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 Saturday, the 1,004th day of the war.
Fact of the day
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte met US President-elect Donald Trump in Palm Beach, Florida on Friday, the spokesperson for the Atlantic Alliance announced on Saturday. “They discussed all of the global security issues facing the Alliance,” said spokesperson Farah Dakhlallah in a short statement, without further details.
The former Dutch Prime Minister had indicated that he wanted to meet Donald Trump, two days after his election on November 5. He then said he wanted to discuss with him the “threat” represented by the strengthening of ties between Russia and North Korea. “I look forward to sitting down with President Trump and seeing how we will collectively ensure that we face this threat,” he said on November 7, on the sidelines of a summit of European leaders in Budapest. .
Sentence of the day
« “I fully expect to see them engaged in combat soon.” » »
The United States anticipates that thousands of North Korean troops stationed in Russia will “soon” fight Ukrainian forces, Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin said Saturday. “Based on what (the North Korean soldiers) have been trained to do, the way in which they have been integrated into Russian formations, I fully expect to see them engaged in combat soon,” the US secretary said. at Defense to journalists from the Fiji Islands, where he is visiting.
The number of the day
1 truck per hour. Polish farmers began blocking a major border crossing with Ukraine on Saturday to protest against government policy and denounce the European Union's agreement with Mercosur countries. At the Medyka border crossing, around thirty protesters prevent truck traffic entering Poland.
Only one truck per hour is allowed to leave Poland for Ukraine. The blockage does not apply to cars, buses, humanitarian and military transport. The protesters criticize the government in particular for not keeping its promises on taxes for farmers.
Today's trend
Ukraine is asking its Western allies for the latest generation of air defense systems to protect itself after the strike of a hypersonic ballistic missile, which Vladimir Putin ordered on Friday to be mass-produced, promising new shots against Moscow's enemies. Russia said it had struck the city of Dnipro, in Ukraine, on Thursday with this new intermediate-range Orechnik missile (up to 5,500 km), a heavy missile with a strategic vocation but without its nuclear charge and which was fired from the region of 'Astrakhan, a first in this war, cast a chill over Europe.
“The Ukrainian Minister of Defense is already in discussions with our partners for new anti-aircraft defense systems,” declared Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a video message to his fellow citizens published Friday evening on social networks. Ukraine is notably equipped with American Patriot systems – with which it claims to have already intercepted several Kinjal hypersonic missiles touted as “invincible” by the Kremlin – and their Franco-Italian equivalent Samp/T, but in too few numbers to protect all its cities. But Russia once again asserts that with the Orechnik missile it has a device that is impossible to intercept and capable of reaching all countries in Europe.
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