• Russia launched its "military operation" in Ukraine on Thursday, February 24. Every evening, at 19:30 pm, 20 Minutes offers you its recap of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict that leaves dead and wounded and thousands of refugees every day.
  • Who did what? Who said what? And who supports whom and why? You will know everything about the progress of the negotiations and the events of this crisis that is shaking Russia, Ukraine, Europe and the United States.
  • The leader of the paramilitary group Wagner threatened the Russian General Staff to withdraw his troops from Bakhmut if he did not receive more ammunition.

Did you miss the latest events about the war in Ukraine? Don't panic, 20 Minutes takes stock for you every night, at 19:30 pm. Who did what? Who said what? Where do we stand? The answer below:

News of the day

The tone rises between Wagner and the Russian General Staff. The leader of the mercenary group fighting in Bakhmut is threatening to withdraw his troops from the city next week for lack of ammunition. Venting his anger in several videos of rare virulence, businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin also blamed the high command for the "tens of thousands" of Russians killed and wounded in Ukraine.

A withdrawal of Wagner from Bakhmut, where this organization is in the front line, would leave the Russian army in a delicate position, at a time when the Ukrainians say they are completing their preparations before a major offensive presented as imminent. Wagner's chief has for months accused the Russian General Staff of not providing enough ammunition to his men to deprive them of a victory at Bakhmut that would overshadow the regular army, which suffered setbacks last year.

The phrase of the day

This is a hostile act. It is clear that the terrorists in Kiev could not have committed it without their bosses knowing."

Despite Washington's denial, Moscow remains convinced that the United States was aware of the alleged Ukrainian drone attack on the Kremlin on Wednesday. "This is a hostile act. It is clear that the terrorists in Kiev could not have committed it without their bosses being aware," Lavrov said during a trip to India, saying Moscow would take "concrete actions" to respond to the alleged attack.

"If you believe that as soon as the United States and Ukraine have rejected the accusations, we must stop thinking what we know about it, this is not the case," insisted the head of Russian diplomacy, speaking to the press.

Today's figure

20,000. This is the number of children who have probably been transferred by Russia to areas under its control in Ukraine as well as to its own territory, according to a report by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). "It seems that there is a plan to assimilate them in a massive way," Veronika Bilkova, a professor at Prague's law faculty, who wrote the study with two other experts, told reporters on Thursday.

It is difficult to determine exactly how many children were deported, a policy that began as early as 2015, following the annexation of Crimea, she said. "According to the lowest estimates we could find, their number is around 20,000. But Russian and Ukrainian sources suggest figures ten times higher, or even higher," Bilkova said. "So it's really a massive phenomenon."

Today's trend

New cyber attack in France. The Senate's website was inaccessible by mid-morning on Friday following a blockage claimed by the pro-Russian hacker collective NoName, which had already attacked the website of the National Assembly in March. "This is obviously a denial of service attack, overwhelming the site with requests," cybersecurity expert Nicolas Hernandez, president of Aleph Networks, told AFP.

Our dossier on the war in Ukraine

NoName claimed responsibility for the attack on its publicly accessible Telegram channel at around 10:20 a.m., with a message in Russian and English criticizing the France's support for Ukraine. "We have read in the press that France is working with Ukraine on a new aid plan that may include weapons, as well as statements by Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna" and "we have blocked the website of the French Senate," writes NoName.

  • War in Ukraine
  • World
  • Volodymyr Zelensky
  • Vladimir Poutine
  • Russia