The 'Napoleons' who today threaten to "send troops to the East" should not "forget the lessons of history", in particular when Russian troops entered Paris after defeating the real Napoleon. This was said by the spokeswoman of the Foreign Ministry of Moscow, Maria Zakharova, as the 210th anniversary of the surrender of the French capital, on 31 March 1814, approaches.
Generally, "the current Western rulers" Zakharova advises not to forget "how their predecessors who had the desire to inflict a 'strategic defeat' on Russia always ended up." The spokeswoman recalled that after defeating Napoleon's invading army in 1812, "the Russian troops, from the walls of burned Moscow, carrying on their flags freedom for the countries and peoples of Europe from Napoleonic oppression, marched to thousands of kilometers with heavy fighting towards the French capital, which surrendered to the mercy of the victors on 31 March 1814". In Russia the victory over Napoleon is remembered as the Patriotic War. The one about Nazi-fascism as the Great Patriotic War.
Russian President Vladimir
Putin
has said that F-16 warplanes used by Ukraine against Russia would be hit by Moscow's forces even if they were at NATO airfields. This was reported by the Tass news agency. “If they are used by airports of third countries, they will be a legitimate target for us: no matter where they are,” Putin said at a meeting with Russian Air Force pilots in the western Tver region. The Russian president then warned that Russia will take into account the fact that F-16s can carry nuclear weapons. “We must take this into account when planning” combat operations, Putin said. The Tsar then assured that the possible supply of F-16s to Ukraine "will not change the situation on the battlefield", since Russia "will destroy them as it is already doing with Western tanks and other weapons".
Putin has called accusations that Russia is planning to invade Europe "total nonsense". “As for the accusation that we are planning to invade Europe after Ukraine, this is complete nonsense intended solely to intimidate the population into paying them more money,” Putin said. This narrative takes place "in a context of economic crisis and deteriorating living standards - continued the Russian president -. They need to justify themselves, so they are intimidating their population with a potential Russian threat while trying to expand their dictatorship to the whole world".
Russian forces launched a barrage of missiles and drones on Ukraine last night, but almost all the enemy unmanned aircraft were shot down by the country's air defenses: the Kiev Air Force announced this on Telegram, underlining however that the missiles - five in total - managed to evade the defensive systems. Russia launched a total of 28 kamikaze drones of the Shahed-136/131 type from the Kursk region and Cape Chauda in annexed Crimea, 26 of which were intercepted and shot down over the Odessa, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia regions. Three Kh-22 cruise missiles, a Kh-31P anti-radar missile (from the Black Sea) and an S-300 anti-aircraft missile (from the occupied territory of Donetsk) were also launched during the night.
Two women were injured and several houses were damaged by debris from Russian kamikaze drones launched tonight over the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia. This was announced by the local authorities, quoted by the Kiev media.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz explained his refusal to supply Taurus long-range cruise missiles to Kiev and to send German troops to Ukraine. "As head of government I must take responsibility for issues relating to war, peace and security in Europe: this also applies to the Taurus issue. Without prejudice to our resolute support for Ukraine, one thing is important to me: we will do our best our best to avoid an escalation of this war, that is, a war between Russia and NATO," Scholz said in an interview with the German newspaper Markische Allgemeine Zeitung also reported by the Russian news agency Tass. "We will not send our soldiers to Ukraine. And every batch of weapons they send, we carefully analyze what it means in the given context, continued the German Chancellor, underlining that no other country in the EU supports Ukraine with ammunition and weapons as much as Germany. "We spend 28 billion euros on this alone. More than many countries combined. And we will continue to do so as long as necessary,” Scholz added.
NGO, '5 independent journalists arrested in Russia'
Five journalists working for independent media were arrested during the night between Wednesday and Thursday in Russia. Police handcuffed Ekaterina Anikievitch of broadcaster SOTAvision and Konstantin Jarov of RusNews, the NGO Ovd-Info, which specializes in monitoring repression in Russia, reported. According to a witness, Jarov was beaten and threatened with sexual violence by police officers. The other arrested persons are Antonina Favorskaya, Alexandra Astakhova and Anastassia Moussatova.
“They kicked me, put their foot on my head, twisted my fingers and laughed at me when I tried to get up,” Jarov said, as quoted by the RusNews news agency. And he said he suffered a head injury, abrasions, dislocated fingers and sprains. According to the journalist, the violence was provoked by filming near the home of another journalist, Antonina Favorskaya of SOTAvision, who was arrested on Wednesday evening immediately after being released following 10 days of administrative detention for disobeying the police.
The journalist's apartment was searched, as was that of her parents, her lawyer Mikhail Biriukov said, quoted by SOTAvision. According to the same source, two other journalists, Alexandra Astakhova and Anastassia Moussatova, who had gone to meet her colleague on the occasion of her release, were also arrested and taken away for questioning by investigators. According to the Mediazona website, which specializes in following judicial events, the case against Favorskaya is linked to the activities of the movement led by opponent Alexei Navalny, who died in prison in February.
Its organizations are classified as "extremist" by Russian justice. Antonina Favorskaya has followed the trials involving Alexei Navalny for years. It was she who shot the last video showing the opponent still alive, on February 15 during a court hearing. She was arrested on March 17, a few hours after placing flowers on the opponent's grave, according to Mediazona.
Warsaw, operation against the Russian espionage network
Warsaw's security services have announced that an operation against the Russian spy network is underway. During the operation, which began on Wednesday, the Polish security services (ABW) carried out searches in Warsaw and Tychy (in the south) and "interrogated some people". The operation was the result of cooperation between the ABW and several European services, including the Czech authorities: Prague announced a similar operation yesterday.
The goal of the network targeted by the operation was "to achieve the Kremlin's foreign policy objectives, in particular to weaken Poland's position on the international scene, discredit Ukraine and the image of the institutions of the European Union", he said. wrote the Abw in a press note. These objectives were to be achieved through the pro-Russian website "voice-of-europe.eu". The operation was also the result of the indictment in January of a Polish citizen suspected of spying for the Russian secret service, Abw added. "The man, who infiltrated Polish and European parliamentarians, carried out tasks commissioned and financed by collaborators of the Russian secret services.
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