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4:45 p.m. : It remains to be seen how this announcement from Moscow will materialize on the ground. As we explained in an article yesterday, the Ukrainian general staff fears that the withdrawals announced by the Russian army in the Kherso region are a means of setting a trap for the Ukrainians.
4:28 p.m. : The Russian soldiers are called upon to withdraw from the city of Kherson, but all the positions located west of the Dnieper river, which cuts in two this region which Vladimir Putin decreed the annexation in September.
4:26 p.m. : Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu gave the order on television: “Proceed with the withdrawal of the soldiers”he said, in response to a proposal from General Sergei Surovikincommander of Russian operations in Ukraine, who called the decision a “not at all easy” to take.
4:24 p.m. : The Russian Defense Minister orders Russian forces to withdraw from the city of Kherson, the target of a Ukrainian counter-offensive.
3:48 p.m. : Budapest wants the Hungarian Parliament to ratify the accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO “during the fall semester” which ends on December 7. It is one of the last two countries, with Turkey, not to have given its agreement for the two countries to enter into the military alliance. Viktor Orban’s chief of staff attributes the delay to a legislative gridlock caused by EU demands on anti-corruption measures. He promises that Stockholm and Helsinki “can count” on Hungary.
3:49 p.m. : The leader of the Russian occupation administration in the Kherson region, Vladimir Saldo, confirms that his number 2, Kirill Stremoussov, is dead. He claims that the senior official was killed in a “car accident”.
3:18 p.m. : “The information about his death is not official”, added the same source, while many Russian media, as well as military bloggers, announce his death. The governor of annexed Crimea, Sergei Axionov, spoke “a huge tragedy” and “an irreparable loss”. We do not know the circumstances of this “accident”as the Ukrainian counter-offensive approaches the city.
3:40 p.m. : The deputy head of the occupation administration of the Kherson region, Kirill Stremoussov, today fell victim to a “accident”, announces its health manager, Vadim Ilmiev. This character, born in the Donetsk region, embodied the face of the Russian occupation in the occupied Ukrainian regional capital.
1:57 p.m. : The European Commission proposes to the Twenty-Seven to grant Ukraine aid of 18 billion euros in 2023, in the form of loans whose interest would be borne by the Member States. She must allow “to cover a significant part of Ukraine’s short-term financing needs for 2023, which the Ukrainian authorities and the International Monetary Fund estimate to be 3 to 4 billion euros per month”pleads the European executive.
2:09 p.m. : Emmanuel Macron’s speech was particularly expected on the subject of nuclear deterrence, after the criticism that had accompanied some of his statements on the subject in mid-October on France 2. “Today, even more than yesterday, the vital interests of France have a European dimension. Our nuclear forces contribute to the security of France and Europe”reaffirms the Head of State. “Let us be careful, sometimes, to dramatize certain remarks”.
1:40 p.m. : “Some of today’s challenges will be with us for a long time. When peace returns to Ukraine, we will have to draw all the consequences, that is to say, build a new security architecture and a renewed framework of stability and arms control, where Europe will be around the table.”
09:30 : With the war in Ukraine, Europe has revealed its weakness, says General Vincent Desportes, professor of military strategy at Sciences Po and HEC. “We need an autonomous defense capability” and an “European defense” to prepare for conflict “long durations”he advocates.