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 Sunday, December 1, the 1,012th day of war.
News of the day
The head of European diplomacy, Kaja Kallas, and the President of the European Council, Antonio Costa, both recently appointed, arrived in kyiv on Sunday for a symbolic visit in support of Ukraine, on the first day of their mandate. This trip comes at a time when tensions are at their highest between Moscow and the West after strikes by Ukraine by American and British missiles on Russian soil, Russia's firing of an experimental hypersonic missile and nuclear threats.
The new leadership team of the European Union is keen to show strong support for Ukraine at a time when its forces are retreating on the front and when the imminent arrival of Donald Trump at the White House raises fears of a cessation of aid American in kyiv. “We have come to send a clear message: we are alongside Ukraine and we continue to give it our full support,” Antonio Costa told the journalists accompanying him.
The statement of the day
« “Ukraine’s invitation to join NATO is necessary for our survival. » »
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky assured Sunday that an invitation to join NATO was “necessary for the survival” of Ukraine, almost three years after the start of the Russian invasion of the country. He also said Ukraine needed more weapons and security guarantees before agreeing to start negotiations with Russia. “Only when we have all these elements and we are strong will we have to establish […] the agenda of the meeting with the assassins,” the Ukrainian president said after a meeting with EU leaders in kyiv.
The number of the day
3. Even if the front hardly moves any more and the war is now mainly fought on the diplomatic front, the fighting and the bombings still mark the daily life of Ukrainians. In Kherson, in southern Ukraine, three people were killed and 11 injured in the explosion of a mini-bus, according to local authorities.
Today's trend
An impenetrable barrier against irregular migration for some, a sometimes fatal “trap” for refugees fleeing wars for others: the fence installed on the Polish-Belarusian border, in full modernization, divides the Warsaw government and humanitarian organizations . The barrier, more than five meters high, is also reinforced with metal bars and a second level of razor blade barbed wire. At his foot, soldiers, hooded and with machine guns slung over their shoulders.
Since 2021, Poland has recorded an influx of thousands of migrants and refugees, mainly from the Middle East and Africa who are trying to enter Poland via Belarus, an operation attributed to the Minsk regime with the aim of destabilizing the region and the EU. But NGOs deplore Warsaw's policy of taking refuge behind the wall. “Half of the patients we treat have physical injuries and mental trauma resulting from crossing the border,” says Uriel Mazzoli, mission manager in Poland for the NGO Doctors Without Borders.
