War in Ukraine: a Russian plot targeting Zelensky foiled, Putin reappointed for a new 6-year term… an update on the situation

Le président russe, Vladimir Poutine, a été officiellement reconduit ce mardi pour un nouveau mandat de 6 ans. MAXPPP – RAMIL SITDIKOV/SPUTNIK/KREMLIN POOL

Tous les jours, Midi Libre fait le point sur la situation en Ukraine. Ce mardi 7 mai 2024, découvrez les dernières actualités autour de ce conflit.

kyiv says it foiled Russian plot targeting Zelensky

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) announced on Tuesday the arrest of two agents operating on behalf of Russia within the National Guard with the The objective of assassinating President Volodimir Zelensky. The two men, both colonels, had been recruited by the FSB, the Russian Security Service, and had transmitted confidential information to Moscow, the SBU said on the messaging platform Telegram. Their mission was to enlist a member of the presidential guard close enough to Volodimir Zelensky to take him hostage and then execute him, the SBU added.

"This terrorist attack, supposed to be a gift to (Vladimir) Putin for his inauguration, was in fact a failure of the Russian special services", affirmed the director of the SBU, Vasyl Maliouk, quoted by the agency on Telegram. Moscow made no immediate comment. Vladimir Putin was inaugurated on Tuesday for a new six-year term at the head of Russia. The Kremlin made no comment last month on the arrest in Poland of a man also accused of working with Russian secret services abroad. assassination of Zelensky.

Last fall, the Ukrainian president declared that Ukrainian services had foiled at least five Russian plots aimed at assassinating him. According to the SBU, the two captured agents also planned to eliminate Vasyl Maliouk as well as Kyrylo Boudanov, the head of military intelligence whose assassination was to occur before Orthodox Easter, celebrated last Sunday. The two colonels sought to inform Russia of Kyrylo Budanov's whereabouts in order to help Russian forces carry out a missile and drone raid there, the SBU said.

The Quai d'Orsay denounces the summons of the French ambassador to Russia

France denounced on Tuesday the summons of its ambassador to Russia, accusing Moscow of hijacking diplomatic channels "for the purposes of manipulating the' information and intimidation", announces the Quai d'Orsay. "The Russian ministry has once again engaged in a reversal of responsibilities, seeking to accuse Western countries of threatening Russia, while the latter has been waging a war of war in Ukraine for more than two years. #39;aggression in defiance of international law", said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a press release.

These facts occur while Russia "continues, particularly through cyberattacks and hybrid actions, its aggressive maneuvers aimed at destabilizing countries Europeans". Paris denied on Monday having deployed troops to Ukraine, reacting to allegations that French soldiers had been sent to Ukrainian soil. "The disinformation campaigns on France's support for Ukraine are not weakening, the proof", wrote on his account "X" the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. French President Emmanuel Macron reiterated in an interview with The Economist published last Thursday his controversial proposal to discuss sending ground troops to Ukraine if the Russian army came to "pierce the front lines".

Putin invested for a new 6-year mandate

Russian President Vladimir Putin was officially reappointed this Tuesday for a new 6-year term during an inauguration ceremony boycotted by most Western countries who intend to express their opposition to the war in Ukraine. In power for almost a quarter of a century, Vladimir Putin, 71, was largely and unsurprisingly re-elected president last March, garnering nearly 88% of the vote, the highest score ever achieved during of a presidential election in post-Soviet Russia. "We are a great united people and together we will overcome obstacles, we will achieve what we have planned. Together we will be victorious", said Vladimir Putin.

Most Western countries did not send any representatives to the ceremony punctuated by a salvo of cannon fire, but Paris instructed its ambassador to Russia, Pierre Lévy, to representing France, ignoring the call for a boycott launched by kyiv. For Ukraine, this investiture ceremony has no other purpose than the "creation of legality fictional entirely dedicated to the maintenance in power of a man who transformed the Russian Federation into an aggressor state and the state into a dictatorship".

Sergueï Tchemezov, close to Vladimir Putin, assured Reuters shortly before the ceremony that the Russian number one brought stability to the country, a quality that even his detractors should recognize in him. "For Russia, it's continuation of the path, it's stability, you can ask anyone on the street ." "President Putin has been re-elected and we will continue on our path, even if the West probably doesn't like it", he continued.< /p>