Ukraine challenges Macron to visit Kyiv before the end of June and urges the French president to send more weapons to help fight Putin’s forces

• Macron is yet to visit Kyiv since Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24
• This is despite several Western leaders travelling to meet President Zelensky
• Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called on Macron to pay a visit Kyiv 
• He called on him to do so while France is still President of the Council of the EU
• Kuleba also urged France to send more weapons to help in Ukraine's fight 

By CHRIS JEWERS FOR MAILONLINE and AFP-31 May 2022

Ukraine has challenged French President Emmanuel Macron to visit Kyiv before the end of France's presidency of the European Union comes to an end on June 30.

Several foreign leaders have visited Ukraine's capital and its surrounding areas since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his brutal invasion on February 24.

However, Macron has been a notable absentee, and has been criticised by Kyiv for allegedly asking Ukraine to make concessions to Russia in a bid to end the war.

Speaking to French news channel LCI on Tuesday, Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called on the French leader to pay a visit to Kyiv, and also called on Macron so send more weapons to help in his country's fight against Russia's invading forces.

'It would be good that Macron came during the French EU presidency, and the best thing would be that he comes with more weapons deliveries for Ukraine,' Kuleba said, adding: 'That's the most precious aid we can receive from France.'

Ukraine has challenged French President Emmanuel Macron (pictured Tuesday) to visit Kyiv before the end of France's presidency of the European Union comes to an end on June 30

Bomb disposal experts from the Ukrainian State Emergency Service make safe a Russian BM-30 Smerch rocket and remove it from a field on May 31, 2022 in Borodianka, Ukraine

Local residents examine a destroyed Russian tank outside Kyiv on May 31, 2022, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Canadian leader Justin Trudeau and high-ranking European officials have visited Kyiv since Russia withdrew its forces from the Ukrainian capital to refocus its attention on the east.

New French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna visited Kyiv on Monday, the first such trip by a French official since the start of the war.

But Macron, along with Germany's chancellor Olaf Scholz, is yet to travel to Kyiv, and both France and Germany have faced criticism for not doing enough to support Ukraine in its fight against the Russian invaders. 

Macron himself has come under fire for staying in touch with Putin, while Scholz has been criticised for not sending enough weapons to Kyiv's defenders. 

The newly re-elected French head of state on Tuesday repeated his wish to go to Kyiv 'in good time, in the right conditions'. 

Kuleba said a visit by Macron was 'on the agenda'.

Ukraine's top diplomat added that the key eastern city of Severodonetsk was the scene of street fighting and requested rocket-launchers, tanks and cannons to bolster the army.

He also called on countries to pass laws authorising the seizure of Russian assets for Ukraine's reconstruction.

Macron is one of the few European leaders to maintain a regular dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin and has warned that humiliating Russia will not bring peace.

'We must not allow Putin an outcome that allows him to save face, otherwise he will continue his aggression,' Kuleba said, brushing aside those concerns.

Speaking on Tuesday, Macron defended his decision to stay in touch with Putin. 'We have to keep discussing where Russia and Ukraine do stand in order to prepare [for] peace the day they will resume the negotiations,' he said, according to Politico.

'This is very important and this is our duty as Europeans,' he added.

France's President has held more than 20 calls with his Russian counterpart since last December, with the most recent taking place on Saturday with Scholz.

Zelensky: Free world must not do business with a 'terrorist state

 

Several foreign leaders have visited Ukraine's capital and its surrounding areas since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his brutal invasion on February 24. Pictured: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (R) and Slovakian President Zuzana Caputova (L) attend a a joint press conference at the Mariinsky Palace in Kyiv, Ukraine, 31 May 2022

Speaking to French news channel LCI on Tuesday, Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba  (pictured in Davos last week) called on the French leader to pay a visit Kyiv, and also called on Macron so send more weapons to help in his country's fight against Moscow's invading forces

Meanwhile, a regional governor said Tuesday that Russian forces now control 'most' of eastern Ukraine's key city of Severodonetsk, while EU leaders were split over banning gas from Moscow after agreeing to embargo most of its oil. 

On Monday, military analysts painted the battle for the city as part of a race against time for the Kremlin, which they said wants to complete its capture of the industrial Donbas region before more Western arms arrive to bolster Ukraine's defences.

Both sides said Russian forces now controlled between a third and half of the city. Russia's separatist proxies acknowledged that capturing the city was taking longer than hoped, despite one of the biggest ground assaults of the war.

Russia, responding to Western sanctions after its Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, widened its gas cuts to Europe on Tuesday with Gazprom saying it would cut supplies to several 'unfriendly' countries which have refused to accept Moscow's roubles-for-gas payment scheme.

EU leaders agreed overnight to cut imports of Russian oil by 90% by year-end, the bloc's toughest yet response. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy welcomed the move but criticised what he called an 'unacceptable' delay.

'When over 50 days have passed between the fifth and sixth sanction packages, the situation is not acceptable for us,' Zelensky said, speaking alongside Slovakian President Zuzana Caputova in Kyiv.

Western military analysts say Moscow has drained manpower and firepower from across other parts of the front to concentrate on Sievierodonetsk, hoping a massive offensive will achieve one of its stated aims, to secure surrounding Luhansk province for separatist proxies.

 in the city of Severodonetsk during heavy fightings between Ukrainian and Russian troops at eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas on May 30, 2022

Local residents examine a destroyed Russian tank outside Kyiv on May 31, 2022, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine

'We can say already that a third of Sievierodonetsk is already under our control,' Russia's TASS state news agency quoted Leonid Pasechnik, the leader of the pro-Moscow Luhansk People's Republic, as saying.

Fighting was raging in the city, but Russian forces were not advancing as rapidly as might have been hoped, he said, claiming that pro-Moscow forces wanted to 'maintain the city's infrastructure' and moved slowly because of caution around chemical factories.

A Russian air strike hit a nitric acid tank, Luhansk governor Serhiy Gaidai said on Tuesday. In a post on the Telegram app, he urged local residents not to leave bomb shelters because of the risk posed by toxic fumes.

In its evening briefing note on Facebook, Ukraine's military command said that Russian forces were 'attempting to take full control of Sievierodonetsk' and surround Ukrainian units fighting there.

'Unfortunately ... the city has been split in half. But at the same time the city still defends itself. It is still Ukrainian,' the head of the city administration, Oleksandr Stryuk, said, advising those still trapped inside to stay in cellars.

Ukraine says Russia has destroyed all of the city's critical infrastructure with unrelenting bombardment, followed by wave after wave of mass ground assaults involving huge numbers of casualties.

Thousands of residents remain trapped. Russian forces were advancing towards the city centre, but slowly, regional governor Gaidai said.

Gaidai said there did not appear to be a risk of Ukrainian forces being encircled, though they could ultimately be forced to retreat across the Siverskyi Donets river to Lysychansk, the twin city on the opposite bank.

Stryuk, head of the city administration, said evacuating civilians was no longer possible.

Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council aid agency which had long operated out of Sievierodonetsk, said he was 'horrified' by its destruction.

'We fear that up to 12,000 civilians remain caught in crossfire in the city, without sufficient access to water, food, medicine or electricity,' he said. 'The near-constant bombardment is forcing civilians to seek refuge in bomb shelters and basements, with only few precious opportunities for those trying to escape.'

Local residents examine a destroyed Russian tank outside Kyiv on May 31, 2022

A local resident walks past a damaged building in the town of Irpin, near Kyiv, on May 31, 2022

Elsewhere on the battlefield, there were few reports of major shifts. 

In the east, Ukraine says Moscow is trying to assault other areas along the main front, regrouping to press towards the city of Sloviansk. 

In the south, Ukraine claimed in recent days to have pushed back Russian forces to the border of Russian-held Kherson province. 

Meanwhile, Germany will deliver infantry fighting vehicles (IFV) to Greece so that the government in Athens can pass on Soviet-style weapons to Ukraine, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Tuesday.

'We will provide Greece with German infantry fighting vehicles,' he told reporters after a two-day EU summit in Brussels, adding he had struck an agreement with the Greek prime minister.

Scholz gave no details as to what kind of infantry fighting vehicles Berlin will hand over to Greece - or what kind of weapons Athens will pass on to Kyiv.

'The defence ministries will work out the details and quickly implement this agreement,' he said.

According to a defence source, Berlin aims to deliver some 100 old Marder IFVs owned by arms-maker Rheinmetall to Greece. Athens, in return, would supply Soviet-style BMP IFVs to Ukraine, the source told Reuters.