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Kremlin Says Ukrainians Will Suffer If Europe Sends Tanks

Damaged apartment blocks in the town of Lyman, Donetsk region, Ukraine, 22 January 2023. (EPA)
Damaged apartment blocks in the town of Lyman, Donetsk region, Ukraine, 22 January 2023. (EPA)
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Kremlin Says Ukrainians Will Suffer If Europe Sends Tanks

Damaged apartment blocks in the town of Lyman, Donetsk region, Ukraine, 22 January 2023. (EPA)
Damaged apartment blocks in the town of Lyman, Donetsk region, Ukraine, 22 January 2023. (EPA)

The Kremlin said on Monday that the Ukrainian people would suffer if the West sent tanks to support Kyiv, as the question of whether German-made Leopard tanks will be transferred to Ukraine remained unresolved.

The United States and its allies failed during talks last week in Germany to convince Berlin to provide its Leopard battle tanks to Ukraine, a key demand from Kyiv as it tries to breath new momentum into its fight against Russian forces.

Berlin said it would move quickly to allow allies to transfer Leopards in their own arsenals to Ukraine, if a consensus was found. But even that appeared to be inconclusive.

Asked about the issue at a daily news briefing on Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the splits in Europe over whether to provide tanks to Kyiv showed there was increasing "nervousness" within the NATO military alliance.

"But of course, all countries which take part, directly or indirectly, in pumping weapons into Ukraine and in raising its technological level bear responsibility (for continuing the conflict)," Peskov told reporters.

"The main thing is that it is the Ukrainian people who will pay the price for all this pseudo-support," he said.

Earlier on Monday, Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said his country could send Leopard tanks to Ukraine as part of a coalition of countries even without Germany's permission.

Germany would not stand in the way if Poland sent its German-made Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Sunday in an interview with French television channel LCI.

Wagner sanctions

The Kremlin also dismissed the significance of US sanctions on Russian mercenary group Wagner, saying they would have no practical effect.

The White House said on Friday that Wagner, which has been supporting Russian forces in Ukraine and claiming credit for battlefield advances, would be designated a significant Transnational Criminal Organization and that new sanctions against it would be announced this week.

"I don't think that in practical terms it has any significance for our country, and even less for the Wagner private military company (PMC)," Peskov said.

Wagner founder Yevgeniy Prigozhin wrote to the White House over the weekend asking national security spokesperson John Kirby to "clarify what crime was committed by PMC Wagner?"

Having spent years operating in the shadows and denying his links to Wagner, Prigozhin last year admitted his links to the paramilitary organization as part of a recruitment drive to convince tens of thousands of Russian convicts to fight in Ukraine in exchange for amnesty.

He has since become one of the most high-profile figures in the conflict on the Russian side, with tensions emerging between Prigozhin and the Russian defense ministry over the conduct of the 11-month campaign in Ukraine.

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France’s Exceptionally High-Stakes Election Has Begun. The Far Right Leads Preelection Polls

People collect ballots at a polling station inside the Anse Vata sports hall to vote in the first round of France's crunch legislative elections in Noumea, in France's Pacific territory of New Caledonia, on June 30, 2024. (AFP)
People collect ballots at a polling station inside the Anse Vata sports hall to vote in the first round of France's crunch legislative elections in Noumea, in France's Pacific territory of New Caledonia, on June 30, 2024. (AFP)
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France’s Exceptionally High-Stakes Election Has Begun. The Far Right Leads Preelection Polls

People collect ballots at a polling station inside the Anse Vata sports hall to vote in the first round of France's crunch legislative elections in Noumea, in France's Pacific territory of New Caledonia, on June 30, 2024. (AFP)
People collect ballots at a polling station inside the Anse Vata sports hall to vote in the first round of France's crunch legislative elections in Noumea, in France's Pacific territory of New Caledonia, on June 30, 2024. (AFP)

Voters across mainland France have begun casting ballots Sunday in the first round of exceptional parliamentary election that could put France’s government in the hands of nationalist, far-right forces for the first time since the Nazi era.

The outcome of the two-round election, which will wrap up July 7, could impact European financial markets, Western support for Ukraine and how France’s nuclear arsenal and global military force are managed.

Many French voters are frustrated about inflation and economic concerns, as well as President Emmanuel Macron’s leadership, which they see as arrogant and out-of-touch with their lives. Marine Le Pen’s anti-immigration National Rally party has tapped and fueled that discontent, notably via online platforms like TikTok, and dominated all preelection opinion polls.

A new coalition on the left, the New Popular Front, is also posing a challenge to the pro-business Macron and his centrist alliance Together for the Republic.

After a blitz campaign marred by rising hate speech, voting began early in France’s overseas territories, and polling stations open in mainland France at 8 a.m. (0600 GMT) Sunday. The first polling projections are expected at 8 p.m. (1800 GMT), when the final polling stations close, and early official results are expected later Sunday night.

Macron called the early election after his party was trounced in the European Parliament election earlier in June by the National Rally, which has historic ties to racism and antisemitism and is hostile toward France’s Muslim community. It was an audacious gamble that French voters who were complacent about the European Union election would be jolted into turning out for moderate forces in a national election to keep the far right out of power.

Instead, preelection polls suggest that the National Rally is gaining support and has a chance at winning a parliamentary majority. In that scenario, Macron would be expected to name 28-year-old National Rally President Jordan Bardella as prime minister in an awkward power-sharing system known as "cohabitation."

While Macron has said he won’t step down before his presidential term expires in 2027, cohabitation would weaken him at home and on the world stage.

The results of the first round will give a picture of overall voter sentiment, but not necessarily of the overall makeup of the next National Assembly. Predictions are extremely difficult because of the complicated voting system, and because parties will work between the two rounds to make alliances in some constituencies or pull out of others.

In the past such tactical maneuvers helped keep far-right candidates from power. But now support for Le Pen's party has spread deep and wide.

Bardella, who has no governing experience, says he would use the powers of prime minister to stop Macron from continuing to supply long-range weapons to Ukraine for the war with Russia. His party has historical ties to Russia.

The party has also questioned the right to citizenship for people born in France, and wants to curtail the rights of French citizens with dual nationality. Critics say this undermines fundamental human rights and is a threat to France's democratic ideals.

Meanwhile, huge public spending promises by the National Rally and especially the left-wing coalition have shaken markets and ignited worries about France's heavy debt, already criticized by EU watchdogs.