LIVE – Ukrainian authorities announce European summit in Kyiv on Friday

When asked on franceinfo about her opposition to the delivery of offensive weapons to Ukraine the day after the French announcement of sending an additional 12 Caesar guns to the front, Marine Le Pen stood her ground.

“I keep saying that for offensive weapons,” he said. “We said goodbye to our weapons to hand them over to Ukraine. Our army, which is already in the bone, sees equipment that it might need to go abroad, ”he lamented.

Ukraine and the European Union will hold a summit in Kyiv on Friday, the Ukrainian government welcomes this “strong signal” sent to Moscow almost a year after the start of the Russian invasion.

For its part, the Russian army, on the offensive in recent days, claimed on Tuesday the conquest of a village near Bakhmout, the focus of the fighting in eastern Ukraine. The summit with the 27 is an important step, several months after Kyiv was granted official candidate status for EU membership.

In his speech on Tuesday night, Volodymyr Zelensky hoped that this summit would reflect a high “level of cooperation and progress” with the EU. “We are waiting for news for Ukraine,” he said.

“The fact that this summit is being held in kyiv is a strong signal addressed to both our partners and our enemies,” Prime Minister Denys Chmygal had previously greeted, saying “I expect from the summit a positive mid-term evaluation of our efforts for the European integration”. .

These two days should allow “Europe to believe in the victory of Ukraine”, he insisted. They will take place a few days after the Westerners gave the green light, after a long delay, to hand over heavy tanks drawn from their arsenal to the Ukrainian army.