LIVE – War in Ukraine: France is “ready” to “participate directly” in the conflict, says the Kremlin

Ukraine has announced new power cuts across its territory due to an electricity shortage caused by Russian strikes that seriously damaged its power plants. In recent months, Russia has begun a new bombing campaign against its neighbor’s thermal and hydraulic power stations, destroying, according to experts, half of the electricity production capacity it had at the end of the winter.

“Today, electricity consumption limits are in force in all regions,” state energy company Ukrenergo said in a statement. Last night, emergency cuts had to be applied for three hours in twelve regions of Ukraine and in its capital kyiv, the group added.

Three people were killed in a Ukrainian strike in the Luhansk region controlled almost entirely by Russia in eastern Ukraine, the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry said. The strike targeting Lugansk, the regional capital, caused the collapse of several floors of a residential building, according to a ministry statement published on Telegram. “Unfortunately, three people were killed,” he added.

The Franco-German arms group KNDS, which notably manufactures Caesar cannons, formalized in Paris the creation of a subsidiary in Ukraine, in the presence of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, AFP noted. This subsidiary will produce military equipment and ammunition on Ukrainian soil, French and German Defense Ministers Sébastien Lecornu and Boris Pistorius announced at the end of March.

After two years of war with Russia, 59% of Ukrainians still trust their president, but this indicator is at its lowest since the start of the invasion and continues to fall, according to a poll published today. The popularity of Volodymyr Zelensky, in office for five years, jumped after the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022, reaching a record high of 90% in May of the same year, according to figures from the International Institute of sociology of kyiv.

But this rating dropped to 77% last December, 64% in February and 59% in May, this Institute indicated in a press release citing its survey carried out in mid-May on a representative sample of more than a thousand people. . At the same time, distrust of the president increased to 36% in May compared to 35% in February, 22% in December and 7% in May 2022, according to the press release.

The international peace summit scheduled for June 15 and 16 in Switzerland could bring Ukraine closer to “the end of the war”, said Volodymyr Zelensky in his speech to French deputies. “The peace summit could bring us closer to the just end of this war,” declared the Ukrainian president, a few days before this international conference to which more than a hundred countries and organizations are invited, but not Russia , which triggered the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Volodymyr Zelensky spoke this morning at the National Assembly. He estimated, in front of French deputies, that Europe was “no longer a continent of peace” since the start of the invasion of Ukraine, calling Russian President Vladimir Putin “a common enemy” of his country and Europe.

“We live in a time when Europe is no longer a continent of peace,” declared the Ukrainian president, asserting that Russia’s invasion of his country had brought back “Nazism (…) again in Europe”

The president used his speech during the D-Day ceremonies to reaffirm his support for Ukraine. “Let us be worthy of those who landed here,” he said, drawing a parallel between World War II and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Ukrainian president’s speech is scheduled to begin at 9:50 a.m.

Volodymyr Zelensky came to France to participate in the commemoration of the Normandy landings this Thursday, June 6. But the Ukrainian leader will take advantage of this visit to visit Paris on Friday. The opportunity for him to recall that Ukraine still needs help in the face of Russia’s invasion.

• The weapons that the United States authorized Ukraine to use on Russian territory will not be used to strike Moscow or the Kremlin, assures Joe Biden in an interview excerpt published Thursday by the ABC channel. Asked whether these weapons had already been used by kyiv, Joe Biden did not directly answer but assured that the United States did not allow them to be used “to strike 300 km inside the territory Russian or in Moscow or on the Kremlin. “They must be used near the border in the event of attacks on Ukrainian targets launched” from Russia, he said.

• The United States will send approximately 207 million euros in military aid to Ukraine, U.S. officials announced Thursday. Including munitions that Kiev forces could use to strike Russian territory and defend the city of Kharkiv against a Russian assault.

• Emmanuel Macron proposes to train 4,500 Ukrainian soldiers, “to equip them, to train them and then to provide them with ammunition, weapons, which will allow them to defend their soil”. Emmanuel Macron also announced Thursday evening the upcoming sale of Mirage 2000-5 and the training of Ukrainian pilots in France.

Hello and welcome to this live broadcast dedicated to events in Ukraine.