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
The head of the Russian security services (FSB) accused Ukraine and the West on Tuesday of having facilitated the Moscow attack, claimed by the jihadist group Daesh. The Ukrainian authorities, supported by Washington, have repeatedly said that they had nothing to do with this attack which left 139 dead, the deadliest in twenty years in Russia and the worst claimed by Daesh on European soil.
“We believe that the action was prepared both by radical Islamists themselves and, of course, facilitated by Western secret services and that the Ukrainian secret services themselves are directly involved,” Alexander Bortnikov said. The head of the FSB also affirmed that the alleged attackers, arrested on Saturday, were “expected” in Ukraine to be welcomed “as heroes”.
Asked if the United States, the United Kingdom and Ukraine were involved, Alexander Bortnikov replied: “I think that is the case. » However, he added that “the sponsor” had “not yet been identified”.
At the same time, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of Russia, contradicted this account, saying the attackers had initially tried to flee to his country. “They were unable to enter Belarus. They saw this and so they changed route and went towards the Russian-Ukrainian border,” he said on Tuesday.
Today’s statement
“ There was 400 grams of a thermobaric explosive, it worked like a razor on him. » »
This sentence details the explosion of a statuette which led to the on-the-spot death of anti-Ukrainian military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky, in April 2023, in a cafe in Saint Petersburg. It was delivered by Vassyl Maliouk, the head of the Ukrainian secret service (SBU). The latter gave details on Tuesday, on Ukrainian television ICTV, on certain assassinations committed against Russians, without however officially admitting the involvement of the SBU.
Vassyl Maliouk, 41, is the subject of an arrest order issued against him by a Russian court, as part of an investigation into a deadly explosion in 2022 on the Crimea Bridge, an important civil and military structure which connects Russia to this annexed peninsula.
The number of the day
Five. This is the number of people who were injured by a rocket attack on the Russian region of Belgorod carried out from Ukraine, Russian authorities announced Tuesday. The Belgorod region has recently been targeted by numerous drone attacks and strikes blamed by Russia on Ukraine, which have left more than a dozen dead in a week according to local authorities.
Russia, for its part, has increased its massive bombings of Ukraine, particularly since last week, presenting them as retaliation. It inflicted significant damage on civilian infrastructure, including the electricity grid supplying Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city.
The trend
The French Minister of the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu, announced on Tuesday that he does not rule out using requisitions or imposing priorities on manufacturers to accelerate the production of military equipment for his army and Ukraine. “For the first time, I do not exclude using what the law allows the minister and the general delegate for armaments to do, that is to say, if the account was not there in terms of production rates and deadlines, to make requisitions if necessary or to exercise the right of prioritization,” affirmed Sébastien Lecornu during a press conference in the presence of all the chiefs of staff.
Our file on the war in Ukraine
Paris is ordering the French defense industry to produce more and more quickly to meet the needs of its army and ensure long-term support for Ukraine. Requisitions, permitted by the Military Programming Law (LPM) adopted in the fall, can range from “personnel, stocks or production tools” to devoting them to the production of military equipment, he recalled. , believing that it was “the hardest tool in our legal arsenal”.
Sébastien Lecornu also plans “in the coming weeks” to impose minimum stock levels on certain manufacturers, in order to produce more quickly, or to require them to give priority to military orders over civilian needs.