2024-10-14 17:31:00
Did you miss the latest events on the war in Ukraine? 20 minutes takes stock for you every night. Among the strong declarations, the advances on the front and the results of the fighting, here is the essential of this Friday, the 961st day of the war.
Fact of the day
The future becomes increasingly dark for Laurent Vinatier, this French researcher who works for a Swiss NGO. Already detained in Russia since June, he was sentenced this Monday to three years in prison for failing to register as a “foreign agent”.
“My wife is Russian, my friends are Russian. I lived a Russian life,” he recalled before judges on Monday, saying he fell in love with Russia 20 years ago. The Frenchman, dressed in a light blue shirt, appeared stoic as the verdict was announced. After this sentence he was not allowed to speak to the press present in court. His Russian lawyers deplored a “harsh verdict”. “Of course we will appeal,” they announced.
Russian authorities accused Laurent Vinatier of failing to comply with the obligation to register under the label of “foreign agent”, even though he was collecting “information in the field of military activities” that could be “used against the security” of Russia.
According to sources interviewed by AFP, the Frenchman had been working on the conflict between Russia and Ukraine for years, even before the Russian offensive in February 2022. Until his arrest, he had traveled to both countries.
This story also comes at a time when relations between Moscow and Paris are very tense: Russia is accused of a series of acts of destabilization and disinformation on French territory, while France is criticized for its support for Ukraine.
The number of the day
Three. This is the number of civilians killed this Monday in southern Ukraine during Russian attacks that specifically targeted the port of Odessa, damaging two civilian ships, one of which had already been hit previously, according to Ukrainian authorities. One person was killed in Odessa and two women died in the Kherson region during a Russian drone attack.
“On October 14, Russia again bombed the port of Odessa. The attack caused one death and eight injuries,” Oleksiï Kouleba, deputy prime minister for the reconstruction of Ukraine, complained on Telegram, specifying that all the victims were civilians.
«I’ll make him pay ExcellentThe vessel, flying the flag of Palau, was also damaged for the second time. A week ago this ship had already been hit by a ballistic missile attack,” continued Oleksiï Kouleba. In addition toExcellentTHE NS Moon The Belize flag was also “damaged,” according to the governor of the Odessa region. According to the latter, all the victims were “employees of the port infrastructure”.
Two women aged 72 and 56 were also killed on Monday in a Russian drone attack near Gavrylivka in the southern Kherson region.
Today’s statement
« “The carcass of the enemy burned: a Tu-134 military transport plane was destroyed in Russia” »
The words were signed on Monday by the Main Directorate of Ukrainian Military Intelligence at the Ministry of Defense (GUR). Ukraine claims to have destroyed a Russian military transport plane over the weekend in the southern Urals, far from the border between the two countries.
According to this source, the plane in question was hit at the Russian military airport of Orenburg-2, in the southern Urals, about 1,000 kilometers from the border between Ukraine and Russia. GUR published images showing a plane in flames and suggesting arson, without however providing further details on how the operation occurred.
The plane, a Tupolev Tu-134, “belong(ed) to the 117th Military Transport Aviation Regiment of the Russian Armed Forces” and to this category of Soviet-designed aircraft “used, among other things, to transport leaders of the forces Russian armies” Ministry of Defense.
This new attack, carried out on the night between Saturday and Sunday, is part of the attacks carried out by Kiev on Russian soil aimed at disrupting the logistics of Moscow’s forces which have been tirelessly bombing Ukraine since February 2022.
The trend
French military aid to Ukraine will exceed two billion euros in 2024, in particular thanks to the use of interests from frozen Russian assets, but will not reach the maximum of three billion foreseen in the security agreement concluded with Kiev, the Minister of the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu on Monday.
“At the beginning of 2024 it was politically decided that this aid could reach up to three billion euros. In reality we will be above two billion euros, but not three billion euros”, the minister announced to the deputies of the Defense commission.
France had pledged its support to Ukraine in the bilateral security agreement concluded on February 16 between Paris and Kiev. According to Paris, French aid reached 1.7 billion euros in 2022 and 2.1 billion in 2023.
Our dossier on the war in Ukraine
Around 300 million euros of aid in 2024 comes from the use of interest on Russian assets frozen after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. They “allow to finance ammunition (or rather 155 mm projectiles), Caesar cannons, fuel” , explained the minister.
The donation of old equipment by the French armies to be replaced with new equipment, such as armored vehicles (VAB) or AMX-10RC tanks, represents a cost of 533 million in 2024, compared to 177 million per year. And these donations will represent “practically 700 million euros” next year, said Sébastien Lecornu.
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