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4:40 p.m. : French diplomacy condemns the attitude of the Russian army in the incident which caused the fall of an American drone in the Black Sea yesterday. “Freedom of navigation in international airspace must be respected and acts of intimidation are not acceptable”said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in response to AFP.
4:38 p.m. : “I believe that the law of ‘discredit’ should not extend to the command, that is to say myself, the Minister of Defense and other officials who make or can make mistakes. (…) About them, we must be able to say what society considers essential. Only the soldier is sacred. Do not touch the soldier.”
On Telegram, the boss of the Wagner Group calls for more freedom to criticize Russian military officials in Russia (without including Vladimir Putin). A law punishes heavy prison sentences for “discredit” the Russian military, and Russian MPs voted yesterday to extend it to criticism of the Wagner Group.
3:12 p.m. : Russia will try to recover the wreckage of the American drone that fell in the Black Sea yesterday after a collision with a Russian plane, says the secretary of the Russian Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev: “I don’t know if we will manage to reach it or not, but we have to try. And we will necessarily take care of it, and of course I hope successfully”.
12:45 p.m. : The Black Sea, which borders southern Ukraine, was already a zone of tension before the fall of this American drone during an incident with a Russian plane yesterday, as we recall in this article. Last fall, London had already blamed Russia for firing a missile from a Russian plane very close to a British plane.
12:43 p.m. : Ukraine accuses Russia of having deliberately caused the fall of the American drone in the Black Sea to show that it is ready for an escalation of the conflict. “The incident (…) is a signal from (Vladimir) Putin that he is ready to expand the conflict zone and involve other parties in it”accuses the secretary of the Ukrainian Security Council, Oleksiy Danilov, on Twitter.
2:13 p.m. : International sanctions are not without effect on the Russian economy. Russia’s oil revenues in February were down 42% from the same month a year earlier, the International Energy Agency (IEA) claims, as Moscow sells more or less the same volume. This represents, over one month, a shortfall of more than 8 billion dollars.
2:12 p.m. : Ambassadors of EU states in Brussels are meeting to discuss a proposal to launch a joint ammunition purchasing program with a view to sending them to Ukraine. An unprecedented initiative, which supporters hope will lead to better prices.
11:54 : Three missiles were shot down last night over the Russian region of Belgorod, bordering Ukraine, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on his Telegram channel. The missiles were shot down by Russian anti-aircraft defense and their debris damaged homes in the city of Belgorod and its surroundings.
11:07 : Almost all Danish political parties have announced the launch of an aid fund of 7 billion crowns (940 million euros) for Ukraine in 2023.