A Ukrainian bombing on the Russian city of Belgorod, capital of the eponymous border region, killed at least one civilian and injured two others on Friday March 15, the local governor said. “Our anti-aircraft defense was activated over Belgorod and the Belgorod district. Ten air targets were shot down while heading towards the city”, added Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov. Earlier in the day, the Russian official announced the death of a Russian fighter in a bombing on a small border village in the same region. Across the border, in Odessa, a Russian missile strike left at least 14 dead and 46 injured, according to regional governor Oleg Kiper. “There are also serious injuries among the paramedics and rescuers”he added. Follow our live stream.
Macron does not want to “let Russia win”. In a long interview on TF1 and France 2, the head of state insisted on the threat “existential” what does the war in Ukraine mean? “for our Europe and for France”. “If the situation were to deteriorate, we must be ready and we will be ready”, “nothing should be excluded”, he repeated again after his controversial statements on a possible sending of troops to Ukraine.
Two Russians arrested for “high treason”. Russian special services announce that they have arrested a man accused of trying to disorient the country’s anti-aircraft defense and a woman who allegedly prepared the “sabotage” of railway tracks. These two people, who will be tried, worked on behalf of Ukraine, says the FSB in a press release.
Three children killed in strike in Donetsk. According to the pro-Russian mayor of the town, which is part of the territories annexed by Russia in eastern Ukraine, a house was targeted by a strike and caught fire “as a result of a barbaric nighttime strike on the Petrovsky district of our city by Ukrainian Nazis”. “Three children were killed”he wrote on Telegram.
Drones shot down from all sides. On Telegram, the Russian Defense Ministry reports having destroyed five Ukrainian drones and nine missiles over the Belgorod region, bordering Ukraine. At the same time, the Ukrainian air forces accuse Moscow of having launched 27 drones and eight missiles against Ukraine during the night. They all have “been destroyed”according to the same source.
• Ukraine calls for rejecting the result of the Russian presidential election. Ukrainian diplomacy urged in a statement “foreign states and international organizations not to send international observers to participate in yet another farce that the Kremlin is passing off as a presidential election” and not to “recognize results” of the vote which takes place from Thursday to Sunday.
• Scholz, Tusk and Macron at the summit in Berlin. The German, Polish and French leaders are meeting in Berlin on Friday for a meeting on aid to Ukraine under the sign of appeasement. Olaf Sholz and Emmanuel Macron will not have too much of the tête-à-tête planned at midday to clear up misunderstandings after their acerbic exchanges which followed the conference in support of Ukraine organized at the Elysée on February 26.