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
Is Russia trying to get Volodymyr Zelensky’s skin? In any case, this is what the Ukrainian security services claim, according to which an attack against their president was foiled in June. In a statement, the SBU said it had arrested a “Russian intelligence informant who was gathering intelligence on the president’s planned visit to the Mykolaiv region”, close to the front line, in view of a “massive air attack “.
According to the same source, this woman who worked in a store on a military base “tried to establish the time and the list of places of the provisional itinerary of the head of state in the region”. The SBU released a blurred photo of the woman, held by officers, along with phone messages and handwritten notes about military activities. Volodymyr Zelensky stressed on Monday on Telegram messaging that the SBU had informed him of this attempted attack and kept abreast of the “fight against traitors” in Ukraine.
sentence of the day
“The new territorial realities must be recognized, the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine (…) must be ensured”
Only the capitulation of kyiv will put an end to the Russian offensive in Ukraine, reaffirmed Monday Moscow. “We are convinced that a truly global, lasting and equitable settlement is only possible if the Kiev regime puts an end to hostilities and terrorist attacks,” insisted the spokesperson for Russian diplomacy, Maria Zakharova, in a communicated. And to demand “confirmation” of the “original foundations of Ukraine’s sovereignty: its neutral, non-aligned and non-nuclear status”.
These demands, already made by Moscow when it launched its military offensive in February 2022, had been swept away by kyiv. Maria Zakharova’s remarks come two days after Saudi Arabia hosted a meeting on Ukraine in Jeddah, inviting Western delegations and representatives of emerging powers close to Moscow, without the presence of Russia.
The number of the day
22. This is the number of prisoners of war returning to Ukraine. “These are soldiers of the armed forces: two officers, rank and file and sergeants,” said the head of the Ukrainian presidential administration Andriï Yermak, in a message published on X, the new name of Twitter. According to him, there are wounded among the released soldiers.
He, however, gave no details on the circumstances of their release. Ukraine and Russia regularly exchange prisoners. kyiv, like Moscow, does not publicly say how many soldiers of the opposite camp they hold, after nearly a year and a half of Russian invasion.
The trend of the day
On the ground, while Ukraine is still very discreet about its counter-offensive, Russia has assured that it has advanced in three days by three kilometers towards Kupiansk, in the North-East. An area taken over last September by Ukrainian forces and which has been facing a Russian offensive for several weeks.
“Over the past three days, Russian soldiers have made an advance in this direction from a depth of more than three kilometers on an 11-kilometer-long stretch of the front,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in its daily bulletin. . According to the same source, it is the area between the villages of Vilchana and Perchotravnevé, northeast of Kupyansk, a city which had some 26,000 to 28,000 inhabitants before the conflict.
Ukraine had admitted in mid-July to be in a “defense position” in the Kupyansk region, the Russian army having launched an offensive there. Since then, Moscow has ensured that it is nibbling on the ground.