The drone battle still rages. Ukraine and Russia said they shot down dozens of drones overnight Thursday into Friday, as both sides launched nighttime attacks on targets behind front lines.
On the diplomatic front, the United States congratulated Sweden, now officially a member of NATO. While Volodymyr Zelensky is due to meet his Turkish counterpart in Istanbul this Friday.
Information to remember
⇒ Dozens of drones shot down in Ukraine and Russia
⇒ After long negotiations, Sweden officially joined NATO
⇒ Joe Biden urges Congress to help Ukraine
Putin celebrates female soldiers
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, on the occasion of International Women’s Day, praised female soldiers fighting in Ukraine and those supporting Moscow’s attack on its neighbor. Vladimir Putin also issued, on March 8, a decree pardoning 52 women convicted and detained in prison, some of whom have military parents.
In his speech, the Russian president said he paid special tribute to “women who are in the special military operation zone” in Ukraine and “who are carrying out combat missions.”
kyiv and Moscow say they have shot down dozens of enemy drones
Ukraine and Russia said they shot down dozens of drones overnight from Thursday to Friday. According to the Ukrainian Air Force, Russia fired 37 Iranian “Shahed” explosive drones and three missiles into Ukrainian territory overnight. In the Kharkiv region, which is subject to frequent artillery, rocket and drone attacks, five people including a three-year-old child were injured in a strike, announced Governor Oleg Synegoubov, who published photos on his Telegram account showing stores with blown out windows and a crater next to a residential building.
In Moscow, the Defense Ministry said it had intercepted 16 Ukrainian drones at dawn Friday. Fifteen of them were destroyed in the southern Volgograd region, the closest part of which is about 300 kilometers from the front lines in eastern Ukraine.
After long negotiations, Sweden joined NATO
After the Russian invasion of Ukraine and two years of negotiations, Sweden officially became the 32nd member of NATO on Thursday, thus putting an end to two centuries of neutrality and then military non-alignment of the Scandinavian country. “Mr Prime Minister, welcome to NATO, the most powerful military alliance the world has ever seen,” US President Joe Biden told Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, present in the audience, in his speech on the State of the Union, Thursday evening before the American Congress.
This step marks “a victory for freedom”, declared the Swedish Prime Minister during this ceremony in Washington. The ratification of this accession was obtained through a tough struggle after long negotiations with certain members of the Alliance.
Joe Biden urges Congress to help Ukraine
US President Joe Biden assured Thursday that he would not “bend” to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, urging Congress to vote for aid to Ukraine to “stop Putin” in his invasion. In his State of the Union address to Congress, the Democratic president accused his predecessor and likely Republican opponent in the November presidential election, Donald Trump, of “submitting” to Vladimir Putin.
“I assure you that Putin will not stop at Ukraine. But Ukraine can stop Putin if we support it and provide it with the weapons it needs to defend itself,” he assured, urging the Congress to release aid to Kiev, which has since been frozen by partisan quarrels between Democrats and Republicans. “That’s all Ukraine is asking for. It is not asking for American soldiers,” he added, in reference to the debate launched by French President Emmanuel Macron’s comments on the possible deployment of troops.
28 countries gathered at a meeting in support of kyiv, Paris
Twenty-eight countries participated on Thursday in a follow-up meeting devoted to support for Ukraine, organized by France with the objective of doing more and better to defeat Russia. Ukraine, several member states of the European Union, the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada were represented at this ministerial meeting by videoconference, the French Ministry of the Armed Forces said in a press release on Thursday evening.
The meeting lasted almost three hours, we learned from two European diplomatic sources. This meeting followed the international meeting in support of Ukraine which took place in Paris on February 26, at the initiative of French President Emmanuel Macron. The countries worked on eight projects on Thursday: increasing munitions deliveries to Ukraine, destocking principles, cyber defense, protection of Ukraine’s border with Belarus, protection of vulnerable states, demining, industrial production in Ukraine and the “9th coalition” on strikes behind the front line, the press release specifies.
Volodymyr Zelensky in Istanbul on Friday
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected in Istanbul on Friday where he will be received by his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the presidency and the Turkish Foreign Ministry announced on Thursday. “The situation between Ukraine and Russia and the latest contacts concerning the relaunch of a secure corridor in the Black Sea” will be at the center of the meeting, according to a press release from the presidency posted on the X network.
The Ukrainian president made his first visit to Turkey at the beginning of July since the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022. He then had a long interview with the Turkish president, who maintains close ties with both kyiv and Moscow.