“Vladimir Putin and the Russian Federation need to show some victory after the failures suffered”, estimated Valéria Faure-Muntian, the LREM deputy for the third constituency of the Loire, Tuesday April 19 on franceinfo, while Russia launched its offensive in eastern Ukraine, according to President Volodymyr Zelensky. The president of the France-Ukraine friendship group in the Assembly, herself born in Ukraine, deplores “all these massacres, all these destructions to finally obtain the territories that [Vladimir Poutine] had already almost obtained”.
>> “Vladimir Putin is playing his game”.
franceinfo: Has the war in Ukraine just entered a new phase?
Valeria Faure-Muntian: Tonight, the Russian Federation sent whatever forces it had again free and picked up from the rest of the Ukrainian territory to the Donbass because Vladimir Putin and the Russian Federation need to post some sort of victory after the failures suffered in the rest of the territory. I think Vladimir Putin has become bellicose from the very fact that there has been no military success in the major cities of kyiv or Kharkiv so far. 55 days in the field, that has a cost for the Russian Federation, with the additional sanctions which do not allow them to renew the military equipment as quickly as they had planned to do.
Is there a risk of a new outburst of violence in this area already at war for years?
It is a territory that has been living in a state of war for eight years. The Russian military needs to bring victory to Vladimir Putin and the Russian Federation. What is incomprehensible is that the self-proclaimed ex-republics of Donetsk and Lugansk were already won over to the Russian cause or in any case to Vladimir Putin. All these massacres, all these destructions to finally obtain the territories which he had already almost obtained by recognizing these self-proclaimed Republics a week or a few days before the start of the offensive on February 24th.
Are there still many civilians in these territories?
The self-proclaimed republics called for evacuations ahead of the February 24 Russian offensive. Today, the majority of the civilian population that remains there is a Ukrainian population that Vladimir Putin does not spare. We have seen the Boutcha massacre, the Russian military does not seek to preserve the lives of civilians. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been asking for the evacuation for several days, in preparation for this offensive in the east. As long as possible, civilians were to leave the administrative regions of Donetsk and Lugansk.
What response will the Ukrainians bring to these territories?
The majority vision is the one that was announced from the start by President Zelensky, that is to say the territorial integrity of Ukraine.
“As long as the Russian forces are on Ukrainian territory, the Ukrainian army will defend its entire territory step by step.”
Valéria Faure-Muntian, LREM deputy, president of France-Ukraine friendship at the Assemblyat franceinfo
In recent days, it has even attempted counter-offensives against the Russian army on several occasions. The Ukrainian army, like the Ukrainian government, like the Ukrainian parliament, I don’t think they are ready to give up territories today on the military ground. When it comes to negotiating ceasefire agreements and end-of-conflict agreements, that will be another debate and there could be proposals made by the Ukrainian government. But at this stage and in the field of war, the military will defend the territorial integrity of Ukraine.