UPDATE ON THE SITUATION – Belarus also said on Tuesday that it would welcome Russian “tactical” nuclear weapons in response to “unprecedented” Western “pressure”.
New Russian attack on kyiv, use of American rockets, Belarus which announces that it will welcome Russian nuclear weapons… Le Figaro provides an update on the situation on the conflict in Ukraine on Tuesday 28 March.
Long-range American rocket shot down by Russians
Russia claimed on Tuesday to have shot down a long-range American rocket GLSDB, the first confirmation of delivery of this ammunition to Ukraine, which considers it crucial to launch its next counter-offensive. Ukraine has not provided any information on the deployment of these devices. The Russian announcement also comes the day after the confirmation of the delivery of British, American and German armored vehicles, key vehicles, according to kyiv, to achieve its ambitions of military reconquest.
“Air defense (…) shot down 18 Himars system rockets and one GLSDB guided rocket”, the Russian Defense Ministry said in its daily statement. The GLSDB (for “Ground Launched Small Diameter Bomb” in English) are small-diameter, high-precision devices manufactured by the American Boeing and the Swedish Saab. They can fly up to 150 km and therefore threaten Russian positions, in particular ammunition depots, far behind the front lines. “The accuracy of GLSDBs is so high that they can hit within the radius of a car tire,” says Saab on its site.
Read alsoEstonia buys US HIMARS rocket launcher systems
The IOC recommends the return of the Russians to competition
The International Olympic Committee on Tuesday recommended the reinstatement of Russian and Belarusian athletes in international competitions, under a neutral banner and “individually”, if they did not actively support the war in Ukraine. But the executive board of the organization will decide “at the appropriate time” their possible participation in the 2024 Olympics in Paris, which Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic countries threaten to boycott in the event of Russian presence, said IOC President Thomas Bach during a press conference.
The IOC recommendation is “a slap in the face to Ukrainian athletes”denounced Tuesday the German Minister of Sports. “International sport must clearly condemn Russia’s brutal war of aggression. This can only be done by completely excluding Russian and Belarusian athletes,” judge in a statement Nancy Faeser.
Read alsoOlympic Games: the participation of Russian athletes in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games is at the heart of the tensions
Belarus will host Russian nuclear weapons
Belarus will host nuclear weapons “tactics» Russians in response to “pressures” western “unprecedented” , the Belarusian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday. Belarus iscompelled to take response measures“Insisted Belarusian diplomacy, while ensuring that Minsk will not have control over these weapons and that their deployment”in no way contradicts Articles I and II of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty“.
Read alsoWar in Ukraine: Russia will deploy “tactical” nuclear weapons in Belarus, announces Vladimir Putin
Biden: Putin’s announcement of the deployment of nuclear weapons in Belarus is “dangerous”»
Joe Biden said Tuesday that the announcement by his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin of a deployment of nuclear weapons “tactics” in Belarus was “dangerous”. “These are dangerous words and it is worrying”judged the American president at the White House with a journalist.
Vladimir Putin said on Saturday that Moscow was going to deploy “tactical” nuclear weapons on the territory of its ally, Belarus, located at the gates of the European Union. Washington however indicated Sunday by the voice of a spokesperson to have “no indication” that such a transfer took place. “They haven’t done it yet”Joe Biden said again on Tuesday.
France will double, to 2000 per month, deliveries of shells to Ukraine
France will double the number of shells delivered to Ukraine announced this Tuesday the French Minister for the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu in an interview with the Figaro . Paris goes “deliver land equipment necessary for the counter-offensive of Ukraine: we are thus doubling the delivery of 155 mm shells to bring it to 2000 per month from the end of March”he said in a joint interview with the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire.
The 155 mm shells, fired in particular by the French Caesar guns or the German Pzh 2000 and with a range of up to 40 kilometres, are fired every day in industrial quantities by both the Russians and the Ukrainians. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned in February that kyiv was using more munitions than the Alliance could produce, putting Western defense stocks and industries “under pressure”. The European Union has since decided to release two billion euros to supply one million shells to Ukraine.
Read alsoWar in Ukraine: fantasies and realities of depleted uranium shells
Germany plans a significant increase in military aid to Kyiv
The budget committee of the Bundestag is due to adopt a significant increase in German military aid to Ukraine on Wednesday, a parliamentary source told AFP on Tuesday. MEPs must in total decide on the release of 12 billion euros, both in arms deliveries directly to Kiev and in resupply of the German army, which has offloaded a large part of its stocks for the benefit of Ukraine during the past year. If these funds are voted, German aid will thus jump from an amount of approximately 3 billion hitherto committed to some 15 billion euros, including the amounts planned for the replacement of equipment of the Bundeswehr.
Read alsoGermany: the Bundeswehr wrung out by the war in Ukraine
New Russian attack on kyiv
Twelve Iranian-made drones were shot down over Kiev in a new Russian attack on the Ukrainian capital that caused no casualties, the city’s military administration said on Tuesday. “Air Defense Forces spotted and destroyed 12 dronesof the Shahed type, said the head of the military administration Sergei Popko on Telegram. Shards from a drone fell on an administrative building in the Sviatochynsky district, in the west of the capital, causing destruction and a fire, which could be quickly extinguished, he said.
Read alsoNear kyiv, Stinger missiles against Iranian drones
Image of the building damaged overnight by Russian drone strikes, in kyiv, Ukraine, March 28, 2023. STATE EMERGENCY SERVICE OF UKRAI / REUTERS
Moscow announces tests of anti-ship missiles in the Sea of Japan
The Russian Navy has conducted anti-ship missile tests on a dummy target in the Sea of Japan, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Tuesday. These exercises of the Russian Pacific Fleet come a week after Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s visit to Ukraine. “In the waters of the Sea of Japan, Pacific Fleet missile ships fired Moskit cruise missiles at a dummy enemy naval target”, explained the ministry on Telegram. Two ships took part, according to him, in this exercise.
“The target, located at a distance of a hundred kilometers, was successfully hit by direct fire from two Moskit cruise missiles”added the ministry, specifying that its naval air forces had monitored “Combat Exercise Safety”. For his part, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi denounced “the increased activity of the Russian army in the Far East, including in areas near Japan”. “We will continue to closely monitor the movements of the Russian army,” he said, quoted by the Jiji Press agency, specifying that no damage had been observed in Japan following these test firings.
Read alsoThe Russian Navy imposes its law in the Black Sea
Russian man separated from 13-year-old daughter over anti-war cartoon, convicted and on the run
Alexei Moskaliov, sentenced on Tuesday in Russia to two years in prison for having criticized the offensive against Ukraine and who had his daughter taken away because of an anti-war drawing of her, is on the run, the court that tried him told AFP. “The verdict was read in the absence of the accused, as he escaped and failed to appear in courtsaid the head of the court’s communications department, Elena Mikhailovskaya. Alexei Moskaliov, 54, was found guilty of havingdiscreditedThe Russian army on social networks and sentenced to two years in prison, his lawyer, Vladimir Bilienko, told AFP after a whirlwind trial emblematic of the repression aimed at those who criticize the offensive in Ukraine. .
Read alsoRussia to crack down on criticism of armed groups like Wagner