War in Ukraine: Zelensky's speech to the National Assembly, “Russophobic campaign”… update on the situation

Volodymyr Zelensky à Manila aux Philippines le 3 juin 2024. MAXPPP – JAM STA ROSA/POOL

Every day, Midi Libre takes stock of the situation in Ukraine. This Tuesday, June 4, 2024, discover the latest news around this conflict.

For Ukraine, strikes on Russian territory will weaken Moscow near the border

Ukraine considers the authorization given by the United States to strike Russia with its weapons as vital and will have an impact on Moscow's air forces and its capacity to operate at the border, the Ukrainian president's chief of staff said on Tuesday.

Under pressure from Ukraine and some European allies, the United States agreed last week to allow kyiv to strike military targets inside Russia with Western weapons. "Permission to use Western weapons on the territory of the Russian Federation is a vital decision", said Andri Yermak, Volodymyr Zelensky's chief of staff, on the messaging application Telegram.

Ukraine also believes that this measure will allow it to repel Russian advances and to better defend its territory in the region of Kharkiv, the country's second city which is located around thirty kilometers from the Russian border. Ukraine has often targeted occupied Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014, with Western-made weapons.

Overwhelmed on the battlefield, kyiv had urged Washington to allow it to strike military targets on Russian soil with American-made weapons, as Moscow broke through a new front in the Kharkiv region in the northeast of the country. .

Ukraine is also trying to develop its own weapons, mainly drones, to strike targets inside Russia. Some Ukrainian drones have been used to attack Russian oil installations and military targets hundreds of kilometers from the border.

Zelensky will deliver a speech to French MPs on Friday

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will deliver a speech on Friday in the hemicycle of the National Assembly, on the sidelines of a visit to France where he is due to meet Emmanuel Macron to talk about the needs of the # 39;Ukraine, announced the presidency of the Palais Bourbon.

Yaël Braun-Pivet will welcome the Ukrainian leader at 9:30 a.m. at the Hôtel de Lassay, then Zelensky will give a speech to the deputies around 9:50 a.m., before speaking with the president of the National Assembly, who visited Ukraine last March.

The Russian embassy in Paris denounces a "Russophobic campaign"

The Russian embassy in Paris denounced on Tuesday a campaign of "Russophobic hysteria" in the French media, in an apparent allusion to suspicions of interference by Moscow raised by the press in the affair of the coffins placed at the foot of the Eiffel Tower.

The Kremlin at the same time called "absolute slander" Microsoft's claims that Moscow has expanded a disinformation campaign targeting France and the Paris Olympics this summer. In a press release, the embassy assures "that the Russian Federation has never interfered and does not interfere in the internal affairs of France' ;quot;. "Our country has other, more important priorities", she adds, urging &amp ;quot;the French authorities to put an end to this unfounded and unjustified anti-Russian disinformation campaign".

Coffins filled with plaster and covered with a French flag, with the words "French soldiers of Ukraine", were discovered Saturday morning at the foot of the Eiffel Tower. Three men of German, Bulgarian and Ukrainian nationality suspected of having transported and deposited the coffins were placed under the status of assisted witness Monday evening, said the Paris prosecutor's office.

According to sources cited by several media, they were in contact with a fourth man already suspected of having participated in the defacement, with stencils of red hands, of the wall of the Righteous at the Memorial of the Shoah in Paris, on the night of May 13 to 14.

The French authorities denounced last November a first operation of interference after the discovery of Stars of David tagged on Parisian buildings and condemned the involvement of' #39;a Russian network in the distribution on social networks of images of these graffiti. Microsoft, for its part, estimated in a blog post published on Sunday that Russia, via specialized entities called Storm-1679 and Storm-1099, had increased the scale of a disinformation campaign on the internet targeting to damage the reputation of the International Olympic Committee and to denigrate the next July-August Olympics in the French capital.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov denounced unfounded and slanderous allegations on Tuesday and once again condemned France's intention to send military instructors to Ukraine .