► Putin announces that 700,000 Russian soldiers are fighting in Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on television Friday that nearly 700,000 troops were currently taking part in the offensive in Ukraine.
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“We have nearly 700,000 troops in the special military operation zone”declared Vladimir Putin, using the official term for the armed operation launched in February 2022, during a televised meeting with soldiers decorated for their feats of arms.
► Volodymyr Zelensky rejects Vladimir Putin’s “Hitler” ultimatum
Russian President Vladimir Putin de facto demanded on Friday June 14 a capitulation of Ukraine as a condition for talks. His Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky immediately rejected this “ultimatum” to the “Hitler”on the eve of a summit in Switzerland devoted to the means of achieving peace and from which Russia is excluded.
The United States and NATO also rejected the conditions of the Kremlin master.
“These messages are ultimatum messages (…) Hitler did the same thing, when he said “Give me part of Czechoslovakia and we’ll leave it at that”but no, these are lies »commented Volodymyr Zelensky in an interview with the Italian news channel SkyTG24.
The Russian president demanded that kyiv renounce joining NATO and withdraw from the regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia that Russia already partially occupies and claims to annex in addition to Crimea.
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“As soon as kyiv (…) begins the effective withdrawal of troops and notifies the abandonment of its plan to join NATO, we will immediately, this very minute, give the order to cease fire and begin negotiations »said Vladimir Putin to the executives of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
► Meeting between Zelensky and Pope Francis
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he spoke with Pope Francis on the sidelines of the G7 in Italy and discussed with him the peace summit planned in Switzerland, without Russia.
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“We discussed the consequences of Russian aggression against Ukraine, Russian air terrorism and the difficult situation in the energy sector (…) and the expectations of the world peace summit”said the Ukrainian head of state on Telegram.
► The G7 calls on China to stop helping Russia
The G7 meeting in Italy calls on China to stop supplying weapons components to Russia at war with Ukraine, according to the draft final declaration consulted by AFP.
“China and Russia stand together against the West”
“We call on China to stop transferring (…) weapons components and equipment that supply the Russian defense sector”ask the heads of state and government, who received Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday.
► Russian assets frozen: Putin denounces “theft” and promises a response
Russian President Vladimir Putin called ” flight “ the freezing of Russian assets in the West and their use to help Ukraine resist Russia, and promised to respond, after an agreement to this effect reached the day before at the G7.
“Western countries have frozen part of Russian assets and foreign currency reserves. And now they are thinking about a legal basis to definitively appropriate them”did he declare.
Volodymyr Zelensky at the Assembly: “Europe is no longer a continent of peace”
“Even if we embellish things, theft is still theft and it will not go unpunished”he added. “It is right that Russia pays”reacted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the table “Group of 7”but he demanded the pure and simple confiscation of the 300 billion euros of assets of the Russian central bank frozen by the EU and the G7, which the latter refuse for legal reasons.
► Moscow mocks the United States-Ukraine security agreement
Russia considered that the security agreement signed the day before between the United States and Ukraine was a simple ” piece of paper “ without any real binding value. “The fact is that (these agreements) are just pieces of paper (…). These agreements are nothing, they have no legal value”declared the spokesperson for Russian diplomacy, Maria Zakharova.
Ukraine signed security agreements with the United States and Japan on Thursday; these documents are essentially promises from these countries to continue providing long-term military and financial support to confront the Russian offensive.
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According to Maria Zakharova, these documents aim above all to “demonstrate to citizens remaining in Ukraine (…) that the world community still seems to be with them”. “In reality, they legally absolve themselves of any responsibility for the future of Ukraine”she added.
► Arrest of a Ukrainian official for “espionage” in favor of Moscow
The Ukrainian security services (SBU) announced that they had arrested an official from the Khmelnytskyi region in western Ukraine, accused of spying on Ukraine and then providing sensitive military information to Russia.
“The SBU arrested the head of one of the departments of the Khmelnytskyi city council, who worked for the Russian Federal Security Service”, Ukrainian services said on Telegram. This manager is notably accused of having “collected information on the deployment points and places of residence of Ukrainian servicemen”. He is accused of “high treason committed under martial law” and faces life imprisonment.
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Russia “planned to use this information to prepare for missile strikes, as well as possible sabotage and attacks”according to the SBU, which specifies that this man “attracted the attention of the FSB” during his “studies in Moscow” in the 1990s.
