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
This Friday, during an interview on Franceinfo / RFI / France 24, Emmanuel Macron accused pointing the finger at Russia’s action in Africa. “It is a power to destabilize Africa through private militias who come to predate and extort civilian populations,” said the French president, recalling that “this has been documented by the United Nations in Central African Republic through the Wagner militia”.
Still according to Emmanuel Macron, “Russia has put itself on its own in a situation which is to no longer respect international law, to become basically one of the only colonial powers of the 21st century, by waging a war of empire with its neighbour, Ukraine”.
In response, the Kremlin quickly dismissed these accusations: “Russia is developing [avec les pays africains] friendly, constructive relations based on mutual respect,” Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. These “are not directed and cannot be directed against third countries”, he also stressed.
sentence of the day
Russia is a terrorist country from which, like a monkey with a grenade, one can expect anything.
On Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia was preparing an “attack” on the Zaporija nuclear power plant, which has been occupied by Putin’s army since March 2022. Despite Moscow’s denial, which called the claim a lie , the Ukrainian Ministry of Health urged its compatriots not to panic.
“Read and share but don’t panic! Don’t play the enemy’s game,” the ministry said. “President Zelensky said nothing new. Russia is a terrorist country from which, like a monkey with a grenade, one can expect anything”.
A ministry which also warns the population against taking iodine tablets: “Uncontrolled intake of potassium iodide is dangerous! and his overdose could lead to “serious consequences”, “even death”, he insisted.
The number of the day
13 missiles shot down. This Friday, the Ukrainian Air Force said it had shot down 13 Russian cruise missiles last night, the latter targeting a “military airfield in the Khmelnytsky region” in the west of the country. “The launches were carried out around midnight, from the Caspian Sea from four Tu-95MS bombers,” the Ukrainian Air Force said. The mayor of Khmelnytsky, Oleksandr Symchychyne, reported explosions in this city which had 275,000 inhabitants before the Russian invasion and thanked the anti-aircraft defense for its work.
The trend of the day
“The army [russe] retreats to the Zaporizhia and Kherson areas, the Ukrainian Armed Forces are pushing,” Yevgeny Prigozhin said in a video interview posted on Telegram by his press service. The leader of the paramilitary group Wagner, thus contradicts the assertions of the Kremlin, which affirms that the counter-offensive of kyiv is a failure.
“The same is happening in Bakhmout, the enemy will penetrate deeper and deeper into our defence,” Wagner’s boss added, referring to an eastern town the Russians claim to have captured but where the Ukrainians say have progressed on the flanks in recent weeks. “There is no control, there are no military successes” from Moscow, Yevgeny Prigojine again snagged, affirming that the Russian soldiers “wash themselves with their blood”, a way of asserting that they suffer heavy losses.
While many opponents and anonymous Russians are in prison for criticizing the conflict in Ukraine, the leader of Wagner openly questioned on Friday the reasons for which the military intervention was launched.
“The war was necessary for a group of bastards to be promoted”, he castigated, also accusing “the Russian oligarchs” who “needed the war”, while Kiev was according to him “ready to not any deal.”