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Added on the 21/12/2021 17:36:58 - Copyright : France 24 EN
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky warns European leaders that Russia's Vladimir Putin would exploit any failure to agree to launch his country's EU membership talks. "People in Europe won't see any benefit if Moscow receives a pass from Brussels in the form of negativity towards Ukraine. Putin will surely use this against you personally and against all of Europe," Zelensky tells an EU summit by videolink. SOUNDBITE ++ TEXT 347R2JH
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken calls Russian President Vladimir Putin's claim of Western sabotage in the leaks of the Nord Stream gas pipelines "absurd" and "outrageous." SOUNDBITE
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at a lavish ceremony on Red Square following a landslide victory in his country’s presidential elections. The concert marks the tenth anniversary of Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, when Moscow formally recognised the peninsula as a federal subject. IMAGES
People respond to a call from opposition figure Yulia Navalnaya to turn up at polling stations at midday Moscow time (0900 GMT) in a form of protest that attempts to overwhelm them. Before his death in an Arctic prison last month, opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who galvanised mass anti-Putin rallies, had urged Russians to protest on March 17. The polling station is where opposition leader Alexei Navalny was registered. IMAGES
Sweden joining NATO shows Russian President Vladimir Putin "failed" in his Ukrainian war strategy of weakening the alliance, its chief Jens Stoltenberg says. The Kremlin's invasion not only prompted formerly non-aligned nations Sweden and Finland to come under NATO's defence umbrella, but now "Ukraine is closer to NATO membership than ever before," Stoltenberg adds. SOUNDBITE
US President Joe Biden says during his State of the Union address that Ukraine is capable of stopping Putin if the US provides Kyiv the "weapons it needs to defend itself." SOUNDBITE