Ukraine updates: EU says Kyiv ready for membership talks

French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday denounced what he called "a camp of pacifists" and the "spirit of defeat" regarding Ukraine's defensive efforts against Russia's invasion.

"We know this camp of pacifists. It is the one of capitulators. It's the spirit of defeat. We are not like this," Macron told reporters in Paris standing alongside Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

"We are for peace in line with international law, but which recognizes the legitimate right of a people to resist when it is aggressed," Macron stressed.

The French leader said he was looking to "finalize" the creation of a coalition of military instructors for Ukraine in the coming days.

There has been speculation as to whether France would send personnel to Ukraine to train soldiers on the ground. 

Russian authorities insist that French instructors would become a "legitimate target" for Moscow. 

Ukrainian President Zelenskyy said he was "grateful for this initiative."

"I am grateful to President Macron for always striving to find the best solution to protect us and the entire Europe. I appreciate the bravery of his decisions and France's leadership," Zelenskyy said in a post on X, formerly Twitter. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum that Russia would consider sending weapons to adversaries of Western countries that supply arms to Ukraine, repeating a warning he made days earlier. 

He didn't specify where such weapons might be sent, saying only that they might be "states or even other legal entities that face certain pressure, including military (pressure), from those countries that send weapons to Ukraine and urge it to use it against us, against the Russian territory." 

However, Putin stressed that Moscow isn't doing it currently. "I am not ready to say that we will do that (start supplies) tomorrow," he added.

Putin also said that the Russian nuclear doctrine states that the use of nuclear weapons is possible in an exceptional case if the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Russia is threatened.

"But the doctrine can be changed. The same applies to nuclear tests. We will carry out tests if needed, but so far there is no such need," he added.

Russia's Defense Ministry said its forces captured the settlement of Paraskoviivka in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region.

The village is about 25 kilometers (15 miles) southwest of the city of Donetsk, the capital of the region, which Moscow claimed to have annexed, in violation of international law, in 2022. The capture of Paraskoviivka has not been confirmed by Ukraine.

After months of stalemate, Moscow took control of dozens of settlements in eastern Ukraine this year, while Kyiv was running low on manpower and ammunition.

Russia launched a major ground assault last month on the Kharkiv border region, about 300 kilometers to the north. 

Analysts said Moscow's strategy could be to try to thin Ukraine's defenses to allow Russian forces to push through in other areas of the battlefield.

On Thursday, Ukraine ordered the evacuation of children and their guardians from several towns and villages in Donetsk amid intensifying fighting. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, said Russia must reduce imports, significantly increase the use of non-Western currencies in trade settlements, and called for a major expansion of the country's domestic financial markets.

Putin claimed that the Russian economy is growing despite heavy international sanctions and the country has expanded economic ties with countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. "Friendly" countries account for three-quarters of Russia's trade turnover, he added.

According to Putin, nearly 40% of Russia's foreign trade is now conducted in rubles, while the share of US dollars, euros and other Western currencies is declining.

Putin also said that Russia would seek to increase the share of settlements in the currencies of the BRICS countries, whose main members are Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum has been used by Russia for decades as a showcase to tout the country's development. But Western officials and investors have steered clear of the session since sanctions cut off much of Russia's trade with Western Europe, the US and its allies.

Russian investigators said they have charged a French researcher, Laurent Vinatier, with gathering information on Russia's military activities.

Vinatier, a French national who works with a Swiss-based nonprofit conflict mediation organization Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, was arrested in Moscow on Thursday.

Russia's Investigative Committee, which deals with serious crimes, said Vinatier was suspected to have "purposefully collected information in the field of military and military-technical activities of the Russian Federation" over a period of several years.

Collecting such information while failing to register with the Russian government as a "foreign agent" is punishable by up to five years in prison.

The state-run RIA news agency reported that Vinatier pleaded guilty in a Moscow court. He has been remanded in custody until August 5.

Russia has previously used "foreign agent" charges as a pretext to arrest people before leveling more serious charges.

US President Joe Biden has apologized publicly for the first time to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for a monthslong delay in US military aid that allowed Russia to make gains on the battlefield. 

Speaking in Paris, where Biden and Zelenskyy attended ceremonies marking the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings, Biden said he apologized to the Ukrainian people for the weeks of not knowing if more aid was coming while Congress waited six months before sending Biden a $61 billion (€56 billion) military aid package for Ukraine. 

Still, Biden insisted that the American public continues to support Ukraine in its fight against Russia's full-scale invasion. "We're still in. Completely. Thoroughly," Biden said.

During the talks, the US president also announced $225 million in new aid for Ukraine.

Zelenskyy thanked Biden for the "tremendous support" and compared it to the United States' aid to Europe during World War II.

"We count on your continuing support to stand with us shoulder-to-shoulder," the Ukrainian president said.

The United States is by far Ukraine's biggest supplier of wartime support, and Ukraine is trying to fend off an intense Russian offensive in eastern areas of the country. 

The slow pace of delivery of promised Western weapons has long frustrated Zelenskyy, as has Biden's reluctance to send more hardware for fear of provoking Russian President Vladimir Putin. This has created tension in their relationship. 

The European Commission has told EU ambassadors that Ukraine and Moldova have met the conditions to start talks on joining the European Union. 

EU leaders agreed to open talks with the two countries in December, provided they met certain conditions, such as fighting corruption. 

"We consider that all the steps have been met by the two countries," a Commission spokeswoman said. "Now the decision is in the hands of the member states."

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal also said that the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, had confirmed in a report that Kyiv had fulfilled the remaining steps required of it in order to start negotiations. 

"Now we expect our European partners to take the next step — to start negotiations on European Union membership already this month," Shmyhal said on the Telegram messaging app. 

A number of EU countries are pushing the 27-nation bloc to formally launch the talks on June 25, but member states must unanimously agree on a plan addressing how to conduct the talks before they can begin. 

Opposition from Hungary, the EU's most Russia-friendly country, threatens to derail the move. The issue of minority rights has been a key sticking point for Budapest, which has long complained about alleged mistreatment of the Hungarian community in Ukraine.

Ukraine applied for EU membership in February 2022, after Russia escalated the long-running conflict in eastern Ukraine by launching a full-scale invasion of the country. Moldova asked to join a month later. Both countries were granted candidate status in June 2022.

Ukraine has the right under international law to strike legitimate military targets in Russia to defend itself, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said at a news conference with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson at a military base near Stockholm.

"Ukraine has the right to self-defense," Stoltenberg said. "The right to self-defense also includes the right to hit legitimate, military targets on the territory of the attacking party, the aggressor, in this case Russia."

In response to the Russian offensive in northeastern Ukraine, the United States, Germany and some other countries have allowed Kyiv to use Western-donated weapons to strike inside Russian territory. However, US President Joe Biden said Ukraine would be limited in firing US-supplied weapons at targets inside Russia near the countries' border.

"This is a war of attack that Russia has begun against a peaceful, democratic neighbouring country, Ukraine, that at no point has been a threat to Russia," Stoltenberg said. "There is no question that Ukraine has the right to hit targets on Russian territory."

The Kremlin said this week that Western nations supplying Ukraine with weapons to attack Russian territory would have to reckon with Russia after President Vladimir Putin said he was considering arming the West's enemies in retaliation.

Germany is opposed to calling a new NATO project to support Ukraine a "mission," arguing that it could send the wrong signal to Russia, in a dispute that has caused irritation among allies, Germany's dpa news agency reported.

At their next summit in Washington, NATO allies plan to launch a new project to support Kyiv, dubbed NATO Mission Ukraine. Until now, NATO members have coordinated military aid through the US-led Contact Group on Ukraine, rather than through NATO itself. 

One of the goals of the upcoming summit is to transfer the responsibilities previously held by the Ukraine Contact Group to the Western military itself. 

However, Berlin's rejection of the proposed name appears to be delaying this plan, with diplomats telling dpa that almost all NATO allies see Berlin's refusal to use the word "mission" in the name as unnecessary deference to Russia. 

The German government is reportedly concerned that calling the project a mission could be interpreted as NATO planning to send troops to Ukraine, and fears it could fuel Russian propaganda. 

According to dpa, the German government proposed calling the new mission "Pledge Assistance Coordination Training."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he hoped a summit hosted by Switzerland this month on bringing peace to Ukraine could hasten a fair end to the war in his country.

"The inaugural peace summit could become a format that would bring closer a just end to this war," Zelensky told the French parliament on Friday, warning 80 years after the D-Day landings of World War II that Europe was "unfortunately, no longer a continent of peace."

"Again, Europe's cities are being destroyed and villages are burned," he said of Russia's bombing of Ukraine. He also decried the abduction of Ukrainian children in occupied territories.

"This is against Ukraine now. But this can be aimed at other countries tomorrow, and we already see clearly the direction of the aggression — the Baltic countries, Poland, the Balkans," the Ukrainian president said.

"The Russian regime does not see any limits and even Europe is no longer enough," Zelensky said, pointing to Russian military actions in Syria and Moscow's growing footprint in the Sahel region of Africa.

"It is in Ukraine that lies the key to the security of Europe," the Ukrainian president said, implying peace could not be made along the current lines of control.

"Because without control on Ukraine, Russia will have to be a normal national state and not a colonial empire that is constantly looking for new territory in Europe, as well as Asia and Africa," he said.

Zelenskyy thanked France for its support, adding that Ukraine can rely on French air defense systems, armored vehicles, artillery and missiles.

"I am grateful for all you are already doing and it is a lot. But for a fair peace, more must be done," he said.

Zelenskyy also said he hoped to see French warplanes in the Ukrainian skies.

"Your planes, commanded by Ukrainian pilots, will prove that Europe is stronger than the evil that dared to threaten it," he added.

Macron said Thursday that Paris plans to provide Mirage 2000 fighter jets to Ukraine. 

Swiss President Viola Amherd says the Ukraine peace conference to be held in her country later this month is only the beginning of negotiations and will likely be followed by talks with Russia. 

"It is clear to us that we will not sign a peace agreement at the end of the conference," Amherd said in comments published by Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

Both parties need to be at the negotiating table, she said, noting that Russia has not been invited to the Swiss summit. "Russia could then be present at a possible follow-up conference," she said.

Amherd went on to say that the purpose of the conference was to create a platform for dialogue where the first step would be to discuss how to achieve peace in Ukraine. 

Switzerland has invited some 160 countries to discuss possible ways to achieve a lasting peace in Ukraine. Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than two years ago, did not receive an invitation. Ukraine is taking part. Moscow said Russia would not have attended even if it had been invited. 

So far, more than 80 countries have confirmed they will attend the June 15-16 meeting in Switzerland. "It was important for us that not only Western European countries and the US are taking part," Amherd said.

"Around half of the more than 80 participants who have already confirmed their attendance come from Western Europe, the other half from Africa, South America and Asia. So the Global South is represented," she added.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has accused Ukraine of using US-supplied HIMARS missiles to shell civilian targets in Russia's Belgorod region and of being responsible for the deaths of women and children.

Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova made the accusation at a news conference on the sidelines of an economic forum in St. Petersburg.

She said fragments of the HIMAR rockets would serve as evidence of what happened.

There was no immediate comment from Ukraine or the United States. The claim could not be verified.

US President Joe Biden will deliver a keynote address in Normandy on Friday in defense of freedom and democracy as part of a visit to France that includes D-Day remembrance events.

Biden is planning a speech on the power of democracy and the fight against aggressors and autocrats at the historic Pointe du Hoc, according to the White House.

On Thursday, he called for the defense of democracy at a D-Day commemoration at a US military cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer.

The president vowed never to abandon international alliances or Ukraine in its fight against Russia.

"We're living in a time when democracy is more at risk across the world than at any point since the end of World War II," Biden said. 

Biden cited the Ukraine war as an example. 

The speech is likely to be seen as a warning against his rival and predecessor, Donald Trump, in the US presidential election later this year.

Trump has publicly questioned the importance of organizations such as NATO.

The European Commission will recommend the start of EU accession talks with Ukraine in June in an attempt to signal support to the war-battered country before Budapest takes over the rotating presidency of the bloc, the Financial Times reported on Friday. 

Ukraine applied for membership to the 27-member bloc in 2022, some weeks after Russia started its full-scale war in the country. 

The recommendation requires unanimity from EU governments.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is set to address the French parliament on Friday after world leaders marked 80 years since the pivotal D-Day landings in World War II.

Following the speech, he will meet his French counterpart, President Emmanuel Macron, at the Elysee Palace.

The Ukrainian leader is also due to meet Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu and then visit the defense company KNDS in Versailles. 

The Elysee Palace announced that the company intends to set up a weapons production facility in Ukraine to support the country in its defense against Russia's war.

With Russia gaining on the battlefield in recent months, Kyiv has been pushing its supporters in Europe and the West to increase its military aid. 

Zelenskyy arrived in France on Thursday to take part in the tribute to D-Day, the Allied landings in Normandy 80 years ago during World War II.

Macron announced that during Zelenskyy's trip he intended to comment on the issue of a possible deployment of French military trainers to Ukraine. 

dvv/sms (AP, AFP, DPA, Reuters)