SVE NEWS & FRANCE24.COM Sharing Series — Macron wants Ukraine’s EU accession talks to start ‘by end of month’

Emmanuel Macron on Friday lashed out at what he called a “camp of pacifists” and the “spirit of defeat” as he hosted Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky for talks.

“We know this camp of pacifists. It is the one of capitulators. It’s the spirit of defeat. We are not like this,” Macron told reporters in Paris alongside Zelensky.

As Ukrainian pilots train on American-built F-16 fighters, France’s announcement Thursday that it will supply Mirage jets will bring Kyiv a mix-and-match air fleet in line with its existing jumble of Western-supplied weapons, AFP reports.

President Emmanuel Macron said that France would supply Mirage 2000-5 fighters, which will join the F-16 and Russian-made MIG-29 and Sukhoi models already in service.

“The F-16 and Mirage integration dilemma is part of a longer trend for Ukraine’s armed forces since 2022 … Ukraine has been struggling with integrating and adapting its newly received defence systems,” said Ivan Klyszcz of the Estonia-based International Centre for Defence and Security.

There are many militaries around the world that operate different models of fighter plane.

But Kyiv’s challenge is all the greater as it takes on new systems in the heat of Russia’s two-year invasion, as well as combining modern Western kit with Soviet-era equipment.

“Ukraine’s military engineers have been agile and highly skilled at adapting and integrating new systems,” Klyszcz said.

A Ukrainian-Russian man detained in France has been charged with plotting to commit a violent act in a “terrorist” plot, the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office has said.

The man had arrived in France several days ago, said the prosecutors. Earlier this week they said that France’s domestic intelligence agency had detained the man, 26, on suspicion of planning a violent act after he injured himself in an explosion.

The civilian death toll in Ukraine last month rose sharply, to 174, which was the highest level in nearly a year amid an increase in missile and bomb strikes in populated areas around Kharkiv, the UN human rights office has said.

Overall, the May toll represented an increase of 31% from April and the highest since June 2023, according to the report from the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine.

Russia launched an offensive in the Kharkiv region, bordering Russia, in May, and the city has been hit almost daily with attacks intensifying in recent weeks. Strikes have sometimes hit civilian infrastructure such as a shopping centre on May 25, killing 19 civilians, the report said.

Other deadly strikes last month hit a recreation centre, a printing house and a multi-storey residential building, it said.

“The attacks on a shopping centre and printing house in Kharkiv city highlight the stark vulnerability of civilians engaged in everyday activities, where even routine tasks like buying supplies to repair damaged homes can result in the loss of life and loved ones,” said Danielle Bell, head of the Ukraine monitoring mission.

During talks with Ukraine’s Zelensky earlier today, US President Joe Biden pledged another $225 million in military aid to Kyiv, casting the additional aid as money to “reconstruct the electric grid” in Ukraine.

Aides for the US president said the reference was to additional air defence and missile defence systems, designed to protect Ukraine’s infrastructure from Russian attacks.

US officials said the latest aid package would include munitions for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, as well as mortar systems and an array of artillery rounds.

“The president emphasized that US support for Ukraine is unwavering,” the White House said statement, adding that the two leaders agreed to meet again at the coming G7 summit in Italy.

The Russian Defence Ministry has accused Ukrainian forces of firing five US-supplied ATACMS missiles at the Russian-controlled eastern Ukrainian city of Luhansk in an attack it said had wounded 20 people, including children.

Separately, Leonid Pasechnik, the Russia-installed governor of the region, said on the Telegram messenger app that three people had been killed in the strike and that the total number of victims had risen to 35, including three children.

The Defence Ministry said in a statement that its air defence systems had shot down four of the five missiles, but that one of the missiles had damaged two residential apartment blocks, something it alleged was deliberate.

There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.

The Russian economy is growing despite heavy international sanctions and the country has expanded economic ties with countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia, President Vladimir Putin has told the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum as he seeks to court investors.

Addressing the leaders of Bolivia and Zimbabwe and business leaders, Putin said Russia “remains one of the key participants in world trade”, despite the fact that the country is under sweeping sanctions for sending troops in Ukraine.

The forum has been used by Russia for decades as a showcase for touting the country’s development, though Western officials and investors have steered clear of the session since sanctions cut off much of Russia’s trade with Western Europe, the US and their allies.

The main driver of Russia’s economic growth is the fighting in Ukraine — now as important to the Kremlin economically as it is politically.

In his talks with Biden, Zelensky pressed for all Americans to support his country as it seeks to fend off continued Russian attacks, drawing a parallel with World War II.

The Ukrainian leader thanked US lawmakers for eventually coming together to approve a weapons package, which has allowed Ukraine to stem Russian advances in recent weeks.

“It’s very important that in this unity, United States of America, all American people stay with Ukraine like it was during World War II,” Zelensky said. “How the United States helped to save human lives, to save Europe. And we count on your continuing support in standing with us shoulder to shoulder.”

Shelling in the Russian-controlled city of Luhansk in eastern Ukraine has killed three people, Russia’s emergency services ministry has said.

An apartment block partially collapsed after being hit, it said, adding: “Unfortunately three people were killed.”

Japanese off-road and engineering vehicles pledged by Tokyo last year have arrived in Ukraine, the Japanese embassy in Kyiv has announced.

“At the request of the government, the Ministry of Defence and the Self-Defence Forces provided a series of vehicles under a decision made in May 2023,” the embassy said in a statement.

The statement says 101 vehicles, including Toyota HMV SUVs and Morooka PC-065B engineering vehicles, were sent to Poland on June 5. After that, the batch was transferred to Ukraine.