This is their first visit to Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion. Emmanuel Macron visited kyiv and Irpin with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi. Franceinfo looks back on the most significant events of this day.
Emmanuel Macron’s first visit to Ukraine since the start of the war
The French president was in Ukraine on Thursday to affirm his support for kyiv. “All four of us support immediate candidate status for membership”said Emmanuel Macron, after talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi and Romanian President Klaus Iohannis.
“This status will be accompanied by a roadmap and will also involve taking into account the situation of the Western Balkans and the surrounding area, in particular Moldova”added the French leader, who holds the rotating presidency of the EU until June 30.
>> War in Ukraine: what to remember from Emmanuel Macron’s visit to kyiv
Emmanuel Macron took advantage of the press conference to announce the delivery to Ukraine of “six additional Caesars”. These are self-propelled guns renowned for their precision. Paris has already delivered a dozen to Ukrainian power. “You can count on us. Ukraine can count on us”assured Emmanuel Macron.
Another 10,000 civilians to Sievierodonetsk
According to the governor of the Luhansk region, Sergei Gaïdaï, some 10,000 civilians are still present in Sievierodonetsk, a key city in the Donbass, which the Russians are trying to seize. According to him, “the Russian army loses hundreds of fighters, but finds reserves and continues to destroy Sievierodonetsk”. Nevertheless “our soldiers hold the defense”.
Russia on Wednesday accused kyiv of preventing the evacuation by a “humanitarian corridor” civilians at a factory in Sievierodonetsk. “All the bridges crossing the Siverskyy Donets river, which connect the city of Sievierodonetsk to the territory controlled by the Ukrainians, have presumably been destroyed”believes for its part the British Ministry of Defense.
The “horrors” of Mariupol will leave “an indelible mark”
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, spoke before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. She presented an updated report on the situation in Mariupol, a strategic port in southern Ukraine, the scene of a fierce battle. “The horrors inflicted on the civilian population” the Ukrainian port of Mariupol, which fell under Russian control in May, “will leave an indelible mark, including on future generations”she said.
“Between February and the end of April, Mariupol was probably the deadliest place in Ukraine”she added. “The intensity and extent of the fighting, destruction, [le nombre] deaths and injuries strongly suggest that serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law have taken place”she added.
She said her administration had already established that 1,348 civilian deaths, including 70 children, were directly linked to the violent clashes that largely destroyed the city. “These deaths were caused by airstrikes, tank and artillery fire as well as small arms and light weapons during street fighting”, she said. But she admitted that “the true toll of the fighting on civilians is probably several thousand higher”.
The European court of human rights asks Russia not to execute a foreigner sentenced to death
Seized in emergency procedure, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) asked Moscow not to execute a Moroccan soldier sentenced to death by the pro-Russian separatist authorities for having fought with the Ukrainian army.
The ECHR “informed in particular the government of the Russian Federation, according to the rules of article 39 of the court, to ensure that the death sentence pronounced against the petitioner is not carried out, to ensure that his conditions of detention are appropriate, and to provide him with any necessary medical assistance”, says the judicial body of the Council of Europe, based in Strasbourg. Article 39 of the rules of the ECHR allows him to order “provisional measures” when the applicants are exposed to “a real risk of irreparable damage”.
The court was seized by Brahim Saadoun, a Moroccan citizen born in 2000 and sentenced to death in the company of two Britons. According to the Russian authorities, the three men had surrendered and had been taken prisoner in the region of Mariupol in the company of around a thousand Ukrainian soldiers in mid-April. The ECHR insists that Russia is still bound by its decisions, even though Moscow was expelled from the Council of Europe in mid-March.