Find here all of our live #UKRAINE
3:21 p.m. : “We must try to remove all the uncertainties on both sides and reduce the field of ambiguities to see where the points of disagreement and the possible points of convergence are.”
Arrived in Moscow to meet Vladimir Putin, Emmanuel Macron said to himself “determined and lucid” about the possibility of reducing tension on Ukraine’s borders.
3:08 p.m. : Fourteen hours ! It’s time to take stock of the main news headlines:
• Silver day for the French team in Beijing. The downhiller Johan Clarey and the biathlete Anaïs Chevalier-Bouchet won two fine second places, bringing the total of the French delegation to three medals.
• Patrick Balkany returns to prison. The former LR mayor of Levallois-Perret (Hauts-de-Seine), who has already been imprisoned for five months before being released for health reasons, will be returned to detention after multiple breaches of his placement under an electronic bracelet.
• Claude Guéant will release him from detention on Wednesday. The former Minister of the Interior will benefit from an adjustment of sentence. He had been incarcerated since December 13 in connection with a cash bonus case from the Ministry of the Interior.
The meeting between Emmanuel Macron and Vladimir Putin is “very important” but none “breakthrough” is expected in the negotiations, warns the Kremlin. The French president is expected in Moscow this evening to discuss the Ukrainian crisis.
1:19 p.m. : The French president is going to Moscow at the end of the day to try to calm tensions with Vladimir Putin, before a meeting with the Ukrainian president. In Kiev, the inhabitants have become accustomed to living in the shadow of the Russian military threat. Benjamin Illy handed them the microphone.
12:05 : It is noon, here is the point on the news:
The meeting between Macron and Putin is “very important” but none “breakthrough” is expected in the negotiations, warns the Kremlin. The French president is expected in Moscow this evening to discuss the Ukrainian crisis.
• Silver day for the French team in Beijing. Downhiller Johan Clarey and biathlete Anaïs Chevalier-Bouchet won two fine second places.
• China’s Peng Shuai, whose enforced disappearance shocked the sports world, gave an interview to The Team, in the midst of the Beijing Games. “I never disappeared, everyone could see me”, assures the tenniswoman, against all evidence.
•Senegal won their first African Cup of Nations, at the expense of Egypt, beaten on penalties (4 shots to 2, 0-0 after extra time), at the Olembé stadium in Yaoundé.
11:03 am : “The situation is too complex to expect decisive breakthroughs after a single meeting”
Here is the Kremlin spokesman’s full statement on tonight’s meeting between Macron and Putin.
10:50 a.m. : The meeting between Macron and Putin is “very important” but none “breakthrough” is expected in the negotiations, warns the Kremlin. The French president is expected in Moscow this evening to discuss the Ukrainian crisis.
09:06 : It’s time to take stock of the news of this Monday morning:
• Emmanuel Macron begins today his diplomatic tour to try to defuse the Ukrainian crisis, with a first stage in Moscow, where he will be received around 4 p.m. by Vladimir Putin. The French president will travel to Ukraine tomorrow.
• At 41, Johan Clarey won silver in the downhill, the first Olympic medal of his career. Disappointment on the other hand on the side of Tessa Worley, eliminated on the giant slalom. Follow this Olympic day live.
• China’s Peng Shuai, whose enforced disappearance shocked the sports world, gave an interview to The Team, in the midst of the Beijing Games. “I never disappeared, everyone could see me”, assures the tenniswoman, against all evidence.
•Senegal won their first African Cup of Nations, at the expense of Egypt, beaten on penalties (4 shots to 2, 0-0 after extra time), at the Olembé stadium in Yaoundé.
07:31 : Hello @Jeanne. According to the Elysée, this meeting between Emmanuel Macron and Vladimir Poutine must end with a joint press conference. I don’t have a timetable to give you, but the French president is expected in Moscow around 4 p.m. and the discussions should last part of the evening.
07:31 : Hello FI! Is a press conference from Russia planned?
07:23 : What can Emmanuel Macron get during his one-on-one with Putin? Our journalists Yannick Falt and Sylvain Tronchet take stock before the meeting between the two men, scheduled for today.
06:56 : On the front page of your newspapers this morning, Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Russia and then to Ukraine. “Can we save the peace?”, asks himself Le Parisien-Today in France.
07:33 : We start with a first point on the news:
• Emmanuel Macron begins today his diplomatic tour to try to defuse the Ukrainian crisis, with a first stage today in Moscow, where he will be received by Vladimir Putin. The French president will travel to Ukraine tomorrow.
• China’s Peng Shuai, whose enforced disappearance shocked the sports world, gave an interview to The Team, in the midst of the Beijing Games. “I never disappeared, everyone could see me”, assures the tenniswoman, against all evidence.
• The funeral of little Rayan, stuck for five days at the bottom of a well in a poor region of northern Morocco, is scheduled for today in the village of Ighrane. This death triggered considerable emotion, amplified by social networks, in the country and around the world.
•Senegal won their first African Cup of Nations, at the expense of Egypt, beaten on penalties (4 shots to 2, 0-0 after extra time), at the Olembé stadium in Yaoundé.