“In Ukraine, the defense of the basic principles of international law, the values of Europe, but also the security interests of the French are at stake,” were the words of the new French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné at the meeting with his Ukrainian colleague Dmytro Kuleba in Kiev, his first trip abroad his new role at the helm of Paris diplomacy. The intention was to raise the flag of the republic on the ground of international support for Ukraine, which, on the contrary, shows weakness everywhere. A concept that has also been reiterated by American President Joe Biden, who is failing to get the new large aid package approved by Congress and according to which “if Republican colleagues do not release aid to Ukraine, they will have to pay a very high price. “ “.
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In this context, which is also overshadowed by the war in Gaza, Kiev is struggling to make its voice heard and to reiterate that the principles it is fighting for have not changed in two years of war. President Volodymyr Zelensky will be seen in person again on January 16 at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he will give a speech – his first in a long time. In any case, “Ukraine is and remains France's priority, despite the multiplication of crises,” assured Séjourné, who also paid tribute to the war dead in the capital of a country that has just spent another night defending itself against another hail of bombs from Russia: 40 hypersonic missiles, ballistic missiles S-300 and S-400 and drones, reports Kiev. At least eight missiles, Kiev claimed, were shot down by anti-aircraft fire, while 20 – and here is a new element – were neutralized by the electronic countermeasures of the Ukrainian Defense Forces. For once, local media write, there were no deaths, even though 26 houses were destroyed in the northeastern Sumy region and Poland also had to briefly activate its defenses.
The flood of rockets that hit Ukrainian territory every night was the focus of the conversation between the foreign ministers in Paris and Kiev. And Kuleba used the opportunity of the joint press conference to reiterate the call for Europe to do its part to block the largely involuntary supply of Western-made electronic components found in the remains of missiles fired during the troop invasion. He recalled that these were often components of washing machines, microwave ovens and other everyday household appliances imported from Moscow, which “are not used for washing or cooking, but are used to take out individual spare parts and then attach them to their rockets “to kill Ukrainians”. . With his French colleague, Kuleba said he talked about further deliveries of missile defense systems and missiles to Ukraine, about defense cooperation, about inviting more and more countries to join Kiev's 10-point peace plan, and about the next steps towards NATO -Accession talked about and the European Union.
As for the Donbass front, where Russian forces have increased their offensive pressure for weeks at the cost of heavy losses, Kiev claimed to have repelled several attacks in the last 24 hours in Donetsk, where it lost the struggling town of Marinka in its finds proximity instead. And the bridgehead that the Ukrainians have been defending and strengthening for months on the left bank of the Dnipro River, i.e. on the side of the Russian occupiers, and which has been fortified, has again come to the fore. A position defended by elite troops from which enemy forces are attacked. According to the Kyiv Post, Russian military bloggers admit they are frustrated by the Russians' “failed counterattacks” to reoccupy this space.
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