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 are the essentials of the weekend.
The fact of the day
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited newly dug defense lines in the Kharkiv region, in the northeast of the country, where Russian attacks and bombings are increasing, the presidency announced on Tuesday. Faced with the blockage of American military aid and a lack of men and ammunition for his army, Volodymyr Zelensky warned on Sunday that his country “will lose the war” if this assistance does not arrive.
Since the failure of the Ukrainian counter-offensive in the summer of 2023, kyiv has faced Russian assaults in the northeast, east and south of the country, in the face of which the army has begun to dig trenches and build defensive lines to slow down the Russians and prevent a breakthrough, a tactic very similar to that successfully adopted a year ago by the Kremlin.
Visiting positions being established in the Kharkiv region, bordering Russia, Volodymyr Zelensky stressed that the area was “very important”. “We have to be prepared. And the Russians must see that we are ready to defend ourselves. I want our people to know that Ukraine is prepared if the enemy attacks,” he said.
Today’s statement
“ This is enough equipment to arm a Ukrainian brigade with small caliber rifles »
The sentence is signed with U.S. Middle East Military Command (Centcom). The American army announced on Tuesday that it had transferred to Ukraine last week small arms and ammunition initially sent by Iran to the Houthi rebels in Yemen but seized by Washington and its allies.
This arms delivery should help kyiv, which is seriously lacking in ammunition, but does not resolve the deficit in heavy weapons (shells, missiles) of the Ukrainian army, while the American Congress cannot reach an agreement to validate a new military aid package.
This shipment includes more than 5,000 AK-47 assault rifles, submachine guns, sniper rifles, grenade launchers and more than 500,000 rifle cartridges, Centcom said.
These arms shipments were “transferred from the Revolutionary Guard Corps to Yemen’s Houthis in violation” of a UN Security Council resolution when they were seized by US forces and their allies, adds the Centcom. These seizures were made on four boats between May 2021 and February 2023.
The number of the day
Two. This is the number of deaths caused by a Ukrainian attack in Russia on Tuesday. A woman and a child were killed in artillery fire targeting the village of Klimovo in the Bryansk region, bordering Ukraine, the regional governor announced. The shots “hit the very center of the village. Unfortunately, there are deaths: a woman and a child,” Alexandre Bogomaz said on Telegram, reporting that three people were injured. According to him, a residential building caught fire after the artillery fire.
The Russian regions bordering Ukraine are regularly the target of drone strikes and more rarely of Ukrainian artillery fire, carried out in response to the bombardment of Ukrainian cities by the Russian army since 2022.
On Sunday, Russia shot down 15 Ukrainian drones over the Bryansk and Belgorod regions, the most affected by this type of attack. A young girl was killed that day.
The trend
Strong and faithful support. China and Russia indeed promised each other this Tuesday, in Beijing, to strengthen their cooperation, in the context of the war in Ukraine. Beijing and Moscow have intensified their economic, diplomatic and military cooperation in recent years and their “strategic partnership” has been consolidated since the invasion of Ukraine at the end of February 2022.
At the end of a two-day official visit to China, Sergei Lavrov, head of Russian diplomacy, met on Tuesday with President Xi Jinping. Xi Jinping said China attaches “great importance” to Sino-Russian relations and is willing to work “closely with Russia” to strengthen their bilateral contacts and coordination on the international stage, according to Chinese state television CCTV .
Our file on the war in Ukraine
The Chinese president also assured that he and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin “agreed to maintain close exchanges” to ensure the stable development of bilateral relations.
China and Russia have grown closer because of their common denunciation of what they present as Western hegemony on the international stage.
The United States regularly warns China against indirectly aiding the Russian war effort and urges it to use its influence over Russia to end the conflict in Ukraine.