US President Joe Biden is meeting, this Wednesday, February 22, in Warsaw with the group of nine leaders of the NATO countries of Central and Eastern Europe, in the presence of the Secretary General of the Atlantic Alliance, to assure them of the Washington’s “unwavering” support for Moscow the day after a belligerent speech by Vladimir Putin.
This demonstration of support, planned for the presidential palace in Warsaw, aims to reassure these nine countries (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia) whose the common point is to be former members of the Soviet Union or the Warsaw Pact and to be on the eastern flank of NATO.
Russia promises to limit its nuclear arsenal
Russia has said it will continue to abide by the New Start treaty limitation on its nuclear arsenal — despite President Vladimir Putin’s shock announcement that President Vladimir Putin would suspend participation in the landmark Russian-US disarmament deal on Tuesday the 21st of February. “Russia intends to maintain a responsible approach and will continue, during the life of the treaty, to strictly observe the quantitative limits of strategic offensive weapons,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement a few hours later.
France had rightly called on the country to “show responsibility and return to its suspension announcement as soon as possible”, immediately after Vladimir Putin’s impassioned speech from Moscow. This agreement is the last bilateral nuclear disarmament agreement linking Moscow and Washington, which had been extended until February 5, 2026. It constitutes “an essential instrument of the international architecture of nuclear arms control and strategic stability”, recalls the French Ministry of Defence.
The Russian ministry justified this suspension decision by the “destructive actions of the United States”, which it accused of multiple violations of the text signed in 2010, which “compromise its functioning”. On the one hand, according to Moscow, Washington’s “extreme hostility” and its “open commitment to a malicious escalation of the conflict in Ukraine” have created a “fundamentally different security environment” for Russia.
For Moscow, the arsenals of the three NATO powers – the United States, France and the United Kingdom “must be combined and taken into account together in the process of limiting and reducing” nuclear development. Finally, Russia claims that the United States is developing anti-missile shield systems capable of intercepting Russian warheads renders the New Start treaty ineffective. According to Russian diplomacy, Moscow can cancel the suspension of New Start if Washington shows “good faith” with a view to “global de-escalation”.
The tone rises between Wagner and the Russian General Staff
The boss of the famous Russian paramilitary group Wagner, which has fought alongside Vladimir Putin by providing thousands of men since the start of the war, accused his country’s general staff of “treason” on Tuesday. According to him, the latter refuses to provide equipment to his mercenaries, on the front line on the eastern front of Ukraine. These statements by the businessman Evguéni Prigojine mark an escalation in the tensions between his Wagner group and the Russian army, in competition on the ground in Ukraine. They were already palpable in recent weeks, as Wagner Russian forces sometimes contradicted each other on their mutual advances around the city of Bakhmout.
“The Chief of Staff and the Minister of Defense distribute orders at all costs asking not only not to give ammunition to the paramilitary group Wagner, but also not to help it with air transport”, Yevgeni Prigojine said in a voice recording published by his press service on Telegram. “There is a frontal opposition, which is nothing less than an attempt to destroy Wagner. It can be likened to a betrayal of the fatherland, as Wagner fights for Bakhmout, suffering hundreds of casualties every day,” he added.
The ministry responded in the evening with a statement detailing the number of ammunition supplied to “volunteer assault squadrons”, the name the army appears to use for Wagner’s men. While Yevgeny Prigozhin has repeatedly criticized the Russian high command in the past, this ad hominem attack on President Vladimir Putin’s two main power figures (the Chief of Staff and the Minister of Defense) is clearly an escalation. and illustrates the tension on the Russian side, a few days before the anniversary of the launch of the offensive against Ukraine.
The appalling human toll of a year of war
Sad anniversary that of February 24: a year ago, Vladimir Putin released his troops on Ukraine, for what was supposed to be a lightning operation. A year of war later, kyiv continues to resist, but the human toll is terrifying. More than 180,000 dead or injured among Russian soldiers, 100,000 on the Ukrainian side, according to Norway. Other Western sources mention 150,000 casualties on each side. To be compared, for the Russian side, to the 15,000 soldiers of the Red Army killed in ten years of war in Afghanistan (1979-1989).
We remember the battle of Mariupol, a port city bombarded for three months until May. More than 20,000 Ukrainian civilians perished in the battle, which ended in May, kyiv estimates. In total, they would be 30,000 to 40,000 civilians to have lost their lives in the conflict, according to Western sources. Most of the victims died in Russian bombings, according to the UN. As in Dnipro, where in mid-January a cruise missile strike against an apartment building killed at least 45 people, including six children. The Kremlin has denied being responsible.
Less deadly for the moment but extremely dangerous in the long term, mines. About 30% of Ukrainian territory is polluted, according to kyiv. Ukraine is also accused by Human Rights Watch HRW of having disseminated antipersonnel mines in the region of Izioum (east). It will take decades according to specialists to decontaminate the soil.
This war will remain associated with indelible images: the corpses of civilians scattered in a street in Boutcha after the withdrawal of Russian forces in April. Kramatorsk station bombed as thousands of civilians tried to evacuate the area. A maternity hospital hit in Mariupol in March, and the image of a pregnant woman being evacuated on a stretcher – she will not survive. Nearly 65,000 cases of alleged war crimes have been reported, according to EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders. Executions, rapes, torture, and kidnapping of children – more than 16,000 transferred to Russia or to an area under Russian control, according to Kiev – have been attributed to Russian troops, accused in September by UN investigators of having committed large-scale war crimes.
Paris monitors Chinese companies
France is monitoring the activity of Chinese companies likely to provide aid to Russia, the French Foreign Minister said on Tuesday, as the Sino-Russian rapprochement worries more and more Westerners. “There are private Chinese companies whose activity we are watching closely,” said Catherine Colonna, when asked about a potential strategic partnership between China and Russia on the public television channel France 5.
Last weekend, US Foreign Minister Antony Blinken told CBS News that Chinese companies were already providing “non-lethal aid” for the Russian war effort. He then noted that there was “no distinction between private companies and state companies”. Beyond pure armament, a whole arsenal of help can be considered such as bulletproof vests, food rations, etc.
The minister also assured that France spoke “completely diplomatically and quite clearly” to Beijing of its wish that Beijing “not lend a hand to Russia”. Finally, she felt that Westerners should see more clearly about China’s position in New York, during the meeting of the UN Security Council on February 24, a date which will mark the first anniversary of the invasion of China. Ukraine by Russia.
The French defense industry must step up the pace
In the context of war in Europe, the French defense industry must “put itself in stimulation” to meet external demand and the possible needs of national forces, said Tuesday in Dakar the French Minister for the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu.
“We cannot say that we have strategic autonomy if we need Pierre, Paul, Jacques, in the four corners of the planet to manufacture our powder”, he added, when asked about the capacity of French industrialists. to assist Ukraine while responding to the needs and requests of national forces and foreign partners. A ministry official cited the example of the Caesar cannon, of which France delivered copies to Ukraine and which “everyone wants to buy”. French industry must “be able to make mass, especially for our army”, he told AFP on condition of anonymity.