On the 343rd day of the war, tensions are high between France and Russia. Russian diplomacy judged, this Wednesday, February 1, “absurd” that Emmanuel Macron could think that the arms deliveries to Ukraine, on the rise in firepower, do not constitute an escalation. “Does the French president really believe that deliveries of heavy weapons, planes to the kyiv regime […] won’t lead to an escalation of the situation?” asked Maria Zakharova, one of the Kremlin spokespersons.
On Monday, Emmanuel Macron declared that each decision to deliver arms had to meet “criteria”, in particular that it “not be escalatory” and “not likely to touch Russian soil”. Remarks echoing possible deliveries of fighter planes to Ukraine, while this Wednesday, the speaker of the Ukrainian Parliament called on France to be “the first to give modern planes” to kyiv. A speech that the Ukrainian executive has hammered in recent days. What, to tighten a little more the Franco-Russian relations. Paris announced on Tuesday that France would provide Ukraine with 12 additional 155mm Caesar guns, in addition to the 18 already delivered.
Anti-corruption searches in Ukraine in the midst of the war effort
Ukraine on Wednesday launched a wave of anti-corruption searches targeting administrations, officials and personalities, the authorities ensuring that the fight against embezzlement is a priority in the context of the war effort and Western aid.
David Arakhamia, leader of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s party, announced on Telegram that billionaire Igor Kolomoiski, ex-interior minister Arsen Avakov and the Ukrainian tax authorities had been targeted, while the customs directorate was sacked . Senior officials from the Ministry of Defense also received visits from investigators. “The country will change with the war and if someone is not ready for change, the state will come to change him,” insisted David Arakhamia, alluding to the endemic evil of corruption.
The raids come a week after a series of senior officials were sacked in the wake of a corruption case over army supplies, the first major scandal since the Russian invasion nearly a year ago. .
“A rise in the level of climbing” according to the Kermlin
The Kremlin said on Wednesday that the potential delivery of longer-range missiles to Ukraine by the United States would “not change the course of events” and that Russia would continue its offensive at all costs.
The supply of missiles with a range of up to 150 km would lead “to a heightening of tensions, to a rise in the level of escalation”, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
EU doubles training target for Ukrainian soldiers
The European Union wants to train 30,000 Ukrainian soldiers, doubling its initial target, to help kyiv deal with the Russian invasion, a European official announced on Wednesday. That figure will likely be reached before the end of the second quarter of this year, officials say. The trainings take place in several European countries, with a main center of the mission located in Poland, a country bordering Ukraine.
Netanyahu says he is considering military aid to Ukraine
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country was considering military aid for Ukraine, while offering to mediate in the conflict between kyiv and Moscow. “Well, I’m definitely looking into it,” Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview with CNN on Wednesday, February 1, when asked if Israel was planning to offer help to Ukraine. , such as its Iron Dome air defense system.
Benjamin Netanyahu has so far refrained from taking a strong side with Ukraine, anxious to spare Russia, which controls the airspace of Syria neighboring Israel and usually turns a blind eye to the operations of the Jewish state. against Iran.
He confirmed that the United States had transferred to Ukraine artillery ammunition that had previously been stored in Israel, and suggested that the Jewish state was acting on its side to hinder the production in Iran of weapons for the Russia.
The holding of a Ukraine-EU summit Friday in Kyiv confirmed
Prime Minister Denys Chmygal confirmed on Tuesday the holding of a Ukraine-European Union summit on Friday February 3 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 addressed to both our partners and our enemies”, declared Denys Chmygal during a government meeting, saying “to expect from the summit a positive interim evaluation of our efforts to European integration”. These are “two extremely important events concerning the European integration of Ukraine”, he insisted.
The talks on Thursday February 2 and the summit on Friday must allow “Europe to believe in Ukraine’s victory”, while “supporting our rapid movement towards EU membership”, insisted Denys Chmygal .
For his part, in his address on Tuesday evening, Volodymyr Zelensky hoped that the summit would reflect a high “level of cooperation and progress” with the EU. “We are waiting for news for Ukraine,” he said.
France to supply Ukraine with 12 Caesar guns
France will provide Ukraine with 12 additional 155 mm Caesar guns, in addition to the parts already delivered, allowing it to have around fifty copies, “a mass which is by no means negligible” according to the French minister of the Armies, Sébastien Lecornu.
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, the minister said on Tuesday during a conference. joint press briefing with his Ukrainian counterpart Oleksiï Reznikov, who was making his first bilateral visit since the start of the war last February.
They will be added to the 18 Caesars already delivered by France as well as the 19 Caesar guns promised by Denmark in kyiv in mid-January. Only one is now out of order. “There is maintenance to be carried out on the 17 that remain, linked to combat or to the classic wear and tear of this type of equipment”, indicated the minister.
France also promised on Tuesday to deliver to Ukraine a Ground Master 200 (GM200) radar produced by French Thales. This medium-range radar can detect an enemy aircraft at 250 km and fight it at 100 km, whether it flies at low speed and low altitude like drones, or at high altitude like fighter planes.
Groups in the Assembly call for a debate
Several leaders of political groups in the Assembly called on Tuesday for the organization of a debate in Parliament on the war in Ukraine. These requests were made on the occasion of the visit to France of the President of the Rada, the Parliament of Ukraine, Rouslan Stefantchouk, present at the start of the session of current affairs in the Assembly.
“Are you ready to organize this debate in Parliament?” Asked Olivier Marleix (LR) to the Prime Minister. “France must help Ukraine” but on the international scene, “our country gives the feeling of being in tow,” he said, referring to “isolation of the President of the Republic even in his own country. “.
Mathilde Panot (LFI) also called for “a debate on the role that France must play” and expressed the “wish that a diplomatic solution be found as soon as possible”, pointing out “the risks of a rise in power” of the conflict. No question of becoming “co-belligerents by the delivery of heavy offensive weapons”, for the communist André Chassaigne, also eager for a debate in Parliament.