians, aged 23 and 36, were found lifeless on Saturday evening near a supermarket in the Bavarian municipality of Murnau, both victims of fatal stabbings. The alleged perpetrator, a 57-year-old Russian, was arrested shortly after, indicted and imprisoned.
The two victims were Ukrainian soldiers who were recovering from injuries in Germany as part of a rehabilitation course, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said.
The trend
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg, visiting Kiev, assured this Monday that it was “not too late for Ukraine to win” against Russia, despite the recent setbacks of his army on forehead. “More aid is on the way,” he also declared during a press conference with President Volodymyr Zelensky, saying he expected new announcements in this direction “soon”.
For his part, the Ukrainian president once again called for speeding up arms deliveries for the benefit of his country. “Together we must defeat the Russian offensive,” said Volodymyr Zelensk. “The speed of supply literally means the stabilization of the front line,” he added.