Did you miss the latest events on the war in Ukraine? Don’t 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 four regions occupied by Russia and subject to “referendums”, not recognized by the international community, were officially annexed by Moscow. Vladimir Putin, after a speech of nearly 45 minutes, signed the annexation documents alongside the leaders of the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Lugansk (east) and those occupied by Russian troops in Zaporozhye and Kherson (south ).
Emmanuel Macron has “strongly condemned the illegal annexation”, as the leaders of the EU countries issued a statement on Friday “rejecting” and “condemning” this “illegal annexation”, accusing Moscow of putting “world security at risk “. NATO for its part denounced an “illegitimate” annexation. The UN Security Council is to vote Friday on a resolution condemning these “referendums”.
sentence of the day
Ukraine will not negotiate with Russia as long as Putin is the President of the Russian Federation. We will negotiate with the new president”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has insisted that he will not negotiate with Russia as long as Vladimir Putin is in power, shortly after the Russian leader asked Ukraine to lay down its arms. “We are taking a decisive step by signing Ukraine’s candidacy for accelerated NATO membership,” he also said.
The number of the day
“Hundreds of kilos” of TNT. This is what the underwater explosions that caused the four leaks affecting the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea amount to, said an official report from Sweden and Denmark submitted to the United Nations.
“The magnitude of the explosions was measured respectively at 2.3 and 2.1 on the Richter scale, which is probably the equivalent of an explosive charge of hundreds of kilos”, indicate the two Scandinavian countries in a communication to the Council UN security.
The trend
Russian forces are “partially surrounded” in the town of Lyman, an important railway hub in eastern Ukraine, a senior separatist official acknowledged on Friday. “Right now, Lyman is partially surrounded. The Svatové road is under our control, but periodically under fire,” Denis Pushilin, head of the separatist stronghold of Donetsk, said on Telegram.
“Our guys are fighting, we are replenishing reserves, we have to hold on, but the enemy has also thrown serious forces” into the battle, he continued. “It is very unpleasant news, but we must look at the situation with sobriety and draw conclusions from our mistakes,” he added.
