Twenty-four days after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, kyiv is continuing its diplomatic efforts. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday March 20 asked Israel to “make a choice” by concretely supporting Ukraine against Russia, during a videoconference speech before the deputies of the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament.
“Ukraine made its choice 80 years ago and we have Righteous who hid Jews, it’s time for Israel to make its choice (…) indifference kills, calculations kill”, declared the Head of State, evoking his own Jewish roots, in a speech in Ukrainian translated into Hebrew. Franceinfo summarizes what to remember from the developments of the day.
New Russian strikes
Russia has claimed for the second day in a row that it used hypersonic missiles in Ukraine, this time to destroy a Ukrainian army fuel reserve in the south. In Mariupol, a strategic city in south-eastern Ukraine, bombed for weeks and suffering from a shortage of water, gas and electricity, the local authorities accused the Russian army of having bombed the watch an art school serving as a refuge for several hundred people, ensuring that civilians were trapped under the rubble.
The Azovstal steel and metallurgical plant in Mariupol, one of the largest in Europe, was also badly damaged by the bombardments. In northwestern Kyiv, a shell exploded in a courtyard just outside an apartment building injuring at least five people, two of whom were hospitalized, according to the capital’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko.
More than a quarter of the population has left their homes
Ten million people, more than a quarter of Ukraine’s population, have now fled their homes due to Russia’s war, said UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi. “The war in Ukraine is so devastating that 10 million people have fled, either internally displaced or refugees abroad”did he declare.
Turkey believes an agreement between kyiv and Moscow is close
Turkey assured that Russia and Ukraine have made progress in their negotiations and are close to an agreement. For his part, Volodymyr Zelensky repeated that he was “ready to negotiate” with Vladimir Putin, saying that “without negotiations, we will not stop the war” conducted by Russia in Ukraine, in an interview broadcast by CNN.
Slovakia receives US missiles
The US Patriot anti-aircraft missile system is on its way to Slovakia, Defense Minister Jaroslav Nad said. Which, in turn, could serve to further arm Ukraine: Slovakia indeed declared this week that it could supply Ukraine with its Russian-made S-300 anti-missile system, but only on condition of receiving a substitute. , to avoid weakening NATO security.
London calls on Beijing to put pressure on Moscow
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has called on Moscow’s strategic ally China to condemn the Russian invasion. “As time goes on and the number of Russian atrocities increases, I think it becomes more and more difficult and politically inconvenient for people, actively or passively, to tolerate Putin’s invasion.”said Boris Johnson.
New sanctions against Russia
France has immobilized since the start of the war nearly 850 million euros in assets of Russian oligarchs – yachts, apartments, bank accounts – on its territory following the war in Ukraine, said the Minister of Economy Bruno Le Maire at the Grand Jury RTL/Le Figaro/LCI.
Australia has for its part adopted new sanctions against Russia by banning exports of alumina and bauxite, two basic elements for the production of aluminum, and has promised to provide more weapons and humanitarian aid in Kyiv.