Did you miss the latest events on the tensions in Ukraine? 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
The path to negotiation does not seem to be getting closer. This Monday, the Kremlin estimated on Monday that while the plan proposed last week by China to settle the conflict in Ukraine “deserved attention”, the conditions necessary for a “peaceful” solution were not met “for the moment”. “Any effort that helps bring this conflict to a peaceful path deserves attention. We consider the plan of our Chinese friends with great attention,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
But “it’s a long process. For the moment, we do not see the premises for this case to take a peaceful path,” he continued. “Special military operation [en Ukraine] keep going,” he added. Friday, a year to the day after the outbreak of the Russian offensive against Ukraine, Beijing published a 12-point document calling in particular on Moscow and kyiv to hold peace talks.
But if China seeks to impose itself as a mediator in this conflict, its position as an ally of Russia disqualifies it in the eyes of the West, who on their side support Ukraine. Moscow and kyiv have shown no serious desire to start talks at this stage.
sentence of the day
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine triggered the most massive violation of human rights we know today.”
This is a statement by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres at the opening of the 52nd session of the Human Rights Council which is due to last nearly six weeks. At the end of the session, at the beginning of April, the 47 member states of the body will have to decide on the continuation of the work of the UN investigators on Ukraine, who will present their first written report in the coming weeks after having already reported in September of war crimes.
The number of the day
2. Two people were killed and three injured in Khmelnytsky in western Ukraine, after a Russian attack involving more than a dozen Iranian-made combat drones overnight from Sunday to Monday, authorities said.
One of the deceased was a rescue worker killed during his service, said the mayor of Khmelnytsky, Oleksandr Symchychyne, on Telegram, reporting “damaged buildings” by these strikes. Shortly after, the governor of the Khmelnytsky region, Serguï Gamaliï, announced to him on Telegram the death of a second rescuer who succumbed to his injuries in hospital.
The trend of the day
Negotiations resume on the flank of NATO. Negotiations between Turkey, Sweden and Finland for the two Nordic countries to join NATO will resume on March 9, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Cavusoglu announced on Monday.
“The meeting will be held on March 9,” he said at a press conference in Ankara, suggesting that this meeting could take place in Brussels, where the Atlantic Alliance has its headquarters. Turkey put a halt to the negotiations at the end of January by postponing a tripartite meeting, initially scheduled for February, after several anti-Turkish and anti-Islam demonstrations in Stockholm.
On a visit to Ankara in mid-February, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg had called for Finland and Sweden to be integrated “now”, whose candidacies for the Atlantic Alliance have been blocked since last May by Ankara. While acknowledging certain progress in the negotiations, the head of Turkish diplomacy nevertheless estimated on Monday that “no satisfactory measure had been taken by Sweden”, suggesting that the stalemate in the discussions continues.