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It had been in the air for several days. Valery Zalouzhny, the head of the Ukrainian armies, leaves office after a series of disagreements with President Zelensky. In office from the start of the war against Russia, this soldier "very popular in Ukraine", reports the

New York Times

, had won the trust of Western allies, who saw in him a reliable partner. But his critical positions, in the British newspaper,

The Economist

, in November 2023, on the ineffectiveness of the Ukrainian counter-offensive, had greatly displeased Kiev. His replacement, General Oleksandr Syrsky, was described in the

New York Times

as "a hard man." The daily returns to its “go to war” strategy, adopted during the battle of Bakhmut. The latter had caused numerous losses on both sides of the front. Within the Ukrainian army, he is nicknamed "the butcher"...

On the military front, the "situation is increasingly deteriorating" in Avdiivka, writes the Ukrainian magazine,

Focus

. Ukrainians and Russians are engaged in a fierce battle to take control of the city. For its part,

Libération

describes a very tense situation for Ukrainians. The city is “surrounded by hundreds of armored vehicles and tens of thousands of men”. According to observers, Moscow's objective is to obtain a victory on a "symbolic level" a few weeks before the presidential election in Russia.

In the United States, no legal proceedings for President Joe Biden, after the discovery of classified documents at his home. In a 350-page report, writes the

Washington Post

, the special prosecutor, Robert Hur, in charge of the investigation, justified this decision by the "failing memory" of the American president, which would have prejudiced him in front of a jury. To which the person responded during a press conference: “My memory is fine, thank you”, in a rather virulent tone. But in the pre-election period, such information on the health of the president-candidate is godsend for his adversaries, explains the

New York Times

. This “legal reason not to be prosecuted is becoming a political nightmare,” according to the daily. “If he is too old and deemed incapable of being prosecuted for health reasons, how could he lead a second term at the head of the United States?” asks the conservative newspaper, National

Review

. What is certain, concludes

The Guardian

, is that Donald Trump's camp will not hesitate to cite the report to demolish its main rival in the presidential election next November.

Much ado about nothing, summarizes the French press on the subject of the ministerial reshuffle.

Le Parisien

speaks of a government “finally complete, but in pain”. 

Libération

asks the question: "is this a new government? Or a political crisis? Or a government already in crisis?", after "30 days of procrastination", marked, among other things, by the agricultural crisis and strong criticism targeting Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, now former Minister of National Education. 

“What can we learn from this reshuffle?”, also asks

L'Opinion

, if not the charge of François Bayrou, historic ally of the Macronists, after his refusal to enter the government, against a backdrop of political disagreement. What if all this was just a “comedy of power”, as

Le Figaro

describes it . A comedy summed up in one sentence by

Le Monde

: “such a long wait for a non-event”.

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