Russian militia leader Wagner said on Friday that his troops had taken the Ukrainian town of Paraskoviïvka, a town north of Bakhmout in eastern Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on allies to “accelerate” support for his country, Friday, February 17, during a video intervention before the Munich Security Conference (Germany). “We need speed. Speed to conclude our agreements, speed of deliveries to strengthen our fight, speed of decisions to limit the Russian potential. There is no alternative to speed, because it is from her what does life depend onhe argued, adding that“there is no alternative to Ukraine’s victory, no alternative to Ukraine in the European Union, no alternative to Ukraine in NATO”.
Franceinfo looks back on the highlights of the day on the war front in Ukraine.
Wagner claims the capture of a locality north of Bakhmout
Russian militia leader Wagner said on Friday that his troops had taken the Ukrainian town of Paraskoviïvka, a town bordering Bakhmout to the north, the scene of the longest battle in the Donbass for a year. “Despite the ammunition blockade, despite heavy losses and bloody battles, the guys took the entire settlement of Paraskoviïvka”, said Evguéni Prigojine, quoted by his press service. On Friday evening, these statements could not, at this stage, be verified by an independent source.
For Emmanuel Macron, “the time is not for dialogue”
“Very clearly, today is not the time for dialogue” as part of the war in Ukraine, declared Emmanuel Macron on Friday, during a speech delivered during the 59th Conference of Munich (Germany) on security. For the Head of State, Russia “chose war, chose to escalate war and go as far as war crimes.” A year after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the French president takes stock “considerable” of a conflict “catastrophic”. He denounced “murders, systematic destruction of civilian infrastructure and therefore a systematization of war crimes against the Ukrainian people, but also of nuclear threats”.
As a year of conflict approaches, Emmanuel Macron wishes “intensify our support and our effort to help the resistance of the people and the Ukrainian army”. “We are ready for a protracted conflict, but saying that, I do not wish it'”, he pointed out. In this context, the French President calls on the Europeans “to reinvest massively” in their defense and “rethinking our security doctrine”.
Berlin calls on countries that can deliver tanks to “really do it”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Friday called on countries that can deliver combat tanks to Ukraine to “really do it”at a time when the shipments mentioned by the allies are slower than expected.
Military support for Ukraine must continue and “it implies that everyone who can provide such battle tanks really does”, Olaf Scholz said at the Munich Security Conference. After being pressed from all sides to deliver Leopard 2 tanks, the German Chancellor gave the green light at the end of January to tank deliveries by Germany and other European countries.
A third French fighter killed in Ukraine
A third French volunteer fighter was killed Thursday in Ukraine, the Radio France agency learned on Friday from concordant sources. Aged 22, he had joined the international legion, a unit of non-Ukrainian fighters, reports France 3 Bourgogne Franche-Comté. He died after a bombardment during fighting in the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine. “It was his goal, his reason for living”testified to France 3 his mother, Edith Gallozzi.
Before leaving for Ukraine, Andreas Gallozzi had served in the 17th parachute engineer regiment of Montauban “few years ago”specifies the Ministry of the Armed Forces to the Radio France agency.
Auchan denies having contributed to the Russian war effort
Auchan Retail has “categorically” denied, on Friday, the accusations of having contributed to the Russian war effort in Ukraine, in reaction to an investigation by the World (subscribers edition).
According to documents obtained by the French daily, the investigative site The Insider and the NGO Bellingcat, a collection of products intended for the army of Vladimir Putin was organized within the local subsidiary of Auchan in Russia, in March 2022.
“Auchan Retail categorically denies the facts related by this investigation and their interpretation”, the group said in a statement. This last “therefore reaffirms that its stores which have remained open in Russia are there to allow the Russian population (as is the case elsewhere in Ukraine for the Ukrainian population) to feed themselves and that they do not provide any voluntary and active aid to any supply of other categories of consumers”.