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 says what? Where are we ? The answer below:
news of the day
In Ukraine, and especially in the capital Kyiv, the power outage continues. The country is still largely without electricity and running water on Thursday, the day after massive fresh strikes by Russia specifically targeting energy infrastructure. A strategy dubbed “war crimes” by the Western Allies as winter approaches. In Kyiv, which was hit by freezing rain falling on snow, around 70% of the population was left without power, according to the city hall as of Thursday morning. The water supply was restored in the early afternoon, according to the town hall, when temperatures were just above zero degrees.
For its part, the Russian Defense Ministry has asserted that its bombings were not aimed at Kyiv and blamed Ukraine’s anti-aircraft defenses for the damage in the capital. In Kharkiv, the country’s second largest city on the border with Russia, there are still “problems with the power supply,” said Governor Oleg Synegoubov in the morning. The rest of Ukraine was also severely affected by the outages, but the reconnection of critical infrastructure to the grid continued in stages. The Ukrainian Presidency announced the opening of around 4,000 heating points across the country.
phrase of the day
The promotion of non-traditional sexual relations is prohibited (…) A ban on the promotion of pedophilia and gender reassignment has also been introduced.”
Russian lawmakers on Thursday approved amendments that significantly expand the scope of a law banning LGBT+ “propaganda.” This new law, which is an expanded version of a much-criticized 2013 text banning LGBT+ “propaganda” among minors, now bans the “promotion of non-traditional sexual relations” to all viewers, in the media, on the internet, in books and films. “The fines amount to 10 million rubles” (about 160,000 euros) for the perpetrators, added the chairman of the lower house of parliament (Duma), Vyacheslav Volodin, in a press release.
The number of the day
80,000. This is the number of passports distributed by Russia in four areas of Ukraine that it allegedly annexed to its territory, annexations not recognized by the international community. “Since the four regions of the Russian Federation were added, more than 80,000 people have received passports as citizens of the Russian Federation in accordance with the law,” the Russian Interior Ministry said, as quoted by local news outlets. For observers, this strategy is Russia’s attempt to bolster its claims to the areas of Ukraine it claims by claiming that they are inhabited by recently naturalized Russian citizens.
The trend of the day
Vladimir Putin has warned of “serious consequences” if Russia’s oil price cap is set. “Such actions violate the principles of trade relations and will most likely have serious consequences for the global energy market,” the Russian president said in a phone call with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohamed Chia al-Sudani, according to a Kremlin statement.
The coalition of states that want to cap Russian oil prices, including the G7, the European Union and Australia, are expected to announce the proposed cap “in the coming days,” a Treasury Department official told the US Treasury Department on Tuesday. The goal is to reach a maximum price for Russian hydrocarbons that can be introduced before new European sanctions, planned to come into force from December 5.