Macron promises Zelensky French armored fighting tanks to help Ukraine

First modification: 04/01/2023 – 15:40

The president of France, Emmanuel Macron, held a telephone meeting this Wednesday with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodimir Zelensky, in which he told him that the European country is going to send French-made light armored vehicles to cooperate in the defense of the Ukrainian Army for contain the attack by Russian troops, as reported by the Élysée, the seat of the French Presidency.

“The president wanted to increase… aid” to Ukraine “by agreeing to deliver AMX-10 RC light tanks.” “It is the first time that Western-design tanks have been supplied to the Ukrainian armed forces,” they commented from the Executive.

For his part, the Ukrainian president thanked Macron for the gesture and congratulated himself on this new acquisition for the military on the front lines. He also added that both agreed in their telephone meeting to further strengthen cooperation “to significantly strengthen Ukrainian air defense and other defense capabilities.”

In Russia, criticism grows for the management of the war

After days of demanding accountability for the New Year’s weekend assault that left at least 89 Russian soldiers dead, Moscow admitted, the Russian Defense Ministry blamed the assault on the massive use of mobile phones by its military.

“This factor allowed the enemy to track and determine the coordinates of the location of the soldiers for a missile attack,” said a statement issued on Wednesday, January 4.

But the Kremlin’s version raises the anger of Russian nationalists who support the conflict against the neighboring nation and who are demanding sanctions among their country’s military high command for what happened.

While Russia has blocked any direct opposition to the war, imposing severe bans on the media, it has given relative free rein to pro-invasion nationalist bloggers, many with hundreds of thousands of followers on social media. social media.

Semyon Pegov, a war correspondent awarded the so-called ‘Order of Courage’ by Putin, responded that pointing fingers at troops using mobile phones “seems like an outright attempt to smear guilt.” There were other ways kyiv forces could have seen the base that came under attack in occupied Makiivka, Donetsk, in eastern Ukraine, he said.

The pronouncements come hours after the Russian Defense portfolio increased the number of uniformed dead to 89, after placing it at 63. However, the kyiv Army estimates the number of Russian casualties in that missile attack at around 400.

The events occurred, according to the kyiv version, against a building that functioned as a school before the invasion and was later occupied by Kremlin troops as a barracks.

In Russia, most of the claims on social media are directed at the commanders in charge of what they call a “special military operation” to “denazify” Ukraine, rather than President Vladimir Putin, who ordered the war and has not commented. publicly about that assault, considered the deadliest that the Kremlin has acknowledged during the conflict that began on February 24, 2022.

UK attributes assault to ‘non-professional Russian practices’

Britain’s Defense Ministry, whose intelligence agencies monitor military actions on the ground, said “unprofessional Russian practices” contributed to the high death toll.

“Given the extent of the damage, there is a realistic possibility that ammunition was being stored near the troop accommodation, which detonated during the attack and created secondary explosions,” the British portfolio said.

London explained that the rammed building was located just 12.5 km from the front line of battle in the city of Avdiivka, one of the most contested areas of the conflict.

The Russian military has a history of unsafe ammunition storage dating back to well before the ongoing hostilities, but this incident highlights how “unprofessional practices” contribute to Russia’s high casualty rate, it added.

With Reuters and local media