what to remember on the 341st day of the russian invasion

While Joe Biden on Monday opposed a categorical refusal to the idea of ​​​​sending American F-16 type fighter planes to Ukraine, France will deliver 12 additional Caesar guns, in addition to the 18 pieces already delivered, announces Sébastien Lecornu, the Minister for the Armed Forces. These 12 medium-range guns will be delivered “in the coming weeks” and will be “financed as part of the support fund of 200 million euros” set up by France

At the same time, a few weeks before February 24, the date of the start of the Russian invasion in 2022, Joe Biden did not want to say if he would go to Europe on this occasion. But he assured that he would go, without specifying a date, to Poland, a country which plays a key role in the response to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.

Ukrainian PM confirms Ukraine-EU summit to be held in Kyiv on Friday

Prime Minister Denys Chmygal confirmed on Tuesday the holding of a Ukraine-European Union summit Friday in Kyiv, one day after “intergovernmental consultations” between Kyiv and the European Commission which will take place “for the first time in our history”.

“The fact that this summit is being held in Kyiv is a strong signal sent to both partners and enemies,” declared Denys Chmygal at a government meeting, saying “to expect from the summit a positive interim assessment of our efforts for European integration”.

France will provide 12 additional Caesar guns

France will provide Ukraine with 12 additional 155 mm Caesar guns, in addition to the 18 already delivered, as well as anti-aircraft means, French Minister for the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu announced on Tuesday during a joint press conference with his Ukrainian counterpart Oleksiï Reznikov. These 12 medium-range guns will be delivered “in the coming weeks” and will be “financed as part of the support fund of 200 million euros” set up by France, said the minister.

They will be added to the 18 Caesars already delivered by France – one of which is out of order – as well as the 19 Caesar guns promised by Denmark in kyiv in mid-January.

“Between 120 and 140” Western heavy tanks sent to Ukraine

Ukraine will receive “between 120 and 140” Western heavy tanks, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kouleba said on Tuesday, a few days after the Westerners gave the green light to such deliveries, after long procrastination. “During the + first wave of contributions +, the Ukrainian armed forces will receive between 120 and 140 modern tanks of Western models”, indicated the minister in a video on Facebook, recalling that they were Leopard 2 of German design, British Challenger 2s and American Abrams.

This is the first time that kyiv has revealed the total number of these tanks that its Western allies have promised it. In recent days, several countries have expressed their intention to quickly supply these vehicles to Ukraine, like the United Kingdom which intends to supply Challengers at the end of March and Germany which intends to send its first Leopard 2 “at the end of March -At the beginning of April”. Washington, for its part, announced the dispatch of 31 Abrams.

But the delivery process could take months, according to several chancelleries, between the needs for repair and maintenance upstream, in addition to the training of Ukrainian soldiers on these models which they have never used in the field. In addition to these logistical problems, other countries, such as France, are hesitating at this stage before sending their stock of heavy tanks to Ukraine, fearing in particular a possible weakening of their military capabilities.

Ukraine has already received foreign tanks in recent months, including more than 250 modernized versions of the Soviet T-72 from Poland, but so far the West has been wary of sending their modern models for fear that this does not provoke a new Russian escalation.

Moscow claims the capture of a new village near Bakhmout

Russia claimed on Tuesday the capture of the village of Blagodatné, north of the city of Bakhmout, in eastern Ukraine, where the Russian army has intensified its offensive and has been making slow progress for several weeks. The Ministry of Defense indicated in its daily press release that “the locality of Blagodatné had been liberated” after an offensive by “volunteer assault units” supported by aviation and artillery.

Volunteers are the Russian military’s euphemism for paramilitary groups, like Wagner, fighting in Ukraine. Moreover, the boss of Wagner, the sulphurous Evguéni Prigojine, had claimed the capture of the village by his men on Saturday, which kyiv had denied. The Russian army and Wagner have been trying since the summer to take Bakhmout, a city of 70,000 inhabitants before the conflict.

For several weeks, they have intensified their offensive to encircle the locality, taking the town of Soledar in January, at the cost of heavy losses, and the neighboring villages.

“Nothing is prohibited in principle”, replies Macron

French President Emmanuel Macron, questioned on Monday in The Hague about the possibility of sending fighter jets to Ukraine to help it fight the Russian invasion, cautiously replied that “nothing is forbidden on principle”. He mentioned “criteria”, before any decision, such as the fact that a “request” is “formulated” by Ukraine, that it is “not escalatory” and “not likely to touch Russian soil but to help the resistance effort” and that “it does not weaken the capacity of the French army”.

“By definition, nothing is excluded,” he said, while emphasizing that Ukrainians “are not making this demand today.” However, “it is in the light of these three criteria that we will continue to look on a case-by-case basis” the deliveries of military equipment, he added after having posed the same criteria for the possible sending of tanks Leclerc.

“It is according to the requests that are made but not according to the rumors that are made” that the decisions are taken, underlined the French head of state, specifying that the Ukrainian Minister of Defense, Oleksiï Reznikov, was expected Tuesday in Paris for talks with his counterpart Sébastien Lecornu.

Russian athletes at the Olympics? Ukraine accuses IOC of promoting war

Ulcerated by the possible participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes under a neutral banner in the 2024 Olympics, the Ukrainian presidency raised its voice on Monday against the International Olympic Committee, accusing it of being “a promoter of war”. “The IOC is a promoter of war, murder and destruction. The IOC happily watches Russia destroy Ukraine and then offers Russia a platform to promote genocide” of Ukrainians, the adviser tweeted. of the presidency Mykhaïlo Podoliak.

“It is obvious that the money that buys Olympic hypocrisy does not smell of Ukrainian blood. Isn’t it, Mr. Bach?” Thomas Bach, the German president of the Olympic body.

The IOC, which had “recommended” at the end of February 2022 to the international federations to exclude the Russians and Belarusians from their competitions after the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, has not yet decided anything and leaves to each federation the task of reintegrating them or keeping them apart. The Lausanne-based organization also “rejects”, “in the strongest terms”, Mr. Podoliak’s statement “and other defamatory remarks”, which “cannot serve as a basis for any constructive discussion”, a spokesperson told AFP.