War in Ukraine: warning from Zelensky, peace summit without Russia, Zaporizhzhia power station… update on the situation

Volodymyr Zelensky en visite au Portugal ce 28 mai 2024. MAXPPP – JOSE SENA GOULAO/POOL

Every day, Midi Libre takes stock of the situation in Ukraine. This Tuesday, May 28, 2024, discover the latest news around this conflict.

A drone shot down in the suburbs of Moscow

Russian air defenses shot down a drone on the outskirts of Moscow on Monday, the governor of the Russian capital region announced. Andreï Vorobiov declared on Telegram messaging that debris from this drone had fallen around 9:00 p.m. (6:00 p.m. GMT) on a house in Balashikha, a suburb of Moscow, without causing any injuries.

The Russian Defense Ministry said air defense units destroyed a "small airborne aircraft". Citing civil aviation, the TASS agency reported that planes had been temporarily diverted from the air corridor northeast of Moscow but that the capital's airports had subsequently resumed normal activity .

Agreement between Ukraine and Belgium on a security pact

Ukraine and Belgium concluded a bilateral security agreement on Tuesday providing in particular for the delivery of 30 F-16 combat aircraft by 2028.

The agreement was signed during a meeting in Brussels between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo.'The document includes at least 977 million euros in Belgian military aid to Ukraine this year, as well as Belgium's commitment to providing support during the ten years of the agreement", Volodymyr Zelensky said in a message on social networks.

On Monday, the Ukrainian president visited Spain where he signed with the head of the Spanish government Pedro Sanchez a bilateral security agreement providing for the supply by Madrid of military equipment worth one billion euros throughout this year.

Volodymyr Zelensky is also expected in Portugal today where he must also sign a security agreement with the Portuguese Prime Minister, Luis Montenegro. The Ukrainian president postponed his visit to Spain and Portugal earlier this month due to Russia's military offensive in the Kharkiv region.

Russia does not plan to restart the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant

Russia is not considering restarting Ukraine's Zaporizhia nuclear power plant at the moment, the president of Rosatom, Russia's national nuclear energy company, said on Tuesday.

Russian forces have occupied the plant since the start of what Russia calls its "special military operation in Ukraine", and the six reactors are not operational. According to the Russian news agency TASS, Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), held several talks with a Rosatom delegation in the Russian city of Kaliningrad, during which he declared that he had reached an agreement regarding the safety of the plant.

According to TASS, the head of Rosatom, Alexei Likhachev, stressed the importance of the safety of the plant and indicated that its restart was not at risk. the agenda at the moment. Greenpeace, citing documents submitted by Rosatom to the IAEA in mid-May, had warned that Russia planned to restart the plant, Europe's largest, which could lead to a < em> "unprecedented escalation", according to the NGO.

Russia and Ukraine have repeatedly accused each other of having bombed the Zaporizhia power station. Both deny the accusations. The IAEA, the United Nations nuclear watchdog, said the plant had experienced problems with off-site power supply since Russia sent troops to Ukraine in February 2022 , increasing site security risks.

Ukraine capable of "neutralizing" the Russian bases which launch the missiles ?

Emmanuel Macron estimated on Tuesday that kyiv should be allowed to "neutralize" the military bases of ;#39;where Russia fires its missiles against Ukrainian territory.

"We must allow them to neutralize the military sites from which the missiles are fired (…) the military sites from which the&# 39;Ukraine is attacked", declared the French head of state during a press conference in Germany alongside Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Warning from Zelensky

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday warned the international community against becoming tired of the war in Ukraine, which he said Russia is trying to create with "disinformation& ;quot;.

"It is very important for Ukrainians that the world does not get tired" of this war which has continued since more than two years at the gates of the European Union, declared Volodymyr Zelensky at a press conference in Lisbon. "Otherwise there will be no justice (…), otherwise the world will be changed by people like (Vladimir) Putin".

Instructors or mercenaries ?

Western military instructors are already deployed in Ukraine, pretending to be mercenaries, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday, while kyiv indicated on Monday that discussions were underway on the issue. sending instructors.

"There's nothing new there (…) there are mercenaries who are in fact specialists" , declared the Russian president during a press briefing in Uzbekistan, where he was questioned about sending French instructors.

A peace summit without Russia

The Kremlin on Tuesday judged "absurd" and "futile&quot ; the holding of a summit for peace on Ukraine in the absence of Russian participation, while Moscow does not ;#39;was not invited by Kiev to this conference scheduled for mid-June in Switzerland.

"This conference is, from our point of view, absolutely futile in terms of finding a solution to the conflict over Ukraine' ;quot;, said Dmitri Peskov, Kremlin spokesperson, in an interview with the Russian public channel RT. "It is indeed absurd to meet and seriously discuss these issues without the participation of our country", he stressed .