LIVE – War in Ukraine: kyiv hopes for the start of EU accession negotiations in June

The Czech Prime Minister announced that 20 countries had committed to buying half a million shells for Ukraine outside Europe. The Czech Republic has initiated an international fundraising operation aimed at buying ammunition for the Ukrainian army, which is lacking in its war against Russia.

EU countries had committed to supplying Kiev with one million shells before the end of last March, but they were unable, due to a lack of sufficient production capacity, to deliver them. “I am happy that currently around 20 countries have joined our initiative, from Canada to Poland, Germany and the Netherlands,” said Petr Fiala. “Thanks to them, we are able to supply 500,000 shells. We believe that other deliveries will follow.”

In his daily video message to Ukrainians, Volodymyr Zelensky returned to recent events in the Middle East, after the Iranian attack on Israel. And to draw the parallel with the war raging in his country. “Is human life different? Is human dignity different? No. We value every human life the same. We must all value it the same. And we must also protect lives from terrorism” , assures the Ukrainian president, adding that “Ukraine will request a meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Council focused on protecting the skies and providing air defense and missile systems.”

Ukraine hopes to begin negotiations for accession to the European Union in June, the Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration announced during a press briefing. According to Olha Stefanishyna, quoted by the Ukrainian press, the EU should be able to offer a negotiating framework to begin Ukraine’s accession process by then.

According to kyiv, at least 37,000 soldiers and civilians have been missing since February 2022. An estimate that is probably underestimated due to the Russian occupation of 20% of the country.

Volodymyr Zelensky estimated that China, Russia’s key partner, could “accelerate” peace in Ukraine by playing an “active role” during the conference organized in Switzerland in June on this theme, after more than two years of invasion Russian.

“I am convinced that the first world peace summit in Switzerland can pave the way for a just peace for Ukraine. China’s active role can certainly accelerate our progress on this path,” the Ukrainian president wrote to the The result of a meeting between German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing.

“Operation Interflex, based in the United Kingdom, has trained more than 34,000 Ukrainian recruits with the help of our partners,” announced the British Ministry of Defense. An operation carried out jointly by London and 12 other partners, namely Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, Romania, Kosovo, the Netherlands, as well as Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

The Russian army fires ten times more shells than the Ukrainian army, according to estimates revealed by Volodymyr Zelensky. It also has 30 times more planes, the Ukrainian president said in an interview given to American television, PBS NewsHour. kyiv faces a persistent ammunition shortage, with a dire need for shells and missiles. It is in this difficult context that Zelensky repeated that without American aid, the country “would have no chance of winning” the war.

Russia will be invited to the celebrations of the 80th anniversary of the Allied landings in Normandy, scheduled for early June, but not its President Vladimir Putin due to the “war of aggression” in Ukraine, announced the Liberation Mission responsible for organizing this commemoration .

“Russia will, however, be invited to be represented so that the importance of the commitment and sacrifices of the Soviet peoples, as well as its contribution to the victory of 1945, are honored,” she added, confirming information from Europe 1.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky promulgated the law to mobilize more men in the face of Russia’s attacks, a controversial text because it does not provide for a demobilization period for soldiers. According to a notice published on the website of the Rada, the Ukrainian Parliament, the text was submitted this Tuesday to the president who then signed it.

Ukraine announced on Tuesday that it had identified nearly 37,000 civilians and soldiers missing since the start of the Russian invasion, an incomplete number due in particular to Moscow’s occupation of nearly 20% of the national territory.

“Nearly 37,000 people are missing: children, civilians and soldiers,” Ukrainian Human Rights Commissioner Dmytro Loubinets said on Facebook, according to a new count. “These figures could be much higher,” he stressed, however, as the census work was still in progress.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in Beijing on Tuesday that he had asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to put pressure on Russia so that Vladimir Putin stops his “insane campaign” in Ukraine. “China’s word has weight in Russia,” the German leader said on X, who wants to see Russian troops withdraw from Ukraine and “this terrible war stop.”

A wave of bad weather left tens of thousands of Ukrainians without power on Tuesday, after Russian strikes damaged the country’s main power plants, with President Volodymyr Zelensky lamenting the lack of ammunition to protect them.

“Due to bad weather, 173 localities in four regions are without electricity,” the Ministry of Energy said in a statement.

The bad weather increased the pressure on the country’s electricity system, hit hard by targeted Russian strikes against a backdrop of drying up Western military aid, blocked in particular by political prevarications in Washington. According to Ukrainian authorities, these attacks, which began on March 22, damaged 80% of the national electricity generation capacity.

The director of the IAEA, the UN agency responsible for nuclear security, said Monday that the Zaporizhia power plant in Ukraine was coming “dangerously close to a nuclear accident.” In question ? Several recent drone attacks on the site in the southeast of the country.

The Russian security services (FSB) announced on Tuesday that they had arrested a Russian citizen for attempting to assassinate a former officer of the Ukrainian security services (SBU), who was injured last week in the explosion of his car in Moscow.

The FSB said in a statement that it had “arrested a Russian citizen, born in 1983, who blew up in Moscow (…) on the orders of the Ukrainian special services the car of a Russian citizen, former member of the Ukrainian security services”. The former Ukrainian officer who crossed over to the Russian side, Vassili Prozorov, also accused him after the explosion “the kyiv terrorist regime” to be responsible for it.

According to the FSB, the suspect arrested as part of an investigation into “attempted murder” arrived in Russia in March from Ukraine. He has “obtained components for a remote-controlled explosive device, assembled it” and placed it under the car of the ex-SBU officer.

“We are surviving and we must protect our people,” Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview broadcast Monday by the American channel PBS News. “The ball is in your court. Please, just make a decision,” the Ukrainian president asked Washington, referring to $60 billion in aid blocked for months by the US Congress, amid political tensions between Republicans and Democrats.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed his intention on Tuesday to discuss a “just peace” in Ukraine with Chinese President Xi Jinping during their meeting in Beijing.

“My meeting with President Xi will also focus on how we can further contribute to a just peace in Ukraine,” Mr. Scholz wrote on the social network since my last visit to China.