Did you miss the latest events on the tensions in Ukraine? 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:
news of the day
The situation is worrying in Bakhmout. Volodymyr Zelensky, who speaks about it at the moment in every daily speech, estimated this Wednesday that “the greatest difficulties, as before, are in Bakhmout”. According to the Ukrainian head of state, “the intensity of the fighting is only increasing”, while “Russia does not count its men at all, constantly sending them to attack our positions”.
Yevgeni Prigozhin, the leader of the paramilitary group Wagner, said his men are facing “furious resistance” from Ukrainian soldiers in Bakhmout, adding that the battles are getting “bloody” more and more.
sentence of the day
Ukraine defeated winter terror
The head of Ukrainian diplomacy, Dmytro Kouleba, was delighted that his country had “survived the most difficult winter in its history”, marked by massive bombardments by the Russian army on electrical infrastructure. These strikes plunged millions of civilians into darkness, and also disrupted the supply of drinking water to the targeted towns. “It was cold and dark, but we were unbreakable,” added Dmytro Kouleba, in a Facebook post.
The number of the day
50%. According to a poll published on Wednesday, one in two Swiss is in favor of countries that have bought Swiss weapons being able to deliver them to Ukraine, which the Alpine country’s doctrine of military neutrality currently prohibits.
Despite strong demands from kyiv to authorize the re-export of Swiss arms and ammunition to Ukraine, the government has so far brushed aside requests from Germany, Spain and Denmark. For the time being, if Switzerland (which is not part of the European Union) has adopted the sanctions decided by Brussels against Russia, the country has not wavered in its military neutrality. For the moment ?
The trend
On Tuesday, a drone crashed in a village in the Moscow region, local authorities said, adding that the craft was “probably” targeting civilian infrastructure. The remains of three other drones were discovered in neighborhoods of Belgorod, a border region of Ukraine.
Last December, three Russian servicemen were killed by debris from a downed Ukrainian drone heading for Saratov air base, 500 kilometers from the Ukrainian border.