Finland officially joined NATO after three decades of military non-alignment. The Nordic country shares a 1,300 kilometer long border with Russia.
On the ground, the port of Odessa, in southern Ukraine, was hit on Tuesday April 4 by Russian drone strikes. On the diplomatic scene, Finland has officially become the 31st member of NATO, a strategic turning point caused by the war in Ukraine. Franceinfo takes stock of what to remember from the day on the conflict.
Russian drones hit Ukrainian port of Odessa
On the night of Monday to Tuesday,russian drones hit the Ukrainian port of Odessa on the Black Sea and made “damage”local authorities announced on Tuesday morning. “The enemy has just hit Odessa and the Odessa district with UAV attacks”, unmanned aerial vehicles, the local administration said on social media. The port had already been targeted by strikes in recent months.
Washington announces new tranche of military aid to kyiv
The United States announced Tuesday a new envelope of 2.6 billion dollars of military aid to Ukraine. It includes in particular Patriot air defense missiles and artillery ammunition. The United States will immediately deliver the equivalent of 500 million dollars of armament drawn from its stocks, the 2.1 billion remaining representing orders with the industry of defense, specified the Pentagon.
This new installment brings total US military aid to kyiv to $35.1 billion since the start of the Russian offensive. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed his appreciation to the United States by thanking them for their “unwavering support”.
Finland officially joins NATO
After three decades of military non-alignment, Finland has join NATO on Tuesday, a strategic turning point caused by the invasion of Ukraine ordered by Vladimir Putin. During a ceremony laden with symbols, the Nordic country, which shares a 1,300 kilometer long border with Russia, thus becomes the 31st member of the Alliance. In response, the Kremlin promised to take “countermeasures” after this accession and called the enlargement of the Western alliance a“security breach” of Russia.
NATO also invited Volodymyr Zelensky to take part in the Alliance summit organized in July in Vilnius, Lithuania. “Ukraine will become a member of NATO, but we must ensure that it remains a sovereign and independent country and for this reason we must help it win the war with Russia”also said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
The charge d’affaires of the French embassy in Moscow summoned to Russia
The Russian Foreign Ministry announced on Tuesday that it had summoned the charge d’affaires of the French embassy in Moscow to protest against “fake posts” on social media about crimes attributed to Russian forces in Ukraine. According to Russian diplomacy, “it is categorically unacceptable to make false accusations against our military”.
According to Moscow, the publications in question relate in particular to the massacre of Boutcha, a town near Kiev, where the bodies of coldly executed civilians were discovered after the withdrawal of Russian troops. Moscow denies any involvement in these deaths and has repeatedly mentioned a “staging” from Kyiv.