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12:45 p.m. : The United States still observes more Russian troops moving towards the border regions with Ukraine, declared in Warsaw the American Secretary of Defense LLoyd Austin. “Although Russia has announced that it is bringing its forces back to garrison, we have not seen it yet”he said after a meeting with his Polish counterpart Mariusz Blaszczak.
11:57 : According to AFP journalists on site, new shelling is underway near Stanytsia Luganska, a town in eastern Ukraine under the control of government forces fighting pro-Russian separatists.
11:38 : In this context, Russia announces that Vladimir Putin will supervise, tomorrow, important military maneuvers, including the firing of ballistic and cruise missiles. “A planned exercise”underlines Moscow, which intends “test the reliability of strategic nuclear and non-nuclear weapons”. No apparent connection to the Ukrainian crisis, but a show of force nonetheless.
11:32 am : Are you a little lost on the conflict between the Ukrainian government and the pro-Russian separatists? We explain to you why tensions continue in the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk, eight years after the takeover by rebels in these territories of Donbass.
(ALEXANDER NEMENOV / AFP)
11:26 : Accused by Russia of preparing an attack against the separatist territories in the East or the annexed peninsula of Crimea, Ukraine denies. “We are strengthening our defense, but we do not intend to carry out any offensive”assures Kiev.
(EyePress News / AFP)
11:22 : How many Russian soldiers are there on the Ukrainian borders? According to Kiev, the ground forces sent by Moscow amount to 129,000 and the total rises to 149,000 including the naval and air forces. Washington, for its part, reported a deployment of more than 150,000 Russian soldiers.
11:16 a.m. : Could France intervene militarily in the event of a Russian invasion of Ukraine? The Minister for the Armed Forces recalls that “several hundred” of French soldiers currently in Estonia in the ranks of NATO could be “deployed in Romania”a member country of the Atlantic Alliance and bordering Ukraine.
10:12 a.m. : Meanwhile, on the ground, the Ukrainian army and pro-Russian separatists accuse each other of new bombardments in the east of the country, plagued by a new outbreak of violence. Yesterday, a kindergarten was hit in Stanitsa Luganska, a small town under government control. Three school employees were injured.
10:08 : “I wish we could see that it’s not about rotations but about withdrawals.”
Despite the “inflections announced” by Russia, the head of French diplomacy calls on Moscow to “inflections made”with notable departures of troops massed on the Ukrainian borders.
08:03 : These new announcements of Russian withdrawals come as the annual Munich security conference opens. US Vice President Kamala Harris, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky are expected to attend. This year, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has no plans to go there.
08:01 : Russia announces the withdrawal of troops and tanks deployed near the Ukrainian border, which return to their garrisons. Moscow also says it has withdrawn ten bombers positioned in annexed Crimea.