Did you miss the latest events on the war in Ukraine? 20 minutes takes stock for you every evening at 7:30 p.m. Between the strong declarations, the advances on the front and the results of the battles, here are the main points of the day.
The fact of the day
Like a sense of deja vu. After Russian bombings on Ukraine’s electrical infrastructure last winter, the country’s authorities on Thursday called on the population to reduce their electricity consumption, the fault of a Russian strike on a thermal power station near the front.
“The equipment was seriously damaged,” said the Ukrainian Ministry of Energy in a press release, without giving the exact location of this site. He therefore called on “consumers to support energy sector workers” by using electricity “wisely and economically especially during peak hours”.
On Facebook, Prime Minister Denys Chmygal clarified that this shortage was linked to “a drop in temperatures, emergency repairs and the limited operation of solar power plants due to cloudy weather”.
Last winter, Russia carried out a targeted bombing campaign on the country’s energy infrastructure, in the middle of winter, with the aim of forcing the population and the authorities to bend.
Sentence of the day
They continue to burn American taxpayer dollars in the furnace of Ukrainian war”
These are the words of Dmitri Peskov, the spokesperson for the Russian presidency. American leaders “demonize Russia,” Peskov recalled. On Wednesday, US President Joe Biden warned that a halt to US assistance to kyiv would be “the greatest gift” to Russian President Vladimir Putin. He “won’t stop” at Ukraine, he warned.
As a reminder, the American Congress failed on Wednesday to move forward on a large envelope of more than 106 billion dollars insistently requested by President Biden, including funds for Ukraine and Israel.
The number of the day
March 17, 2024. The date of the next presidential election is set in Russia. The Federation Council, the upper house of the Russian Parliament, unanimously set this date. Vladimir Putin is not officially a candidate for re-election. A constitutional revision adopted in 2020 theoretically allows him to remain in power until 2036.
Today’s trend
Will Ukraine suffer from political tensions among its allies? New promises of Western military aid have slowed sharply according to the German research institute Kiel Institute.
“Aid pledges reached their lowest level between August and October 2023 – a drop of almost 90% compared to the same period in 2022,” explains the institute, which lists military, financial and humanitarian aid promised and delivered to Ukraine since the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022, and notes that the dynamic of support is poor currently.