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 progress on the front and the results of the battles, here is the main part of the day.
The fact of the day
A terribly deadly triple Russian strike targeted Cherniguiv, a large city in northern Ukraine. “According to the latest information, 17 people died, including two who died in hospital,” said the Ukrainian State Emergency Situations Service. “Sixty other people including three children were injured,” he added.
Three explosions occurred at 9:03 a.m. local time almost in the city center, according to local authorities. According to them, “social infrastructure, an educational institution, a hospital” and sixteen residential buildings were damaged. On official images, we could see pools of blood at the scene of the tragedy.
Volodymyr Zelensky stressed that Ukraine did not have enough air defenses to prevent this attack, undoubtedly the deadliest against this historic city located about sixty kilometers from the border with Belarus, an ally of Russia, and a hundred kilometers north of kyiv.
The number of the day
50,000. This is the minimum number of Russian soldiers killed since the start of the invasion, according to a count by the BBC Russian service and the Russian site Mediazona. Their estimate, published in a joint investigation and finalized on April 7, 2024, comes from the exploitation of certain information, such as official press releases, information published in the media and social networks, or collected by going to observe the graves in cemeteries . Neither Ukraine nor Russia has published a tally of their losses since the start of the war, and both media outlets warn that their count does not claim to be exhaustive. Last August, the New York Timesciting American officials, estimated Russian military losses at 120,000 dead.
Today’s statement
“ If the two countries are entirely capable of defending their own sovereignty, they depend on American aid, including arms, to do so. And we are at a pivotal moment. » »
In a column published in the Wall Street Journal, Joe Biden urged the US House of Representatives to “urgently adopt” bills on new aid to Ukraine and Israel. The Republican leader of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson announced that he would submit four texts to a vote this Saturday: one to help Ukraine, one for Israel, a third to “strengthen our allies in the Indo-Pacific region” and a final one to “adopt additional measures to counter our adversaries and strengthen our national security”. The White House provided cautious support for these new projects on Tuesday. Before President Joe Biden gave his frank support to the texts.
Today’s trend
In Slovakia, a citizens’ fundraiser was launched to finance shells for kyiv. Thousands of people have already contributed 575,000 euros to this crowdfunding campaign since Monday, when the “Peace for Ukraine” group launched its initiative.
Indeed, since coming to power last year, Prime Minister Robert Fico has ended military aid to Ukraine and advocated peace talks with Russia. “We, the people of Slovakia, want and can help” Ukraine, Zuzana Izsakova, representative of the initiative, told AFP. “We want to show that it is not just the government and Robert Fico who decide this issue. »
Our file on the war in Ukraine
The organization plans to pass the money raised to an international project led by the Czech Republic to buy ammunition for kyiv. Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said on Tuesday that twenty countries, but not Slovakia, had already committed to financing the purchase of 500,000 shells outside Europe.