LIVE – Ukraine: Emmanuel Macron “does not think that France will engage on Ukrainian soil tomorrow”

Emmanuel Macron affirmed that the French army will not “engage on Ukrainian soil tomorrow”, trying to allay fears raised in February when he did not rule out sending ground troops to the country at war with Russia.

The Head of State was questioned by the podcast “Génération Do It Yourself” about the “fear” of a French person who fears that the conflict will degenerate, or even reach France. “I don’t think there is a war coming to our soil, I want to reassure him,” he added.

“But what is at stake in Ukraine, which is 1,500 kilometers from our border, is not the end of the world, it is also the future of Europe and our security. Because if we do not do what “we are doing it collectively (…) we are in fact letting the law of the strongest prevail, and there is no reason for Russia to stop there,” he warned.

French President Emmanuel Macron assured that France had an “unequivocal determination” to support Ukraine “in the long term”, while the possible arrival of the far right to power in Paris is causing concern in kyiv.

“Our support for Ukraine remains and will remain constant and we will continue to mobilize to respond to Ukraine’s immediate needs, to convey the message of our unequivocal determination to stand alongside the Ukrainians in the long term,” he said. -he said alongside NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the Elysée.

At least four people were killed and 34 others injured in Ukraine on Monday in a Russian missile strike on the town of Pokrovsk, in the Donetsk region (east), according to local authorities. Clashes are intensifying in the east of the country, where Moscow has been increasing attacks for months, deploying significant resources to try to break through Ukrainian defenses after more than two years of war.

The governor said the strike was carried out with an Iskander-M ballistic missile, which can carry up to 700 kg of explosive payload. Pokrovsk, which had 61,000 inhabitants before the war, is located about twenty kilometers west of a section of the front where Russian forces have been nibbling ground for weeks. In addition, a 62-year-old man was reportedly killed during a Russian attack on the town of Kurakhové, further south.

Russia has intensified its attacks using tear gas diverted from its original use, the Ukrainian army said on Monday, which recorded 715 attacks of this type in the month of May alone. The modus operandi would be the dropping by drone of “K-51 and RG-VO grenades”, normally used by law enforcement to disperse riots, according to the same source.

The Ukrainian General Staff said in a statement on Facebook that it had “documented 715 cases of use of munitions containing dangerous chemical compounds by the Russians” for the month of May, “271 cases more than in April.” “215 Ukrainian soldiers” visited “medical institutions” last month and showed “symptoms of chemical damage of varying severity”, it is also indicated.

“The use of chemical weapons or chemical riot control agents as a means of warfare constitutes a violation of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their destruction” (CIAC)”, recalled the Ukrainian army The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has so far judged the information it has received on the alleged use of chemical weapons to be “insufficiently substantiated”. chemical weapons in Ukraine.

Jordan Bardella will be “extremely vigilant” in the face of “attempts at interference by Russia” if he becomes Prime Minister, he promised during the presentation of the National Rally program this Monday late morning.

On the other hand, he affirmed that France would not deliver long-range missiles to kyiv, nor would it send troops to Ukraine.

Several attacks have targeted police officers in the Russian republic of Dagestan, as well as Orthodox churches and at least one synagogue. Local authorities allude to a role of Ukraine in organizing these terrorist attacks.

The Kremlin on Monday threatened the United States with “consequences”, the day after a Ukrainian strike in Crimea, carried out according to Moscow using an American missile, and accused the West of “killing Russian children”.

“It is obvious that the participation of the United States in the fighting, its direct participation, which leads to the death of Russian citizens, must have consequences,” Dmitry Peskov, the spokesperson for the Russian presidency, insisted to the press. , calling on journalists to ask in Europe and the United States “why their governments are killing Russian children”

Viktor Orban’s Hungary will take over the presidency of the Council of the European Union for six months on July 1, a prospect that worries Brussels, where the repeated blockages in Budapest annoy more than one member state.

“Around 40% of the decisions wanted by the EU on Ukraine are blocked,” said Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis in Brussels at the end of May. Since then, things have progressed a little, with Budapest finally agreeing to the formal opening of accession negotiations with kyiv, which will kick off on Tuesday.

But EU military aid to Ukraine, amounting to 6.6 billion euros, is still blocked. And the future Hungarian presidency apparently has no intention of lifting its veto.

Hello and welcome to this live broadcast devoted throughout the day to news of the war in Ukraine.