Vladimir Putin has accused NATO of participating in the conflict in Ukraine by supplying arms to kyiv.
The Russian president believes that NATO is involved in the war in Ukraine. “They are sending tens of billions of dollars worth of weapons to Ukraine. This is really participation”, accused Vladimir Putin. For his part, the Ukrainian President reports that Russia currently occupies nearly 1,900 Ukrainian towns and villages. According to the number two in Ukrainian military intelligence, it is to recover these territories that his country is planning a counter-offensive in the spring.
Franceinfo looks back on the highlights of the day on the war front.
Vladimir Putin accuses NATO of participating in the war in Ukraine
Vladimir Putin accused NATO of participating in the conflict in Ukraine by supplying arms to kyiv, in an interview broadcast on Sunday February 26. “They are sending tens of billions of dollars worth of weapons to Ukraine. This is really participation”said the Russian president, in an interview with the Rossiya-1 channel. “This means that they are taking part, albeit indirectly, in the crimes of the kyiv regime”, he estimated. According to him, Western countries have no “only one goal: to destroy the former Soviet Union and its main part, the Russian Federation”.
Nearly 1,900 towns and villages occupied by the Russians
The Russian army is currently occupying 1,877 Ukrainian towns and villages, Volodymyr Zelensky reported on Saturday, during an online solidarity event organized by the German government. These localities are mainly in the east and south of the country, reports the daily Kyiv Independent (in English). The Ukrainian president added that the city of Mariupol, now under Russian control, is more than 90% destroyed.
kyiv is preparing a counter-offensive, according to the number two of Ukrainian military intelligence
Ukrainian military intelligence number two Vadym Skibitsky claimed that Kiev was preparing a new counter-offensive for the spring, in an interview published on Sunday in the newspapers of the German regional press group Funke, including the Berliner Morgenpost. (article in German).
“One of our strategic military goals is to try to drive a wedge into the Russian front in the south” country, to Crimea, he said. “We won’t stop until we get our country back to its 1991 borders. This is our message to Russia and the international community.”added Vadym Skibitsky.
“It is also possible that we will destroy arms depots or military equipment on Russian territory, for example around the city of Belgorod. This is where the attacks on Ukraine are launched,” he concluded.
Volodymyr Zelensky promises Ukraine will get Crimea back
The Ukrainian president once again promised on Sunday that his country will recover Crimea, a peninsula annexed in March 2014 by Moscow. “Nine years ago, Russian aggression began in Crimea. By reclaiming Crimea, we will restore peace. It is our land and our people, our history”launched Volodymyr Zelensky on Telegram.
For their part, the United States also affirmed that they “do not recognize and will never recognize the so-called Russian annexation of the peninsula”, according to a statement from the US State Department. He also welcomed the “Ukraine’s efforts (…) to bring global attention to the continuing Russian occupation”.