Did you miss the latest events on the war in Ukraine? 20 Minutes takes stock for you every evening. Between the strong declarations, the advances on the front and the results of the fighting, here is the essential part of this Monday, the 964th day of the war.
Fact of the day
The future is getting darker for Laurent Vinatier, this French researcher working for a Swiss NGO. Already detained since June in Russia, he was sentenced this Monday to three years in prison for not having registered as a “foreign agent”.
“My wife is Russian, my friends are Russian. I lived a Russian life,” he recalled to the 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. He was not allowed to speak after this sentence to the press present in court. His Russian lawyers deplored a “harsh verdict”. “We will, of course, appeal,” they announced.
The Russian authorities accused Laurent Vinatier of having failed to fulfill his 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 security” of Russia.
According to sources interviewed by AFP, the Frenchman had been working for years on the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, even before the Russian offensive of February 2022. Until his arrest, he was traveling to both countries. .
This affair 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 strikes which notably targeted the port of Odessa, damaging two civilian ships, one of which had already been hit previously, according to the 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 left one dead and eight injured,” Oleksiï Kouleba, Deputy Prime Minister for the Reconstruction of Ukraine, lamented on Telegram, specifying that all the victims were civilians.
«I charge him Optimaflying 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. Besides theOptimathe NS Moon flying the flag of Belize was also “damaged,” according to the governor of the Odessa region. According to the latter, all the victims are “port infrastructure employees”.
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 has burned: a Tu-134 military transport plane has been destroyed in Russia” »
The words were signed this Monday by the Main Directorate of Ukrainian Military Intelligence attached to the Ministry of Defense (GUR). Ukraine claims to have destroyed a Russian military transport plane over the weekend in the south of the Urals, far from the border between the two countries.
According to this source, the plane in question was hit at the Russian military airfield of Orenburg-2, in the south of the Urals, approximately 1,000 kilometers from the border between Ukraine and Russia. The GUR published images showing a plane in flames and suggesting arson, without however giving further details on the method of operation.
The aircraft, 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 the leaders of the Russian Ministry of Defense.
This new attack, which was carried out during the night from Saturday to Sunday, is part of a context of strikes carried out by kyiv on Russian soil aimed at disrupting the logistics of Moscow’s forces which have tirelessly bombarded 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 interest from frozen Russian assets, but will not reach the maximum of three billion envisaged in a security agreement concluded with kyiv, said Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecornu on Monday.
“It was politically decided at the beginning of 2024 that this aid could go up to three billion euros. In fact, we will be above two billion euros, but not three billion euros,” the minister announced to the deputies of the Defense Committee.
France had guaranteed its support for Ukraine in a bilateral security agreement concluded on February 16 between Paris and kyiv. French aid reached 1.7 billion euros in 2022 and 2.1 billion in 2023, according to Paris.
Our file on the war in Ukraine
Some 300 million euros of aid in 2024 comes from the use of interest on Russian assets frozen after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. They “make it possible to finance ammunition (rather 155 mm shells ), Caesar cannons, fuel,” detailed the minister.
The donation of old equipment from the French armies to be replaced by 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 pass. And these donations will represent “practically 700 million euros” next year, said Sébastien Lecornu.
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