Moscow says it will focus its offensive on Donbass, in eastern Ukraine, on Saturday March 26. Around Donetsk and Luhansk, the two big cities of the Donbass, the Ukrainian army staff assures “having inflicted significant losses on the Russian invaders”, in its latest bulletin, published at dawn on Saturday. It reports three planes shot down, eight tanks destroyed and some 170 soldiers killed on the Russian side. Statements to be taken with precaution, each camp engaged in an intense battle of information. Follow our live.
Emmanuel Macron announces a “humanitarian operation” in Mariupol. France, Turkey and Greece will lead “a humanitarian operation” evacuation “in the next few days” of the besieged city of Mariupol, in the south of Ukraine, announced the French president, at the end of a two-day summit of the 27 States of the European Union.
thes 27 instruct the Commission to make joint purchases of gas. EU states have decided to give the European Commission a mandate to make bulk gas purchases, on the model of orders for anti-Covid vaccines, while the war in Ukraine is driving up energy prices.
vladimir Putin signs law cracking down on ‘lies’ about Moscow’s overseas action. The Russian president on Friday evening signed a law punishing prison sentences of up to 15 years for “false information” about Moscow’s action abroad. This text, whose presidential signature marks the entry into force, punishes the “public dissemination of knowingly false information under the guise of reliable information” about the “activities of Russian state bodies outside Russian territory”.