their troops to ukraine since last year, writes the french press. what will be the consequences of loud and very ambiguous statements of president emmanuel macron, we will talk today immediately after direct inclusion from odesa, where tomorrow has been declared a day of mourning. the number of victims as a result of the missile attack on odesa increased to 16, and 55 more people were injured in the hospital. it is reported. oleg kiper, head of the regional military administration. the south's defense forces reported that russia fired at the city with iskander missiles occupied crimea. as a result of the shelling , at least 10 private houses, a service station, a gas pipeline, an ambulance and fire-rescue vehicles were destroyed and damaged. russian troops have shelled odesa twice now, the second time, it happened when, after the first strike , rescuers and medics arrived on the scene to just... prevent the consequences and

provide assistance. a rescuer and a paramedic died as a result of the repeated blow. russia did not officially comment on the shelling of odessa, meanwhile, the city declared a day for tomorrow, march 16 mourning my colleague kateryna bankova from odesa joins our broadcast. congratulations. what news do you have there now? good evening, vlasto, i am now near the place that was fired upon by the russian military this morning. two ballistic missiles were directed at the city, previously they were iskander m. i will say right away that from the moment the air alarm signal sounded to the first explosion, literally a few minutes passed, so it was quite problematic to get to the shelter. i suggest now to listen to what i was told eyewitnesses of the shelling, as well as locals who live nearby. everything was very bad here.

i was going to give first aid to him and an explosion happened just above me, i drove the motorcycle away and ran there to give help, so the person who stopped me had an open wound in his arm and leg, i had tourniquets with me, i ran to him, i did not thought that something else might explode. according to the protocol, until the alarm is cleared, we cannot start providing assistance. but here i used my discretion, because as a paramedic i could not help it to do, it's good that there was an ambulance that was able to help people and save their lives. i didn't understand that the wave was so strong for her, and the women on the floor, i can't understand right away, let's crawl, because i think, we need to go outside, i think, now the house will catch fire and burn, and no one will see, and so i crawled out outside, shouted. my mother is not mine, masha says that i went

there, i hid somewhere, but i don’t remember where , but as i screamed loudly, i couldn’t stop, my son came, mother, calm down, it is known that about 10 private houses were destroyed, a three-story recreational vehicle was also damaged, at this moment it is known about 16 dead and more... five dozen people were injured, they are all in different conditions, people also said that they do not have gas and electricity, all that they expect , when the utility workers will repair and return all this to their homes, and i also know that among the dead and injured are medics and rescuers who came to the call to provide help, but came under repeated... shelling, i suggest listening to

the direct speech of the spokeswomen of the state emergency service and the operative south command. they got to work, extinguished the fire, dismantled the debris, searched for the victims on the spot, and there was a repeated shelling, where the rescuers and other operational services were hit by this repeated shelling. according to preliminary information, it is known about 14 dead, 46 injured, among the dead and injured are representatives of medicine and... services, who arrived at the place of the first strike to provide assistance. after that , a second strike took place, as a result of which the people who came to help and those who did not manage to cross were actually killed, work there was anti-aircraft defense, but ballistics is very difficult to beat. it is previously known about two missiles. and also the press service of the city hall reported that among the dead was also the former deputy and... the mayor, tomorrow

has already been officially announced as gutter day in odesa. studio. thank you very much, katerina. kateryna bankova from odesa joined. us on the air, where tomorrow, i will remind, announced a day of mourning. thank you, katya. french president emmanuel macron said that if russia wins in ukraine, the authority of europe will be reduced to zero. in the address broadcast the day before french television, he said that the security of the entire continent was at stake, and that if russia won, the lives of the french would change, there would be no more security in europe. "if the situation worsens, we will be ready to ensure that russia never wins the war," macron said and called on allies not to impose restrictions on aid to kiev. two years ago we said we would never send tanks, but we did. two years ago, we said we would never

send an intermediate-range missile, but we did. we said never we will send planes, but some are already in the process. so we have set too many limits, if you can say that, in our vocabulary, we are not... we are in a state of escalation, we are not in a state of war with russia, we just have to be very clear that we must not allow russia to win. the day before , the lemont publication published an article entitled "war in ukraine" about emmanuel macron's metamorphosis from a dove to a hawk. the authors of the publication analyze the change in the position of the french leader from the desire not to humiliate russia to the proposal to send western troops in support of kyiv. the publication, in particular, reports that... the french authorities considered the possibility of sending their troops to ukraine last year. emmanuel macron makes a toast with a glass of troops in his hand. the night continues on february 21 in the portrait room of the elysée palace. the head of state responds to those who

congratulate him for his beautiful speech in honor of the armenian resistance fighters misak and melina manukyan, whom he just led to the pantheon. but the president of the republic is thoughtful. situation. in ukraine, where they have been invading for two years russian troops, it worsens, the war drags on. in any case, next year i will have to send the boys to odesa, - said the head of state to a small circle of guests. macron's position on the possibility of sending troops to ukraine increased the tension among the leaders of european countries, because some are ready to continue this discussion, some are categorically not, such as german chancellor olaf scholz. today, by the way, macron met in... with the chancellor of germany, later they were joined by the prime minister of poland donald tusk to discuss precisely support of ukraine. the talks are being held as an emergency summit of a regional group known as the weimar triangle. on the eve of the meeting, political observers wrote that one of the goals of these negotiations is to reduce

diplomatic tension between germany and france, as berlin and paris have recently exchanged reproaches regarding the extent of their aid to kyiv. zoryana stepanenko followed us, she joins our broadcast. zoryan, my congratulations, was there anything new for ukraine at this meeting, and is it really planned between berlin and paris split precisely because of support for ukraine? good evening, vlasto, as you mentioned, the main goal of this meeting of the three leaders in berlin is to melt the ice, that is, to overcome the ice between the most influential countries of the european union, france and germany. contradictions that intensified after emmanuel macron did not rule out the appearance of western troops in ukraine. kholav scholz did the opposite, that is, he ruled out such a scenario. and the prime minister of poland, who represented the eastern flank of europe at these negotiations, was in a peculiar role of a mediator. at this moment, they have a working dinner, that is, an occasion

to discuss everything in detail in a more informal setting, and it was preceded by several hours of negotiations, after which the leaders appeared to journalists, and their statements, i would say, sounded coordinated. no disagreements, well at least scholz and macron did not demonstrate in public, the atmosphere and results of the meeting show, tusk added in his turn that rumors about disagreements between european capitals are greatly exaggerated, this is a quote from the polish prime minister, they said, they have one thing in common common belief is to make the european continent safe, one such common goal, and the french president expressed hope that it will be possible to sustainably finance aid to ukraine without delay. we will do whatever it takes, as long as it takes, to prevent russia from winning this war. we will continue to support ukraine and its people as long as it takes, and as from day one, we will not initiate any escalation, but our resolve is firm,

it also involves our unity, and that is why we have decided on several initiatives, and we will act in three over very specific things. emmanuel macron in a statement for journalists of the traditional question-and-answer session, by the way, there was no possible dispatch of western troops to ukraine, which aggravated his interaction with the german chancellor in... he did not mention at all, although before leaving for berlin, he gave a lengthy, half-hour , to be precise, an interview with french television, which was primarily concerned with this irritating topic, and accordingly was raised by journalists, and with the question of whether the french president, who is criticized for this, by the way, within his own country, will send troops to ukraine , directly did not answer, instead reacted with such a counter question, asked the presenter, who was sitting, whether he excludes the possibility of standing up when... the interview ends, talking about aid to ukraine, macron repeated that all options are possible, that france will not attack

russia, also that one cannot be weak in trying to achieve peace, and that trust in europe will drop to zero if russia wins the war, so they say it is important not to draw red lines, macron also said that everything necessary will be done to achieve the goal, because if russia will win, so will the lives of the french more security will also change in... europe, accordingly, in this case there will not be. the kremlin responded to this interview. dmytro piskov heard in it a signal to the readiness of france to increase the level of its involvement in the war that russia is waging against ukraine. well, the publication lemont, actually you already quoted, referring to your sources, reported that at the end of february, in a narrow circle, macron allegedly said that he was going to send troops to odesa next year. by the way, i did not touch on this topic publicly today either. chancellor scholz said in the format the trio discussed concrete steps to support ukraine, agreed to purchase more weapons for

it around the world, also expand the production of military equipment in cooperation with ukraine, strengthen support at the level of the european union and create a new coalition within the framework of the ramstein format, which is meeting next week will focus on providing ukraine with tausa long-range rocket artillery, by the way, he did not mention, listen to what schultz said. one thing is clear, we support ukraine, it is also clear that we are not at war with russia, our common goal is and remains to ensure that ukraine can effectively defend itself against russian aggression. germany, france and poland are committed to this , along with their allies and partners in europe and across the atlantic, and we will not back down from our commitment. now, as i already said, the working dinner is in progress, after it, in turn, there will be no media activities, and therefore

there is no opportunity for journalists to update certain nuances of the leaders. zoryan, thank you very much, i just want to point out that on against the background of the fact that the entire western press , including the french one, writes about the prospect or about macron's loud statements about sending troops to ukraine, scholz and macron do not publicly comment on this, it is like not noticing an elephant. small room thank you very much, but maybe there will be statements later. zoryana stepanenko, live. well, in ukraine , macron's statements are also commented quite cautiously. in general, the french president is expected to visit kyiv. when this happens is not clear, the visit has already been postponed several times. at first it was planned to february, then it was postponed to mid- march. in particular, politiko writes about this. in a recent interview with the french tv channel bfmtv, volodymyr zelenskyi said that ukraine does not need to involve foreign military personnel, but would be interested in the presence of foreign instructors and technical personnel from countries that already provide

military support to ukraine. zelenskyy said that he would like to discuss with macron in more detail and directly under the time of their meeting. what macron said , they say, we can't rule anything out, i think it's primarily connected with putin, because as long as ukraine is holding on, the french army can stay... on the territory of france, but if putin succeeds in attacking any a nato state, then the alliance countries will have to decide how and in what number they should send their armies, their battalions for war on its territory. and then we will talk about how macron’s transformation from a dove into a hawk can end, so to speak, and to what extent kyiv's efforts can be effective here and not only here. viktor shlinchak, chairman of the board of the institute of world politics, joins. to our broadcast. victor, good evening. i congratulate you. you know, i, i read

your facebook yesterday, and you wrote: the crunch of a french loaf can be felt all over the red line from putin. and let it be a struggle for european leadership, the main thing in it is that it is in our interests. and you could decipher what this means, because i understand that this is a direct reference to macron's statements. of course you're right, we really are last'. for two weeks, we have actually been discussing the statements of mr. macron, and this is exactly the politician who began to set new red lines, but ... the red lines for putin himself, and he began to raise the stakes, this is the man who, for the first time, probably in the last two years, began to really raise the stakes in this war, among other european politicians, although i will say right away, in order not to be too fascinated,

you must understand that in addition to statements, we actually need actions, and ... considering that france is now in the eighth place among those countries which provide ukraine with weapons, i would like it to rise in parallel with these words, at least in this rating, at least to the third mark, after the united states of america and germany. because right now, in fact, germany is in second place, it is possible for scholz to even hear some reproaches against... himself, because germany is second only to the united states in the amount of aid, so i think that from the ukrainian side, or rather from ukrainian society, germany is really, probably not very fond of it, well, let's put it this way, those words are flattering we constantly, with which we constantly torpedo

germany, but let me remind you that they also went a long way of evolution from ... thousands of fairy tales, about which we constantly mention germany to really transferring high-tech weapons to tanks, but of course, in this case, the tauruses became so , you know, a symbol, and maybe they will not globally change the situation at the front, but this is a signal for putin himself, it is also raising the stakes, and actually. when putin reacts to certain things, it means that they are picking on them, that is, him was definitely affected by macron's statement about the possible , possible arrival of troops to ukraine, he was definitely affected by the discussion around taurus, this means that we are on the right track, that is

, the civilized western world should really talk to putin in the language of power, he does not understand any other language, this is already a conviction, we have been convinced many times, yes, but if we return to the question, after all, what, what, what is macron planning at this stage, here, here, what is behind this so far, verbal, perhaps raising the stakes, you really admit that france will become the first country that will decide to send his troops, that is how, according to the french, french media lemont to odesa, allegedly macron said that he does not rule out that we will have to send troops to odesa. i, by the way, think that, since odesa was named among those where the troops could be sent, today we saw the kremlin's reaction to the word odesa. do you relate, even? of course, i have no confirmation of this, but the way putin's russia always reacts symbolically to certain

attacks on it, i have a suspicion that that's exactly how it was. as for... the statements , well look, let's think about it, macron is no longer preparing for a new presidential campaign like some of his colleagues, since he is already twice in his second term as president, for him now it is really important during this year and a half to go down in history as someone who could become the leader of europe, and with the fact that in europe... uh, there is such a stir about the possible rise to power in the united states of america of trump, this is precisely the time that france can take advantage of in order to assert its global european leadership. moreover, i will remind you that macron once took the initiative

to create a prototype in ukraine, to create it in europe, i'm sorry. the prototype of nato forces , that is, the creation of european security forces , then this story, i think that maybe now this idea will be returned again, all attention will be returned against the background of those recent statements, that is , european leaders who, especially those who are worried that trump may withdraw from nato, and accordingly lower this... status are really considering the possibility of returning to the idea of ​​creating european security forces, and, by the way, two sources told me about this even during the munich security conference, i.e. people at the foreign ministers of countries that are very

close to ukraine. by the way, i paid attention, but maybe i'm wrong, the representatives of the ukrainian authorities comment very carefully and carefully on this topic of sending troops to ukraine. volodymyr zelenskyi said in an interview that so far we don't need troops there, we do. instructors, there are technical personnel and so on, against the background of the headlines and discussions that we hear in europe now, everything is relatively quiet in ukraine, is it because ukrainian diplomats are not allowed to participate in this discussion to the full extent, or are there any other reasons, well, look, i don't think that in this case ukraine's position can be too fiddley, although we really have to give at least legislative permission for foreign troops to be on the territory of ukraine, this is required by ukrainian

legislation and voting, at least in to the verkhovna rada, since any stay of the troops of foreign countries is clearly regulated by law in our country, but at the moment there is nothing to talk about, since... the stay of instructors or at the level of instructors of representatives of certain countries has never been in our country regulated, and it does not require any additional measures from ukraine above all, i believe that for ukraine in any case now it is a question of military, militarily such personal assistance. it is quite so painful, especially against the background of what we have there have been certain rotational changes in the troops, and

accordingly people who have experience in conducting some special operations or certain actions, then i think that for ukraine this would seem to be a rather significant help, but i have nothing to tell you. as to what logic the ukrainian authorities have, why they do not articulate this issue so deeply yet, well, maybe because the verkhovna rada, you know, has stopped sitting now, meets rarely, hands have not reached, i don’t know, viktor, i wanted to you have one more topic to raise today, you were very yesterday appropriately and timely reminded all of us that exactly one year ago the ministry of foreign affairs announced a competition for the position of ambassadors, there were even several reports, statements from. kuleby, but as i understand it, there are no appointments and there have not been any, and there are more than 20 countries, currently without ambassadors, including great britain, valery zaluzhny has not reached there yet, and you

know, they asked, it can already be called sabotage, or not yet, and why exactly sabotage, what is the word for here, what did you mean , look, if ambassadors are not appointed to certain countries for a year, then it can be called something different. in words, ranging from the fact that this is some kind of professional negligence, to the fact that certain appointments are really specifically delayed, well , this is what i think with you, i saw your broadcast yesterday, thank you very much for quoting me, but even you are professional diplomats exactly the same said that it sometimes goes beyond any explanation. therefore, in this case, of course, we, understanding what the diplomatic service is, still hope that in the near future the president will still

make a decision on the direction of the ukrainian ambassadors to countries that are, first of all , strategic for us, well, starting with the czech republic, even the same one, well, look, the czech republic is running all over the world, looking for us. shells, doesn't the czech republic deserve to have a full-fledged representative of ukraine in the czech republic who could help in this matter. i have this question, i think that it arises from czech colleagues, it is more rhetorical, of course, just like the countries that are trying to help us now, also transferring some. exactly the same with great britain, because many of my fellow journalists have already written that volodymyr zelenskyi...

has appointed valery zaluzhnyi as ambassador, he has not appointed him yet, because the appointment is made by presidential decree, not by a notice on the website of the ministry of foreign affairs, especially since this notice violates any diplomatic, ethical norms, this is written in all the textbooks that diplomats study, so here is such and such a question. viktor, i have the last ones. if possible very briefly, in russia there is currently an action that the kremlin calls elections, there are doubts that this elections, but in any case, yesterday the verkhovna rada adopted an appeal to the governments and parliaments of foreign countries, and made such a request not to recognize these elections in the occupied ukrainian territories, and the opposition strongly criticizes the authorities, saying that they did it very late, in fact the day before the start of these elections, and here are these appeals that

need to be translated and sent to... the governments of other countries, what do you think about it, again, was this done consciously or unconsciously, if possible, in our country literally a minute, if you require me to speak sabotage, then i will not say this word to you, i believe that the verkhovna rada should have made this decision a long time ago, but i hope that our western partners will do it by themselves, even without an appeal from the relevant parliament of ukraine. but it is logical then that they should do it after the appeal or as a result of the appeal of the parliament of ukraine. thank you very much. viktor shlinchak, chairman of the board of the institute of world politics, was on rfe/ rl. well, as i already mentioned, presidential elections are going on in russia, but these elections are without a choice. putin has three so-called opponents. there is no point in even mentioning their names. they still have no chance of winning. and

likewise, none of them condemns. the war in ukraine and does not directly criticize putin. in 2024, the so-called presidential elections of russia will be held for the first time in the occupied territories of four ukrainian regions: zaporizhzhia, kherson, donetsk and luhansk. the kremlin already held presidential elections in occupied crimea in 2018. illegal voting in the occupation began early. the occupation authorities advise people to vote at home, where members come to them commission accompanied. armed people , look at how it looks like the election commission, 199 участок, do you want to vote early, give me your passport illegal early voting in the presidential elections of russia first started in the southern occupied territories of ukraine, and later in the eastern ones, the occupation authorities started preparing for it earlier, so on in the middle of february in the occupied kherson region, members of the election commissions began to go around the houses of local people, there

he stated... that such raids were carried out in order to acquaint the local people with the process of holding elections the kherson regional administration explained that in this way the representatives of the occupation administrations tried to obtain complete lists of the local population. it probably paid off - says serhii nikytenko, editor-in-chief of the kherson website most. finally, they have lists of voters. i am not saying that these are directly voter lists as we understand them, well, in normal countries, yes, where there is a register, where there is an extract from the register. the list of voters is not just paper with printed letters, yes, it is an extract from the register, they have lists, printed by a typographic method , there were not many of them, as far as i understand, we met , well, we saw them on video reports of the occupation media, and this indicates that they are at least trying to give the appearance of legitimacy, the very illegal election

process in the occupied... territories was divided into three stages - says mykhailo samikin, adviser to the head of the zaporizhia region. first of all, the russian military was involved in the voting. the polling stations were deployed right at the military positions. a member of the inter-election commissions at the front, semikin adds, spoke the russian military themselves. the second stage is a preliminary vote for people with reduced mobility and those who live in hard-to-reach and front-line cities. the third is the main stage of the presidential elections of russia, which will take place from march 15 to 17, 2024. the dates of preliminary voting in the occupied territories differed. this is how it started in the kherson region.