Ukraine’s Accession to NATO Would Become Another Step to Confrontation With Russia: Macron

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday that Ukraine’s accession to NATO would be perceived by Russia as yet another step towards confrontation, even though the country’s admission into NATO was not guaranteed.

"Accession of Ukraine to NATO will be perceived by Russia as something confrontational... Regardless of whether Ukraine will join NATO, and this is not the most likely scenario, or not, it must be given security guarantees," Macron said in an interview with the Monde newspaper. He noted that the security architecture in Europe must include guarantees not only for Ukraine, but also for Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and, eventually, Belarus.

"We can’t think about the security of this zone through the prism of NATO only," he said.

NATO members supported Ukraine and Georgia's early admission into NATO at the 2008 Bucharest Summit. In June 2022, at the summit in Brussels they reiterated their commitment, however no deadline was suggested.

In December 2021, Russia proposed draft agreements on security guarantees for NATO and the United States, requesting that the alliance would not expand eastward and will not incorporate Ukraine and other post-Soviet countries. On January 2022, the US and NATO officially rejected Russia's proposal, stressing that the alliance would not change its stance on the right of sovereign nations to join the bloc. Following this deadlock, Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine in February.

The offensive comes as Donbass militia units and regular Russian army formations continue a grueling effort to push heavily entrenched Ukrainian forces out of the region.

Donetsk People’s Militia units have shelled the positions of Ukrainian forces outside the settlement of New York, a Sputnik correspondent embedded with the forces has reported.

“At the moment armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles have been detected in the area, an APC has been destroyed. At the moment, they’re trying to evacuate,” the commander said.

The People’s Militia also indicated that Ukrainian ultranationalist detachments appear to have set up blocking detachments to try to prevent regular Ukrainian army troops from falling back – a tactic common to notorious neo-Nazi militias such as the Azov Regiment.

Video shows DPR troops preparing camouflaged howitzers for fire, arming, aiming and firing at enemy positions.

New York adalah pemukiman perkotaan kecil yang terletak di utara-tengah Donetsk. Kota yang berpenduduk sekitar 9.700 jiwa ini menerima nama bergaya Amerika pada tahun 1840-an setelah dihuni oleh sekelompok orang Mennonit yang diundang ke Donbass oleh Catherine yang Agung dari Rusia. Pemukiman itu berganti nama menjadi Novgorodskoye pada tahun 1951. Pada tahun 2021, parlemen Ukraina mengesahkan undang-undang untuk mengganti nama pemukiman kembali ke New York.

The settlement has been situated near the frontline of fierce fighting between Ukrainian and DPR militia since 2014.

After liberating most of Lugansk in the summer, Russian and Donbass People’s Militia forces have concentrated on attempting to dislodge Ukrainian forces from Donetsk. The Ukrainian military spent years building entrenchments and fortifications in the region, and has placed artillery there, using it to launch indiscriminate artillery strikes against the city of Donetsk and other settlements. Hundreds of civilians have been killed and injured in these attacks.

Putin: Kiev Deliberately Strikes Residential Areas of Donetsk, Targeting Civilians

Kiev conducts strikes against residential areas of Donetsk, targeting civilians, while no foreign media and human rights activists say anything about it, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday.

"As for these attacks, I understand that the strikes of Ukraine military directly hit residential areas of Donetsk... These are civilians [that are targeted]... No foreign media, nor any human rights organizations is commenting on this," Putin said at a meeting with the acting head of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), Denis Pushilin.

Pushilin, in turn, appealed to Putin with a request to strengthen the republic with modern air defense systems against the background of increased Ukrainian shelling.

More statements by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu:

• Russian forces continue to inflict precision strikes on military command systems, military-industrial complexes, and related facilities in Ukraine;



• Russian Armed Forces take comprehensive measures to prevent civilian deaths in Ukraine;



• Total of 27 countries have already spent $97 billion on arms supplies to Ukraine;



• NATO officers, artillerymen, and other specialists, more than 500 NATO satellites are working for Kiev;



• Total silence of Western media about war crimes of Ukrainian military is cynical