Did you miss the latest events on tensions 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
Moscow confirms its withdrawal from the strategically important city of Kherson, although Kyiv remains suspicious. According to the British Ministry of Defense in its daily report on the conflict, Russian forces used their withdrawal to complicate the task of Ukrainian soldiers. “As they retreated, the Russians destroyed several bridges and laid mines to slow the advance of Ukrainian forces,” London said.
Bridges are strategic infrastructure of war. Since the summer, the Ukrainian army, armed with Western armaments such as Himar high-precision rocket launchers, has been gradually wearing down Russian forces by destroying bridges vital to supplying troops on the west bank of the Dnieper.
phrase of the day
There is a “window for trading”
“There has to be a mutual acknowledgment that military victory in the truest sense of the word is unlikely to be achievable by military means, and therefore other means must be sought,” said Gen. Milley, US chief of staff, for whom is “a window of opportunity.” Negotiations”.
The number of the day
100,000. This is the number of Russian soldiers killed or injured in Ukraine, according to Washington, since the invasion began. Chief of Staff Mark Milley estimated losses on the Ukrainian side would likely be of the same magnitude.
The trend of the day
This Thursday, the Russian army said it had begun withdrawing to reposition itself on the east bank of the Dnieper. This withdrawal, announced on Wednesday, includes a departure from the city of Kherson, the region’s capital. On Wednesday, General Sergei Surovikin, in charge of Russia’s offensive in Ukraine, announced that the withdrawal would be made “very quickly” in order to save the “lives of all Russian soldiers”, without giving a timetable.
The Ukrainian army, for its part, continued its counter-offensive. It announced that on Wednesday it had taken over 12 places in the Kherson region and this Thursday the armed forces of Kyiv would be only 15 kilometers from the strategic city: Ukrainian armed forces announced earlier in the day the resumption of the village of Kysylivka after Midday.
This withdrawal is a major setback for Vladimir Putin’s Russia, which in September called for the annexation of the Kherson region with three other Ukrainian territories, declaring that those lands would remain Russian “forever.” Without a beachhead in Kherson, Moscow will find it strategically difficult to continue its offensive against the Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv, then the strategic Black Sea port of Odessa.