kyiv suspended from NATO arms deliveries and a possible visit by Macron

Did you miss the latest events on the tensions in Ukraine? Do not panic, 20 Minutes updates you every night at 7:30 p.m. Who did what? Who said what? Where are we ? The answer below:

news of the day

Emmanuel Macron was in Romania on Wednesday and continues to maintain the secrecy on a possible visit to kyiv, while Ukraine struggles against Russian aggression in the Donbass. The French president, however, deemed that “new discussions” with kyiv were necessary.

After the wave of criticism and incomprehension, particularly in kyiv, aroused by his calls not to “humiliate Russia”, Emmanuel Macron also recalled “the clarity” of the French position of support for Ukraine, “without no complacency” towards Moscow. “But we want to build peace,” he insisted.

sentence of the day

“It is vital to stay in Donbass. »

Volodymyr Zelensky urged his compatriots to “hold on” in the Donbass, a region he considers “vital” and on which the continuation of the war launched by Moscow will depend. “The defense of the region is essential to give an indication of who will dominate in the weeks to come”, assured the Ukrainian president in his daily address to the Nation.

The number of the day

540 to 560. This is the number of people who have taken refuge in the underground passages of the Azot chemical plant in Severodonetsk, according to the head of the city administration, Oleksandr Striouk. This situation is reminiscent of that of the Azovstal steelworks, which for weeks was the last pocket of Ukrainian resistance in the port of Mariupol, on the Sea of ​​Azov.

The trend of the day

The Russian army claimed to have destroyed on Wednesday a warehouse of weapons supplied by NATO, in particular M777 155 mm howitzers, near Lviv, in western Ukraine. kyiv is urging its Western allies to speed up the delivery of weapons, while the battle is particularly tough in the Donbass. According to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence, kyiv has only received “about 10% of the weapons” requested from its Western partners.

“We have taken the measure of the urgency, but the efforts require time”, reacted the Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg. “The transition from Soviet-era equipment to modern NATO equipment requires the Ukrainians to be ready to use it,” he added before the start of a meeting of NATO defense ministers. the Covenant.

For its part, Washington called on its allies to “intensify” deliveries to the Ukrainians. “Ukraine is facing a pivotal moment on the battlefield,” said the US Secretary of Defense. “We must therefore intensify our common commitment” and “redouble our efforts so that it can defend itself”, he added.