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
Obviously, Russia is the number one suspect. This Tuesday, the services of the leading Ukrainian mobile operator, Kyivstar, which has more than 24 million subscribers, were paralyzed on Tuesday by a “powerful” computer hack. “This morning we were the target of a powerful hacker attack. It caused a technical failure that made our mobile communication and internet access services temporarily unavailable,” Kyivstar said on Facebook.
The Ukrainian security services, the SBU, announced the opening of an investigation, saying they were examining the hypothesis that “Russian special services could be at the origin of the cyberattack”. This investigation concerns acts of “high treason”, “sabotage” and “attack on the territorial integrity of Ukraine”.
The outage affected a number of other services and businesses. The leading Ukrainian bank, Privatbank, reported that some of its ATMs and terminals were affected. Air warning sirens also stopped working in around ten localities in the kyiv region and in Sumy in the northeast. The Ukrainian army was not affected.
Sentence of the day
If there is anyone who is happy about the endless negotiations on Capitol Hill, it is Putin and his clique of deranged people. »
These are the words of Volodymyr Zelensky, who, on the first day of his visit to Washington, immediately pleaded for an increase in American aid to Ukraine. This is the third time in a year that the president in the khaki polo shirt has come to plead his case at the headquarters of Congress, in order to prevent the United States from cutting vital military aid for the Ukrainian war effort (read more down).
The number of the day
13,000. This is the number of Russian soldiers dead or injured since October, according to American intelligence. Heavy losses to which are added more than 220 vehicles lost on the front line between Avdiïvka and Novopavlivka, since Russia returned to the attack and is pushing ever harder into eastern and southern Ukraine.
Today’s trend
Volodymyr Zelensky has been holding meetings in Washington for two days to prevent the United States from cutting its military aid. The Ukrainian president spoke with members of the Senate, the upper house held by President Joe Biden’s Democratic Party. “He said clearly (…) that if we lose, Putin will win, and that will be very dangerous for the United States,” commented the leader of the Democratic senators, Chuck Schumer, after the interview.
The Ukrainian president then began his most difficult meeting, with elected officials from the House of Representatives, controlled by the Republicans: this is where the reluctance to further support Ukraine is greatest. “Zelensky comes to beg and the ‘Washington warmongers’ want to give him unlimited aid,” criticized Marjorie Taylor Greene, an elected representative from a radical right who is calling for a complete and simple cessation of all assistance.
For its part, Russia, well aware of the erosion of support from the United States, “also seems to believe that a military standoff during the winter will undermine Western support for Ukraine.” Moscow is therefore “determined to push” on the entire front, warned White House National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson. The Kremlin estimated this Tuesday that any new American aid was doomed to a “fiasco”.
Congress theoretically only has until Friday – when the parliamentary recess begins – to reach an agreement.