Did you miss the latest events on the war in Ukraine? 20 minutes takes stock for you every evening. Between the strong declarations, the progress on the front and the results of the battles, here is the main part of the day.
The fact of the day
The Russian army announced on Tuesday that it had started military exercises near Ukraine on the use of tactical nuclear weapons, ordered at the beginning of May by President Vladimir Putin, assuring that it was a response to ” Western threats. “The first stage of exercises (…) on the preparation and use of non-strategic nuclear weapons has begun,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
He specified that these maneuvers are taking place in the Southern Military District, based near Ukraine and which covers Ukrainian regions whose annexation Moscow claims.
According to the ministry, during this stage, Russian soldiers train to load “special munitions” into Iskander missile batteries, but also to move them “in a concealed manner” to firing zones. These exercises also involve aviation and Kinjal hypersonic missiles, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.
Today’s statement
“ “If you don’t want to do it, provide us with whatever means necessary. We will deploy them on the territory of Ukraine and we will intercept these missiles ourselves” »
The sentence, delivered this Tuesday at a press conference alongside the head of German diplomacy, was pronounced by Dmytro Kouleba, Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs. The latter proposed Tuesday that Ukraine’s allies shoot down Russian missiles targeting his country from their territory. “There is no legal, security or moral argument that would prevent our partners from shooting down Russian missiles over the territory of Ukraine from their territory,” Dmytro Kuleba said.
At the start of the invasion, Ukraine had already called on the West to help it shoot down Russian missiles above its territory, but its allies had considered that the risk of escalation of the conflict was too great. Dmytro Kouleba brushed aside this argument on Tuesday, noting that shooting down missiles does not endanger Russia or Russian soldiers. These are “pieces of metal that carry death from Russia to Ukraine,” he insisted
The number of the day
More than 3,000. The number of people imprisoned in Ukraine who asked to fight in the country’s armed forces under a new law aimed at mobilizing more fighters to fight the Russian invasion, according to the deputy minister of Ukraine. Justice this Tuesday. “This concerns more than 3,000 people. We made this estimate before the adoption of the law,” said Olena Vyssotska. We cannot say that the potential 20,000 people we mentioned will commit,” she added.
At the beginning of May, Ukrainian deputies adopted a law, signed immediately by President Volodymyr Zelensky, allowing certain categories of prisoners to fight on the front in exchange for conditional release. This measure concerns prisoners who volunteer and requires the agreement of the military authorities after examining the prisoner’s state of physical and mental health.
It will not apply to prisoners convicted of certain serious crimes, including intentional homicide of more than two people, sexual violence, attacks on national security or convictions for corruption.
The trend
Several European Union countries, including France, want the EU to begin accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova before the end of June, they said before the start of a ministerial meeting Tuesday in Brussels.
This meeting will be “an opportunity to express France’s support for Moldova and Ukraine in their path towards membership of the EU (…), and to call for the effective opening of negotiations before the end of the Belgian presidency” of the European Union, indicated the French Minister Delegate for European Affairs Jean-Noël Barrot.
The Belgian presidency ends on June 30 and Hungary will take over until the end of the year. However, Budapest considers that the conditions are not met to launch these negotiations and has sought on several occasions to delay Ukraine’s integration process into the EU.