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
While in France, precipitation falls everywhere on the territory, Crimea, it sees a host of drones falling. This Friday, Moscow claimed to have shot down 42 Ukrainian drones in the annexed peninsula where kyiv said the day before that it had succeeded in a rare commando operation. “Nine drones were destroyed as a result of the impact of fire over the territory of the Republic of Crimea. 33 drones were neutralized by electronic warfare means and crashed without reaching [leur] target,” the Russian Defense Ministry said on Telegram.
The latter did not provide any information about any damage or casualties. Despite these attacks, the number of which has been steadily increasing in recent weeks, the Kremlin ensures that the situation remains under control. While acknowledging that it was “not always possible” to avoid “some minor damage”.
The number of the day
1 euro. This is the sum for which “100% of the shares” of Heineken in Russia were bought by Arnest, the largest Russian manufacturer of cosmetics, household items and metal packaging, the Dutch group announced in a press release. . The Dutch brewer in a press release. He estimated the total losses related to the operation at 300 million euros.
sentence of the day
This is an absolute lie, we must approach this problem based on facts”
This is a statement by Dmitri Peskov, the spokesman for the Russian president. The Kremlin denies having orchestrated the death of Evguéni Prigojine. “Currently, around the air disaster and the tragic deaths of passengers, in particular of Evguéni Prigojine, there is a lot of speculation and we know well in which direction we are speculating in the West”, he regretted. Many of the Russian regime’s critics or disgraced ex-supporters have been killed or targeted in assassination attempts. But the Kremlin has always denied any involvement.
The trend of the day
Two days after the alleged death of Wagner’s boss, Vladimir Putin wants to bring the paramilitary organizations to heel. The Russian president signed a decree on Friday obliging the members of these formations to take an oath to Russia. According to this decree published on the government’s website, they must in particular swear “fidelity” and “loyalty” to Russia and “strictly follow the orders of commanders and superiors”.
They also undertake to “sacredly respect the Russian Constitution”, “conscientiously carry out the tasks which [leur] entrusted” and “courageously defend the independence and constitutional order” of the country. This decree concerns persons enlisted as a voluntary combatant, those “contributing to the execution of the tasks assigned to the Russian armed forces” and other “military bodies and formations”, including the territorial defense forces formed during the conflict. in Ukraine.
While mercenarism is prohibited by law in Russia, the activities of “private military companies” officially offering “security” services, of which Wagner is the most important and best known, are tolerated. The text was signed two months after the mutiny of the Wagner group, which, under the orders of its boss Evguéni Prigojine, was angry with the Russian military hierarchy, accused of incompetence.