Did you miss the latest events on the tensions in Ukraine? Do not panic, 20 Minutes updates you every night at 7:30 p.m. Who did what? Who said what? Where are we ? The answer below:
news of the day
This Tuesday was a bit of an overdose of meetings and discussions. Key world leaders spoke throughout the day to try to find a way out of the tensions. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz met President Vladimir Putin in person. Both assured that the West and Russia wanted to continue working together.
Later that day, President Emmanuel Macron spoke on the phone with Joe Biden. The two heads of state concluded this call by indicating that they intended to check the evolution of the situation on the Russian border. The heads of Russian diplomacy Sergei Lavrov and American Antony Blinken also spoke by telephone on Tuesday, for the umpteenth time since the start of the conflict.
And because the day lacked a bit of official statements, the White House announced in the afternoon that the American president would speak about Ukraine and Russia this Tuesday evening at 9:30 p.m.
sentence of the day
Do we want (a war) or not? Of course not
During his joint press conference with Olaf Scholz, Vladimir Putin assured that he did not wish to enter into an armed conflict with Ukraine. “That’s why we put forward our proposals for a negotiation process,” assured the Russian president.
The number of the day
1.2 billion euros. This is the amount of new financial support granted to Ukraine by the European Union. Aid voted urgently in the European Parliament by 598 votes in favor (53 votes against, 43 abstentions).
The trend of the day
Earlier in the day, the Kremlin claimed to have ordered the return to their garrisons of certain units deployed near the Ukrainian border. A positive sign in the beginning of a de-escalation between the two countries… Except that the West is currently showing itself to be very wary of this promise.
The head of NATO thus declared that he had not yet noticed any sign of de-escalation on the ground. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson also questioned Russia’s good faith, citing “Russian field hospitals being built near the Ukrainian border in Belarus” and “more battle groups of battalions moving closer to the border”. Finally, on the side of the heads of German and French diplomacy, we asked that the Russian announcements not be window dressing. “The words are good”, the actions “it will be even better”, thus launched Jean-Yves Le Drian in the Kremlin.