Emmanuel Macron believes that we must “hold our line” in the face of Vladimir Putin’s “blackmail”

Cover image: Emmanuel Macron speaks to the press in New York on September 21, 2022. LUDOVIC MARIN / AFP

  • Ukraine and Russia exchanged military prisonersthe largest since the start of the offensive on February 24. A total of 215 people have been released on the Ukrainian sideof which 188 “hero” having defended the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol (including 108 members of the Azov regiment). Five military commanders, including Azovstal defense chiefs, have been transferred to Turkey, where they will remain “in absolute safety and in comfortable conditions” up” At the end of the war “ stressed Zelensky. Ten prisoners of war – including five Britons and two Americans – are part of this exchange and are transiting through Saudi Arabia. Russia, meanwhile, has recovered 55 prisoners including ex-MP Viktor Medvedchuk, a close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin, accused of high treason in Ukraine.
  • Vladimir Putin decreed on Wednesday a “partial mobilization”measure judged “urgent and necessary”. 300,000 reservists are concerned initially, in priority citizens with military experience, aged 65 for the oldest. Sign of the concern of many Russians, the sites of airlines have been taken over after Mr. Putin’s speech and an Internet petition against the mobilization has already collected more than 230,000 signatures. 1,332 people were arrested in anti-mobilization protests, according to OVD-Info, an organization specializing in counting arrests. These are the largest protests in Russia since February.
  • In an address to the nation, Mr Putin said he was ready to use ” all means “ in his arsenal against the West, which he accused of wanting ” destroy “ Russia. He accused the West, particularly NATO, of being behind a “nuclear blackmail”overturning the charges against him. “It’s not a bluff”he assured. “A nuclear war is impossible to win and should not be waged”replied Joe Biden at the UN platform. The American president attacked Russia frontallyaccusing him of having “shamelessly violated” the principles of the United Nations since its offensive in Ukraine.
  • Speaking on Wednesday via videoconference at the annual United Nations General Assembly, Volodymyr Zelensky demanded a “just punishment” against Moscow – a word he said fifteen times – strongly denouncing the invasion of his country by Russian troops and calling for the establishment of a special court to try Moscow “for his crime of aggression against our State”. He also called on the UN to withdraw its right of veto from Russia.
  • The UK will continue to provide military aid to Ukraine until triumph of the latter against Russiapromised Wednesday evening the new British Prime Minister, Liz Truss, during the UN GA.
  • Ukrainian authorities accused Moscow of again bombing the site of the Zaporizhia power plant on Wednesday. The situation there “deteriorating further”warned the Director General of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi. “We cannot afford the luxury of waiting for something catastrophic to happen”, he added. At the end of a meeting at the UN devoted to nuclear safety, several Western countries made a joint statement to [rappeler] that the increased risk of a nuclear accident will remain dangerously high as long as Russia is present at the Zaporizhia site”.

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Read all our articles, analyzes and reports on the war in Ukraine

Chronic. Alain Franchon: “Presenting the Global South as an anti-Western opposition bloc is a caricature”

Narrative. “I prefer to go to jail rather than to Ukraine” : in Russia, the shock of military mobilization

Decryptions. Russia: mobilization ” partial “a military bet far from won

Chat. Emmanuel Grynszpan “Fear of a very negative reaction from Russian society has so far convinced Putin not to carry out a general mobilization”

Factual. The announcement of a partial mobilization in Russia, “new sign of disarray” of Vladimir Putin, according to the international community

Synthesis. Between Russia and the West, Emmanuel Macron attacks the non-aligned

At the UN, Emmanuel Macron castigated the states which claim to be non-aligned in order to remain neutral in the face of the war in Ukraine.

Video. At the UN, Emmanuel Macron denounces “a return to the age of imperialism and colonies”

Grandstand. Laura Petiot: “The use of military lexicon makes it possible to justify the diversion of certain legislative processes and tools”

Testimonials. “These images of the mass graves of Izioum, these exhumed bodies, this decomposed hand with a yellow and blue bracelet, never leave me”

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