Have you missed 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 progress on the front and the results of the battles, here is the main part of the day.
The fact of the day
Polish President Andrzej Duda indicated on Monday that his country was “ready” to welcome nuclear weapons on its territory if NATO, of which Poland is a member, deemed it necessary in the face of Russia’s deployment of new weapons in the Kaliningrad enclave and neighboring Belarus. “If our allies decide to deploy nuclear weapons within the framework of nuclear sharing on our territory in order to strengthen the security of the eastern flank of NATO, we are ready to do so,” declared the Polish head of state at popular daily Fact. A position, however, tempered during the day by the Polish Prime Minister, who does not belong to the same political movement as his conservative president. Donald Tusk told reporters that he wanted to “know all the circumstances that led to [son] President to make this statement.
The possibility of the arrival of nuclear weapons on Polish soil has in any case provoked a strong and cold reaction from the Kremlin: “The military will of course analyze the situation and, in any case, will take all retaliatory measures necessary to guarantee our security,” Russian presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told the press.
The number of the day
240 meters. The height of the – late – television tower in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city, which has not been broadcasting since Monday. Hit by Russian fire, it collapsed halfway up, according to an AFP journalist present on site. The strike did not cause any casualties because “during the alert, the employees hid,” said Oleg Synegoubov, the regional governor. Kharkiv, where 1.4 million people lived before the start of hostilities, is located near the Russian border.
Sentence of the day
“ I am grateful to Joe Biden for his unwavering support for Ukraine and for his true global leadership. » »
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was full of gratitude on Monday after the release of 61 billion in military aid to his country by the American Congress. He thanked his counterpart Joe Biden on the phone. The latter promised during this same phone call to send the hoped-for aid “quickly” to Ukraine.
Today’s trend
Russia claimed Monday the capture of a village, Novomykhaïlivka, located southwest of the city of Donetsk, in eastern Ukraine. A new step forward in the face of Ukrainian troops who remain in difficulty and who will not be able to immediately benefit from the effect of American aid, which must still be voted on by the Senate.
Our file on the war in Ukraine
“Let’s not go into too much detail, but there will be a difficult period, in mid-May and early June,” warned the head of Ukrainian military intelligence Kyrylo Budanov on Monday, questioned about the state of the front, in a interview with the BBC Ukrainian service. The Russian army “is carrying out a complex operation,” he explained. “We believe that a rather difficult situation awaits us in the near future. But we must understand that it will not be catastrophic,” added the soldier. “Armageddon will not happen, contrary to what many are saying at the moment. But there will be problems from mid-May,” he said.