War in Ukraine: "It’s true that the pessimists are wrong"estimates Ariane Chemin, senior reporter

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Emmanuel Macron spoke about Ukraine’s resistance in the war against Russia and was very complimentary towards Volodymyr Zelensky’s troops. Do you think this means that Putin is losing? Do you share the ambient optimism?

Ariadne Path: Journalism does not involve the future tense, so I am not at all an expert or a diplomat, and I think that Emmanuel Macron is much better informed than me. On the other hand, where he is right, it is true that the pessimists have lost. That is to say, after the attack, for example, the raid on kyiv in March 2022, everyone thought that there would be a siege of the city, that it was over. And each time, it’s true that the pessimists are wrong.

But here you have experts who are starting to say that Putin is in trouble, the front line is frozen, he is paranoid

The problem is that we don’t know anything about Moscow. We don’t know anything about Putin’s entourage, we don’t really know anything about the mood of the Russians, because it’s very difficult to practice journalism there. On the other hand, yes, he is right about this observation, Emmanuel Macron, that is obvious. And then we also see that there is a sort of acceleration, that is to say that there are responses. We see a cathedral destroyed in kyiv a week ago and an immediate response with each time a difference: it is that on the one hand, there are attacks which are often on civilians, there exceptionally on historical monuments which belonged to the history of Russia in addition, while The images we see in Russia are indeed everything that revolves around the infrastructure that drives the war.

Exactly, we are going to see these images of the Dormition again because it is very important. It was the cathedral that was hit by Russia. And besides, Volodymyr Zelensky, in Evian at the G7, showed these images to Donald Trump who was obviously moved. Why does this say anything about Putin’s war? Hitting that spot is the equivalent of Notre-Dame de Paris for us.

This is Notre-Dame de Paris. It is very close to Bankova Street where the presidential headquarters are located. It’s not far at all. And moreover, on that same night, there were other attacks on cultural monuments. The Kharkiv Museum of Fine Arts which is not nothing, a music conservatory in Dnipro. This is all a bit new. In any case, attacking this group of churches in kyiv, we had not seen that. That’s what struck. This is truly the heart of history, so much so that we saw a form of embarrassment, including among those who defend Putin in France where, suddenly, everything was silenced.

Have you noticed any discouragement during your meetings?

No, because I would say that, in any case, they have no choice. They have no choice. We talk about resilience, this word somewhat used in a very political and psychological way. They have no choice, they are forced to stay there. Where to go? So they hold, in fact. One thing is true in this case of Emmanuel Macron, it is that it commands admiration.

But they could also finally accept that we share the territory.

I never hear that. It’s never a question of it. In addition, what Putin is asking for is not only the territories he occupies, but those he does not occupy, for example the city of Kramatorsk, which is not occupied. So it’s unthinkable.

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