Ukraine attack deadly before Russian election
Ukraine fired at least eight missiles at Russia’s Belgorod border region, killing two people and wounding 12, local officials said Thursday, as Kyiv’s forces apparently kept up efforts to rattle the Kremlin on the eve of Russia’s presidential election that is taking place amid a ruthless crackdown on dissent.
Also, Ukrainian forces attempted cross-border raids that were repelled in Belgorod and the Kursk region, according to local authorities. The Russian Defense Ministry claimed its troops killed 195 Ukrainian soldiers and destroyed five tanks and four armored infantry vehicles, two days after saying it killed 234 Ukrainian troops in another border assault.
It is not possible to independently verify the Russian claims. Cross-border attacks in the area have occurred sporadically since the war began and have been the subject of claims and counterclaims, as well as disinformation and propaganda.
The Ukrainian assaults on Russian territory in recent days, including long-range drone attacks and alleged incursions by Ukraine-based Russian proxies, have come as Russian President Vladimir Putin heads for near-certain reelection.
Putin has sought to persuade Russians to keep him in power against a backdrop of what he says are foreign threats to the country and as the Ukraine war stretches into its third year.
In a video released Thursday, Putin called on Russians to go to the polls, calling participation in the election a “manifestation of patriotic feeling.”
Claiming that “the only source of power in our country is the people,” Putin told Russians, “you must not only cast your vote, but firmly declare your will and aspirations, your personal involvement in the further development of Russia.”
Since coming to power almost 25 years ago, Putin has eliminated nearly all independent media and opposition voices in Russia.
Russia’s exiled opposition are calling on Russians to protest against the election by gathering at polling stations at noon on Sunday in a signal that they don’t support Putin. The event has been dubbed “Noon against Putin” and is being supported by Yulia Navalnaya, the wife of Alexei Navalny, Russia’s most prominent opposition leader who died in a remote Arctic penal colony last month.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Thursday warned that delays in aid deliveries to Ukraine are costing lives.
“The Ukrainians are not running out of courage, they are running out of ammunition,” Stoltenberg told reporters in Brussels.
WESTERN SUPPORT
French President Emmanuel Macron warned Western powers against showing any signs of weakness to Russia as he reiterated his position Thursday that sending Western troops into Ukraine shouldn’t be ruled out, though he said today’s situation doesn’t require it.
In an interview on French national television TF1 and France 2, Macron was asked about the prospect of sending Western troops to Ukraine, which he publicly raised last month in comments that prompted pushback from other European leaders who stressed they had no plans to do so.
“We’re not in that situation today,” he said, but added that “all these options are possible.”
Macron, who is the commander-in-chief of the country’s armed forces, declined to describe in which situation France would be ready to send troops. He said the responsibility for prompting such a move would lie with Moscow — “It wouldn’t be us” — and said France would not lead an offensive into Ukraine against Russia.
But he also said, “Today, to have peace in Ukraine, we must not be weak.”
Macron described the Russia-Ukraine war as “existential” to France and Europe.
“If war was to spread to Europe, it would be Russia’s sole choice and sole responsibility. But for us to decide today to be weak, to decide today that we would not respond, is being defeated already. And I don’t want that,” he said.
Macron said he will work on bringing further support to Ukraine at a meeting scheduled on Friday with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in Berlin.
France, Germany and Poland will meet as the so-called Weimar Triangle, and the grouping is especially important now that “we are all so concerned about the terrible consequences of the Russian war of aggression on Ukraine,” Scholz said.