“NOR NAIVES, NOR GO TO WAR”
“I call on our opposition to have more responsibility but also more patriotism on these collective security issues,” said Sunday at the Parisian the Minister for the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu. “We are neither naive, nor go to war. Let’s be faithful to the historic role of France, as the President of the Republic does.”
“NO TABOO” ON THE ISSUE OF COMBAT AIRCRAFT
“There is no taboo and our analysis criteria are well known”, answers Sunday to the Parisian the Minister of the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu, questioned on the deliveries of combat aircraft desired by Volodymyr Zelensky. “The transfer of planes poses very complex logistical and practical questions. The Ukrainian request is part of a need to protect their skies as for the ground-air defense systems – for which France is at the forefront – and which is follows the same logic: create a bubble of protection around the battlefield or the cities.”
FRENCH TANKS DELIVERED “NEXT WEEK”
“The training is about to end, these armored vehicles will be delivered from the end of next week”, announced Sunday, in the columns of the Parisian, the Minister of the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu, about the AMX-10 light tanks promised to the Ukrainians, without giving more details. “I assume not to say the number, so as not to give strategic information to Russia.”
THE REVIEW OF THE LAST 24 HOURS
Emmanuel Macon affirmed, Saturday, February 18, wanting “the defeat” of Russia, without “crushing it”, which will “never” be the “position of France”. For the first time since the start of the war, the United States has accused Moscow of having perpetrated “crimes against humanity” in Ukraine. The highlights of the last 24 hours.
WASHINGTON WARNS BEIJING ON AID TO RUSSIA
In a rare “frank and candid” exchange in Munich, which took place away from the gaze of the media, the American Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, warned his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi. He warned of “the implications and consequences” for Beijing if it were found to be providing “material support” to Russia in its war in Ukraine or helping it evade Western sanctions, State Department spokesman Ned Price said in reporting on the interview.
A “PRECONDITION” kyiv VICTORY TO A TRANSITION IN MOSCOW
Russian opponents of Vladimir Putin’s regime ruled on Saturday that a victory for Ukraine was the “precondition”, in the words of Garry Kasparov, of a democratic transition in Moscow. “Liberation from Putin’s fascism goes through Ukraine. The Russians live in a bubble. It cannot be broken unless the idea of empire collapses, thanks to a military defeat”, hammered the ex-world chess champion, on the sidelines of the security conference in Munich, Germany.
