(Moscow) The United States announced Tuesday new military aid to Ukraine in the amount of 1.2 billion dollars in order in particular to strengthen the air defense of this country against Russia, immediately welcomed by the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.
This new aid reflects “the United States’ determination to continue to support Ukraine by providing it with critical short-term resources such as air defense systems and artillery munitions while strengthening its ability to defend itself “at longer term,” a Pentagon statement read.
The Ukrainian president welcomed a “sign of solidarity” brought on a “symbolic day for us – the Day of Europe and the Day of Victory over Nazism in the Second World War”.
“Together, we are heading for another victory! “, said Mr. Zelensky on Twitter, while Kyiv says it has been preparing for months a major counter-offensive to liberate the territories occupied by Russia since the start of the war.
This new aid does not come from American stocks and will therefore not be used immediately on the battlefield, but it consists of financing the purchase of longer-term armaments from the defense industry, which avoids drawing in the United States inventory already put to use.
The Pentagon has not yet decided on the type of air defense system planned this time, said its spokesman, Brigadier General Pat Ryder, speaking of the “start of the ordering process” with industry.
But the aid package includes ammunition for anti-drone systems, as well as 155mm artillery shells.
Air defense proved to be a crucial factor in the conflict against the barrage of Russian missiles.
The United States, which is Ukraine’s main arms supplier, has already supplied Patriot anti-missile batteries and sophisticated Himars mobile systems.
Ukraine is constantly calling on the West to deliver more armor, artillery, ammunition, but also combat aircraft and long-range firing systems to hit Russian logistics far behind the line of front, which the allied countries are reluctant to do.
This new tranche brings total US military assistance to Ukraine to more than $36 billion since the start of the Russian offensive on February 24, 2022.
Asked if that was enough, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters that Ukraine had what it took to “continue to successfully regain territories that have been occupied by Russia in recent 14 months”.
More modest parade
On this highly symbolic day, the leader of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, Yevgeny Prigojine, threw a stone into the pond with a long diatribe denouncing the inability of the Russian authorities to defeat Ukraine, even accusing the military hierarchy of wanting ” deceive” the Russian president.
SPUTNIK PHOTO, VIA REUTERS
Russian President Vladimir Putin attending the military parade commemorating the victory over Nazism in World War II
This year, the commemorations come as the army is bogged down in its military campaign, after suffering heavy losses, while a Ukrainian counter-offensive is preparing.
As an illustration of this reality, the parade in Moscow was much more modest than in previous years: no aerial parade or tanks, except for a Soviet T-34 dating from the Second World War.
In the streets, the Russians interviewed by AFP took up the official line on the conflict.
“We are in the same situation as our grandfathers and grandmothers, we are forced to defend ourselves against a revived Nazism,” said Galina Loginova, retired from Yekaterinburg in the Urals.
Ironically about the short duration of the military parade compared to previous years, the secretary general of the Ukrainian Security and Defense Council Oleksiï Danilov denounced on Twitter a “parade of cowardice and fear”.
Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday promised Russia the “same” defeat as that of the Nazis. Breaking with the Soviet tradition of May 9 – Ukraine now celebrates the end of the Second World War on the 8th like Westerners – he hosted European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Tuesday for Europe Day.
Zelensky also urged the EU to speed up deliveries of artillery ammunition, end restrictions on Ukrainian agricultural exports and launch accession negotiations for his country.
Putin “cheated” by the army?
On the ground, after 15 months of offensive, the Russian army appears weakened by the losses and the tensions between the staff and the paramilitaries of Wagner. She remains entangled in her fight for the city of Bakhmout, the epicenter of fighting in the east for months.
Wagner’s chief accused the military hierarchy of “intrigue”, of failing to keep its promise to deliver ammunition, and of fleeing the battlefield in Bakhmout.
“If everything is done to deceive the Commander-in-Chief (Vladimir Putin), then either the Commander-in-Chief will rip your c… or it will be the Russian people who will be furious if the war is lost,” he said. launched in its usual flowery language.
The commemorations of May 9 are also taking place under reinforced protection, after the multiplication of attacks on Russian territory attributed to Kyiv by Moscow.
The most spectacular attack, though it raised many questions and Kyiv denied responsibility, was an apparent drone strike on the Kremlin last week.
There were also strikes against energy installations, sabotage of railways and multiple attempts or assassinations of personalities.
As a result, parades and demonstrations planned in several cities have been canceled, particularly in the border regions of Ukraine, the authorities advancing a “terrorist” risk.
But Moscow continues its bombardments on Ukraine. On Tuesday, the Ukrainian Air Force claimed to have shot down 23 of the 25 Russian cruise missiles launched overnight over the country.
AFP journalist killed in rocket strike
PHOTO ARIS MESSINIS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
Arman Soldin last March
Agence France-Presse’s video coordinator in Ukraine, Arman Soldin, was killed on Tuesday afternoon in a Russian rocket attack in eastern Ukraine, near the besieged town of Bakhmout.
In the evening, Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to him. “An Agence France-Presse journalist, one of our compatriots, Arman Soldin, was killed in Ukraine. With courage, from the first hours of the conflict he was at the front to establish the facts. To inform us, ”wrote the French president on Twitter.
Shortly after, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense presented its “sincere condolences to his family and colleagues”, adding, on the same social network: “He dedicated his life to reporting the truth to the world”.
Arman Soldin was part of a team of five AFP reporters who accompanied Ukrainian soldiers on the most active front of the war, around Chassiv Iar, a Ukrainian town near Bakhmout and targeted daily by Russian forces.
The salvo of Grad rockets that hit her were fired around 4:30 p.m. local time (9:30 a.m. EST). He was hit as he lay on the ground trying to protect himself. The rest of the team escaped unscathed.
“The Agency as a whole has collapsed,” said Fabrice Fries, CEO of AFP. “His death is a terrible reminder of the risks and dangers that journalists face on a daily basis when covering the conflict in Ukraine.”
Phil Chetwynd, AFP news director, hailed the memory of a “brave, creative and tenacious” journalist. “Arman’s brilliant work summed up everything that makes us proud of AFP journalism in Ukraine,” he added.
An experienced image reporter previously stationed in London, Arman Soldin had been the video coordinator in Ukraine since September 2022 and traveled regularly to the front lines.
He was also part of the AFP team that covered the very first days of the Russian invasion.
“Arman was enthusiastic, energetic, courageous. He was a real field reporter, always ready to go, including in the most difficult areas,” said AFP Europe director Christine Buhagiar.
Evacuated from Sarajevo at one year
In the French National Assembly, deputies from all groups stood up on Tuesday evening to applaud in tribute to the journalist.
Recruited in Rome in 2015 as an intern before joining the London office the same year, Arman, of French nationality and of Bosnian origin, was born in Sarajevo. He was one of the first evacuees in France in 1992 at the start of the siege of the city. He was barely a year old.
“Refugee stories touch me,” he told AFP’s Making Of blog last year, interviewed from Kyiv while lighting himself by candlelight.
He was fluent in French, English and Italian, but his origins helped him in his work in Ukraine: “I gibberish a bit in Bosnian, it’s also a Slavic language, we understand each other a little […] “Many women are called Oksana, my mother too”.
A gifted footballer, he had played as a youngster at Stade Rennais in western France but had given up hope of a professional career.
When Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year, Arman volunteered to be among the Agency’s first special envoys.
“A year almost to the day since my arrival in Ukraine for the first time which changed my life”, he wrote in February, saying to himself “very proud and moved by the work, the efforts and the tears that we have devoted to it with my colleagues “. “It’s not over,” he added.
He is at least the eleventh reporter, fixer or driver of journalists to have been killed in Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022, according to a count by specialized NGOs RSF and CPJ.