LIVE – War in Ukraine: Putin must “pay”, insists Biden, who announces new sanctions

Joe Biden confirmed in a press release on Friday a battery of several hundred new sanctions to ensure that Russian President Vladimir Putin “pays an even higher price for aggression (towards Ukraine) and repression” in Russia.

“If Putin does not pay the price for the death and destruction he is spreading, he will continue,” the American president warned in a statement, announcing an arsenal of measures targeting individuals linked to the imprisonment of the opposing Alexeï Navalny, the Russian war machine, as well as a hundred entities helping Moscow to circumvent the sanctions already in place.

The European Union adopts the 13th set of sanctions against Russia after two years of war of aggression against Ukraine.

“This package aims to further restrict Russia’s access to military technology, for example for drones, and to add new companies and individuals to the list of those participating in Russia’s war effort “The number of entries on the list now exceeds 2,000, dealing a considerable blow to Russia’s army and defense,” the EU said in a statement.

“This package of measures provides for an unprecedented number of 194 individual designations, including 106 individuals and 88 entities. The Union now exceeds the overall threshold of 2,000 registrations on the list to support Ukraine,” details the EU. “The new registrations target ten (Russian) companies and individuals involved in transporting North Korean weapons to Russia, the North Korean defense minister as well as several Belarusian companies and individuals providing support to the armed forces Russians.

The Russian army has carried out around a hundred attacks in the last 24 hours on the Ukrainian Eastern Front, almost half of which were around Mariïnka, a new “hot spot” with the Avdiïvka area, the Ukrainian army said on Tuesday. .

“The enemy attempted 43 times to break through the defenses of our troops” in the Mariïnka area, located in the Donetsk region, specifies the Ukrainian general staff in its morning report. The town of Mariïnka, completely destroyed, was taken in December by the Russian army. The front has been largely frozen in the area since then, but in recent days Moscow has increased attacks towards the west.

The general staff cites in particular the localities of Novomykhaïlivka and especially Pobeda, whose conquest the Russian army claimed on Thursday, a few days after taking the town of Avdiïvka, after months of bloody fighting.

India’s foreign ministry confirmed Friday that some of the country’s nationals had enlisted for “support jobs” in the Russian military, saying it was working with Moscow to secure their leave.

The Hindu daily reported on Wednesday that around 20 Indians were stranded in various border towns along the front lines of Russia’s war in Ukraine. At least three of them were “forced” to fight alongside the Russians, according to the newspaper.

The Foreign Ministry did not confirm that Indians had played a combat role in the conflict but said in a statement that it was “aware that a few Indian nationals have signed up for support jobs with the Russian military.” .

After two years of war, many Ukrainian soldiers are exhausted, as our special correspondent in kyiv explains.

Vladimir Putin hailed the “authentic heroes of the people” fighting for the Kremlin in Ukraine in his greetings for “Defenders of the Fatherland” Day, a tribute paid Friday in Russia to the armed forces on the eve of the second anniversary of the assault against Ukraine.

“In recent years, the companies of the military-industrial complex have increased the production and delivery to the troops of the most requested weapons,” also welcomed the Russian president, in a video released by the presidency, in the midst of the war effort. led by Moscow.

In its daily report published Friday morning, the Ukrainian General Staff reported nighttime attacks by Russian drones and missiles in the country, specifying that Ukrainian air defense shot down 23 drones.

In the Dnipropetrovsk region (center-east), Governor Sergiy Lysak reported on Telegram a “night of horror”, where rescuers looking for people “searched among the rubble of a building seriously damaged” with apartments “completely destroyed”.

Ukraine continues to suffer Russian missile and drone attacks on Friday, one of which left three people dead in Odessa (south).

“Russian troops once again attacked Odessa with drones and missiles,” Ukrainian police said on Telegram, adding that a fire broke out in a civilian infrastructure before being brought under control. “As a result of the bombing, three people died,” added the police.

The Head of State decided to organize a working meeting in support of Ukraine this Monday in Paris. Two years after the Russian offensive, this conference will help find solutions and assistance for Ukraine. Emmanuel Macron calls on Europeans for a “collective burst”.

• President Volodymyr Zelensky urged the US Congress to approve additional military aid to his country, during an interview broadcast Thursday on Fox News, the favorite channel of conservatives, who are currently blocking an envelope of 60 billion dollars. “Will Ukraine survive without support from Congress? Of course. But not all of us,” Zelensky said, referring to civilian casualties since the Russian invasion almost two years ago to the day. . According to the Ukrainian leader, the price of helping kyiv today is much lower than the potential cost of confronting Russian President Vladimir Putin later, if he wins his war against Ukraine.

• Weakened by the failure of its summer counter-offensive and a growing lack of ammunition, the Ukrainian army faces an “extremely difficult” situation on the front, according to the own admission of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who had to resolve last week to cede the fortress town of Avdiïvka (east). And the Russian army claimed Thursday to have taken the village of Pobeda, also in the east, which kyiv did not immediately confirm, assuring it was fighting “in the area”.

• In the occupied part of the Kherson region (south), Ukrainian forces claimed Thursday “to have killed or seriously injured” around sixty Russian soldiers by striking a training ground.

• The IMF will disburse $880 million for Ukraine, corresponding to the third tranche of a $15.6 billion aid plan adopted in March 2023, the institution announced Thursday, almost two years to the day after the Russian invasion. This aid must still be approved by the board of directors of the International Monetary Fund.

• The United States will announce new sanctions against Russia on Friday, targeting more than 500 entities linked “to its supporters and its war machine”, a spokesperson for the American Department of the Treasury said on Thursday. “This will be the largest tranche since the start of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine”, just two years ago, on February 24, 2022, she said.

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday evening that he had told European Commission President Charles Michel that the border blockade by Polish farmers was “absolutely unacceptable.”

• Vladimir Putin made a thirty-minute flight Thursday aboard a Tu-160M ​​supersonic strategic bomber from Russia’s nuclear deterrent forces. According to Russian news agencies, it took off from the runway of an aircraft factory in Kazan, the capital of the central Russian republic of Tatarstan. The Tu-160M ​​is an imposing heavy bomber capable of carrying out nuclear and conventional strikes over long distances.

• France has trained some 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers since the start of the Russian invasion in Ukraine, the French Ministry of the Armed Forces said Thursday during a press briefing. These training courses, provided “either in France or in Poland”, focused on the handling of specific equipment, such as the French Caesar cannons, specific techniques (mine clearance, tactical first aid), as well as more general know-how of training in combined arms combat, the ministry said.

• French President Emmanuel Macron is organizing a meeting in support of Ukraine on Monday in Paris with leaders of other countries, two years after the start of the Russian offensive, the Elysée announced on Thursday. It will bring together “several heads of state and government or their ministerial representatives, for a meeting in support of Ukraine”, indicated the French presidency.

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