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5:01 p.m .: Russia suspended from the Council of Europe
The Council of Europe decides to “suspend” all participation of Russian diplomats and delegates in the main bodies of the pan-European organization in response to the “armed attack” against Ukraine. However, this decision does not concern the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), the judicial arm of the Council of Europe, which will continue to offer its protection to Russian citizens, the international organization said in a press release.
4:40 p.m .: IOC asks international federations to cancel events in Russia and Belarus
The Executive Committee of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Friday urged all international sports federations to cancel or relocate any events planned in Russia or Belarus, following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
In addition, the Executive Committee requests that the flag of Russia and Belarus not be hoisted during international sporting events and it also wishes that the national anthems of these two countries not be played, specifies the IOC press release. , which believes that these two countries have violated the Olympic truce which still runs after the end of the Beijing Games and pending the Paralympic Games which are to be held in Beijing from March 4 to March 13.
4:36 p.m .: brief moment of unity in Parliament for Macron’s message in support of Ukraine
The national union was brief: deputies and senators showed their support for Ukraine, the time of a message Friday from Emmanuel Macron to Parliament then the quarrels resumed, on the left in particular. It is the first time since 2002 that a President of the Republic uses this procedure provided for in Article 18 paragraph 1 of the Constitution.
“I salute the courage shown by (the people and the Ukrainian authorities) in resisting Russia’s massive military offensives” and “nothing has been or will be neglected to come to their aid, we owe them support and solidarity” , said the Head of State in his message read simultaneously before the Assembly and the Senate by their presidents Richard Ferrand (LREM) and Gérard Larcher (LR).
4:10 p.m .: France in favor of excluding Russia from the Swift system
France is in favor of excluding Russia from the Swift banking system, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Friday, in order to sanction Russia for the invasion of Ukraine. “Some member states have expressed reservations, France is not one of these states,” said the minister during a press conference as part of a conference bringing together EU finance ministers. He was joined by the Latvian and Austrian ministers, who have so far been reluctant to accept such exclusion.
Some 300 Russian banks and institutions use Swift for their interbank funds transfers.
4:05 p.m.: Bordeaux and other cities raise the Ukrainian flag
Several French town halls hoisted the flag of Ukraine on their facades on Friday, in solidarity with this country. The Nouvelle-Aquitaine Region and the town hall of Bordeaux have hoisted the colors of Ukraine on buildings in the Gironde capital, whose mayor Pierre Hurmic has declared himself “ready to welcome Ukrainian nationals as needed”. “We will react urgently to welcome Ukrainian nationals. We have done this before with the Afghan people. We will do it again, “said Hurmic to the press, alongside the honorary consul of Ukraine Laurent Fortin.
The yellow and blue flag was hoisted in the presence of a dozen Ukrainians carrying placards “No to aggression in Ukraine, Help” and Michelle Poussard, local representative of the association Russie Libertés, who came to say that “all the Russians do not condone the actions of Vladimir Putin”.
Among the Ukrainians present, Valentina had come to see her architect daughter living in France to look after her two grandchildren during the holidays. She explains, in English, that she “had to leave tomorrow” but that she is “stuck here”. “I worry about my son, my mother, my sister, my nephews, my friends, who remained in Ukraine. We don’t know what to do. We can’t sleep. You can’t feel good here,” she says.
3:56 p.m .: Putin says he fights “terrorists”, “neo-Nazis” and “drug addicts”
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday called on the Ukrainian military to “seize power” in Kiev by overthrowing President Volodymyr Zelensky and his entourage, whom he described as “neo-Nazis” and “drug addicts”.
“Take the power in your hands. It seems to me that it will be easier to negotiate between you and me,” Putin told the Ukrainian army in an intervention broadcast on Russian television, saying that he was not fighting army units but nationalist formations that behave “like terrorists” using civilians “like human shields”.
Putin also called President Zelensky and his ministers “a clique of drug addicts and neo-Nazis, who settled in Kiev and took the whole Ukrainian people hostage.” Moscow has called Ukrainian authorities “neo-Nazis” or a “junta” since 2014 and the outbreak of war in Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine between separatists and Kiev forces, despite Zelensky having Jewish origins.
3:46 p.m.: Extraordinary session of the Council of EU Interior Ministers on Sunday
An extraordinary session of the Council of Ministers of the Interior of the twenty-seven countries of the European Union will be held on Sunday at 3 p.m. in Brussels to “discuss the concrete responses to be made to the situation in Ukraine”, announced Friday the Minister of the French Interior Gérald Darmanin in a tweet. “Several subjects will be on the agenda, including the European response to the humanitarian and security impact, as well as retaliatory measures,” said an adviser to the executive.
The session was decided “following the European Council this night”, specified Gérald Darmanin.
3:42 p.m .: Former Ukrainian President Poroshenko takes up arms
The former President of the Republic of Ukraine was questioned by a journalist from the American channel CNN in a street in the capital Kiev, a gun in his hand.
3:14 p.m.: Boris Johnson and his Northern European allies say “more sanctions” are needed
Demonstrators protest outside Boris Johnson’s residence on Thursday at 10 Downing Street in London.
Justin TALLIS/AFP
The British prime minister and his northern European allies agreed on Friday that “more sanctions” were needed against Moscow after the invasion of Ukraine, including targeting “close circles” of President Vladimir Putin, Downing said Street.
“During a call between Mr. Johnson and his allies in the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF), which brings together ten states including the Baltic countries, leaders agreed that more sanctions were needed, focusing in particular on those close to them. of President Putin,” a Downing Street spokeswoman said.
3:10 p.m.: a summit of Central European presidents with von der Leyen (EU)
Currently, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is attending a summit of presidents of Central and Eastern European countries in Warsaw, dedicated to the Russian attack on Ukraine, according to footage released by the Polish Presidency. .
Seven presidents (Poland, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Hungary) are present in person at this summit, as Russian forces tighten their grip around Kiev, with fighting in and around the capital of the Ukraine on the second day of the Russian invasion. The Czech and Romanian presidents joined the online meeting.
3:02 p.m .: Poland and the Czech Republic close their airspace to Russian flights
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has asked his services to prepare a decision that will close the country’s airspace to flights by Russian airlines, he announced on Facebook on Friday. This project follows a similar decision, striking the Russian national company Aeroflot, taken Thursday by Great Britain, in the context of the Russian attack in Ukraine and followed by Moldova and a little later by the Czech Republic.
Russia reacted on Friday by prohibiting the overflight of its territory to all planes linked to the United Kingdom, including flights in transit.
2:52 p.m .: Macron received Hollande and Sarkozy
Europe must “raise the level of sanctions” against Russia, which “are insufficient”, former President François Hollande recommended on Friday during his meeting with Emmanuel Macron, suggesting in particular the stopping of gas imports. “There is no diplomacy without a balance of power,” insisted the former president. After François Hollande, Emmanuel Macron immediately received his predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy, for whom, on the other hand, “the only possible way is diplomacy, because the alternative to diplomacy is total war”, thus supporting the strategy of dialogue of the president who also received him for an hour at the Élysée.
2:48 p.m .: update on military actions in Ukraine
The Nexta media is broadcasting a map of Russian military actions in Ukraine this Friday.
2:44 p.m .: agreement of the 27 to sanction Putin and Lavrov by freezing their assets
The Europeans decided on Friday to sanction Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov by freezing their assets in the EU. The measure was discussed during the extraordinary European summit on Thursday in Brussels and was added on Friday to the package of sanctions that the foreign ministers will implement.
European sanctions will concern “the most senior leaders” Russian, announced Emmanuel Macron
“What is important today is that Putin and Lavrov, who are responsible for this situation, will now be severely sanctioned by the European Union,” she said on her arrival for a meeting of ministers of foreign affairs. Foreign Affairs of the Twenty-Seven who must approve a package of sanctions announced Thursday evening.