We Are Preparing New Agreements for Ukraine with European Partners, in Particular with Germany – Address by the President

9 June 2024 – 20:46

Dear Ukrainians!

Today, it is worth mentioning those who protect normal living conditions for us – for everyone in Ukraine – no matter what. We can always count on the rescuers of our State Emergency Service of Ukraine to be there to help us every day and night after Russian strikes, after any tragic events. Whenever it happens. Wherever it happens. In areas near the frontline, and in every city and region of our country. This is one of the fundamental features of true statehood – the existence of a system and people whose job is to save. All over the country. And I thank everyone – the entire staff of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine – who really tries to do their job effectively. Today I would like to recognize the rescuers working in Kharkiv and the region. In particular, Sergeants of the Civil Protection Service Andriy Zayarnyi, Kostiantyn Mokliak, Oleksiy Zhyrov, Dmytro Maksymov, Oleksandr Dehtiarenko and Yevhen Zolotko. Chief Master Sergeants Volodymyr Ridnyi and Serhiy Sydora. Thank you, guys! Senior Lieutenants Oleksandr Yavtushenko and Maksym Mykhailov. Captains of the Civil Protection Service from the Kharkiv region Andriy Lakhtin, Serhiy Rashevskyi and Serhiy Snurnykov, Major Vadym Stadnyk and Lieutenant Colonel Oleksiy Kolodiazhnyi. I thank you and all your colleagues! My special gratitude also goes to the employees of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in the Donetsk region. Each and every one of them, who, despite everything, saves people and preserves the strength of Ukraine. Today I would like to personally recognize the guys who distinguished themselves during firefighting and rescue operations after Russian strikes on Toretsk and Selydove. Sergeants of the Civil Protection Service Oleksandr Pavlenko and Pavlo Zakharov, Chief Master Sergeant Andriy Maltamar, Lieutenant Stanislav Nechypurenko, and Major of the Civil Protection Service Volodymyr Derenko. Thank you!

At present, one of our main tasks is to secure more support for Ukraine in terms of the resilience of our society. This includes energy, recovery after attacks, and all other foundations of normal life. Life that we must preserve despite any attempts by Russia to exert pressure and destroy. We are preparing new agreements for Ukraine with European partners, in particular with Germany, on additional support measures. These days, we are also meticulously preparing a bilateral security agreement between our country and the United States. We are doing everything to ensure that America’s leadership is tangible. Thank you to everyone who helps!

And one more thing.

Pokrovsk direction, Donetsk region. Almost every day, it is consistently the hardest part of the front. The occupier’s pressure there is the greatest. Every day there is the highest number of battles. Just yesterday, there were more than forty attacks, and today, by this time, there have already been more than twenty. Each of our warriors who is destroying the enemy there, each soldier and commander who is doing their best to hold our positions and help the warriors in the neighboring positions deserves our special gratitude. We are making every effort to ensure that you and our entire army have more weapons, more equipment, and more modern systems. Today, there was already a report from Commander-in-Chief Syrskyi, and there will be a report from DIU Chief Budanov – we are preparing our new steps. Ukraine will definitely defend itself.

Glory to Ukraine!

France:

After the French far right’s massive win in the european elections, 🇫🇷 President Macron has decided to dissolve parliament and call for snap parliamentary election on June 30th. #F24

— Kethevane Gorjestani (@ketgorjestani) June 9, 2024

Usually you call a snap election when you think doing so will allow one to win, which may be why Macron is doing this. However, the polling for him and his party has been bad for some time. Now we wait and see if the French do what they usually do, answer pollsters by telling them that they support LePen and her party and then go and vote for the mainstream parties.

Macron is taking a huge gamble with this:

Strong Tory party vibes: “The decision to dissolve the National Assembly was met with disbelief by Macron’s supporters, with several people screaming “Oh no” as he spoke to a crowd in a televised address from his party headquarters in Paris.” https://t.co/UfJRAOkA0P

— Shashank Joshi (@shashj) June 9, 2024

From Politico EU:

PARIS — European elections are meant to be worthy but boring exercises in centrist coalition building. Not this time.

A surge in far-right populism in France provoked President Emmanuel Macron into calling a high-risk national election that could determine the future not only of his country but of the European Union itself.

Across the Continent it was a good if unspectacular night for center-right and far-right parties and a terrible one for liberals and especially greens.

But in France, the far-right National Rally, led by Euroskeptic and NATO-skeptic firebrands, completely crushed Macron’s liberal Renaissance and all other contenders.

The National Rally is on course to win 31.5 percent of the vote — more than twice the 14.7 percent projected for Macron’s liberal Renaissance party.

In a high-risk gamble to regain the political initiative, Macron bet that voters will turn back the far-right tide and show Marine Le Pen’s National Rally cannot win at a national level.

“France needs a clear majority in serenity and harmony. To be French, at heart, is about choosing to write history, not being driven by it,” Macron said.

Mujtaba Rahman, Europe head at Eurasia Group, a risk consultancy, reckoned the bet would pay off. “It will almost certainly put a brake on Le Pen,” he said.

Le Pen declared her party “ready to exercise power,” and told her ecstatic followers: “I can only welcome this decision.”

The far-right surge in France was replicated elsewhere in Europe on a dramatic night of upheaval in EU politics. In Berlin, Olaf Scholz’s ruling coalition parties were beaten by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which came second to the conservatives. Far-right parties were also on course to make gains in Austria, the Netherlands, Spain and Italy, according to early estimates.

In France, the National Rally’s performance in the upcoming snap election on June 30 and July 7 will be closely watched as a harbinger of whether Le Pen — long the also-ran of French politics — can ride her party’s momentum into the presidency in 2027.

As president of the world’s seventh largest economy, Le Pen would almost certainly rock the EU to its foundations, prioritising patriotic interests over international collaboration. Celebrating her party’s win in Sunday’s EU vote, she said the result should send a message to Brussels and “put an end to this painful epoch of globalism.”

Accused of flirting with the Kremlin, she has both vowed to yank Paris out of NATO’s integrated military command and would challenge the authority of the EU executive, which she once called to abolish.

Like Macron, Le Pen suggested France had come to a historical turning point.

“Tonight’s message, including that of dissolution, is also addressed to the leaders of Brussels,” she said. “This great victory for patriotic movements is in line with the direction of history, which is seeing throughout the world the return of nations.”

Macron’s snap decision to dissolve the National Assembly was met with disbelief by his supporters, with several people screaming “Oh no” as he spoke to a crowd in a televised address from his party headquarters in Paris.

In contrast, jubilant supporters of the National Rally party celebrated as Macron announced the dissolution of parliament, something the party had called for as the scale of their victory became apparent.

They sang “Dissolution, dissolution!” as they watched Macron at an electoral event where Le Pen took to the stage.

The lead Socialist candidate Raphaël Glucksmann responded to the triumph of the far right by saying: “Everywhere in Europe, we are witnessing a wave that is shaking our democracy.”

The Financial Times has more:

President Emmanuel Macron stunned France on Sunday when he called snap parliamentary elections after his centrist alliance was trounced by Marine Le Pen’s far-right movement in a European parliamentary vote.

Exit polls showed the Rassemblement National (RN) secured 31.5 per cent of the vote compared to 14.5 per cent for the French president’s centrist alliance, a stinging blow to Macron. He appeared to have only narrowly avoided a humiliating third place behind the centre-left, which took 14 per cent of the vote.

“For me, who always considers that a Europe united, strong, independent is good for France, this is a situation which I cannot countenance,” he said. “I have decided to give you back the choice of our parliamentary future with a vote.”

The first round of the parliamentary elections will be held in just three weeks, on June 30, with a run-off on July 7.

The dissolution is an extraordinary gamble by the French leader who has already lost his parliamentary majority after winning a second term as president two years ago. His alliance could be crushed, which would force him to appoint a prime minister from another party, such as the centre-right Les Republicains or even the far-right RN, in an arrangement known as a “cohabitation”.

In such a scenario, Macron would be left with little power over domestic affairs with three years left as president.

Macron said he believed a vote was needed to calm the volatile debates in the French parliament and achieve clarity on the direction of the country. Elysée officials said he had been considering it for some time to address gridlock in parliament.

François Bayrou, a centrist politician whose party is in alliance with Macron, said the president was aiming to “end the impasse” in politics by asking voters a simple question of “whether France really recognises itself in the proposals of the far-right”.

It is never a good idea to ask questions that you are not sure of and/or do not know the answers to.

Speaking of support for Putin backed neo-fascist and neo-NAZI parties in Europe:

Musk normalizing a party whose lead candidate in the election played down the crimes of the SS pic.twitter.com/p4Yg8LV71u

— Noah Barkin (@noahbarkin) June 9, 2024

All of this is important because it places ongoing, consistent, and most importantly timely support for Ukraine, as well as its eventual ascension into the EU and NATO at risk. Frankly, it puts the EU and NATO at risk all by itself. LePen is only able to function as a politician because Putin funds her both overtly and covertly. The same with the AfD in Germany and their equivalents in the other EU member states. Just as he funds the GOP through oligarchs who have located their businesses in the US and obtained US citizenship for themselves or whose children have done so in order to be able to legally make campaign donations.

In slightly more promising EU related news:

Invitation sent by French defence officials to UK, Poland, Netherlands, 3 Baltic states, Denmark and Sweden to join a coalition of the willing prepared to send trainers into Ukraine. US, Germany, Hungary Spain and others opposed. Macron would need to adapt EU Training Mission…

— Patrick Wintour (@patrickwintour) June 9, 2024

This would be funny if Charap hasn’t regularly visited the White House since the fall of 2021:

June 3, 2024/January 21, 2022.

Lo and behold, the prophet has spoken. @scharap pic.twitter.com/OcpFRitqUk

— Illia Ponomarenko 🇺🇦 (@IAPonomarenko) June 9, 2024

Also, if he wasn’t being paid with tax payer dollars for his work at RAND, which is a Federally Funded Research and Development Corporations (FFRDC).

The Ukrainians are very effectively reaching out to touch the Russian air force:

For the first time, a russian Su-57 jet was hit.

On June 8, 2024, a Su-57 multi-purpose fighter was hit on the territory of the Akhtubinsk air base in the Astrakhan region (russia), located 589 kilometers from the frontline.
Satellite images of the plane provide evidence of the… pic.twitter.com/XjgWxTEsa8

— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) June 9, 2024

For the first time, a russian Su-57 jet was hit.

On June 8, 2024, a Su-57 multi-purpose fighter was hit on the territory of the Akhtubinsk air base in the Astrakhan region (russia), located 589 kilometers from the frontline.
Satellite images of the plane provide evidence of the attack.

The Su-57 is the most modern fighter jet in russia, and there are a few units of such jets in service with the enemy army.

/2. Location of the Akhtubinsk airbase where there was an attempted drone attack on a Russian Su-57 fighter aircraft. pic.twitter.com/69amXdGATY

— Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) June 9, 2024

/4. Comment of a Russian source associated with Russian military aviation regarding the drone attack on Su-57:

“Yes, yesterday the airfield in Akhtubinsk was attacked by a UAV. 3 of them arrived.

The Su-57 was damaged by shrapnel; it is now being determined whether it can be… pic.twitter.com/9Si41l3GT1

— Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) June 9, 2024

/4. Comment of a Russian source associated with Russian military aviation regarding the drone attack on Su-57:

“Yes, yesterday the airfield in Akhtubinsk was attacked by a UAV. 3 of them arrived.

The Su-57 was damaged by shrapnel; it is now being determined whether it can be restored or not.
If not, then this will be the first combat loss of the Su-57 in history.”

/6. Preventing misinformation: There is a high probability that you will see these images claiming that those are photos of a Su-57 which was attacked yesterday. In fact those footages are quite old. pic.twitter.com/Npe8tr6Bu2

— Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) June 9, 2024

Russian occupied Crimea:

The Crimea is under missile attack. Most reports about explosions/air defense activity are coming from Yevpatoriya area. pic.twitter.com/odp6j8Ni0w

— Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) June 9, 2024

Here is Tatarigami and his Frontelligence Insight team’s latest assessment of what is happening on the front lines between Chasiv Yar and Donetsk. Via the Thread Reader App:

Summarized update from Frontelligence Insight on frontlines:

1/ The main Russian efforts remain in Donbas, particularly along the Pokrovsk-Chasiv Yar axis, which is currently the most difficult area. Vuhledar and Kupyansk areas are also key areas of focus. 🧵Thread: 

2/ So far, Russian forces have failed to capitalize on the Kharkiv oblast incursion and did not achieve any operational successes in Donbas. They made tactical advances in Chasiv Yar, but given the number and higher-than-average quality of units there, progress is slow and costly 

3/ As our team indicated months ago, the goal in Chasiv Yar isn’t to hold the town at any cost but to ensure the enemy expends far more resources than planned, thereby crippling their ability to capitalize on its capture and develop an offensive towards Kostyantynivka 

4/ While our team has observed the arrival and rotation of units near Sumy and Chernihiv oblasts, their numbers are relatively small. They wouldn’t be able to achieve significant results if they launched an attack, likely achieving far less than the Russians did in Kharkiv. 

5/ The Russian offensive may seem to be failing, but our team is thinking that such conclusions might be still premature. We continue to observe hundreds of vehicles, including tanks, APCs, and artillery systems, being relocated near Ukraine 

6/ While the goals of these relocations are unclear, it’s evident that Russia still retains offensive capabilities this summer and is capable of another large push before the window of opportunity closes for the year. 

7/ While the trajectory is becoming much more optimistic for Ukraine, it’s important to remember that despite the enormous losses the Russian military suffered near Avdiivka, including hundreds of lost vehicles in the first week of the October offensive, Avdiivka eventually fell. 

8/ Even though the risk of a frontline collapse for Ukrainian forces is slim, Russian forces still have reserves and are capable of at least one serious push before their offensive loses its steam 

9/ The full analysis will be released on our website later this week. In the meantime, please consider liking and sharing the first message in the thread.

We also appreciate any donations to support our ability to publish satellite imagery:

Tatarigami_UA is All Source Public IntelligenceSatellite imagery and other expenses https://buymeacoffee.com/frontelligence

Chasiv Yar:

This is how town of Chasiv Yar looks like now.

Russian army completely destroy it

Russians call this “denazification” and “help to Donbass people” pic.twitter.com/jvg6Up7euN

— Денис Казанський (@den_kazansky) June 9, 2024

Russian occupied Donetsk Oblast:

9 June 2024 marks the 10th anniversary of the day when the Russian Federation started using the IZOLYATSIA premises in Donetsk as an illegal prison, a place of torture and murder.

More information on the link below (please share):https://t.co/oRMgvy7cRC

— Stanislav Aseyev (@AseyevStanislav) June 9, 2024

From the Izolyatsia project:

9 June 2024 marks the 10th anniversary of the day when the Russian Federation started using the IZOLYATSIA premises in Donetsk as an illegal prison, a place of torture and murder. On that day, occupiers began to try to destroy modern Ukrainian culture and active civil society to intimidate Ukrainians who seek systemic changes in society.

Over these ten years, the IZOLYATSIA foundation’s territory, filled with the industrial heritage and spirit of thousands of factory workers, artists and artisans, researchers and scholars, cultural center’s community, as well as exhibitions, educational and creative programmes, has been transformed into a horrific detention facility designed to destroy human spirit and dignity. Through the testimonies of former hostages, it is possible to trace how, over a decade, the former premises of the foundation have increasingly adapted to their new role as a torture chamber, and the dubious reputation of the place has been overlaid with new layers of inhuman hatred by the leaders and their FSB handlers.

The experiences of former captives are known from the reports of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, publications by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Center for Civil Liberties, the Media Initiative for Human Rights, books by Stanislav Aseyev, films by Iryna Ryabenka, Ihor Minaiev, and Valentyn Vasyanovych. More publications and translations are available here.

Russian Federation used the illegal prison in the occupied territory of the IZOLYATSIA foundation as the prototype for many illegal detention facilities, concentration and filtration camps and torture chambers. Thousands of Ukrainians went throught these horrific spaces.

In the tenth year of the Russian Federation’s invasion of Ukraine, it is clear that the main goal set by the occupiers has not been achieved. The attack on the cultural institution created a backlash from Ukrainian civil society: the IZOLYATSIA foundation community, its friends and partners, as well as responsible people across the country. They created a new wave of cultural and civic institutions, organisations and projects that changed the face of society. Civil society became a powerful centre for change, capable of working in the most challenging conditions and endowed with unique experience that no other organisation in the world has.

The story of the transformation of the IZOLYATSIA cultural centre into an illegal prison can be found on the IZOLYATSIA Must Speak website: izolyatsia.ui.org.ua

Spread the word about the torture camp in Donetsk, about the thousands of people held by the Russian Federation in illegal prisons in Ukraine and Russia, to keep the attention of the international community to these and many other crimes of the Putin regime against Ukraine, Ukrainians and Ukrainian women.

#IzolyatsiaMustSpeak

Kriegforscher, the Ukrainian Marine, has posted another detailed assessment of Russian loses in Donetsk Oblast. First tweet from the thread and the rest via the Thread Reader App:

My friend Danylo, who serves in Ukrainian SOF, shared with me some footages from the part of the front where he is «working» every day as a part of a fire support unit.

Since April Russians have become more active at Southern part of D oblast and attack them almost every day🧵 pic.twitter.com/tJJRF4ITny

— Kriegsforscher (@OSINTua) June 9, 2024

That the tank that was destroyed at the video🔥

Danylo shared with some of his thoughts about Russian tactics, artillery and the enemy forces 👇

Yeap, that pretty lady is a part of his group🫡 Unfortunately I cannot show you her face.

So. If we compare, for example, Vovchansk and the part where Danylo is it’s totally different. From one point of view.

One year ago UAF launched a counteroffensive at this area. Since then RUAF are trying to bring the territory back.

And, frankly speaking, it’s pointless and gives them nothing.

So they fire 2-3 guided bombs (near Vovchansk it’s 15-30) per day and fire from 152 mm artillery.

Firstly Russians were crossing the open field on their foot. Not a lot of them managed to do it.

But they have a lot of manpower so not a big deal.

Echoes of war.

They tried to cover their movements with a lot of FPV drones and tried not to allow our infantry to reach their positions during the rotation.

Unfortunately, it was quite successful.

Just today. Danylo in his group working with drones trying not to allow Russians to move forward.

Then Russians tried to use a lot of motorcycles and bare infantry.

Sometimes even 6 artillery pieces at once were firing at their positions.

Some more BMPs🔥

Destroyed T-80BV👌

Danylo right now urgently needs your financial support — 3 DJI drones. Unfortunately, RUAF there have more recon and FVP drones.

The price is 5000$. ASAP we gather I order them. Please support.

PP: [email protected]

BMAC: buymeacoffee.com/ukranianmarine…

Wishlist | freedomfighterThe main goal of this page is to share my memories and thoughts about the war.https://buymeacoffee.com/ukranianmarines/wishlist

Pretty sure this is somewhere in Kharkiv Oblast. The 47th had been on the line in Donetsk, but they got pulled to reinforce the defenses agains the Russian assault on Kharkiv Oblast:

A wounded Ukrainian soldier from the 47th brigade saved his life by showing his military ID to a Ukrainian drone. Within an hour, a Bradley vehicle arrived and successfully evacuated him.https://t.co/VazR8GNqlq pic.twitter.com/z0MVSoGbYt

— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated) June 9, 2024

Kharkiv Oblast:

Russian UR-77 Meteorit mine clearing vehicle with anti drone cage.
Those have disappeared for quite a while from the front line. The last time a large number of UR-77 losses were documented was in October 2023. And now this is the second new loss in the last few days. Kharkiv… pic.twitter.com/Oa6vAdSysG

— Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) June 9, 2024

Russian UR-77 Meteorit mine clearing vehicle with anti drone cage.
Those have disappeared for quite a while from the front line. The last time a large number of UR-77 losses were documented was in October 2023. And now this is the second new loss in the last few days. Kharkiv region.

https://t.me/nebesnamara/79

Krasnohorivka:

59th Brigade of Ukraine repels Russian AFV column attack on Krasnohorivka. https://t.co/Vm8deUCj08 pic.twitter.com/ihS105lkl2

— Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) June 9, 2024

That’s enough for tonight.

Your daily Patron!

There are no new Patron tweets or videos tonight. Here is some adjacent material.

These are of the cat of the Ukrainian Marine Taras Chmut:

Скучила сильно😻
Ви як тут? pic.twitter.com/P035V4KHJ3

— Ms.Bulochka (@MsBulochka) June 7, 2024

Зі звуком🐈 pic.twitter.com/tHCgRTmjl6

— Ms.Bulochka (@MsBulochka) April 15, 2024

This one is my current mood:

Моя улюблена #lazy_sunday 😻 pic.twitter.com/Umqq4slMmu

— Ms.Bulochka (@MsBulochka) March 31, 2024

Open thread!