Vladimir Putin warned the West on Thursday of a “real threat” of nuclear war in the event of an escalation of the conflict in Ukraine. This threat was made during his speech to the Nation, an annual high mass during which he defined Russia’s priorities.
In a calm tone, under very regular applause from the audience made up of the Russian elite, he returned to the controversial remarks of his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, who this week raised the possibility of sending troops Western countries in Ukraine. “They (Westerners) talked about the possibility of sending military contingents to Ukraine […]. But the consequences of these interventions would really be more tragic,” he said from Gostiny Dvor, a congress center near Moscow’s Red Square.
“They must understand that we, too, have weapons capable of hitting targets on their territory. Everything they are inventing at the moment, in addition to scaring the whole world, is a real threat of conflict with use of nuclear weapons and therefore the destruction of civilization,” continued Vladimir Putin.
Information to remember
⇒ The French Minister of the Armed Forces called on Putin to “not be irresponsible”
⇒ France will order 2,000 French kamikaze drones, partly intended for Ukraine
⇒ The head of Russian diplomacy Sergei Lavrov is expected in Turkey this Friday
Threats from Vladimir Putin: Paris warns “not to escalate”
French Minister of the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu on Thursday called on Vladimir Putin to “not be irresponsible”, after the Russian president once again raised the nuclear threat. “I listened carefully to what the President of the Russian Federation said this morning. When we represent a nuclear power, we have no right to be irresponsible and to escalate,” said Sébastien Lecornu to journalists after a visit to the drone company Delair, in Labège, near Toulouse.
The Russian president “also spoke about the threats coming from the West. There are no threats weighing on the Russian Federation,” continued Sébastien Lecornu. “It is a speech which consists of pretending to be the victim and the attacked, while everyone knows very well that Russia is the aggressor in Ukraine and that it is showing a new aggressiveness and playing with the thresholds, including with regard to French interests,” he said. “The Russian threat is even stronger today than it was two years ago […] the context is toughening considerably,” indicated Sébastien Lecornu.
Paris will order 2,000 French kamikaze drones, partly intended for Ukraine
The French Ministry of the Armed Forces will order 2,000 remotely operated munitions (MTO) of French design in the coming weeks, the first 100 of which are intended to be delivered to Ukraine by this summer, Sébastien Lecornu announced on Thursday. “I made the decision to order 2,000 remotely operated munitions, both for the needs of the French army and for Ukraine,” declared the minister during the visit to the drone manufacturer’s factory. Air. “Kamikaze drones are absolutely fundamental in the conduct of operations” and will be able to constitute a “complement to the Caesar cannon in terms of artillery”, he argued.
Currently faced with a shortage of shells, kyiv is using drones loaded with explosives on a large scale, particularly small drones from the civilian market DIYed to carry an explosive charge. Paris intends in particular to take advantage of the feedback provided by the use of these drones in Ukraine to improve protection technologies against electronic warfare and GPS jamming massively used by Russian forces.
Russian pleads guilty in the United States
A Russian national pleaded guilty Thursday in a case of illegally exporting electronic equipment to Russia for possible military use, in violation of sanctions taken after the invasion of Ukraine, the US Department of Justice announced.
Arrested in September 2023, Maxim Marchenko, 51, a Russian citizen residing in Hong Kong, pleaded guilty to money laundering and smuggling, two charges carrying maximum sentences of 20 and 10 years in prison respectively, the ministry said. His sentencing hearing before a federal judge in New York has been set for May 29. The network organized from Hong Kong by Maxim Marchenko and two unidentified Russian accomplices “fraudulently acquired from American suppliers large quantities of micro-electronic equipment for dual civil and military use for the benefit of recipients in Russia,” according to a press release. of the ministry.
“Once again, the Justice Department is holding accountable those who would help the Kremlin in its unjust war of aggression against Ukraine,” said Deputy Justice Minister for the National Security Division, Matthew Olsen, quoted in a press release.
Sergei Lavrov in Antalya: a new agreement on security in the Black Sea?
The head of Russian diplomacy Sergei Lavrov is expected this Friday in Turkey, whose president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is trying to relaunch an initiative to secure the movement of ships in the Black Sea.
The Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs is announced for two days at the Diplomatic Forum in Antalya (south), an annual meeting of Turkish diplomacy with friendly countries. He is due to meet his counterpart Hakan Fidan there and will probably meet with the Turkish head of state, as during his visits to Ankara.