On the one hand Emmanuel Macron, which does not exclude the sending of soldiers if Moscow breaks through the front. On the other, the alarm raised by Kiev: the Russians have broken through Donbass. Everything happens while the Kremlin denies the US accusations on chemical weapons in Ukraine.
Macron: if Moscow breaks through, sending soldiers cannot be ruled out
“As I have already said, I am not ruling anything out, because we are faced with someone who isn't ruling anything out” said the French president, Emmanuel Macron, returning in an interview with The Economist,, on his statement about a possible future dispatch of Western troops to Ukraine to help Kiev. “We have undoubtedly hesitated too much by putting limits on our action towards someone who no longer has them and who is the aggressor,” Macron said, adding: “I have a clear strategic objective: Russia cannot win in Ukraine. If Russia wins in Ukraine, we will no longer have security in Europe. Who can say that Russia will stop there? What security for the other neighboring countries, Moldova, Romania, Poland, Lithuania, and many others? And again, what credibility for the Europeans who would have spent billions, who would have said that the survival of the continent was at stake and who would not have given themselves the tools to stop Russia? So, yes, we shouldn't rule anything out."
The French president declared for the first time that there is a future possibility of sending European ground troops to help Kiev on February 26, at the end of the Paris Conference on Ukraine. In that case he spoke precisely of "a dispatch of Western troops" which "cannot be ruled out" in the future. “We will do everything that needs to be done so that Russia cannot win this war,” Macron said, adding that “to achieve this objective, everything is possible” and the sending of Western troops in the future cannot “to be excluded”.
Macron, Moscow's reply
Macron's statements “are somehow linked to the days of the week”. He told the Tass the spokeswoman of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova. “Apparently, this has something to do with the days of the week, this is her cycle,” the spokeswoman said.
Kiev: Russia conquers village in Donbass
Russian forces managed to break through and gain a foothold in Ocheretiny in the Avdiivka area of Donetsk, while Ukrainian defenses deployed reserves to stabilize the situation. The spokesman for the "Khortytsia" military command reported this on TV. Nazar Voloshyn, quoted by Rbc-Ukraine. “The situation is such that the enemy managed to break through to this settlement. One part, under enemy control, is under our fire control. We are taking measures to drive them out from there. Heavy fighting is going on, the Ukrainian Armed Forces are controlling the situation,” she said.
Moscow's strategy
Russian forces have captured the village of Berdichy, also in the Avdiivka area, in the Ukrainian Donbass. Russian agencies reported this, citing the Ministry of Defense. According to the agency Ria Novosti, the captured village is located on a strategic route for the supply of Ukrainian troops in Donbass. The logistics of Kiev's forces in the region are therefore now seriously hampered and it should be possible for the Russians to advance to the Volchya River, along which one of the main Ukrainian defense lines is deployed.
The Russian Defense Ministry announced that it has taken control of two villages located near Avdiivka, Donetsk Oblast, eastern Ukraine. According to a note cited by Russian media, Moscow's troops conquered Berdichy and Ocheretiny. The first is located about 10 kilometers north-west of Avdiivka (from which the Ukrainians withdrew in February), the second is a little further away, but in the same direction. The news comes as Kiev continues to wait for the bulk of the US military aid that was recently approved by Congress to arrive.
After this response, not only will I continue to be a First reader, but I will point out to everyone the difference with other newspapers. I don't know how many other newspaper editors would have taken the care to respond (in this way, then!) to a comment like mine. I'm very relieved. Now I know what's behind this initiative. Compliments.
Thanks for the compliments, kind reader Battiston, but continue to write to us when you have doubts or criticisms to make about the FIRSTonline texts.
You were one of the few newspapers that didn't copy and paste press releases. I don't understand if it's the companies that pay the newspapers to achieve this leveling out or if it's the editorial offices that have less and less desire to work. If it weren't for the fact that I can't find certain news elsewhere, I would have stopped reading you. I would like to have an answer to my question
I respond with great pleasure to the comment of reader Ludovica Battiston, whom I thank for the critical attention she dedicates to us. By establishing the column "Companies speak: press releases", we have not suddenly converted to the terrible habit of copying and pasting, which we consider, after fake news, one of the harmful vices of online information and a sign of the tendency towards homologation , to trivialisation, to the flattening of news, to conformism and to the decline in quality, as I wrote on 30 October 2022 in the editorial "Fake news, how to fight it in the era of the decline of paper newspapers and the rise of information ”. On that occasion I wrote that fake news is the first enemy of good journalism for which FIRSTonline fights every day but unfortunately not the only one and copy and paste is among them. In reality we are faced with a very simple practical problem: how to deal with the infinite number of press releases that arrive in the editorial office every day? The most important ones become sources, to be meticulously checked, of the main services of our web newspaper, others are thrown away because they are deemed to be of no interest and finally, still others are recorded, without journalistic intermediation, in the new column because an editorial staff of just ten people did not have enough time and effort to turn them into articles, while still being worthy of attention. That's all. I hope that, after these clarifications, kind reader, you will continue to follow us and read us carefully, but, to conclude, I would like to ask you a courtesy: whenever you have doubts or criticisms about our articles, do not hesitate to write to us and you will see that you will always be listened to. Best regards