Ukraine welcomed, this Thursday, October 20, the sanctions imposed by the European Union against Iran, accused of supplying combat drones to the Russian army. “I welcome the swift action of the EU, following my call on Monday, to impose sanctions on Iran for having helped Russia kill Ukrainians and damage our energy infrastructure,” welcomed on Twitter the head of Ukrainian diplomacy, Dmytro Kouleba.
Earlier in the day, member states of the European Union agreed on sanctions against Iran. They concern in particular the Iranian company Shahed Aviation Industries, linked to the powerful Revolutionary Guards, and three military officials, including General Mohammed Hossein Bagheri, Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces. Russia reacted to this announcement by denouncing the “wacky assumptions” of the United Kingdom and France.
- Ukraine worries about attack from Belarus
The Ukrainian army said on Thursday that it was worried about the “increasing threat” of a new Russian offensive from Belarus, its northern neighbor, whose territory served as a rear base for Russian forces for their invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine at the end of February. “The aggressive rhetoric from the military and political leaders of Russia and Belarus is intensifying,” Oleksiy Gromov, an official with Ukraine’s military staff, told reporters. “The threat of a resumption of the offensive on the northern front by the Russian armed forces is growing,” he said, as Moscow and Minsk launched a joint military force in recent days.
According to him, “this time, the offensive could be launched west of the Belarusian border to cut off the main supply routes for foreign weapons and military equipment” arriving through western Ukraine, in particular via the Poland.
- Russia doesn’t care about the political situation in Britain
The announcement of the resignation of British Prime Minister Liz Truss did not go unnoticed in Moscow. The Kremlin mocked Britain, Ukraine’s big ally, saying “the UK has never experienced such embarrassment from a prime minister.”
- Ukraine to introduce electricity restrictions from Thursday
In his Wednesday evening address, Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukrainian forces shot down 21 Iranian drones on Wednesday, including ten that were heading towards kyiv. “Unfortunately, there were also strikes, and further damage to critical infrastructure,” he lamented. He called on Ukrainians to restrict their electricity consumption from Thursday morning at 7 a.m. Earlier today, an adviser to the presidency announced that electricity supply restrictions would be introduced across Ukraine from today, after several rounds of Russian strikes targeting critical infrastructure.
“On October 20, 2022, restrictions for the supply of electricity will be introduced throughout Ukraine”, announced on Telegram Kyrylo Tymoshenko, calling on Ukrainians to “minimize their consumption”, otherwise “temporary cuts” will take place . “We are preparing for all possible scenarios as winter approaches,” Volodymyr Zelensky said. “We expect Russian terror to be directed against energy installations until, with the help of our partners, we are able to destroy 100% of missiles and drones,” he added. .
- Wave of indictments in the United States following technology transfers to Russia
The United States announced on Wednesday the indictment of a dozen people accused of selling American technology to Russia, some of which ended up being used on the battlefield in Ukraine. These lawsuits, coupled with new economic sanctions, stem from “two separate international conspiracies to violate US trade and sanctions laws,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.
In the first case, five Russians and two Venezuelan oil brokers were charged with buying electronic components from the United States to equip planes, radars or missiles, and reselling them to Russian arms companies. . Some of these components, which passed through an opaque financial system, “were found in Russian weapons platforms seized from the Ukrainian battle camp”, according to Merrick Garland.
In the second case, three people were arrested in Latvia and one in Estonia for having tried to export to Russia a sophisticated grinding machine, likely to be diverted for nuclear purposes. Charged with fraud and money laundering, they face extradition requests from the United States.
- Putin finds himself in an ‘incredibly difficult situation’, says Biden
Russian President Vladimir Putin now finds himself in an “incredibly difficult situation”, Joe Biden said on Wednesday when asked by journalists about the establishment of martial law in the Ukrainian territories recently annexed by Moscow.
“It would seem that the only tool left at his disposal is to persecute Ukrainian citizens” in order to “intimidate them into surrender, but that is not what they are going to do,” he said. said from the White House.
- Ukraine accuses Moscow of preparing “massive deportation” of inhabitants of annexed regions
Ukraine on Wednesday accused Russia of planning a “mass deportation” of people from recently annexed territories, where Vladimir Putin has declared martial law. In southern Ukraine, the Russian administration of the Kherson region assured that the evacuations of civilians had started. It plans to move “50,000 to 60,000” in a few days to the other bank of the Dnieper. The city of Kherson, occupied since the spring, will also be evacuated in the face of the advance of Ukrainian troops, said the head of the pro-Russian municipal authorities Vladimir Saldo, promising that the Russian soldiers would resist “until death”.
For the secretary of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council, Oleksiy Danilov, we are witnessing “the preparation of the massive deportation of the Ukrainian population” to Russia, “in order to modify the ethnic composition of the occupied territories”. A crime which should be condemned by the United Nations and which has already been committed in Crimea”, unilaterally attached in 2014 to Russia, he added. In total, “about five million inhabitants” of the four Ukrainian regions annexed in September by Moscow are currently on Russian soil, where they have “taken refuge”, for his part affirmed the secretary of the Russian Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev.
- Spain sends electric generators to Ukraine
“In view of Russia’s recent attacks on the electricity infrastructure, which have seriously affected the electricity supply of Ukrainian citizens, (…) the Ministry of Defense will immediately send generators to this country”, indicates a press release from the ministry. These are four generators of 400 kilowatts of power and a fifth of 150 kilowatts, which belong to the Spanish Air Force.
The equipment will be transferred “in the next three days by land to a logistics center” in Poland, from where it will then be sent to Ukraine, added the Ministry of Defense. More than 1,000 Ukrainian cities are without power due to Russian bombings, which Ukraine says destroyed 30% of the country’s power plants in just over a week.