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
It is a “clear signal that the world is united and unyielding when it comes to holding the Russian regime accountable for all its crimes,” said Ukrainian Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin. A new international prosecutor’s office has been opened in The Hague with the aim of holding Moscow’s leaders “accountable” for the war crime of aggression in the invasion of Ukraine.
The International Center for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine (ICPA) brings together prosecutors from kyiv, the European Union, the United States and the International Criminal Court (ICC). This new prosecutor’s office must fill “a gaping hole in the responsibility for the crime of aggression”, the ICC only being competent to judge war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated in Ukraine, added the Ukrainian prosecutor in a communicated.
sentence of the day
These plans failed mainly because members of the Russian Armed Forces showed loyalty to their oath and duty.
It was thanks to the “loyalty” of the Russian army that last month’s rebellion by the paramilitary group Wagner in Russia failed, according to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. These are the minister’s first public remarks on this rebellion launched on June 23 and 24 by the boss of the Wagner group, Evguéni Prigojine, who had said he wanted to seize Sergei Shoigu and the chief of staff Valéri Guérassimov, accusing them of incompetence and going after his men.
Describing the mutiny as an “attempt to destabilize Russia”, Sergei Shoigu said that the coup had “not affected” the work of Russian troops, who are notably leading a military campaign against Ukraine. The Russian authorities have been trying since the failure of the rebellion to give the impression of a return to normality, with President Vladimir Putin appearing with soldiers or taking a very unusual walkabout.
The number of the day
100,000. This is approximately the number of Ukrainian refugees received in France since the start of the invasion. Ukrainians have benefited from the specific and unprecedented regime of “temporary protection”. The latter exempted displaced Ukrainians in France from applying for asylum, while benefiting from a right of residence and a range of social aid.
“The long-term nature and the hardening of the Russian regime have generated a flow of asylum applications from Russia (+75%) greater than in recent years”. 2,617 Russians have applied for asylum, with in 2022 “a change in the reasons invoked (…) after the start of the conflict in Ukraine”, detailed the Office. The Russians are “now expressing their fears because of their political opinions of opposition to the war as well as their refusal of conscription or mobilization in the Russian armed forces”, wrote the Ofpra again.
The trend of the day
A few Russian gains in the Donbass, modest Ukrainian breakthroughs in the South, a generally frozen front… More than a month after the start of the Kiev counter-offensive, none of the belligerents seems able to make decisive progress. The Ukrainian army recaptured 37 square kilometers in the south and east of the country from Russian forces in a week, according to Deputy Defense Minister Ganna Maliar. We are far from the lightning successes won by the Ukrainian army in the fall.
“Last week was difficult on the front, but we are making progress. We are advancing step by step,” Volodymyr Zelensky summarized on Telegram, as Moscow consolidated its defense lines for months, sometimes extending more than 30 kilometers deep. “There are a considerable number of Russians in Ukraine. There are huge defensive obstacles,” Admiral Rob Bauer, head of NATO’s military committee, commented on Monday. “A counter-offensive is difficult,” he added, judging that the Ukrainian commanders were right to be “cautious” and to take the time to test Russian weaknesses.