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 Saturday, December 14, 2024, the 1,025th day of the war.
Fact of the day
Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday that North Korean troops fighting for Russia may have carried out offensive actions in the part of the Russian Kursk region occupied by the Ukrainian army.
“The Russians are integrating them into combined units and using them in operations in the Kursk region. For now, just in this place. But we have information stating that they could be used in other parts of the front,” the Ukrainian president explained in his daily briefing. According to him, North Korean troops are “already suffering notable losses”. He also accused Moscow of taking the war to “another stage”
At the end of November, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin estimated that some 10,000 members of the North Korean army were in Russia's Kursk region. “I fully expect to see them engaged in combat soon,” he said at the time.
South Korean government officials and a research organization said last month that Moscow was providing fuel, anti-aircraft missiles and economic aid to Pyongyang in exchange for the troops.
Today's statement
« “If this is not escalation, then what is the escalation that many are talking about? » »
Volodymyr Zelensky is making reference here to the voices reluctant to support kyiv because they fear an escalation with Moscow. Ukraine has warned that Russia has amassed some 50,000 troops, including several thousand North Korean troops, to regain control of areas of the Kursk region occupied by the Ukrainian army since a surprise offensive in early August.
The number of the day
224. This is the number of votes, out of 300, collected by ex-footballer Mikheïl Kavelachvili, designated Saturday by an electoral college to be the new president of Georgia. The country is shaken by large-scale anti-government demonstrations. Mikheïl Kavelashvili is known for his far-right diatribes and against critics of power, to whom he displays unfailing loyalty.
Aged 53, he made speeches before the Parliament of this Caucasian nation, often full of obscenities, targeting critics of the ruling party, Georgian Dream, and even LGBT+ people.
Before joining this political party, he had a career as a footballer in Georgian and European clubs, notably Manchester City.
The trend
“I'm furious at the people who don't stop, who look at us, read – I see in their eyes that they read the signs – and then continue on their way. » Olia Kozel, an angry young Ukrainian, regrets that her compatriots no longer respect the daily minute of silence.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky introduced this ritual in March 2022, in the first weeks of the invasion. But almost three years and tens of thousands of deaths later, it remains little followed.
Our file on the war in Ukraine
Olia Kozel belongs to a small group which seeks to bring it up to date. Once a week, when there is no air alert, these activists gather for a mini-demonstration in a busy place to encourage the inhabitants of kyiv to stop for 60 seconds. For Olia, this minute is a way of experiencing, collectively and individually, the mourning which is omnipresent in the life of every Ukrainian.
And this campaign seems to be gaining popularity. Thus, the kyiv town hall is in the process of adopting a text to make the daily minute of silence compulsory in schools and certain public transport. He also plans to play the sound of a metronome through loudspeakers throughout the city every morning for one minute.
