As French and Ukrainian officials work on the aftermath, the war continues. In the aftermath of the International Conference in Support of Ukraine, organized in Paris, and having raised nearly a billion euros in donations to the population, kyiv wakes up once again under the bombs. This Wednesday morning explosions were heard in the capital. Moscow is continuing its strategy of harassing the country’s energy infrastructure.
The objective: to deprive the Ukrainians of energy, and to make the Ukrainians spend a murderous winter, while the Russian troops are retreating. According to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, the Ukrainian counter-offensive would have enabled the country to recover 54% of the territory invaded by Russia since this summer. It is still necessary to preserve the liberated territories. Ukraine has been asking for weeks for the delivery of Patriot defense systems, the ultimate in anti-missile devices. Washington would be on the point of accepting. The summary of this 294th day of the Russian invasion.
Explosions were heard in central kyiv on Wednesday morning, the mayor of the Ukrainian capital, Vitaly Klitschko, announced after an apparent drone attack. The latter specifies that the anti-aircraft defense system had shot down ten Iranian-made drones over kyiv and its surroundings. With the onset of winter, Moscow is targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure as a priority, to undermine Ukrainian morale.
A strategy which was strongly condemned this Tuesday by Emmanuel Macron in Paris, while France organized the International Conference of Aid and Support for Ukraine. “Russia, whose military weaknesses have come to light, has opted for a cynical strategy”, lamented Emmanuel Macron, in front of more than 70 delegations of States or organizations who came to try to thwart the Russian strikes. . The French president repeated that these strikes constituted “war crimes” and would “not go unpunished”.
- 1 billion for Ukraine
The international conference in support of Ukraine has also raised approximately one billion euros in donations. “I am happy to announce that we have exceeded” the 800 million euros in emergency aid requested by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday at the opening of the meeting, rejoiced the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Catherine Colonna, alongside Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Chmygal. Of the billion euros announced on Tuesday, 415 million will be allocated to the energy sector, 25 million to the water sector, 38 million will go to food, 17 million to health, 22 to transport, the rest, i.e. nearly 493 million euros, not yet being broken down, said the French minister.
- France pushes for partnerships around reconstruction
It’s hard to think of contract signings under bombardment in Ukraine, yet Ukrainian and Western leaders are already pushing for private investment to begin rebuilding a country ravaged by nearly a year of war.” only the political support that will make it possible to rebuild Ukraine,” said French President Emmanuel Macron, in the preamble to a Franco-Ukrainian conference in favor of the reconstruction of the country, Tuesday at the French Ministry of the Economy.
“It is the companies that will implement their solutions to help the recovery”, added the Head of State, and “this, without waiting for the end of the war”. The objective of this event, coming just after an international conference at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs which raised more than one billion euros, is clear: to allow “any French SME or ETI (mid-sized company , Editor’s note) to be aware of the construction sites and to be able to contribute and participate in calls for tenders”, said the Elysée on Friday.
The list of invited groups ranges from behemoths of the CAC40 such as Alstom, Engie, or TotalEnergies, to more modest-sized companies in architecture, asbestos removal, telephony, IT… with particular emphasis on the energy, health, agri-food, digital and infrastructure. The reconstruction of Ukraine is pushed by Ukraine, according to which “war does not mean that it is forbidden to invest”, noted the Minister of Commerce, Yulia Svyrydenko.
- US to send Patriot Defense systems
Soon Patriot defense systems in Ukraine? According to CNN, the Biden administration is finalizing plans to send those missiles, and could make an announcement in the coming days. The Pentagon’s plan still needs to be approved by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin before being sent to President Joe Biden for his signature, the channel said.
Ukraine has been asking for this system for months. Mounted on a trailer, equipped with a particularly powerful radar, and with a range of 240 kilometers, much greater than the Himars, this device could help kyiv to protect its energy infrastructures harassed by Moscow. But the logistical challenges of delivering and using it are immense. In particular, Ukrainians will have to be trained in their use at a US army base in Grafenwoehr, Germany, officials told CNN.
- Zelensky calls for demining Ukraine
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday called on the international community to help his country get rid of mines and other unexploded devices, which he says infest an area the size of Cambodia or Uruguay. 174,000 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory are infested with mines or other unexploded devices,” Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video address to New Zealand Parliament.
“There is no real peace for any child who might die from a hidden Russian anti-personnel mine,” he insisted, asking New Zealand, whose army is experienced in matter, to lead efforts to clear mines and mitigate the environmental consequences of the conflict. According to Zelensky, the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov are also infested with floating mines which have claimed the lives of “hundreds of thousands of living creatures, who have died as a result of the hostilities”. He accused Russia of perpetrating “ecocide” in his country.