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
Six people were killed on Wednesday in Russian missile strikes in Ukraine, in Odessa on the Black Sea coast and in the Sumy region. In Odessa, three people were killed and 13 were injured in a Kalibr cruise missile strike which notably hit a commercial warehouse, said on Telegram Serguiï Bratchouk, spokesman for the military administration of this large southern city. from the country.
Launched from the Russian region of Rostov-on-Don, six X-22 type cruise missiles hit the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine. Three people were killed there and six others injured, according to Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko.
sentence of the day
There is a serious risk, because the water that is there is limited. »
This is a statement by Rafael Grossi, the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). He went on Wednesday to the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, occupied by Russia. In particular, he had to check whether it was endangered by the destruction of the Kakhovka dam on the Dnieper River, whose water is used to cool the six reactors.
The number of the day
1,500. This is the number of prisoners of war detained on both sides since the invasion of Ukraine by Russia that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Wednesday that it had met. The organization, which is headquartered in Geneva, had come under repeated criticism from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who criticized it for not doing enough to gain access to soldiers held by the Russians. Very discreet about its missions for the sake of efficiency, the organization does not, however, specify the number of prisoners it has visited on either side.
The trend of the day
Simple, formidable, effective… Mines, used in “phenomenal quantities” in Ukraine, are one of the markers of this high-intensity war. The country has become one of the largest minefields in the world.
Some 30% of Ukrainian territory is contaminated, according to figures from Kiev taken up by several NGOs, but “we barely touch the scale of the scourge, given the impossibility of quantifying and mapping” in a country where war is raging, notes Baptiste Chapuis, head of Handicap International, back from a mission in Ukraine.
If the belligerents, who have plethoric stocks dating from the Soviet era, both use them, the Russian forces are the first users of these devices, some of which are prohibited by international law, agree all the experts questioned. “The war in Ukraine marks, from a military point of view, the great return of the use of mines”, observes Stéphane Audrand, specialist in international risks. “Very useful for restricting the opponent’s movement capacities”, simple and quick to place or disseminate, they are used “in phenomenal quantities”, he underlines.