Russian forces claimed their first gains in eastern Ukraine on Friday after a series of stinging reverses on several fronts, but kyiv seems to be keeping its hand on the ground on the 226th day of war.
Vladimir Putin was showered with praise on his birthday, while the Nobel committee honored a trio of opponents of the war in Ukraine consisting of a Belarusian activist and two Russian and Ukrainian organizations .
Like every Friday, "20 Minutes" looks back on the key elements of the war in Ukraine and the major turning points of the week in infographics.
This 226th day of conflict marks the 70th birthday of Vladimir Putin.
Since the head of the Kremlin decided to invade Ukraine, the war raging in the heart of Europe has been at the center of the concerns of the international community.
On the ground, kyiv is leading a remarkable counter-offensive in the east and south of the country.
Russian forces claimed early gains in eastern Ukraine on Friday after a series of bitter setbacks on multiple fronts, but kyiv appeared to retain the initiative, calling on Russian soldiers to choose surrender.
In Russia, Vladimir Putin offered himself a shower of praise for his birthday, the Orthodox patriarch going so far as to see in him a gift from God, despite the isolation of Moscow and his setbacks on the ground.
Chance of the calendar (or not), on the same day the Nobel Peace Prize has a resolutely critical tinge of the Putin system, of its Belarusian ally and of the invasion in Ukraine, the Committee having awarded the imprisoned Belarusian activist Ales Beliatski, l Russian rights NGO Memorial and the Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties.
Here is a point in four infographics on this week of tensions, ending this Friday, the 226th day of conflict.
kyiv leads the counter-offensive in the east of the country
Russian forces claimed early gains in eastern Ukraine on Friday after a series of bitter setbacks on multiple fronts, but kyiv appeared to retain the initiative, calling on Russian soldiers to choose surrender.
On the ground, a sign of the confidence won by the Ukrainians after the success of their counter-offensive, Defense Minister Oleksiï Reznikov promised to "guarantee life, security and justice" to Russian soldiers who choose to surrender .
“You can still save Russia from tragedy and the Russian army from humiliation,” he said, as defeats prompted Russian President Vladimir Putin to mobilize several hundred thousand people in the 'army.
Moscow, for its part, announced that it had made its first gains - three villages in eastern Ukraine - after losing thousands of square kilometers of territory on several fronts in recent weeks.
According to pro-Russian separatists fighting alongside troops from Moscow, the villages of Otradivka, Vessela Dolyna and Zaitseve are now under Russian control.
The Russian Ministry of Defense had already announced the capture of Zaitseve the day before in its daily report.
These three villages are located south of the city of Bakhmout which is under Ukrainian control.
The Russian army has been trying to take the area for months, so far without success.
The war in Ukraine at the heart of the Nobel Peace Prize
In a highly symbolic choice in favor of "peaceful coexistence", the Nobel Peace Prize winner on Friday crowned a trio of civil society representatives in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus, three of the main players in the Ukrainian conflict.
The award was jointly awarded to Belarusian activist Ales Beliatski, still in prison in his country, to the Russian NGO Memorial - hit by a dissolution order from the Russian authorities - and to the Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties.
“The Norwegian Nobel Committee wishes to honor three outstanding champions of human rights, democracy and peaceful coexistence in the three neighboring countries of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine,” said its chair, Berit Reiss-Andersen.
In doing so, the Nobel Committee has, as expected by the experts, wanted to mark the blow in the face of the war in Ukraine which has plunged Europe into the most serious security crisis since the Second World War.
Oil takes off again
OPEC + decided on Wednesday to drastically cut oil production quotas to support prices, immediately attracting the wrath of the White House, which accused the cartel of "aligning" with Moscow.
Joe Biden said he was "disappointed with this short-sighted decision", announcing an upcoming congressional consultation "on additional tools and mechanisms to reduce control" of the group of producers in the energy market.
The American president has been struggling for months to try to stem the surge in prices which is eroding the purchasing power of households, even going so far as to go to Riyadh in July during a very controversial visit.
Back in Vienna for the first time since March 2020, the thirteen members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) led by Saudi Arabia and their ten partners led by Russia wanted to mark the occasion, after long months in videoconference due to anti-Covid restrictions.
After a brief meeting, they agreed to a reduction of "two million barrels per day" for the month of November, according to a press release from the alliance.
This reduction, the largest since the start of the pandemic, will probably boost prices “at a time when consumers were breathing a sigh of relief”, prices at the pump having fallen sharply since this summer, underlines Craig Erlam, of Oanda .
The nuclear risk still prevalent
The Ukrainian plant in Zaporozhye is the subject of a bitter media battle between Russian and Ukrainian forces.
This Thursday, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, said that the largest nuclear power plant in Europe was "obviously" Ukrainian, despite its formal appropriation by Moscow since the beginning of the 'invasion.
"For us, it is obvious that it belongs to [the Ukrainian operator] Energoatom since it is a Ukrainian installation", declared Rafaël Grossi during a press conference in kyiv, after being received by President Volodymyr Zelensky and before going to Moscow.
"We continue to say what must be done, which is to say essentially avoid a nuclear accident at the plant, which remains a very, very clear possibility", he argued, also denouncing " the almost unbearable conditions" in which the Ukrainian personnel of the plant work.
Volodymyr Zelensky, for his part, urged the IAEA to condemn Moscow's appropriation of the plant, calling it a "raid".
The shelling continues near the plant, where a strike left at least seven dead and five missing overnight from Thursday to Friday, according to local governor Oleksandr Starukh.
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