In Ukraine, tension rises after Moscow announced the annexation of four regions

A billboard reading 'How to get a passport from a Russian citizen' ahead of the referendum in Luhansk on September 22, 2022. AP

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2 mins

This Friday, the Kremlin is preparing a big ceremony in Moscow, during which Vladimir Putin could formalize with great fanfare the attachment to Russia of the four regions of eastern Ukraine, Kherson, Zaporizhia, Donetsk and Luhansk, while the concern is mounting over the consequences of this unprecedented act of annexation by a great power member of the United Nations Security Council.

In kyiv, officials and public no longer hesitate to mention the risk of a nuclear response.

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With our correspondent in Kiev,

The world has perhaps never been closer to the use of a tactical nuclear weapon to resolve a conflict, this is the opinion that is gaining ground in kyiv as the Ukrainian army is inflicting on the Kremlin another crushing defeat, this time in the Donbass, in Lyman, where the Russian army is almost surrounded.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has convened an exceptional National Security Council for this Friday, in which the army staff will be represented, in order to provide a response to the annexation of the south-eastern regions of Ukraine. .

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The fear of the unimaginable

According to intelligence sources, it will also discuss the attitude to be adopted by Ukraine and its Western partners in the event of a tactical nuclear strike by Russia.

From now on, the people in charge of kyiv do not hesitate any more to approach this scenario but estimate that in no case it should divert Ukraine from its strategy: to recover its occupied territories.

Public opinion is also beginning to gently evoke the nuclear hypothesis, Ukrainians are discussing on social networks how to prepare for it, but mutedly, with a surprising calm, as if the unimaginable were not expressed by words.

♦ In turn, US President Joe Biden opposes the results announced by Moscow

The United States will never, ever, ever recognize Russian claims to the sovereign territory of Ukraine.

These so-called referendums were a sham, an absolute sham.

The results were fabricated from scratch in Moscow.

The true will of the Ukrainian people is evident day after day.

They sacrifice their lives to save their people and maintain the independence of their country as well as to defend freedom.

The Russian attack on Ukraine to serve Putin's and imperialist ambitions is a blatant, flagrant violation of the UN Charter and the basic principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Joe Biden

Guillaume Naudin

The success factors of the Ukrainian forces

The first high-intensity conflict of the 21st century on European soil, the war in Ukraine is scrutinized by all staffs.

After seven months of confrontation, the factors of the success of the Ukrainian forces on the battlefield now appear clearly.

Intelligence, denial of access, concentration of fire and above all great plasticity in all areas of combat, these are the keys to the success of the Ukrainian army.

The Russians got the wrong enemies, note the French strategists.

They fired 3,000 precision missiles, but never managed to fragment the Ukrainian defense.

This has always opposed highly efficient redundant systems.

First notable point and which had not been anticipated before this war: the massive use of portable surface-to-air missiles.

He prevented the Russians from having mastery of the skies.

A denial of access, low altitude, short range, in ambush, undetectable.

Prior to this, denial of access was only high altitude and Russian S400 or American patriot systems.

The second upheaval came from the use of long-range artillery: it modifies the depth of the battlefield which now stretches over hundreds of kilometres.

US Himars multiple rocket launchers offer new tactical frontiers, high-ranking French servicemen enviously acknowledge.

Another revolution, the Techno guerrilla: the Ukrainians are successfully converting civilian technologies.

The use of social networks makes it possible to detect targets, and mobile phones make it possible to link the front line to command posts in full video, a new philosophy of war.

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