Live: A loud explosion heard near Kiev Central Station

This live broadcast of Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine is over. Thank you for following us on BFMTV.com.

The Ukrainian president congratulates himself this Wednesday evening for having thwarted the “sneaky” plans of Russia, a week since the beginning of the invasion.

“We are a nation that broke the enemy’s plans in a week. Plans written for years: sneaky, full of hatred for our country, our people,” Volodymyr Zelensly said in a video posted on Telegram.

• An explosion took place in the middle of the evening near the Kiev train station, the Ukrainian news agency Interfax-Ukraine reported. According to the agency, it was caused by a Russian missile hijacked by the Ukrainians.

• Emmanuel Macron assures that France is “not at war with Russia”. The President of the Republic, during a televised address broadcast at 8 p.m. on Wednesday evening, once again denounced the “brutal attack launched by President Putin”. However, he said he wanted to stay in touch with him, as well as with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

• France will “take its part” in welcoming Ukrainian refugees. This is what Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday evening as more than 836,000 people have fled Ukraine since the beginning of the war according to a latest count by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

• The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court announces the opening of an investigation almost a week after the start of the Russian invasion.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Wednesday called the battery of Western sanctions against Russia a “crime” and “madness” in retaliation for the invasion of Ukraine.

“It is a crime what they are doing against the Russian people, an economic war,” Nicolas Maduro, who has multiplied in recent days statements of support for one of his few allies on the international scene, told national television.

“They took them out of the Swift system, they closed their airspace, they closed all commercial routes, they closed and banned the use of the dollar, it’s madness what they are doing with Russia,” he continued.

The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court announces that he is opening an investigation into the Ukrainian situation.

The British media regulator announced on Wednesday the opening of 12 additional investigations for lack of impartiality in the programs of the Russian state channel in English RT for its coverage of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

This brings to 27 the number of investigations opened by the agency.

The World Bank announced on Wednesday the immediate suspension of all its aid programs in Russia and Belarus, in retaliation for the invasion of Ukraine.

“Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and hostilities against the Ukrainian people, the World Bank Group has stopped all its programs in Russia and Belarus with immediate effect,” the Washington institution said in a statement.

According to the Ukrainian news agency Interfax-Ukraine, the explosion heard near Kiev Central Station tonight was caused by a Russian missile hijacked by the Ukrainians. The incident does not prevent trains from running.

Interfax-Ukraine also explains that the affected thermal power plant should be “repaired in the coming hours”. In addition, she explains that 15,000 people are sheltered tonight in the Kiev metro.

Pressed by the right-wing opposition, Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced on Wednesday that Spain would send “offensive military equipment” to the “Ukrainian resistance”, despite the reluctance of his radical left-wing ally Podemos.

“As I see that there are (political) groups that question the government’s commitment” to participate in military aid to Ukraine, “I also want to announce to you that Spain will deliver offensive military equipment to the Ukrainian resistance,” he told the Chamber of Deputies.

On Wednesday evening, Defense Minister Margarita Robles said on the Antena 3 channel that it was 1,370 grenade launchers, 700,000 rounds of ammunition and light machine guns.

After the departure of diplomatic staff from the French Embassy in Ukraine from Kiev, Ambassador Étienne de Poncins tweeted to explain that the transition had gone well.

“Arrived in Lviv. The French Embassy in Ukraine is again operational in the service of the French,” he wrote.

“In these moments of trial and courage in the face of the enemy, we continue to stand resolutely at the side of our Ukrainian friends,” said Étienne de Poncins.

The situation was deteriorating wednesday “by the hour” in Mariupol, the main Ukrainian port in the Sea of Azov (southeast) where the city center and residential areas were bombed by the Russian army, according to local authorities and residents.

Russian artillery shelled residential areas, including a maternity ward and a school, wounding 42 people, according to the city council.

The control of Mariupol, a city of 441,000 inhabitants, is strategic for Russia because it would allow it to ensure territorial continuity between its forces from Crimea and those from the separatist territories of Donbass. The two groups made their junction on Tuesday, according to Moscow.

The city’s public transport was shut down on Wednesday and some neighborhoods have been without electricity since last Friday. Long lines of residents stretch out in front of the few shops left open, according to residents.

Emmanuel Macron announced in his speech tonight a “resilience plan” of the economy to help the sectors affected by the sanctions against Russia. According to Bruno Le Maire’s entourage at BFMTV, this plan “will not be the new ‘whatever it costs'”, put in place during the Covid-19 crisis.

“We are reviewing all the French companies that do not have a strong enough insurance policy, and that would need help. We are looking at how to help companies find new outlets for raw materials they import from Russia,” Bercy told BFMTV.

Regarding the increase in gas prices, no decision has yet been taken, but the subject is under study.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon returned to Emmanuel Macron’s speech on Ukraine on Wednesday evening.

“He said the right things, which I share,” said the leader of the Rebels, mentioning in particular that “the government of Mr. Putin is the aggressor”.

He assures, however, that he would have liked the president “to take action and make a strong proposal”.

In the sanctions against Russia, he explains that he prefers “sanctions against the oligarchs”, rather than against the global economy, so as not to hit the Russian people. Jean-Luc Mélenchon also recalled that he was against the delivery of weapons to Ukraine.

“The risk we run is disproportionate. Nothing should be done that positions us as belligerents. You have to strike wisely, in the right place,” he said.

A loud explosion was heard in Kiev near the Central Station when it was about 9 p.m. there, according to our special envoy on the spot Jeremiah Paire. Shortly before, alert sirens had sounded in the city. Authorities had warned residents to hide in shelters just before the blast.

US Foreign Minister Antony Blinken on Wednesday denounced Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “provocative rhetoric” about nuclear weapons, “a pinnacle of irresponsibility” according to him.

Such rhetoric “is dangerous, adds to the risk of confusion and must be avoided,” the secretary of state said at a press conference.

The human toll of the Russian invasion of Ukraine is already “staggering” and will only continue to rise, US Foreign Minister Antony Blinken said on Wednesday.

The infrastructure destroyed by the Russian strikes “is not a military target,” he said in a press conference.

U.S. Foreign Minister Antony Blinken will travel to Belgium, Poland, the Baltic States and Moldova from March 3 to March 3 to reaffirm U.S. support for Russia, the State Department said Wednesday.

The secretary of state will first stop in Brussels for meetings with his counterparts from the European Union and NATO countries to “discuss the global response to Russia’s invasion” of Ukraine, a statement said.

While the war in Ukraine is taking place in a particular context in France, with the presidential election that will take place in April, Emmanuel Macron explained that this should not upset the calendar.

“This campaign will allow an important democratic debate for the nation, but which will not prevent us from meeting on the essentials,” said the President of the Republic.

Emmanuel Macron announced investments in defense, energy and the economy to ensure “independence” of France in the coming years. A strategy that he wants to extend to the European Union.

“Our European defence must take a new step,” he said.

It is due to bring together European heads of state to discuss it on 10th and 11th March next.

Faced with the economic consequences that could affect France following the sanctions imposed by the West on Russia, the President of the Republic announced next measures. Explaining that growth will be “inevitably affected”, a plan must soon be presented.

“I have and would have only one compass: to protect you,” promises Emmanuel Macron, who says he wants to “provide appropriate responses to the disruptions of trade flows and rising prices”.

Faced with the influx of refugees in several European countries, Emmanuel Macron assured that “France will take its share”.

“We have participated in the effort within the framework of NATO to protect the sovereignty and security of our allies in the region,” Macron said, recalling in particular the arrival of French troops in Romania.

He assured, however, that France was not at war with Russia.

“If I constantly exchange with President Zelensky, I have chosen to stay in touch, as much as I can and as much as necessary, with President Putin to relentlessly try to convince him to give up arms,” said Emmanuel Macron, in particular to “prevent the enlargement” of the conflict.

Emmanuel Macron has returned to the sanctions imposed on Russia since the beginning of the war.

“This afternoon, the United Nations General Assembly voted by an overwhelming majority a resolution” to denounce Russia’s actions, explains Emmanuel Macron. An event that shows according to him the “unity” of the countries of the world against Russia.

In a televised address, Emmanuel Macron denounced “the brutal attack launched by President Putin” against Ukraine.

“President Putin chose war. (…) Russia is not attacked, it is aggressor,” macron said.

He assures that neither France, nor Europe, nor NATO “wanted this war”, recalling his trip to the Kremlin in particular. He also criticizes Moscow’s statements, justifying in particular its invasion of Ukraine by a fight against “Nazism”. According to him, the war is “nourished by a revisionist reading of the history of Europe”.

Four Russian warplanes on Wednesday briefly violated Swedish airspace east of the Baltic Sea island of Gotland, the General Staff said, amid Russian-Western tensions over the war in Ukraine.

“It was two Sukhoi Su-27s and two Sukhoi Su-24s who violated Swedish airspace,” the Swedish military said in a statement, as the invasion of Ukraine revived the debate over Sweden’s NATO membership.

U.S. Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield on Wednesday accused Russia of wanting to use weaponry banned by the Geneva Convention as part of its massive offensive on Ukraine.

“It appears that Russia is preparing to increase the brutality of its campaign against Ukraine,” she told the United Nations General Assembly, as several Ukrainian cities were being bombed by the Russian military. The latter also amassed troops around the capital Kiev.

“We have seen videos of Russian forces carrying absolutely lethal weaponry to Ukraine that has no place on a battlefield,” she added. The ambassador referred in particular to cluster munitions, and thermobaric bombs, “prohibited by the Geneva Convention” and with devastating potential.

The French group Engie, which co-financed the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, said Wednesday evening exposed to a maximum “credit risk” of 987 million euros on this controversial project hit by sanctions following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“Engie as a lender is exposed to a credit risk for a maximum amount of 987 million euros which could materialize in particular in the event of bankruptcy,” Engie said in a statement, while the company managing the pipeline has just filed for bankruptcy.

Russian businessman Roman Abramovich announced in a statement that he is putting the Chelsea football club, which he has owned since 2003, up for sale.

“In the current situation, I have therefore taken the decision to sell the Club, because I think it is in the best interest of the Club, the fans, the employees, as well as the sponsors and partners of the Club,” said the Russian businessman, reputed to be close to Vladimir Putin.

He had announced a few days ago his withdrawal from the management of Chelsea.

“In addition, I have commissioned my team to create a charitable foundation where all the net profits from the sale will be donated. The foundation will benefit all the victims of the war in Ukraine,” he said on Wednesday.

G7 countries are looking for ways to prevent people or companies targeted by Western sanctions against Russia from using cryptocurrencies to circumvent the measures put in place, German Finance Minister Christian Lindner said Wednesday.

“We should also take steps to prevent listed individuals and institutions from turning to unregulated cryptocurrencies. We have also worked in this direction within the framework of the German presidency of the G7,” he said in a statement.

The European Union on Wednesday announced new economic sanctions against Minsk, in retaliation for its aid to Russia in its invasion of Ukraine, now targeting more than 70 percent of Belarus’ exports.

The European Council (Member States) will tighten restrictions on Belarus’ trade in tobacco, minerals, bituminous substances, certain hydrocarbons, potash, wood, cement, steel and rubber, and restrict its imports of dual-use goods (military and civilian).

The European Union is organizing an extraordinary meeting of its foreign ministers in Brussels on Friday with their American, Ukrainian, British and Canadian counterparts devoted to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the head of European diplomacy announced on Wednesday.

“I convened an extraordinary Foreign Affairs Council on Friday and invited Ukrainian Ministers Dmytro Kouleba, American Antony Blinken, British Liz Truss, Canadian Melanie Joly and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg to join us,” Borrell said on Twitter. A meeting of NATO’s 30 foreign ministers was convened on Friday morning at nato headquarters in Brussels.

The UN General Assembly on Wednesday adopted a resolution that “demands that Russia immediately stop using force against Ukraine,” in a vote overwhelmingly approved by 141 countries, 5 opposing it, and 35 abstaining, including China, out of the Organization’s 193 members.

The result was greeted with a round of applause. The resolution, punctuated by more than two days of interventions at the UN rostrum, calls on Moscow to “immediately, completely and unconditionally withdraw all its military forces” from Ukraine and “condemns Russia’s decision to increase the alerting of its nuclear forces.”

Russia on Wednesday unveiled its first death toll of Russian soldiers killed in the offensive in Ukraine, announcing the death of 498 of its soldiers and specifying that 1597 others were wounded.

“Unfortunately (…) we have had losses. 498 Russian soldiers died (…) 1597 of our comrades were wounded” during the Russian invasion underway since February 24, Russian army spokesman Igor Konashenkov said at a briefing broadcast on Russian state television.

A Ukrainian delegation is expected for Russian-Ukrainian talks in Belarus on Thursday morning, Russian negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said on Wednesday, adding that a ceasefire would be on the menu of these new talks between Moscow and Kiev, in the midst of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“The Ukrainian delegation has already left Kiev. We expect them to be here tomorrow morning,” he said, assuring that the two sides had chosen “together” for the negotiations a site in Belarus located “not far from the border with Poland”.

According to a Russian negotiator, a ceasefire will be on the menu of the new talks scheduled for Thursday in Belarus.

Ukraine’s ambassador to the UN, Sergiy Kyslytsya, on Wednesday denounced an ongoing “genocide” in his country, perpetrated by Russia, during a speech at the podium of the United Nations General Assembly, at the end of an exceptional debate of more than two days.

“It is easy to sign the UN Charter in peacetime. Come and sign it in time of war” after the expected vote of the General Assembly, he said, brandishing the small blue booklet, for the 193 member countries of the Organization attending his intervention, punctuated by loud applause.

The US Department of Justice on Wednesday instructed a dozen prosecutors to prosecute “corrupt Russian oligarchs” and all those who violate the sanctions adopted by Washington against Moscow after the invasion of Ukraine.

“We will spare no effort to investigate, arrest and prosecute all those whose criminal acts allow the Russian government to continue this unjust war,” Minister Merrick Garland said in a statement that outlined a dedicated unit announced the day before by President Joe Biden.

Olha, a 23-year-old Ukrainian girl who took refuge in the Kiev metro, described wednesday “a fairly calm situation” in her shelter, although she said she knew that “Russian convoys are approaching”. “We have sirens every two hours, our armies are preparing. That’s why I decided to take refuge in the metro, it’s the safest shelter, it’s where I feel most comfortable.”

The young woman says that in this subway mouth of the Ukrainian capital, people are relatively calm because they do not hear the bombings or the shootings of the Russian forces that assail Kiev. “People walk their animals, play guitar, it seems almost normal.”

In Kharkiv, the situation is particularly tense. Alain, a Frenchman who remained on the spot, tells BFMTV about the extremely anxiety-provoking situation in the city where he is still despite the bombings, his wife’s grandmother cannot be moved.

“If only today, we had three big bombings very, very close,” he told our microphone. “One of them even touched an administrative building located 600 meters as the crow flies, my windows shook while I have triple glazing… We live under the bombings, under the stress.”

He continued: “Only supermarkets and pharmacies are open, so in the morning there are huge queues. Supermarkets sell the stocks they had, (…) basic necessities have become very expensive. We can no longer find spaghetti, no more rice, we live from day to day.”

Black screen for RT France. The Russian state media, which has seen all social networks – except Twitter – delete its accounts, is now seeing its broadcast interrupted, as planned by the European Union to sanction Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The final text was published on March 2, causing a few minutes later the interruption of the signal on Free – the only operator broadcasting the channel on its box, Canal + (via MyCanal) and the Molotov application, bfmtv was able to see.

>> Our article can be found HERE.

At a press conference as part of the Beijing Paralympic Games on Wednesday, a Ukrainian journalist burst into tears as he held up a portrait of a biathlete killed by a Russian bombing. All in front of Andrew Parsons, president of the International Paralympic Committee, who did not know what to answer him.

>> Our article can be found HERE.

Russia told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that it had taken control of Ukraine’s largest nuclear power plant on Wednesday, namely the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia. It is the most powerful in Europe. In a letter to the agency’s director general, Russia assures that “the personnel of the plant continue their work” in order to guarantee nuclear safety and its normal operation. It states that radiation levels remain normal.

The Ukrainian military on Wednesday invited the mothers of Russian soldiers captured on its territory to pick them up, with Kiev claiming to have taken dozens of prisoners since the beginning of Moscow’s invasion of the country. “Decision has been taken to return the captured Russian soldiers to their mothers if they come to pick them up in Ukraine, in Kiev,” the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said in a statement.

“I validate the European strategy, I find that Europe is up to the situation and the stakes,” said Wednesday the candidate EELV Yannick Jadot at the microphone of BFMTV. “It’s not always but it’s to be welcomed when it’s the case.”

“We see that those who rather carry the withdrawal from the European Union would put us in immense difficulty,” he added.

Marine Le Pen on Wednesday called for “emergency measures” and “whatever it costs” for French farmers who are likely to be particularly victims of price increases linked to the Russian offensive in Ukraine.

Farmers are “confronted, even before the repercussions of the war in Ukraine, with a very significant increase in raw materials, fuel, fuel, gasoline, gas, electricity”, heavy with “consequences on production, prices and their ability to generate margins”, stressed the candidate of the RN to the president during a press briefing at the Agricultural Show.

And “of course their concern is strong that this increase, this inflation, could worsen” with the war in Ukraine, she added.

“We must now put in place the ‘whatever it costs’ for agriculture, because (…) farmers they have not seen ‘whatever it costs’ of Bercy” during the Covid crisis, said the far-right candidate, referring to “direct emergency aid”.

During the General Assembly vote on Wednesday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson accuses Russia of a “war crime” in Ukraine because of weapons used against civilians.

“What we have already seen from Vladimir Putin’s regime regarding the use of munitions dropped on innocent civilians, this already constitutes in my opinion a war crime,” he told British MPs.

Germany will release an exceptional envelope of 1.5 billion euros to buy liquefied natural gas as soon as possible to ensure its energy supply in the context of the war in Ukraine, said Wednesday the Ministry of Economy and Climate.

The government mandated a private company to carry out this transaction. “It is now up to (the latter) to decide where this liquefied gas will be purchased but this will be done in the very short term,” a ministry spokesman said. Germany currently imports more than half (55%) of its gas from Russia.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has called on UN member countries to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine in the General Assembly vote scheduled for Wednesday and to “demand” a withdrawal.

“The UN General Assembly will vote later in the day and we call on all nations to join us in condemning Russia and demanding that Putin bring in his tanks,” Johnson told MPs, adding: “If, on the contrary, Putin redoubles his efforts, we will continue to increase economic pressure.”

Gabriel Attal, spokesman for the government, spoke at noon on Wednesday, at the end of the Defence Council.

According to him, the strategy for the war in Ukraine is three pillars: “to make the war pay a high price, full support for the Ukrainian people and maximum mobilization at European and global level”.

Milan’s La Scala on Wednesday sidelined the famous Russian conductor Valery Gergiev, reputedly close to Vladimir Putin, from upcoming performances of a Tchaikovsky opera, after he refused to distance himself from Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

The director of the prestigious theater, Dominique Meyer, sent him a letter Tuesday evening “to inform him that La Scala will entrust a new conductor” with the direction of “The Lady of Spades” from March 5, according to a statement from the institution.

He will be replaced by the young Russian maestro Timur Zangiev, 27, who “has already conducted part of the rehearsals” and was “highly appreciated by the orchestra”.

“The enemy is approaching his troops from Kiev. Fighting continues in the country,” Kiev Mayor Vitaly Klitschko said in a video message.

He added: “We are preparing and defending our city.”

The ban on the broadcasting in the EU of russian state media RT and Sputnik, considered instruments of “disinformation” of Moscow in its war against Ukraine, came into force on Wednesday, after publication of the decision of the Twenty-Seven in the Official Journal of the EU.

The content of Sputnik and Russia Today channels in English, German, French and Spanish will no longer be broadcast on television networks and on the internet, according to this decision, which each Member State is responsible for enforcing.

The Twenty-Seven have excluded seven Russian banks from the international swift financial system, but are sparing two large financial institutions closely linked to the hydrocarbon sector, according to the decision published Wednesday in the Official Journal of the European Union.

Among the seven institutions targeted is VTB, the second largest bank in Russia. On the other hand, the sanction does not concern Sberbank, the country’s largest bank, nor Gazprombank, through which a large part of the payments for Russian gas and oil supplies, which are very dependent on some European states, pass.

Russian and Belarusian athletes were allowed to participate on Wednesday in the Beijing Paralympic Games, which begin on Friday, despite the conflict in Ukraine, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) said.

Athletes from both countries will compete under the banner of “neutral”, “compete under the Paralympic flag and will not appear on the medal table”, according to a statement released by the international organization on its website.

The Games will take place from 4 to 13 March 2022.

In Enerhodar, a town in the southeastern zaporizhia oblast, civilians block roads to prevent the entry of Russian forces, according to videos relayed by the Belarusian media

Enerhodar is home to the largest nuclear power plant in Europe.

Carrier DHL, among the world’s largest logistics companies, said on Wednesday it had suspended deliveries to Russia and Belarus due to the invasion of Ukraine.

“Our inbound services to Russia and Belarus have been suspended” and “we also do not accept shipments to these countries until further notice,” the German group, which has also closed its offices and operations in Ukraine, wrote on its website.

• Emmanuel Macron will speak at 8 p.m. The President of the Republic will speak this Wednesday evening at 8 p.m., about the war in Ukraine, announced the Elysee. Thursday, February 24, at the launch of the Russian invasion, “he had made the commitment to keep the French informed of the evolution of the situation,” adds the presidency, without further comment. A speech to follow live on BFMTV.

• At least four dead in Kharkiv, the country’s second largest city, targeted by Russian bombing. At least four people were killed and nine others wounded in Russian shelling that targeted the headquarters of the security services and a university in Kharkiv in Ukraine on Wednesday morning, Ukrainian rescue workers said. “For the moment ten people have been able to be pulled out of the rubble, the preliminary toll is 4 dead and nine wounded,” the source continued, in a message on social networks at a time when the country’s second city, suffers an attack by the Russian armed forces.

• The Russian delegation ready to resume talks.” Today, towards the beginning of the evening, our delegation will be there, we will wait for the Ukrainian negotiators,” Kremlien spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, saying he “hopes” that they come to the negotiations, without specifying the location. On Monday, negotiations had brought together the Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Belarus, on the Ukrainian-Belarusian border. The latter had returned for “consultations in their respective capitals”, after agreeing to want a “second round” of talks.

• Nearly 836,000 refugees fleeing Ukraine. The number of refugees fleeing Ukraine to neighboring countries jumped further to almost 836,000 people on March 1, according to a census by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees released Wednesday. That’s a jump of almost 160,000 people from the figure of 677,000 put forward Tuesday by High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi, during an emergency appeal for humanitarian aid funding for the country and people who fled the fighting.

The Monnaie de Paris, whose factory is in Pessac (Gironde), is launching a special mini-medal “in solidarity with the Ukrainian people” whose purpose is to “support the populations affected by the conflict”, announced Wednesday the establishment.

The mini-medal, available from March 14, is sold for 10 euros, eight of which will be donated to the Red Cross for the Ukrainian population, says La Monnaie de Paris.

“This donation aims to provide humanitarian assistance to protect life, dignity and assistance to the victims of this armed conflict,” the establishment adds on its website.

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, plans to begin evacuating more than a thousand of its nationals on Wednesday who fled Ukraine invaded by the Russian military and found refuge in neighboring countries.

Many African countries are stepping up their efforts to help their nationals who have flocked to Poland, Romania and Hungary amid growing accusations of racism at Ukraine’s borders.

“The first group of evacuees is expected in Nigeria on Thursday,” the statement said. “We assure Nigerians that we are working 24 hours a day to get our citizens home safely.”

The African Union (AU) on Monday expressed concern as some of its nationals appear to be prevented from travelling to or crossing borders, citing “unacceptable differential treatment” that would be “shocking and racist”.

Two Danish journalists wounded by gunfire in northeastern Ukraine on Saturday were able to leave the country and are on their way to Denmark, their employer and Reporters Without Borders announced on Wednesday.

Reporter Stefan Weichert and photographer Emil Filtenborg Mikkelsen were shot and wounded while reporting for the Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet near the town of Okhtyrka, about fifty kilometers from the Russian border.

The daily Ekstra Bladet reported on Wednesday that its two freelancers would be “soon safe at home in Denmark”, and were currently “in a safe country”.

The number of refugees fleeing Ukraine to neighboring countries jumped further to almost 836,000 people on March 1, according to a census by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees released Wednesday.

That’s a jump of almost 160,000 people from the figure of 677,000 put forward Tuesday by High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi, during an emergency appeal for humanitarian aid funding for the country and people who fled the fighting.

>Our full article can be read here.

Imprisoned Russian opponent Alexei Navalny on Wednesday called on his fellow citizens and those of Belarus to defy the authorities’ ban and demonstrate every day in Russia against the invasion of Ukraine.

“Let us not become a nation of frightened voiceless, a nation of fearful people who pretend not to see the brutal war unleashed against Ukraine by our crazy little tsar,” referring to Vladimir Putin, he wrote in a message posted on social media.

>Our full article can be read here.

At least four people were killed and nine others wounded in Russian shelling that targeted the headquarters of the security services and a university in Kharkiv in Ukraine on Wednesday morning, Ukrainian rescue workers said.

“For the moment ten people have been able to be pulled out of the rubble, the preliminary toll is 4 dead and nine wounded,” the source continued, in a message on social networks at a time when the country’s second city, suffers an attack by the Russian armed forces.

Twenty-one people had been killed the day before in shelling, including that of the headquarters of the local administration.

Greece on Wednesday began evacuating its diplomats, journalists and citizens from the southeastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol in the face of the advance of Russian troops into the country, according to the Foreign Ministry.

“Mariupol is now under fire from the north and south, it is a besieged city,” Deputy Minister for European Affairs Miltiadis Varvitsiotis told Greek public broadcaster ERT. The journey of some 1100 km will be “difficult, even in terms of gasoline supply”, he said.

“We hope that the Ukrainian authorities will show understanding,” he added.

The President of the Republic will speak this Wednesday evening at 8 p.m., about the war in Ukraine, announced the Elysee.

Thursday, February 24, at the launch of the Russian invasion, “he had made the commitment to keep the French informed of the evolution of the situation,” adds the presidency, without further comment.

This speech will be followed live on BFMTV.

The European reference price of natural gas, the Dutch FTT, soared on Wednesday to 194.715 euros per megawatt hour (MWh), an all-time high, propelled by the war in Ukraine, russia being a major gas producer and exporter.

The price of British gas for delivery next month reached 463.83 pence per thermie (one unit of heat quantity), very close to its all-time high reached last December, at 470.83 pence.

A delegation of Russian negotiators is ready to continue talks with representatives of Kiev on Wednesday, the Kremlin spokesman said, nearly a week after the start of the Russian invasion of the country.

“Today, towards the beginning of the evening, our delegation will be there, we will wait for the Ukrainian negotiators,” Dmitry Peskov told reporters, saying he “hopes” that they come to the negotiations, without specifying the place.

On Monday, negotiations had brought together the Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Belarus, on the Ukrainian-Belarusian border. The latter had returned for “consultations in their respective capitals”, after agreeing to want a “second round” of talks.

>Our full article can be read here.

For the President of Georgia Salome Zurabishvili, “all the masks have fallen” before the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. According to her, Vladimir Putin “has before him a political, economic power and he will feel the effects”.

“It will not be a military power in the sense that it will not be attacked but there is real power and I believe it has never had that experience,” she added.

Asked what could stop the Russian president, Salome Zurabishvili replied: “Nobody knows.”

Salome Zurabishvili, President of Georgia, was the guest this Wednesday morning of BFMTV. According to her, “there is a very great determination” in Ukraine. “This is what President Putin was wrong about, he underestimated Zelensky,” she said.

“Putin is determined to go all the way,” she added.

The Ukrainian army claims to have killed more than 5840 Russian soldiers since the beginning of the Russian invasion of the country, according to a report on Wednesday published by the Ukrainian Ministry of Deense.

The Ukrainian armed forces also claim to have destroyed 211 tanks, 862 armored fighting vehicles, 31 helicopters, 30 aircraft.

Democratic countries must not “turn a blind eye to Russia’s military aggression” in Ukraine, Taiwan’s president warned on Wednesday, recalling that her island faces a threat of invasion similar to that of Ukraine.

“History teaches us that if we turn a blind eye to military aggression, we are only aggravating the threat to us,” President Tsai Ing-wen told a delegation of former U.S. military and security officials.

“The commitment of the Ukrainian people to protect their freedom and democracy, their intrepid dedication to defending their country have aroused deep empathy from the Taiwanese people, as we too are on the front lines of the battle for democracy,” she added.

Spain has decided to send “offensive military material” to the “Ukrainian resistance”, said Wednesday the head of the Spanish left-wing government, Pedro Sanchez, during an intervention before the Chamber of Deputies.

“As I see that there are (political) groups that question the government’s commitment” to participate in military aid to Ukraine, “I also want to announce to you that Spain will deliver offensive military equipment to the Ukrainian resistance,” Pedro Sanchez said.

On the seventh day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Kiev holds its breath. The Ukrainian capital, surrounded for several days by the enemy army, expects a large-scale assault, despite the significant civil resistance.

On Tuesday, the Russians intensified their offensive in the capital, multiplying bombings and extending the list of victims. A strike targeted the TV tower, killing five people and interrupting the broadcasting of the channels for an hour, according to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry.

> Our full article can be found here.

A convoy of 16 Frenchmen left the Ukrainian capital by car on Monday to reach Moldova. No guarantee on its safety. One of these French people testifies on BFMTV.

>> Our complete paper on these French people who leave Kiev on their own is to be found here

Spain has decided to send “offensive military equipment” to the “Ukrainian resistance”, said Wednesday the head of the Spanish left-wing government, Pedro Sanchez, during an intervention before the Chamber of Deputies.

“As I see that there are (political) groups that question the government’s commitment” to participate in military aid to Ukraine, “I also want to announce to you that Spain will deliver offensive military equipment to the Ukrainian resistance,” Pedro Sanchez said.

A week after Russia, could Belarus in turn attack Ukraine? The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense said on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday fear an attack on Belarus, a neighboring country whose regime is allied with Vladimir Putin.

“Belarusian troops have been put on high alert and are in the areas of concentration closest to the border with Ukraine,” the ministry said in a statement on Facebook.

“Ukrainians are no longer the brothers and sisters of the Russians,” Declared Inna Shevchenko on BFMTV/RMC, after pointing out that there was no “anti-war movement in Russia today”.

“We will never forgive this violence, this atrocious torture against the Ukrainian people, and we will never forget the cowardice of the Russians and Europeans,” she said, referring to Europe’s refusal to send armed troops to Ukraine.

“I understand that no one wants war with Russia, but we cannot escape the fact that Vladimir Putin wants war with the rest of the world.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday accused Moscow of seeking to “erase” Ukraine and its history, calling on Jews “not to remain silent,” after Russian strikes near Babi Yar, the site of a Nazi massacre.

“They have orders to erase our history, to erase our country, to erase us all,” he said in a video, urging countries around the world not to remain neutral.

“If Ukraine falls, the threat is going to be much closer for other European countries. The threat is going to be on the border of Poland and Romania,” said activist Inna Shevchenko.

“Putin has made it very clear that he is not threatening Ukraine, his ambitions go beyond Ukraine,” she said. Vladimir Putin has “gigantic ambitions to change the world order. He threatened Finland, Sweden, the whole world with nuclear weapons.”

“We have to be aware of the humanitarian crisis that is happening,” Inna Shevchenko told BFMTV/RMC on Wednesday morning.

“Civilians are being targeted, civilians are being killed right now,” she said, explaining that Russia is “bombing civilian areas, not military zones.” For her, the “war is against Ukraine because this country has committed the sin of independence, of democracy”.

Feminist activist FEMEN Inna Shevchenko, whose family is part of ukraine in Kherson, a city that the Russians took on Wednesday morning.

“There is a real war in the heart of Europe, and it’s not just about geopolitics, it’s about real lives of real people,” she said.

She recounted the dramatic daily life of her relatives on the spot. “My family for 7 days is hidden”, and “families trying to leave the city are shot, women give birth in bomb shelters…”

The Russian military said Wednesday morning it had seized the southern Ukrainian port city of Kherson near the Crimean peninsula after fierce fighting in recent hours.

“Units of the Russian army have taken full control of the regional capital of Kherson,” Russian armed forces spokesman Igor Konashenkov said, assuring that “civilian infrastructure” and public transport are functioning normally.

> Our full article can be found here.

Emmanuel Macron convenes this Wednesday at 9 am a new Defense Council dedicated to Ukraine, the third since the beginning Thursday of the Russian invasion, announced the Elysee Tuesday evening.

The head of state, who is also the current president of the European Union, is on the front line of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and has multiplied diplomatic meetings and phone calls to try to find a way out of the conflict and in the first place a ceasefire, on the sixth day of the war. Also on Tuesday, he spoke by phone with the leaders of India, Japan, Azerbaijan, Finland and Lithuania.

It is a long journey of 540 kilometers in a country at war, which has been engaged since Monday evening and is still ongoing. Étienne de Poncins, French ambassador to Ukraine, left the capital Kiev to join Lviv, in the west of the country, near the Polish border.

A trip on the instructions of Emmanuel Macron, while France has moved its embassy from the capital to this city located 70 kilometers from Poland, where the Russian offensive is less present.

The diplomat’s convoy consists of several diplomatic cars and vans, clearly identified with French flags on the windshields. The vehicles are escorted by the gendarmes of the embassy and by the GIGN, the Intervention Group of the National Gendarmerie.

>>The story of this high-risk displacement can be read here

Also living in Kharkiv, Ievgenii told BFMTV about the anguish of the night that has just ended. According to him, the Russians are seeking to “destroy everything” in Ukraine’s second city.

“A school was destroyed. I have the impression that they want to destroy the whole city. They are shooting at the ambulances, they attacked the military hospital,” Ievgenii told BFMTV.

While Russian paratroopers have been deployed in her city, Jenny, a resident of Kharkiv, tells BFMTV the sounds of shots and flights of fighter jets that enamelled the night.

“We hardly slept, we just managed to sleep in the early morning, from 4 to 6 hours. We heard gunshots all night, and the planes are very scary. The night was very complicated,” she explains.

Last Sunday, alongside his Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and his Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on television that he was “putting the deterrent forces of the Russian army on a special combat alert regime.” “Deterrent forces” composed in particular of nuclear weapons.

Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine initiated on February 24 by Vladimir Putin, the latter has been presented as an isolated and paranoid man. Under these conditions, could it single-handedly launch a nuclear attack, after having placed its “deterrent forces” under a “special combat alert regime”?

>> Explanations in our article to read here

The UN General Assembly is called to vote on Wednesday, after two days of speeches by its members, on a draft resolution intended to condemn Russia for the invasion of Ukraine and ask for an “immediate” withdrawal of its troops.

The West and the UN accuse Moscow of violating Article 2 of the UN Charter instructing its members to refrain from threats and the use of force to resolve a crisis. Russia, for its part, claims to exercise its right to self-defence, as provided for in Article 51 of the Charter.

To be adopted, the resolution led by the European Union in coordination with Kiev will have to obtain two-thirds of the votes for and against expressed.

The Sberbank Group, Russia’s main bank, announced on Wednesday that it was withdrawing from the European market, after being hit by massive financial sanctions in retaliation for Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

“In the current situation, Sberbank has decided to withdraw from the European market. The group’s subsidiary banks are facing abnormal outflows of funds and threats to the safety of their employees and offices,” the group said in a statement quoted by Russian news agencies.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is “more isolated than ever,” Biden told the U.S. Congress on Tuesday.

The US president threatened russian oligarchs to seize their “yachts, luxury apartments, and private jets”, from gains he said were dishonest.

As a premise, the United States has banned Russian planes from their airspace, a major sanction already decided by the European Union and Canada in response to the invasion of Ukraine.

Joe Biden officially announced this during his “State of the Union address to Congress” on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday.

US President Joe Biden called Vladminir Putin a “dictator” during his State of the Union address, nearly a week after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“The fact that a Russian dictator invaded a foreign country has a cost all over the planet,” Biden told the U.S. Congress. But “in the battle between democracy and autocracy, democracies are at the rendezvous, and the world is clearly choosing the side of peace and security,” said the US president.

Russian airborne troops landed in Kharkiv on tuesday night, the Ukrainian army said, citing ongoing fighting in the eastern Ukrainian city, the country’s second-largest.

“Russian airborne troops landed in Kharkiv (…) and attacked a local hospital,” the Ukrainian military said in a statement on Telegram. “A fight is underway between the invaders and the Ukrainians,” she said.

Downtown Kharkiv was the target of shelling on Tuesday, which destroyed the headquarters of the local administration.

Welcome to this live broadcast dedicated to the seventh day of war in Ukraine.