War in Ukraine: Putin persona non grata, Russian arrested for “attempted assassination”… update on the situation

Le point sur la situation ce 16 avril 2024. (illustration) SPUTNIK POOL – VALERIY SHARIFULIN/SPUTNIK/KREMLIN POOL

Every day, Midi Libre takes stock of the situation in Ukraine. This Tuesday, April 16, 2024, discover the latest news around this conflict.

Putin, persona non grata on the 80th anniversary of the Landing

Russia will be invited to the celebrations of the 80th anniversary of the Allied landings in Normandy (France) at the beginning of June, but not its President Vladimir Putin due to the "war of ;#39;Russian aggression" in Ukraine, the organizer of this commemoration announced on Tuesday.

"Given the circumstances (the Russian offensive in Ukraine, editor's note), President Putin will not be invited", he indicated. "Russia will however be invited to be represented so that the importance of the commitment and sacrifices of the Soviet peoples, as well as its contribution to the victory of 1945 , be honored", he added, confirming information from Europe 1.

The Kremlin believes that an Olympic truce would allow Ukraine to strengthen itself

The Kremlin coldly received on Tuesday Emmanuel Macron's call for an Olympic truce in international conflicts during the Games organized this summer in Paris, believing that Ukraine could take advantage of this to regroup its forces and rearm.

The French president indicated on Monday that he was going to work and "do everything"to obtain an Olympic truce, evoking the conflict in Ukraine but also the war in Gaza and Sudan.

Asked about Emmanuel Macron's comments, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said that President Vladimir Putin and the Russian army had "noticed that as a rule, the Kyiv regime uses such ideas, such initiatives to try to regroup, rearm, etc" . "This, of course, significantly complicates the process of reviewing these initiatives", he added.

China can "accelerate" Peace in Ukraine, according to Zelensky

President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday that China, Russia's key partner, can "accelerate"peace in Ukraine by playing an "active role" during the conference organized in Switzerland in June on this theme, after more than two years of Russian invasion.

"I am convinced that the first world peace summit in Switzerland can pave the way for a just peace for Ukraine. China's active role can certainly accelerate our progress on this path", Mr. Zelensky wrote on German Olaf Scholz and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing.

Russian arrested for attempting to assassinate ex-Ukrainian special services officer

The Russian security services (FSB) announced on Tuesday that they had arrested a Russian citizen for attempting to assassinate a former officer of the Ukrainian security services (SBU), who was injured last week in the ;explosion of his car in Moscow.

The FSB indicated in a press release that it had "arrested a Russian citizen, born in 1983, who detonated an explosion in Moscow (…) on the orders of the services Ukrainian special forces the car of a Russian citizen, former member of the Ukrainian security services".

The ex-Ukrainian officer who crossed over to the Russian side, Vassili Prozorov, also accused the Kiev terrorist regime after the explosion ;quot; to be responsible for it.

According to the FSB, the suspect arrested as part of an investigation for "attempted assassination" arrived in Russia in March from Ukraine. He is "obtained components for a remote-controlled explosive device, assembled it" and placed it under the ex-'s car SBU officer.

In March 2019, Vassili Prozorov gave a press conference in Moscow where he was presented as a defector who had joined Russia. He then declared having worked for the SBU between 1999 and 2018, while ensuring that he had provided information to Russia from April 2014 out of "ideological motivation".

Since the start of the assault against Ukraine, at the end of February 2022, several assassinations or attempted assassinations attributed to Kiev have targeted personalities on Russian territory supporting the Kremlin's military offensive.

Why it is becoming urgent for Russia to win the war ?

Fighting between Ukraine and Russia continues to rage, particularly on the front in the east of the country. But Vladimir Putin's troops only have a few months left to win the war, in terms of soldiers and weapons, according to some experts.

According to a note from the’International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), some analysts therefore assert the ;army of the master of the Kremlin could continue their assaults for two or three, as indicated in an article in The Economist.

But other experts see this duration much shorter: only twelve months, assures journalist David Ax to Forbes. According to him, "the clock is ticking" and "Russia uses resources that" rsquo;it cannot replace". Davis Ax estimates that the 60 billion dollars in American aid, currently on hold.

"2024 represents the last significant opportunity for Russia to make substantial gains in Ukraine from a military perspective", analyzes a Finnish expert, relayed on X (formerly Twitter) by Arthur Rehi, Estonian reserve soldier. The future of this conflict therefore remains totally uncertain and continues to divide.