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 of this Monday, January 20, 2025, on the 1,062nd day of the war.
News of the day
The war in Ukraine “will not end tomorrow or the day after tomorrow”, Emmanuel Macron warned on Monday, in what sounds like a thinly veiled warning to Donald Trump, at the very moment when the one who boasted of being able to resolve the conflict “in 24 hours” was sworn in at the Capitol.
“There cannot be peace and security in Europe without Europeans and without them being negotiated by Europeans,” declared the Head of State during his greetings to the armies near Rennes. “The challenge today is to give Ukraine the means to last, and to enter any future negotiations in a position of strength. The challenge tomorrow, when hostilities stop, will be to give Ukraine guarantees against any return of war to its territory, and assurances for our own security,” he continued.
Sentence of the day
« We are also open to dialogue with the new American administration on the Ukrainian conflict” »
The master of the Kremlin congratulated Donald Trump on Monday a few hours before his inauguration “Regarding the resolution of the situation [ukrainienne]I would like to emphasize that the objective should not be a brief truce […] but a lasting peace,” added Vladimir Putin during a meeting with ministers broadcast on Russian television.
Volodymyr Zelensky congratulated Donald Trump on Monday, but after his inauguration, “President Trump is still decisive, and the policy of peace through force that he announced offers the opportunity to strengthen American leadership and achieve a just and lasting peace, which is the top priority,” the Ukrainian president wrote in a message on X.
The number of the day
3. The number of high-ranking Ukrainian army officers arrested on Monday, according to the announcement by the Ukrainian Investigative Bureau (DBR). These are two generals and a colonel whose “inaction” and “negligence” would have “allowed” Russia to occupy part of the Kharkiv region (north-east) in May 2024.
-Russia began a surprise offensive across the border in the Kharkiv region in early May 2024. Although the Ukrainian army managed to stop it, it was unable to retake this area where Russian strikes razed several localities and led to the flight of tens of thousands of civilians. Among the imprisoned soldiers are a former commander of the Kharkiv battle group, the former commander of the 125th territorial defense brigade and the former commander of a battalion. These senior officers are notably accused of having poorly coordinated the defense of this sector, of not having organized artillery and aviation support and of not having prepared the fortifications, according to the DBR press release. “The commanders’ actions resulted in the loss of personnel and weapons and failed the defense of the state border in their area of responsibility,” military investigators explain.
These men risk up to ten years in prison.
Today’s trend
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday released a video of the interrogation of a man presented as a North Korean soldier taken prisoner on January 11 while fighting on the Russian side. In the images, one of these two soldiers, lying on a bed, reports significant losses when he participated in the fighting on January 3, responding to a question about the number of dead and wounded among his compatriots, without so that we know whether he expresses himself freely or under duress.
Our file on the war in Ukraine
Seoul, kyiv and Washington say North Korea has since last October deployed more than 10,000 troops in the Kursk region, a small part of which has been controlled by the Ukrainian army since a surprise offensive in August. South Korea estimated that 300 North Korean soldiers were killed and 2,700 wounded in the fighting, with kyiv putting the figure at 3,800 killed and wounded. Neither Moscow nor Pyongyang have confirmed or denied the presence of these troops to date.
