Have you missed the latest events on the war in Ukraine? 20 Minutes Get the point for you every night. Here is the essentials of this Tuesday, August 19, on the 1.273rd day of the conflict.
The fact of the day
Volodymyr Zelensky spoke with Donald Trump, as well as with European leaders in the evening on Monday. From now on, a meeting between the Ukrainian president and Vladimir Putin should only be a question of organization. So at the end of the summit, during a call between the American president and that of Russia, the latter to try to shoot down his cards and proposed a meeting in … Moscow. Offer that Zelensky immediately refused.
Another track that is close to Europe, that of Switzerland. And for good reason, the country will offer “immunity” to the Russian president, despite his indictment before the International Criminal Court, provided he comes “for a peace conference,” said Swiss Foreign Minister, Ignazio Cassis on Tuesday.
It was Emmanuel Macron who spoke of the possibility that a possible summit of peace negotiations between Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, is held in Europe and “it will be a neutral country, and therefore perhaps Switzerland”. He says he plead for Geneva, UN European seat. No return, for the moment, of the two presidents concerned.
The Declaration of the Day
« For my part, I have the greatest doubts as to the reality of a will of peace on the part of the Russian president because it is long as long as he can win by the war, he will. »
At the end of the summit which took place in the White House, and despite advances towards a potential peace, Emmanuel Macron was measured as to the confidence he places in Vladimir Putin for negotiations.
“Putin is an ogre at our doors”, a “predator” who “does not want peace”, he said far from the optimism displayed by Donald Trump in the chance of ending the conflict in Ukraine.
“Today, Russia, in fact, continues the war, it intensifies it,” said the French president. The latter who had for a time called not to humiliate Russia, has become one of the most ardent detractors of the Kremlin.
The trend
All spirits are now busy preparing this summit during which Volodymyr Zelensky and Vladimir Putin should meet for the first time since the war. The Ukrainian president said: “We are ready to meet with Putin and after that we expect a trilateral meeting. »»
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The Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergei Lavrov, however tempered by warning this Tuesday that any meeting should be “very carefully” prepared. In an interview on Russian television, he also warned that an agreement should imperatively “respect the security interests of Russia” as well as “the rights of Russians and Russian speakers who live in Ukraine”.
The other leaders, too, prepare the ground. The chiefs of staff of the NATO armies will meet in videoconference on Wednesday to discuss the conflict in Ukraine and the “progression of diplomatic efforts”, announced the Atlantic alliance.
On the battlefield side, Russia made the bodies of 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers who died, most of them fell to the front and some people in captivity. This has brought to 11,000 the number of bodies returned by Russia to Ukraine since the beginning of the year. This type of exchange constituting one of the only results of talks between the two countries.
