Ukraine’s membership will make NATO “stronger”, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday (July 11th), addressing the crowd in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, which is hosting a summit until Wednesday. key to the Alliance. Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Vilnius to take part in the NATO summit, during which Ukraine must receive security guarantees for lack of accelerated accession to the Alliance it wants to join.
The leaders of NATO member countries have agreed to invite Ukraine to join the Alliance “when the conditions are right”, according to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
NATO evokes Ukraine’s membership without a timetable, despite Zelensky’s calls
“The future of Ukraine is in NATO”. The members of the Atlantic Alliance tried on Tuesday to give pledges to Ukraine, however far from the expectations of its president Volodymyr Zelensky who demanded a timetable for membership. At a summit in Vilnius, some 35 kilometers from the border with Belarus, an ally of Moscow, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg defended the “strong” formulation chosen after tough negotiations. “We will be able to send Ukraine an invitation to join the Alliance when the Allies have decided and the conditions are met”: after a meeting lasting several hours, the leaders of the 31 members of the Alliance have opted for a diplomatic formula weighed with a trebuchet.
A few hours earlier, just before landing in Vilnius, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had denounced in a particularly virulent tweet the procrastination of the Alliance, almost 18 months after the start of the Russian invasion. “It seems that there is no will either to give Ukraine an invitation to NATO, or to make it a member of the Alliance,” he said. Deeming it “absurd” that his country did not have a timetable for membership, he felt that this encouraged Moscow to “continue its terror” in Ukraine.
NATO summit: expected security commitments for Ukraine
The West will present on Wednesday a plan of long-term commitments for Ukraine’s security. The Ukrainian leader will have talks with several leaders. In an attempt to reassure him, the G7 countries (Germany, Canada, United States, France, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom) should publish a joint statement on support for Kiev in the years to come, in order to help him to fight Russia and counter future aggression. “As Ukraine makes strategic progress in its counteroffensive […]we are increasing our efforts to protect Ukraine in the long term,” said British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
A Ukrainian locked up in a detention center near Paris with a view to his deportation
A Ukrainian, representing according to the authorities a “disorder of public order”, was locked up in a detention center near Paris with a view to his expulsion to his country, we learned on Tuesday, a decision deemed “scandalous” by the association which accompanies it. The 37-year-old Ukrainian, who was issued an obligation to leave French territory (OQTF) on July 3, was placed last weekend in the administrative detention center (CRA) of Mesnil-Amelot, attached to the he Parisian airport of Roissy, where foreigners in an irregular situation are locked up pending their expulsion, according to the association La Cimade.
“It’s a mind-blowing and scandalous situation on several counts: firstly because it comes at a time when France is offering unconditional welcome to people fleeing the war in Ukraine,” lamented Paul Chiron to AFP. a manager of La Cimade. “Then because even if he comes from a region far from the front and the fighting, Ukraine remains a country at war. This decision therefore seems completely illegal under international law, which prohibits expulsions to countries in war”, explains the head of the association, whose organization has been supporting this Ukrainian for a few days.
Russia says it has advanced 1.5 km on a portion of the front in eastern Ukraine
Russian troops have succeeded in breaking through 1.5 kilometers deep on a portion of the front near Lyman, in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, the Russian Defense Minister announced on Tuesday. After repelling a Ukrainian offensive, “Russian units launched a counterattack, advancing 1.5 kilometers deep on two kilometers of front” near Lyman, a town recaptured in October 2022 by the Ukrainian army, said Sergei Shoigu on television.
Ukrainian troops last week reported Russian assaults around Lyman, an important railway junction located about 50 kilometers northeast of Kramatorsk, the main city under Ukrainian control in the east of the country. Sergei Shoigu added that Ukrainian forces continued to “try to break through our defenses in different areas”, saying there had been “waves of attacks” in the past two days. But “the enemy has not achieved its objectives in any area” since the start of the Ukrainian counter-offensive in early June, continued the Minister of Defense.
Macron announces delivery of missiles in high demand by Ukrainians
French President Emmanuel Macron has announced the delivery to Ukraine of long-range Scalp missiles capable of hitting the Russian army at long range in the east of the country. “We have decided to deliver new missiles allowing deep strikes to Ukraine”, declared the French head of state on his arrival at the NATO summit in Vilnius, thus confirming increased support from France in Kyiv. “I think today what is important for us is to send a message of support for Ukraine, of NATO unity and of determination that Russia cannot, must not win. this war,” he added.
Paris pointed out that the first Scalp have already started to be delivered to Ukraine, without further details on the volumes already sent or to come. “The number delivered to Ukraine is quite significant but it will preserve French stocks very well above the capacities we need,” assured a French military source.