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:
news of the day
It was a first. Representatives from Brussels and the Ukrainian president met on Friday for a historic summit in kyiv. The European Union notably hailed Ukraine’s “considerable efforts” in its bid to join the EU. Volodymyr Zelensky, for his part, promised that his country would not lose “a single day” in moving towards membership.
“Our objective is absolutely clear: to start negotiations on Ukraine’s membership,” he said in a message on Telegram, accompanying the video of the arrival of European officials at the summit. “We will not waste a single day in our work to bring Ukraine and the EU closer together,” he added.
In addition, Brussels said on Friday that it wanted to find a way to use Russian assets frozen in Western countries to finance the reconstruction of Ukraine, a measure demanded by kyiv but legally complicated to implement. “The EU will intensify (…) its efforts to use frozen assets of Russia to support the reconstruction of Ukraine and for reparations purposes, in accordance with European and international law”, indicated in a statement. communicated the President of the European Council Charles Michel and the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen.
Finally, an agreement was reached on the capping of the price of Russian petroleum products. It is an “important agreement which is part of the continued response of the European Union and its partners to the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine”.
sentence of the day
Ukraine is the EU, the EU is Ukraine”
The President of the European Council gives a lot of hope to a possible accession of Kyiv to the EU. “The future of Ukraine is with the EU”, hammered Charles Michel during a press conference alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, without however announcing a timetable. while kyiv wants to speed up the process.
The number of the day
29% is the rate of Ukrainians who find that the level of corruption in their country is down, compared to only 4% the previous year. In addition, 64% of the population say they have not been confronted with this scourge in the last 12 months, compared to 43% a year earlier. According to the head of a Ukrainian anti-corruption agency, the Russian invasion has greatly reduced corruption in Ukraine and caused an “irreversible” change of mentality in this country.
“During the first months of the war, we saw that corruption had practically disappeared,” said Oleksandre Novikov, 42, head of the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (ANPC), in an interview with AFP after a series of searches in Ukrainian personalities and administrations. But, after the first shock of the conflict, “some have returned to old practices”, regrets this ex-prosecutor, at the head of the ANPC for three years.
The trend of the day
Long hesitant, Germany finally gave in on the delivery of tanks to Ukraine and announced a new delivery. Berlin has indeed authorized its manufacturers to deliver Leopard 1 combat tanks which they have in reserve, German government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said on Friday. The latter gave no details on the number of armored vehicles concerned and the delivery schedule to Ukraine.
“I confirm that an export license has been issued,” Steffen Hebestreit said at a regular press conference. For specifics, “this will materialize in the coming days and weeks,” he said.
The Leopard 1 are the predecessors of the Leopard 2, armored vehicles long awaited by kyiv and of which Berlin agreed at the end of January to provide 14 copies from the equipment of the German army, the Bundeswehr. Since 2003, it no longer has a Leopard 1, replaced by the more modern and efficient Leopard 2s.