Did you miss the latest events on the war 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:
The fact of the day
Ukraine announced on Wednesday that it had shot down several “balloons” sent by Russia to test its air defense systems in Kiev, in full international awareness of the use of these spy objects. “According to preliminary information, half a dozen aerial objects were detected in the airspace of Kyiv […]. These were balloons that move under the influence of the wind,” said the regional military administration of the Ukrainian capital. “It is possible that these objects carried reflective systems and some spy equipment,” added the same source, assuring that “most” of the balloons had been shot down.
The presence of these flying objects caused anti-aircraft sirens to go off in the Ukrainian capital, which usually happens when missiles approach.
sentence of the day
There are also hundreds of Iranian-made drones that Russia uses on the battlefields in Ukraine. These Iranian drones are killing Ukrainian civilians. »
These are the words of Ursula von der Leyen pronounced, this Wednesday, in front of the European Parliament in Strasbourg. The President of the European Commission clarified that the EU was proposing to target Iranian operators in its tenth package of sanctions against Moscow in preparation. New sanctions which should relate to a total of 11 billion euros.
The number of the day
5.6. The billions of dollars in humanitarian aid requested by the UN to cover the needs this year of 11.1 million people in Ukraine and 4.2 million refugees and their host communities in Europe .
The trend of the day
Ukrainian soldiers are “firmly” holding their positions in Bakhmout, a city in eastern Ukraine where the situation is “the most difficult” against Russian troops, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday. “This is the most difficult, the hottest point at the moment,” he said during a press conference in Kiev with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, traveling to the Ukrainian capital.
“It’s not easy for our soldiers in the east, but it’s not for nothing that we speak of the ‘Bahmut fortress’. Our fortress is alive”, he continued, paying tribute to the Ukrainian soldiers who “hold firmly” their positions. Volodymyr Zelensky also cited Vougledar, south of Bakhmout, in the same province of Donetsk in which the Russians are on the offensive as a hot spot.
Tuesday evening, he had already reported an “extremely difficult” situation in Bakhmout, where most of the clashes have been taking place for months and where Russian troops have been nibbling ground in recent weeks. It should be noted that the fighting has also redoubled in intensity in recent days in the province of Lugansk, neighboring that of Donetsk.