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
Polish carriers on Monday resumed blocking the largest freight crossing on the border with Ukraine (at Dorohusk), to demand the reintroduction of entry permits into the European Union for their Ukrainian competitors. About 1,800 trucks were queuing at the Dorohusk crossing when the protest resumed, with the queue stretching nearly 46 kilometers, according to Polish police.
Last week the local authorities of Dorohusk banned the blockade but this decision was lifted by a court authorizing the truckers to continue their movement launched at the beginning of November. Ukrainian border guards confirmed the resumption of the blockade in a statement. Polish organizers “plan to allow only one truck per hour” to pass through this border post, they said on Telegram.
The EU abandoned the system of entry permits for Ukrainian trucks almost two years ago, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and according to Polish truckers this measure harms their income.
Sentence of the day
The terrorists declared me a terrorist. »
These are the words of writer Boris Akunin, who has lived in exile since 2014, placed on Russia’s list of “terrorists and extremists”. Akunin spoke out in 2014 against the annexation of the Ukrainian Crimean peninsula. On February 24, 2022, he deplored on Facebook the outbreak of “an absurd war”. “Madness has won,” he wrote then. “Russia is led by a mentally disturbed dictator and, worse still, it obeys his paranoia,” denounced the man of letters.
The number of the day
241. Denmark will participate in Sweden’s donation of Swedish CV90 light tanks to Ukraine, for an amount of 1.8 billion crowns (241 million euros), Copenhagen announced on Monday. The package also includes spare parts, ammunition and a post-delivery maintenance agreement. Denmark has already provided bilateral aid to Ukraine of some 2.7 billion euros for military aid and around 375 million euros for civil aid.
Today’s trend
Sunday evening, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, often accused of playing into the hands of the Kremlin in Europe and in office since 2017, claimed the victory of his party (SNS, nationalist right) in the legislative elections, a vote which served as a referendum on himself. And the Kremlin “welcomed” this victory in Serbia, a “friendly” and “fraternal” country according to Moscow. “We hope that the trajectory of strengthening friendship and our cooperation […] will continue,” Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Westerners, led by the United States, take a dim view of the good relations between Russia and Serbia, where part of the population supports Moscow and shares its critical vision of NATO. It is true that Moscow and Belgrade maintain historic relations and Serbia, which aspires to join the EU, condemned the Russian assault on Ukraine at the United Nations, while refusing to take part in the sanctions against Moscow.
At the same time, Belgrade is counting on the support of Russia – and China – in the UN Security Council to prevent Kosovo, its former province which proclaimed its independence in 2008, from obtaining a place within the international organization.
At the beginning of November, the pro-Russian director of the Serbian intelligence services (BIA), Aleksandar Vulin, resigned from his post, four months after being targeted by American sanctions for his alleged involvement in “transnational organized crime”. Washington also accused him of helping Russia extend its influence in the Balkans, to the detriment of regional security.