Ukraine celebrates Wednesday, February 16 a “day of unity” at the call of its president Volodymyr Zelensky, the immediate risks of war with Russia seeming to move away. If Joe Biden wants to give “every chance at diplomacy”no question for the American president to release the pressure in the face of the risk of a Russian attack against Ukraine, always “quite possible”. In a brief speech at the White House on Tuesday, he alternated signs of overtures and messages of firmness, against a backdrop of still frenetic diplomatic activity around Russia. Follow our live.
The very optimistic German Chancellor. Received by Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin on Tuesday, Olaf Scholz hailed “a good sign”and estimated that there was “enough grounds for discussion” with Russia “for things to evolve positively”. The two men assured that they wanted a process of negotiations on security issues in Europe.
Cyberattack targets army and bank websites. Several official Ukrainian military websites and two public banks have been targeted by a cyberattack, the Ukrainian authorities announced on Tuesday evening, in the midst of a crisis with Russia. The government’s Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security pointed the finger “the aggressor” – an expression generally used to refer to Russia.
Moscow says it does not want war. “Do we want [d’une guerre] or not ? Of course not. This is why we have put forward our proposals for a negotiation processassured Vladimir Putin during a press conference in the Kremlin. We are ready to go down the negotiation road.”