Russia-Ukraine war: ‘mortal’ Europe needs stronger defence, says French president – as it happened
Emmanuel Macron says Europe faces existential threat from Russian aggression and calls on continent to adopt ‘credible’ defence strategy. This live blog is closed
French president Emmanuel Macron warns 'mortal' Europe needs stronger defence
French president Emmanuel Macron on Thursday warned that Europe faced an existential threat from Russian aggression, calling on the continent to adopt a “credible” defence strategy less dependent on the US, reports Agence France-Presse.
He described Russia’s behaviour after its invasion of Ukraine as “uninhibited” and said it was no longer clear where Moscow’s “limits” lay.
In his almost two-hour speech, Macron also sounded the alarm on what he described as disrespect of global trade rules by both the US and China, calling on the European Union to revise its trade policy.
“Our Europe, today, is mortal and it can die,” he said. “It can die and this depends only on our choices,” Macron said, warning that Europe was “not armed against the risks we face” in a world where the “rules of the game have changed”.
“The risk is that Europe will experience a decline and we are already starting to see this despite all our efforts,” he warned, saying the continent was in a situation of “encirclement” from other regional powers.
“We are still too slow and not ambitious enough,” he added, urging a “powerful Europe”, which “is respected”, “ensures its security” and regains “its strategic autonomy”.
According to AFP, Macron urged Europe to be more a master of its own destiny, saying in the past it was over-dependent on Moscow for energy and Washington for security.
He said the indispensable “sine qua non” for European security was “that Russia does not win the war of aggression in Ukraine”.
“We need to build this strategic concept of a credible European defence for ourselves,” Macron said, adding Europe could not be “a vassal” of the US.
It has gone 6pm in Kyiv and in Moscow. We will be closing this blog soon, but you can stay up to date on the Guardian’s Russia and Ukraine coverage here.
Here is a recap of today’s latest developments:
French president Emmanuel Macron on Thursday warned that Europe faced an existential threat from Russian aggression, calling on the continent to adopt a “credible” defence strategy less dependent on the US. He described Russia’s behaviour after its invasion of Ukraine as “uninhibited” and said it was no longer clear where Moscow’s “limits” lay. In his almost two-hour long speech, Macron warned that “our Europe, today, is mortal and it can die”.
Macron also said in his speech that the indispensable “sine qua non” for European security was “that Russia does not win the war of aggression in Ukraine”. “We need to build this strategic concept of a credible European defence for ourselves,” Macron said, adding Europe could not be “a vassal” of the US.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday he met the UK finance minister Jeremy Hunt in Kyiv and called for sanctions against Russia to be tightened to stop Moscow bypassing them. Zelenskiy said in a statement on the Telegram app that he was grateful to the UK for this week announcing a new £500m ($625m) uplift in a defence support package for Ukraine.
France is calling for further sanctions against Russia, targeted against officials and organisations involved in attempts to disrupt elections and the democratic process in EU member states, according to a paper seen by the Guardian. The sanctions would also target those involved in fuelling armed conflict and instability beyond Europe. While naming no countries, the sanctions are likely to be targeted at the Kremlin-controlled Wagner mercenary group.
A Ukrainian attack drone left two dead in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia and two more were killed by Ukrainian artillery fire in the southern Kherson region, officials said. “A man and a woman were killed as a result of a strike on a civilian car. Their four young children were orphaned,” the Russian-installed head of Zaporizhzhia, Evgeny Balitsky, wrote on social media. The Russian head of the Kherson region, Vladimir Saldo, said separately that two people were killed by Ukrainian fire in the village of Dnipryany.
Joe Biden signed into law a bill that rushes $95bn in foreign aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, a bipartisan legislative victory he hailed as a “good day for world peace” after months of congressional gridlock threatened Washington’s support for Kyiv in its fight to repel Russia’s invasion.
The Kremlin said on Thursday that deliveries of US long-range army tactical missile systems (Atacms) to Ukraine would not change the outcome of the war but would create more problems for Ukraine itself. The US in recent weeks secretly shipped long-range missiles to Ukraine, which has so far used them twice, a US official said on Wednesday. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters: “This will not fundamentally change the outcome of the special military operation. We will achieve our goal. But this will cause more problems for Ukraine itself.”
Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko said on Thursday that the risk of military incidents along his country’s border with Ukraine was quite high, reported Reuters citing Russia’s state-run RIA news agency. Lukashenko was quoted as saying that Belarus had nonetheless moved several combat-ready battalions from Vitebsk region, situated on its border with Russia, to the western limits of the country.
In another report by Reuters, citing the Russian state-run Tass news agency, Lukashenko was cited as saying conditions were ripe to start Russia-Ukraine peace talks. Lukashenko said preliminary texts discussed between Russian and Ukrainian officials in Turkey in the early weeks of the war could serve as a starting point for negotiations.
Poland could help return Ukrainians of military age back to Ukraine, the defence minister said, as Kyiv ramps up efforts to replenish its depleted and exhausted military. “We have suggested for a long time that we can help the Ukrainian side ensure that people subject to compulsive military service go to Ukraine,” Polish defence minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz told Polsat television.
A Russian attack on Nato would end in defeat for Moscow, but Nato must increase its defences, Poland’s foreign minister Radek Sikorski told parliament on Thursday. Sikorski was describing the new direction of the government of prime minister Donald Tusk, explaining to a world audience and those at home how the new priorities have changed. He said Poland wants to return to the group of countries which sets the agenda of the EU.
Late on Wednesday, Ukraine said it would stop issuing new passports abroad to some military-aged men, according to legislation published on the government website. It has also suspended consular services for men aged 18 to 60 living abroad, sparking fury among expatriates in Poland and elsewhere.
A third man has been detained in a bribery case involving a Russian deputy defence minister, Moscow’s court service said on Thursday. It said businessman Alexander Fomin is suspected of paying bribes to deputy defence minister Timur Ivanov, who was detained on Wednesday, as well as Ivanov’s associate, Sergei Borodin.
The Russian foreign ministry said on Thursday it was expelling two diplomats from Latvia in retaliation, after the Baltic state in March ordered a Russian embassy official to leave. Earlier on Thursday, the state news agency Tass reported that Russia had summoned the Latvian charge d’affaires.
Russia is considering downgrading the level of its diplomatic relations with the US if western governments go ahead with proposals to confiscate its frozen assets, state news agency RIA quoted deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying on Thursday. Ryabkov said Moscow would retaliate economically and politically if the assets were seized.
Ukraine said on Thursday it had sentenced a husband and wife to 15 years in prison for providing information to Russia that allowed its forces to launch a rocket strike at a hospital. The husband and wife – sentenced on treason charges – were accused of providing information on Ukrainian army positions, including “places of inpatient treatment for wounded Ukrainian soldiers,” the SBU said in a statement. “It was at their direction that the occupiers shelled a local hospital,” in the southern city of Kherson, it said.
The SBU said on Thursday it had detained a former serviceman accused of helping Russian forces “coordinate” attacks on the north-eastern Kharkiv region. It said the suspect, who faces up to eight years in prison, had tried to flee to Russian-held territory. “He was encouraged to take these steps by his parents, who live in occupied territory,” a statement read.
Ukrainian forces also said they had repelled a Russian sabotage group in the north-eastern Sumy region. The Russian forces were pushed back with artillery and mortar fire, it added.
A Russian missile damaged critical infrastructure and injured six people in Ukraine’s central Cherkasy region on Thursday, the regional governor said. The attack hit civilian and railway infrastructure in the city of Smila, Ukrainian air force spokesperson Illya Yevlash said in a television broadcast.
Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on Thursday that the US was trying to create divisions between Russia and China. Zakharova was speaking at a briefing with reporters as US secretary of state Antony Blinken began a visit to China.
Zakharova also said on Thursday that any talks on ending the conflict in Ukraine were pointless without Russian participation, referring to a conference that Switzerland plans to host in June. Zakharova told reporters that Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s peace formula – which calls for a full withdrawal of Russian forces from all the territory they have captured – does not bring peace closer but prolongs the conflict.
Next year, Sweden will contribute a reduced battalion to Nato forces in Latvia to help support the Baltic state following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, said the Scandinavian country’s prime minister Ulf Kristersson. The Swedish troop contribution is the first to be announced since the country joined Nato in March.
A Russian historical reenactment fan has been jailed for spying on the Polish military for Moscow. The man, whose identity was not released, was detained a few weeks into the war and sentenced to two and a half years in prison last week, prosecutors in Gdansk in northern Poland said.
Russia has vetoed a UN security council resolution calling on all nations to prevent a dangerous nuclear arms race in outer space, describing it as “a dirty spectacle”. Russia’s UN ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, dismissed the resolution as “absolutely absurd and politicised,” and said it didn’t go far enough in banning all types of weapons in space. The vote in the 15-member security council was 13 in favour, Russia opposed and China abstaining.
The Russian foreign ministry said on Thursday it was expelling two diplomats from Latvia in retaliation, after the Baltic state ordered a Russian embassy official to leave, reports Reuters.
Western countries have kicked out hundreds of Russian diplomats since the start of the war in Ukraine, in many cases for alleged spying, and Russia has regularly responded in kind.
France calls for more sanctions on Russian entities involved in trying to disrupt elections in EU member states
Jennifer Rankin
Jennifer Rankin in Brussels has shared the following report:
France is calling for further sanctions against Russia, targeted against officials and organisations involved in attempts to disrupt elections and the democratic process in EU member states, according to a paper seen by the Guardian.
The sanctions would also target those involved in fuelling armed conflict and instability beyond Europe. While naming no countries, the sanctions are likely to be targeted at the Kremlin-controlled Wagner mercenary group, which operates in several west African countries, where western powers, including France, have withdrawn forces.
France’s push for a new sanctions regime against Russia, on top of hundreds of Russian officials, oligarchs and organisations already subject to asset freezes and travel bans over their role in the aggression on Ukraine, is backed by Poland, the Netherlands and the Baltic states.
The Wagner group has been subject to EU sanctions for “serious human rights abuses” in Ukraine, Syria and Central African Republic since 2021.
A Russian historical reenactment fan has been jailed for spying on the Polish military for Moscow, prosecutors say.
The Nato member and staunch backer of neighbouring Ukraine has become a target of pro-Kremlin espionage since the Russian invasion began in February 2022, AFP reports.
The man, whose identity was not released, was detained a few weeks into the war and sentenced to two and a half years in prison last week, prosecutors in Gdansk in northern Poland say. They said the man built up contacts with Polish soldiers through historical reenactment groups, “which he used for work on behalf of Russian intelligence”. They added:
He obtained and gathered information regarding Poland’s armed forces, including the deployment of individual military units.
The Russian had been living and running a business in Poland for many years.
Next year, Sweden will contribute a reduced battalion to Nato forces in Latvia to help support the Baltic state following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Scandinavian country’s prime minister Ulf Kristersson says.
The Swedish troop contribution is the first to be announced since the country joined Nato in March, the Agence France-Presse (AFP) agency reported.
In January, Kristersson announced Sweden would probably send a battalion to take part in Nato’s permanent multinational mission in Latvia, which is dubbed the Enhanced Forward Presence and is aimed at boosting defence capacity in the region. During a press conference with his Latvian counterpart Evika Silina, Kristersson said:
The government this morning gave Sweden’s armed forces the formal task of planning and preparing for the Swedish contribution of a reduced mechanised battalion to Nato’s forward land forces in Latvia.
He said the battalion, which will be in Latvia for six months, would be comprised of about 400 to 500 troops, AFP reports.
Our aim is a force contribution; including CV 90s armoured vehicles and Leopard 2 main battle tanks. We’re planning for the deployment early next year after a parliament decision.
Russia has summoned the Latvian charge d’affaires on Thursday, reports Reuters citing state news agency Tass.
At the end of March, the Latvian Foreign Ministry declared a Russian diplomat persona non grata and ordered him to leave the country by 10 April, the RIA news agency said.
French president Emmanuel Macron warns 'mortal' Europe needs stronger defence
French president Emmanuel Macron on Thursday warned that Europe faced an existential threat from Russian aggression, calling on the continent to adopt a “credible” defence strategy less dependent on the US, reports Agence France-Presse.
He described Russia’s behaviour after its invasion of Ukraine as “uninhibited” and said it was no longer clear where Moscow’s “limits” lay.
In his almost two-hour speech, Macron also sounded the alarm on what he described as disrespect of global trade rules by both the US and China, calling on the European Union to revise its trade policy.
“Our Europe, today, is mortal and it can die,” he said. “It can die and this depends only on our choices,” Macron said, warning that Europe was “not armed against the risks we face” in a world where the “rules of the game have changed”.
“The risk is that Europe will experience a decline and we are already starting to see this despite all our efforts,” he warned, saying the continent was in a situation of “encirclement” from other regional powers.
“We are still too slow and not ambitious enough,” he added, urging a “powerful Europe”, which “is respected”, “ensures its security” and regains “its strategic autonomy”.
According to AFP, Macron urged Europe to be more a master of its own destiny, saying in the past it was over-dependent on Moscow for energy and Washington for security.
He said the indispensable “sine qua non” for European security was “that Russia does not win the war of aggression in Ukraine”.
“We need to build this strategic concept of a credible European defence for ourselves,” Macron said, adding Europe could not be “a vassal” of the US.
Russia is considering downgrading the level of its diplomatic relations with the US if western governments go ahead with proposals to confiscate its frozen assets, state news agency RIA quoted deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying on Thursday.
According to Reuters, Ryabkov said Moscow would retaliate economically and politically if the assets were seized.
Here are some of the images that have been shared today on the newswires from Kyiv, where the UK chancellor Jeremy Hunt met Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy and other Ukrainian ministers:
The UK chancellor Jeremy Hunt (2-R) during a meeting with Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv. Photograph: Ukrainian Presidential Press Service Handout/EPA
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy (L) welcoming UK chancellor Jeremy Hunt prior to their talks in Kyiv. Photograph: UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SERVICE/AFP/Getty Images
The UK chancellor Jeremy Hunt (R) laying flowers with Ukrainian minister Sergii Marchenko at a memorial to soldiers killed in the Russia-Ukraine war. Photograph: HM Treasury/PA
Ukraine said on Thursday it had sentenced a husband and wife to 15 years in prison for providing information to Russia that allowed its forces to launch a rocket strike at a hospital, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The Security Services of Ukraine (SBU) also said on Thursday that it had detained a former soldier whom it accused of helping Russia plot strikes in the north-eastern Kharkiv region.
The husband and wife – sentenced on treason charges – were accused of providing information on Ukrainian army positions, including “places of inpatient treatment for wounded Ukrainian soldiers,” the SBU said in a statement. “It was at their direction that the occupiers shelled a local hospital,” in the southern city of Kherson, it said.
AFP reports that they were allegedly recruited by Russia’s FSB security service after responding to an advert in a Russian Telegram channel offering payments in exchange for intelligence on Ukrainian positions.
Russian forces shelled a number of medical facilities in Kherson after Ukraine retook control of the southern city in November 2022.
The SBU also said on Thursday it had detained a former serviceman accused of helping Russian forces “coordinate” attacks on the north-eastern Kharkiv region.
According to AFP, it said the suspect, who faces up to eight years in prison, had tried to flee to Russian-held territory. “He was encouraged to take these steps by his parents, who live in occupied territory,” a statement read.
Ukrainian forces also said they had repelled a Russian sabotage group in the north-eastern Sumy region. The Russian forces were pushed back with artillery and mortar fire, it added.
Moscow’s troops entered the Sumy region after the Kremlin launched the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, but were pushed back by Ukrainian forces.
Poland could help return Ukrainians of military age back to Ukraine, the defence minister said, as Kyiv ramps up efforts to replenish its depleted and exhausted military, reports Agence France-Presse.
Poland has tens of thousands of Ukrainian men of military age on its territory, according to UN figures.
Ukraine is scrambling to recruit troops after more than two years of war and has recently passed a mobilisation law, lowering the fighting age and toughening penalties against draft dodgers.
Late on Wednesday it said it would stop issuing new passports abroad to some military-aged men, according to legislation published on the government website.
According to AFP, it has also suspended consular services for men aged 18 to 60 living abroad, sparking fury among expatriates in Poland and elsewhere.
AFP reports that Polish defence minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said late Wednesday that Warsaw could help in getting military-aged men back to Ukraine.
“We have suggested for a long time that we can help the Ukrainian side ensure that people subject to compulsive military service go to Ukraine,” he told Polsat television.
“Everything is possible,” he said when asked if Warsaw would agree if Ukraine asked for people subject to the draft to be transported to Ukraine.
Ukraine forces kill four in occupied regions, Russian officials say
Ukrainian forces killed four people in frontline regions of the war-battered country that are occupied by Russia, Kremlin proxy officials said on Thursday, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
A Ukrainian attack drone left two dead in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia and two more were killed by Ukrainian artillery fire in the southern Kherson region, officials said.
“A man and a woman were killed as a result of a strike on a civilian car. Their four young children were orphaned,” the Russian-installed head of Zaporizhzhia, Evgeny Balitsky, wrote on social media. He said the children would be taken into care and provided with psychological assistance.
According to AFP, the Russian head of the Kherson region, Vladimir Saldo, said separately that two more people were killed by Ukrainian fire in the village of Dnipryany.
French president describes Russia-Ukraine war as 'principal danger for European security'
French president Emmanuel Macron delivered a widely anticipated speech on Europe on Thursday. According to Reuters, Macron described the Russia-Ukraine war as “the principal danger for European security”.
He is quoted as saying: “The principal danger for European security is the war in Ukraine, the sine qua non for our security is that Russia does not win this war of aggression.”
French president Emmanuel Macron gives a speech on Europe’s future at the Sorbonne University in Paris on Thursday. Photograph: Christophe Petit-Tesson/EPA
“How can we build our sovereignty, our autonomy, if we don’t assume the responsibility of developing our own European defence industry?” asked Macron.
He also said that Europe “must show that it is never a vassal of the United States and that it also knows how to talk to all the other regions of the world”.
Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on Thursday that the US was trying to create divisions between Russia and China, reports Reuters.
Zakharova was speaking at a briefing with reporters as US secretary of state Antony Blinken began a visit to China.
“As for the United States’ attempts to drive a wedge in relations between Russia and China, the United States is openly talking about this,” she said.
She added that Russia’s relationship with China – with which it signed a “no limits” cooperation agreement less than three weeks before the start of the Ukraine war – was not directed against any other country.
Here are some of the latest images on the newswires:
People gather in a yard where a Russian drone hit on Tuesday, in Odesa, injuring at least nine people. Photograph: Libkos/Getty Images
The UK chancellorJeremy Hunt (left) with Ukrainian minister Sergii Marchenko during his visit to Kyiv on Thursday. Photograph: HM Treasury/PA
Veteran of the Russian-Ukrainian war Petro Buriak on Wednesday before his departure to the frontline, as a volunteer, to deliver a powerful generator to a stabilisation medical point in eastern Ukraine. Photograph: Ukrinform/REX/Shutterstock
A man inside a house destroyed by Russian rockets overnight on Tuesday looks down on the destruction outside the window in Kharkiv. Photograph: Marco Cordone/ZUMA Press Wire Service/REX/Shutterstock
Kremlin says US long-range missiles sent to Ukraine will not change war's outcome
The Kremlin said on Thursday that deliveries of US long-range army tactical missile systems (Atacms) to Ukraine would not change the outcome of the war but would create more problems for Ukraine itself, reports Reuters.
The US in recent weeks secretly shipped long-range missiles to Ukraine, which has so far used them twice, a US official said on Wednesday.
The missiles were used for the first time on 17 April against a Russian airfield in Crimea that was about 165 km (103 miles) from the Ukrainian frontlines, the official said.
According to Reuters, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters: “The US is directly involved in this conflict. They are following the path of increasing the operating range of the weapon systems they supply.”
He added: “This will not fundamentally change the outcome of the special military operation. We will achieve our goal. But this will cause more problems for Ukraine itself.”
Whether to send the Atacams with a range up to 300 km was a subject of debate within the Biden administration for months. Mid-range Atacms were supplied last September, say Reuters.
