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.
The fact of the day
The G7 will help kyiv build a defense “on land, at sea and in the air”, said Joe Biden. The G7 powers pledged on Wednesday to provide long-term military support to Ukraine, a decision hailed by President Volodymyr Zelensky. On the second day of the NATO summit in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius and almost 18 months after the start of the Russian invasion, the United States, United Kingdom, France, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan presented a plan for Ukraine’s security.
This is to help it deal with the current Russian offensive and to deter Russia from any “future armed attack” against its neighbour. This announcement, which angered Moscow, was described as “an important victory for Ukraine’s security” by Volodymyr Zelensky. But he took care to recall that “the best guarantee for Ukraine is to be in NATO”, after sharply reproaching the leaders of the Alliance the day before for not having set a timetable for the integration of his country to this organization after the end of the war.
sentence of the day
Russia is militarily and politically fragile, more than some let on, and our support for Ukraine is more enduring than some thought”
Also during the NATO summit in Vilinus, Emmanuel Macron delivered a severe analysis for Russia. “It showed its first signs of division,” he insisted, referring to the attempted coup by the mercenaries of the Wagner group, a sign according to him of the “weakness of Russian power”. “What we have to show collectively is that time is now on Ukraine’s side,” he added.
“It is legitimate for the Ukrainian president to be demanding with us because he is fighting on the ground, his army is engaged and he is defending the integrity of his territory, the sovereignty of his people”, he also explained. But “this path to NATO is there”, “the most direct path has been opened to Ukraine”, he assured. “In my eyes, we did what we had to do.”
The number of the day
2,500. This is the number of tons of ammunition given by Wagner to the Russian army, in addition to the 20,000 small arms. “The Russian Armed Forces, according to plan, are completing the receipt of weapons and military equipment from the units of the Wagner Group,” the Russian Defense Ministry said on Telegram.
He also posted a video showing soldiers inspecting tanks, armored personnel carriers, boxes of ammunition, Kalashnikovs and mines. Wagner’s boss, Yevgeny Prigojine, had agreed to hand over the armaments of his men to the Russian regular troops after the abandonment of his rebellion at the end of June. According to the ministry, the Russian army received “more than 2,000 pieces of equipment and armaments” including T-90 tanks, Grad and Ouragan rocket systems, Pantsir air defense systems and howitzers.
The trend of the day
New night of alert in Ukraine. kyiv claimed on Wednesday to have shot down 11 Russian drones launched against the capital and its surroundings during a second consecutive night of attacks in the middle of the NATO summit. “A total of 15 explosive drones were involved in the strikes. Eleven of them were destroyed in the areas under the responsibility of the central and eastern command” of the country, the Ukrainian Air Force said on a social network.
In the Cherkasy region of central Ukraine, two people were hospitalized with burns after a drone hit a non-residential building and caused a fire, local governor Igor Taburets said on social media. “Cherkassy was on alert for more than three and a half hours,” he added.
The kyiv military authorities also indicated that a drone attack had taken place in the capital without specifying the number of machines involved. “All enemy targets in the airspace around Kiev have been detected and destroyed,” they assured on social networks, adding that no casualties or material damage were to be deplored. The aerial alert triggered in kyiv lasted more than two hours.