- Russia launched its “military operation” in Ukraine on Thursday, February 24, 2022. Every evening 20 Minutes offers you a look back at the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.
- A powerful statement, a key figure, the underlying trends… Here you will find the essential information to better understand a war of unprecedented proportions on European soil.
- This Thursday, a former journalist dreams of beating Putin in the presidential election, Ukraine and Poland discuss opening the border, and Russian bombings are still killing Ukrainian civilians.
Did you miss the latest events on the war in Ukraine? Every evening at 7:30 p.m. 20 Minutes takes stock for you. Between the strong statements, the progress on the front and the results of the fighting, here is the gist of the day.
The fact of the day
She dares to challenge Putin. An independent Russian politician, Ekaterina Dountsova, filed her candidacy for the March 2024 presidential election on Wednesday. But this is only a first step: the candidate now has to collect at least 300,000 signatures of support, which will not be an easy task. Optimistic Ekaterina Dountsova, 40, said there was “always a 50/50 chance”.
“We have a rather positive program, we are not against anything, we are for peace and for democratic processes,” she said. The former journalist and local MP estimated that “people want an alternative and want to regain confidence in the electoral process”. I'm not saying that the Russian authorities would let them campaign in complete peace. In addition, Ekaterina Dountsova was summoned by the prosecutor's office shortly after she announced her intention to run in the election.
Sentence of the day
We hope to find a common position this week. »
Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Koubrakov expressed confidence this Thursday about the outcome of his meeting with his recently appointed Polish counterpart. The focus of the discussions is “the unblocking of the border,” which is putting a strain on Ukraine’s economy. “We have presented key figures and analytical data that prove that the problems mentioned by the Polish demonstrators do not actually exist,” assured the Ukrainian minister.
Polish truck drivers, denouncing “unfair competition” from their Ukrainian colleagues, have been blocking the border since the beginning of November, causing endless queues. Ukraine relies heavily on road transport with EU member Poland for its exports and imports, especially since the Russian invasion almost two years ago.
The number of the day
16. Ukrainian citizen Alexander Tsepelev was sentenced to this number of years in a strict regime penal colony by a court in Saint Petersburg on Thursday. He and his “accomplice” Alexandre Pankratiev were found guilty of manufacturing mephedrone, a synthetic drug, in an apartment from November 2021 to early March 2022.
The aim of the operation, according to the court, was to transfer “the proceeds from the production of mephedrone” to the Pravy Sector group, a Ukrainian ultranationalist movement. In total, they transferred around $10,800 through a Ukrainian intermediary by February 24, 2022, the date on which the Russian offensive began, the Russian judiciary said.
Today's trend
Russian attacks continue to cause civilian casualties in Ukraine. This Thursday, “Russians bombed Toretsk mines in the Donetsk region, killing three civilians and wounding five others,” Interior Minister Igor Klymenko said in Telegram. According to him, the bombing of a mine in this industrial city in Donbas left one dead and two injured. In another accident, two people were killed and three others were injured.
Further south, two women died and a man was injured in Russian bombings in Nikopol, regional authorities said. “The Russian army bombarded Nikopol with heavy artillery in the morning,” Dnipropetrovsk region governor Serguii Lyssak said on Telegram. The strikes left two women aged 46 and 60 dead and an 86-year-old man injured, he added, saying seven buildings were damaged. His message was accompanied by photos, including a house with gutted walls.