Russia calls France leader Macron refusing to rule out troops for Ukraine “very dangerous”

Russia’s government on Friday criticized French President Emmanuel Macron for again suggesting that his country would consider sending troops to Ukraine to help defend against The ongoing invasion of Russiaif Kiev requested that level of aid.

In an interview with The Economist magazine published Thursday, Macron said his country would have to consider the request if it arose and if Russian forces managed to break through Ukraine’s front-line defenses along the long front line in eastern Ukraine. country.

“I’m not ruling out anything, because we’re facing someone who’s not ruling out anything,” he told the Economist, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin. “If the Russians penetrate the front lines, if there is a Ukrainian request – which is not the case today – we should legitimately ask ourselves the question” about sending forces, Macron told the magazine.

Russia calls French and British rhetoric “very dangerous”

“The statement is very important and very dangerous,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday in Moscow, accusing Macron of repeatedly raising the prospect of “direct involvement on the ground in the conflict around Ukraine.”

“This is a very dangerous trend,” Peskov said.

Since ordering the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Putin’s government has claimed it was in self-defense against the US-led NATO alliance to push its area of ​​control to Russia’s western border. The reaction to the invasion among the northern European nations has, however, brought NATO territory closer to Russia than it has ever been before.

Macron drew criticism from Russia and his own NATO allies when he first suggested the possibility of a French deployment to Ukraine earlier this year. The Biden administration, while always adamant that every inch of NATO territory will be defended, has ruled out any US combat deployments to Ukraine.

“If Russia wins in Ukraine, we will no longer have security in Europe. Who can pretend that Russia would stop there?”, said Macron in the last interview.

Peskov also called out comments by Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Cameron – who met this week with Ukraine leader Volodymyr Zelenksyy – as justifying the West’s “dangerous” rhetoric and “escalation” to attack targets within the Russia.

Visiting Kiev, Cameron said Ukraine “absolutely has the right to strike back at Russia” and that London had not told Ukraine how its forces should use weapons supplied by Britain. Ukraine has carried out a series of attacks, mainly targeting energy infrastructure, inside Russia in recent months.

Peskov said Macron and Cameron’s latest remarks “potentially represent a danger to European security, to the entire European security architecture,” noting what he called “a dangerous trend toward escalation in official statements. This is increasing the our worry”.

What is happening on the front lines of the war in Ukraine?

The situation on the front line in eastern Ukraine is worsening, but local defenders have held firm so far against a concerted effort by Russia’s larger and better-equipped forces, a senior Ukrainian military official said Thursday.

Nazar Voloshyn, spokesman for the Ukrainian strategic command in the east of the country, said Russia had massed troops in the Donetsk region in an effort to break through the Ukrainian defensive line.

“The enemy is actively attacking along the entire front line and in several directions has achieved certain tactical advances,” he said on national television. “The situation is changing dynamically.”

Russia has pushed Ukraine back on the battlefield as Kiev faces troop and ammunition shortages. Ukrainian forces are now racing to build more defensive fortifications in locations along the roughly 600-mile front line. This line stretches from Ukraine’s northern to southern borders, with much of the country’s eastern industrial heartland, Donbass, now owned by Russia.

Ukraine’s difficulties have been worsening for months as the military waits for vital new military aid from the United States. Support was held up by politics in Washington for six months, but a huge aid package was finally delivered. approved by lawmakers and signed by President Biden at the end of last month. However, it is unclear when much-needed U.S. equipment provided by this aid package will begin reaching Ukraine’s frontline troops.

Ukrainian soldiers withdrew from Avdiivka, a city in the Donetsk region, in February, under a devastating Russian barrage that sapped its fighting strength and morale. Since then, Kremlin forces have used their military might to seize village after village in the area, forcing them into submission, while trying to capture the parts of Donetsk they do not yet occupy.

Speaking on Friday, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said his forces were storming “enemy strongholds along the entire line of combat contact.”

“Units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces are trying to hold on to individual lines, but under our attack, they are forced to abandon their positions and retreat,” Shoigu said, claiming that his troops had seized an additional 211 square miles of territory. from the beginning. of the year alone.

Cities in Russia’s sights, including the recent target Chasiv Yar in eastern Ukraine, are pulverized by Moscow’s missiles, drones and glide bombs. CBS News’ Charlie D’Agata was in Chasiv Yar in late February, while the explosions were going off non-stop, and he found a city ​​devastated by artillery fire – and exhausted Ukrainian troops desperate for help from their international partners.

The provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk together form Donbass, a sprawling industrial region on the border with Russia that Putin has identified as a hotbed since the start of the war and where Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting since 2014.

Missile and drone attacks continue – on both sides

Long range attacks have been a constant and devastating feature Europe’s biggest conflict since the Second World War. Kiev officials have asked Ukraine’s Western partners for more air defense systems, but they have been slow to arrive.

President Zelenskyy said on Thursday that Russia launched more than 300 missiles of various types, nearly 300 Shahed drones and more than 3,200 guided aerial bombs against Ukraine in April alone.

Odesa, a major export hub for millions of tons of Ukrainian cereal exports across the Black Sea, has been repeatedly targeted by Russia.

Ukraine has deployed increasingly sophisticated long-range drones to fight backhowever, targeting targets on Russian soil, especially energy infrastructure that sustains the Russian economy and the war effort.

The governors of three Russian regions reported that energy facilities were damaged by Ukrainian drone strikes overnight. Governor of the Oryol region Andrei Klychkov said energy infrastructure was hit in two communities. The governors of Smolensk and Kursk reported that one facility was damaged in each region.

The Russian Defense Ministry said Ukrainian drones were shot down in the Bryansk, Krasnodar, Rostov and Belgorod regions. Most were intercepted in Bryansk, where five were shot down, he said.