“We must not let Russia win.” In a long interview on TF1 and France 2, Thursday March 14, Emmanuel Macron 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 must be excluded”, he repeated again, two weeks after his controversial statements on a possible sending of allied troops to Ukraine. Follow our live stream.
The opposition reacts to the speech. “The president is scary,” denounced Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leader of La France insoumise. According to the RN deputy, Laurent Jacobelli, Emmanuel Macron was in “the inability to reassure”. “Blowing on the embers of a potential global conflict for electoral purposes, no”, regretted the president of the Republicans Eric Ciotti.
Russia and Ukraine say they have shot down several enemy drones. On Telegram, the Russian Defense Ministry reports having destroyed five Ukrainian drones and nine missiles over the Belgorod region, bordering Ukraine. Two other drones were neutralized over the Lipetsk region, located about 400 km south of Moscow, according to regional governor Igor Artamonov. 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”The election 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.