A Frenchman in prison in Russia: “He’s a spy.” Russian raids with drones and cruise missiles. Spiral of Accusations

The spiral of tension between Moscow and Paris seems to have no end. President Emmanuel Macron “declares that France is ready to participate directly in the military conflict in Ukraine,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denounced, after the French president announced his intention to send Mirage fighters to Kiev and create a “French brigade” of 4,500 Ukrainian soldiers fighting the Russians.

Macron’s statements, made in a television interview with TF1 and France 2, follow his assumptions that he would directly send Western troops to the field and create a coalition of countries to send instructors to Ukraine. All statements “very, very provocative, which aggravate the escalation on the continent and do not lead to anything positive,” said Peskov.

Macron’s new initiatives
The new initiatives announced by France are accompanied by the assent expressed by Macron himself to the Kiev troops to the use of weapons supplied by NATO countries also to bomb Russian territory, at a very difficult time for Ukrainian forces on the ground.

The Russian Advance in Donetsk
In the last few hours, the Moscow Ministry of Defense announced that Russian soldiers had captured another village, Paraskovievka, in the eastern region of Donetsk. Italy, which has already spoken out against the use of Western missiles to hit Russia, has reiterated its distance from France. “Macron’s position is not Italy’s, we must not follow anyone, we must avoid escalation,” stressed Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani.

According to the leader of the Rassemblement National, Marine Le Pen, “you get the feeling that Macron wants a war.” But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, speaking before the National Assembly in the aftermath of his participation in the celebrations for the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings, thanked the Elysée’s tenant for “not having left Ukraine at a decisive moment.”