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 assault on Bakhmout continues. This Friday, Russia said it was pushing west to seize this city, the epicenter of the fighting for several months in Ukraine and where the outcome of this deadly battle remains more uncertain than ever. “The assault groups of [l’organisation paramilitaire] Wagner are conducting high-intensity military operations to take quarters in the western part of the city,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
The western zone is the last part of this city in eastern Ukraine to be in the hands of the Ukrainian military, who face Wagner’s men and the Russian army now installed in the northern, southern and eastern districts. On Thursday, Russia said it was blocking Ukrainian forces in Bakhmout and preventing any reinforcements from entering, hinting that the city was about to fall. kyiv immediately denied these claims, claiming to continue to supply Ukrainian soldiers in Bakhmout and to inflict “mad losses” on the Russians.
sentence of the day
Those responsible will be held accountable for their actions. »
This is the statement of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak after seeing the “appalling” video of the beheading of a Ukrainian soldier. The leader uttered this sentence this Friday during a telephone interview with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The latter shows a Russian-speaking individual in uniform beheading a person who appears to be a Ukrainian prisoner of war with a knife, images that have caused shock and anger in Ukraine and the West.
The number of the day
8.1 million. That’s how many barrels Russia shipped each day in March. Total oil shipments rose in March by 0.6 million barrels per day to 8.1 million barrels per day, boosting Moscow’s oil windfall from $1 billion to $12.7 billion in the month last. A windfall that remains 43% below a year ago, however, tempers the latest IEA report.
The trend of the day
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced on Friday the alert and surprise maneuvers of the Russian fleet in the Pacific, in a context of rapprochement with Beijing and tensions with Westerners. On orders from President Vladimir Putin, he said Russia’s Pacific Fleet, based in Vladivostok in the Far East, would work “at short notice” on combat training in “near and far” sea areas. During these exercises, the ships will practice “repelling massive air attacks”, “seeking and destroying submarines”, as well as firing torpedoes, guns and missiles, a- he listed.
According to the Minister, these maneuvers aim to “strengthen the capacities of the armed forces to repel an attack”. The spokesperson for the Russian presidency, Dmitry Peskov, assured that these surprise maneuvers were “not linked” to NATO’s presence in Asia Pacific, where all eyes are on China and its American rival. This announcement comes at a time when China, which regularly carries out joint military exercises with the Russian army, announced Friday the visit to Russia of the Chinese Minister of Defense, from April 16 to 19.