The symbol is as strong as the gesture. US President Joe Biden adopted on Monday a device dating from the Second World War allowing to extend his powers within the framework of the defense of Ukraine. The “Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act” resumes the system adopted in 1941 by Franklin D. Roosevelt to defend Europe at the time.
This commitment could facilitate the American military aid brought to kyiv, already high, at some 3.8 billion dollars since the beginning of the conflict. At the same time, the fighting is intensifying this Tuesday, May 10 in the South and East of Ukraine.
- An emblematic device of the Second World War
In a response with a strong historical charge to the May 9 military parade in Moscow, Joe Biden therefore signed a law allowing the acceleration of the sending of military equipment to Ukraine. “Ukrainians are fighting for their lives every day,” he told reporters in the Oval Office, adding, “This fight is expensive, but giving in to aggression would be even more expensive.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky saw in this signature a “historic step”: “I am convinced that we will win again together. And we will defend democracy in Ukraine. And in Europe. Like 77 years ago, “said he wrote on Twitter.
This “lend-lease” law is “based on a World War II program designed to help Europe resist Hitler”. The text “was supported by almost all members of Congress” American, with the exception of 10 elected House of Representatives who voted against, noted the White House. “I am convinced that Putin believed he could break NATO, that he believed he could break the European Union,” said Joe Biden, during a political fundraising operation. Since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24, the Biden administration has provided some $3.8 billion in military aid to Kyiv.
In a hurry to see this text pass, which should also allow the Americans to replenish their own arms stocks, Joe Biden made a political concession on Monday. In a press release, he said he was “ready to accept” that Congress, which the Democrats control by a hair’s breadth, vote “immediately” on this funding, but only later validate another envelope devoted to the fight against the Covid-19.
- Russia ‘defending itself’ in Ukraine, says Putin
The Russian president proclaimed on Monday that his army was fighting in Ukraine to defend “the fatherland” against an “unacceptable threat”, in an address in Red Square followed by the traditional May 9 military parade which marks the victory over the Nazis in 1945 and the sacrifice of millions of Soviets. He claimed that Ukraine was preparing an offensive against pro-Russian separatists in the east of the country, that it wanted to acquire the atomic bomb and was supported by NATO.
“An absolutely unacceptable threat was building up, directly on our borders,” he said, again accusing Ukraine of neo-Nazism and calling its offensive a “preventive response” and “the only right decision”.
After his speech, 11,000 soldiers, dozens of vehicles, including strategic missile launchers and tanks, marched through Red Square. Among them, units presented as returning from the Ukrainian front. The aerial part had to be canceled due to unfavorable weather, according to the Kremlin.
An hour before the Russian president’s speech, Volodymyr Zelensky released a video in which he hammered: “We won’t let anyone annex this victory, take it over.” “To speak of a defensive action is blatant nonsense, to speak of anything other than a premeditated war” is “an affront to historical truth”, for his part reacted Monday the spokesman of the American diplomacy Ned Price .
French President Emmanuel Macron, however, called on Monday not to “humiliate” Russia because “tomorrow we will have a peace to build”. Rather than kyiv joining the EU which would take “several decades”, the head of state proposes the creation of a “European political community” which could accommodate Ukraine and other “democratic European nations adhering to our core values”.
- Fighting intensifies in the South and East
Fighting is intensifying in southern and eastern Ukraine, where US arms shipments are expected to accelerate. Missiles also targeted the Odessa region, the Ukrainian army counting seven strikes and deploring one dead and five wounded. The President of the European Council Charles Michel, on a surprise visit to this large southern city on Monday, was forced to take shelter. “You are not alone. The EU is on your side” in the face of Russian “aggression”, he declared alongside Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Chmygal. “We will be with you as long as it takes,” he continued.
In addition, the Russians “continue to prepare offensive operations in the Lyman and Severodonetsk regions”, in Donbass (east), the Ukrainian general staff announced on Tuesday morning, adding that the artillery fire and strikes aerial attacks continued on the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol. “Very intense battles were taking place around Roubijné and Bilogorivka” in the Lugansk region (east), Governor Serguiï Gaïdaï indicated the day before.
- Special meeting of the Human Rights Council
The UN Human Rights Council will organize Thursday at the request of kyiv, supported by dozens of countries, an extraordinary session on “the deterioration of the human rights situation in Ukraine” invaded by Russia.
This is the first meeting devoted to this subject since the UN General Assembly suspended Russia in early April from the highest body of the international organization in the field of human rights.
On the same day, the UN Security Council should meet for the 16th time since the start of the Russian invasion, at the request of France and Mexico. This session follows the bombing this weekend of a school in eastern Ukraine, in which 60 civilians were killed, according to kyiv.
- Towards NATO membership for Finland and Sweden
After years apart from military alliances, Sweden and Finland are preparing for a possible NATO candidacy to try to dissuade their Russian neighbor from attacking them, after the invasion of Ukraine. For decades most Swedes and Finns have been committed to their policy of military non-alignment. But the invasion of Ukraine on February 24 marked a drastic turning point, especially for Finland, which shares a border of nearly 1,300 kilometers with Russia.
While support for integration has hovered around 20 to 30% for 20 years, the latest polls now suggest that more than 70% of Finns and 50% of Swedes support membership.
In both countries, many parties have or are in the process of changing their position on the issue. In the Finnish Parliament, a very clear majority in favor of membership is emerging. In Sweden, the Social Democratic Party, historically opposed to NATO, must decide between May 15 and 24, while the right-wing opposition is pushing for membership.