Beijing plans to supply “weapons” to Russia to support its offensive in Ukraine, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned this Sunday, February 19, after a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi.
“We talked about the Russian-led war and the concerns we have that China is planning to provide lethal support to Russia,” he said on CBS. Asked what this would imply concretely, the head of American diplomacy replied: “Mainly weapons”.
The two men met on Saturday evening in Munich, on the sidelines of the Security Conference, in an exchange that American diplomacy described as “frank and direct”. The secretary of state warned of the “implications and consequences” for China if it were found to be providing “material support” to Russia in its war in Ukraine or helping it to escape the Western sanctions, State Department spokesman Ned Price said in reporting on the interview.
Emmanuel Macron wants Russia to be “defeated” against Ukraine, but assures that France’s position will never be to “crush” Vladimir Putin’s country, he explained in a simultaneous interview At Sunday newspaperFrance Inter and Figaroon the plane which brought him back on Saturday February 18 from the Munich Security Conference.
“I don’t think, like some, that Russia should be totally defeated, attacked on its soil. These observers want above all to crush Russia. That has never been France’s position and it never will be. ever,” he continued. In May 2022, Emmanuel Macron was strongly criticized by officials and diplomats from several Eastern European countries, such as Ukraine or Estonia, for his remarks that Russia should not be “humiliated”. This weekend, he was also criticized by some observers for not having gone so far as to wish in his speech the “defeat” of Russia, but rather its failure.
According to the French president, it is through diplomacy that the war will end. “I want Russia to be defeated in Ukraine and I want Ukraine to be able to defend its position, but I am convinced that in the end it will not end militarily,” he said in the interview. to the three media. According to him, the important thing today is to “intensify” support for kyiv in order to move towards “credible negotiations”. “What is needed today is for Ukraine to lead a military offensive that disrupts the Russian front in order to trigger a return to negotiations,” he insisted.
There is no alternative to Vladimir Putin for the French president “within the current system”, or else they “seem worse to him”, he added in an allusion to hardliners like the leader of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev, or the boss of the paramilitary group Wagner Yevgeny Prigojine. “Do we sincerely think that a democratic solution will emerge from the Russian civil society present on the spot after these years of hardening and in full conflict? I sincerely hope it, but I do not really believe in it”, he warned .
Three people died and five were injured on Sunday in Russian strikes near Kherson, in southern Ukraine, according to regional authorities. “On Sunday morning, the Russian army fired artillery at the village of Bourgunka,” the administration of the Kherson region said on Telegram.
Bourgounka is located 60 kilometers northeast of Kherson, near the Dnieper River, which acts as a demarcation between the territories controlled by kyiv and those occupied by the Russian army.
“Three people died at the scene of the tragedy: a father, a mother and an uncle. Four other people were injured: a grandmother, an adult man, a girl […] and a boy”, indicated the regional administration. According to this source, “in the same village, another child, an 8-year-old boy, was also injured” during these morning strikes.
The Netherlands announced on Saturday 18 the closure of the commercial section of the Russian embassy in Amsterdam from February 21, as well as the expulsion of a dozen Russian diplomats. This reaction aims to condemn the attacks on civilians in Ukraine and the “continued violations of international humanitarian law”.
The Hague accuses Moscow of continuing to try to send its spies to the Netherlands. “Despite the many attempts by the Netherlands to find a solution, Russia continues to try to install, under diplomatic cover, intelligence officers” in the country, the Dutch foreign minister said in a statement. Shortly after the start of the Russian invasion almost a year ago, 17 Russian diplomats suspected of spying had already been expelled. There were 58 left in the country then, according to Dutch media. In response, Russia expelled 15 Dutch diplomats.
Since then, negotiations have been underway to assign new diplomats to both sides, but they have “so far failed”, said The Hague. According to the government, Moscow also refuses to issue visas that would allow Dutch diplomats to work in Russia. The Consulate General of the Netherlands in Saint Petersburg will therefore close on February 20 due to lack of staff. The Dutch Embassy in Moscow will remain open, and will take over the tasks of the Consulate General.
The Minister of the Armed Forces promised it in an interview with Le Parisien on February 18 : French light tanks will be delivered “from the end of next week” to Ukraine. Sébastien Lecornu’s announcement comes the day after Emmanuel Macron spoke at the Munich Conference on European Security, during which the president said he was “ready for a prolonged conflict”, and called for speeding up the process. military support in Kyiv. In the interview, Sébastien Lecornu also indicated that he did not rule out training Ukrainian pilots.
He also spoke about the development of the French military industry in the context of war in Europe. “France took this issue head-on from last summer, when the President of the Republic asked our defense industry to place itself in a war economy situation. […]. With the military support for Ukraine, stocks around the world are strained. To avoid any rupture, our defense industrial and technological base must be transformed, in order to be able to produce more quickly, in mass and at controlled costs”, he estimated. He then thanked the manufacturers of the Caesar gun for having doubled their production at the request of the government.
According to the Minister, the important thing now is to find the balance “between rusticity and mass on the one hand and the level of technological sophistication on the other”. He announced that he had asked the General Delegation for Armaments (DGA) “to reflect, in addition to our more sophisticated programs, on more rustic, less technological armaments, not very expensive, for some not reusable”, in the goal of not wasting millions on massive bombings. Five billion euros will thus be invested in the production of drones on the occasion of the next Military Programming Law (LPM 2024-2030), according to Sébastien Lecornu.
“A major engagement like in Ukraine shows us the importance of strengthening intelligence, the ability of staffs to work well together, the role of deep strikes, ground-to-air defense, etc. These are all priorities for our next military programming law”, he concludes.
