Did you miss the latest events on the war in Ukraine? Do not panic, 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 Russian army announced in the morning its withdrawal from Serpents’ Island, a strategic confetti in the Black Sea. “On June 30, as a sign of goodwill, the Russian armed forces accomplished the objectives set on Serpents’ Island and withdrew their garrison there,” said Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov. , assuring that this gesture should facilitate grain exports from Ukraine.
“Russia does not oppose UN efforts to create a humanitarian corridor to export grain production from Ukraine,” he continued. kyiv welcomed “the liberation of a strategic territory” and Boris Johnson reacted at the beginning of the afternoon, indicating that this episode showed that it is “impossible” to submit Ukraine.
sentence of the day
“The Iron Curtain, in fact, is already coming down”
The projection is signed Sergei Lavrov, the head of Russian diplomacy. During a press conference with his counterpart Vladimir Makeï, Sergei Lavrov thus referred to Winston Churchill’s sentence and to the Cold War, thus recalling Western support for Ukraine. According to him, the NATO summit this week demonstrated that the United States wants to “submit all states to their will”. “This iron curtain is being erected today by Westerners themselves,” added Vladimir Makeï.
The number of the day
6,000. This is the number of prisoners of war that Moscow claims to hold. “The total number of captured or surrendered Ukrainian servicemen is more than six thousand,” Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said. This number was not immediately verifiable independently. Igor Konashenkov also confirmed the exchange of 144 prisoners, announced Wednesday by kyiv, and assured that the Russian fighters released are almost all “wounded or seriously injured”.
The trend of the day
France surrenders its apron. After six months at the presidency of the European Union, Paris must give way to Prague. This presidency, which will then return to Sweden, “is not planned for good weather, it is planned for bad weather”, warns Pavel Havlicek, of the Association for International Affairs, based in Prague. The Czech Republic, a strong supporter of sanctions against Russia within the European Union, has taken in nearly 400,000 Ukrainian refugees since the start of the conflict in early 2022 and provided financial and military assistance.
The balance sheet of the French presidency is inevitably marked by the war in Ukraine, with six sets of sanctions against Moscow adopted in record time, an unprecedented unity to organize the reception of Ukrainian refugees in an equitable manner and by offering an unprecedented status of protection temporary, as well as the establishment, by 2025, of a common military force of 5,000 men.