Russian forces carried out several attacks in Zaporizhia in southern Ukraine and the Sumy region in the northeast, killing one person.
In kyiv, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs discussed with his Ukrainian counterpart the “victory plan” presented by Volodymyr Zelensky. France has not yet defined its official position on this plan, which notably includes an immediate invitation from Ukraine to NATO.
In an interview with La Tribune Sunday, the French Minister of the Armed Forces announced that France had “recovered” 300 million euros in interest from frozen Russian assets, with the aim of purchasing military equipment for Ukraine at the end of the year.
We take stock of the events that have marked recent hours.
Also read: French Minister in kyiv, support of the G7 Defense… Update of the day
One dead in Sumy region after Russian strike
The industrial town of Shostka in the northern Sumy region suffered a guided bomb drone attack. One person was killed according to the city’s mayor, quoted by the Ukrainian media The Kyiv Independent. Eleven other people were injured in the attack.
The mayor also indicated that two schools, several medical establishments and numerous apartment buildings were damaged in this attack.
In Zaporizhia, southern Ukraine, at least 10 people were injured in an air bomb attack, according to the region’s governor Ivan Fedorov cited by The Kyiv Independent.
Russian forces carried out three airstrikes, partially destroying an apartment building and causing damage to nearby businesses. Two girls aged 9 and 13 are among the injured according to Ivan Fedorov.
Jean-Noël Barrot discusses the Ukrainian “victory plan” in kyiv
The French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot, discussed Saturday in kyiv with his Ukrainian counterpart, Andriï Sybiga, the “victory plan” and the second peace summit desired by President Volodymyr Zelensky. This meeting comes less than a week after the Ukrainian president made public his “victory plan” supposed to guarantee “a just peace” against Russia.
“A victory for Russia would establish the law of the strongest and would precipitate the international order towards chaos, which is why our discussions […] must allow us to advance President Zelensky’s peace plan,” said the head of French diplomacy during a joint press conference with Andriï Sybiga.
Asked about the “plan for victory” Ukrainian, he replied: “If we support the plan for victory, it is because of what we have been, for almost 1,000 days alongside Ukraine, that we support and that we will support as long and as intensely as necessary.”
Paris, like Ukraine’s other Western allies, has not yet defined its official position on this Ukrainian plan, presented by Volodymyr Zelensky this week in Brussels.
This plan notably mentions an immediate invitation to kyiv to join NATO and calls on the allies to lift restrictions on the use of long-range weapons against military sites in Russia.
Paris to deliver more equipment thanks to frozen Russian assets
France “recovered” 300 million euros in interest from frozen Russian assets to purchase military equipment for Ukraine at the end of the year, including 12 new Caesar cannons, the Minister of the Armed Forces announced in an interview with The Tribune on Sunday.
“We are mobilizing the interests of frozen Russian assets to purchase military equipment for Ukraine,” underlines Sébastien Lecornu. “France has recovered 300 million euros for this end of 2024 alone”, he clarified.
This amount allowed “ to order 12 new Caesar cannons which will be delivered to Ukraine, as well as 155 mm shells, Aster missiles, AASM guided bombs, firing points and Mistral missiles…”, he added. Some 60 Caesar cannons have already been delivered to Ukraine and around 80 will be delivered by the end of 2024, the ministry reminded AFP.
Yulia Navalnaïa, widow of Alexei Navalny, wants to see Putin “prisoner”
Yulia Navalnaïa, widow of Russian opponent Alexeï Navalny, said on Sunday in an interview with Sunday Times British want the downfall of Vladimir Putin until he becomes a “ordinary prisoner”.
“I want him to go from a kind of Russian tsar to an ordinary prisoner in Russia,” launches Yulia Navalnaïa to the weekly, which publishes this interview two days before the posthumous release of Alexeï Navalny’s memoirs. Assuring that she does not hate the Russian president, she still hopes to see him imprisoned, “as (her) husband was”.
Also read: PORTRAIT. Death of Alexeï Navalny: since 2007, he was Vladimir Putin’s number 1 opponent
Opponent Alexeï Navalny, sworn enemy of Vladimir Putin, died in detention in February in an Arctic prison, under unclear circumstances. Yulia Navalnaïa, 48 years old, was included in the register of “terrorists and extremists” in Russia in July, shortly after an arrest warrant was issued against him for “participation in an extremist group”. She lives in Germany, vowing to keep her late husband’s cause alive.
