Ukraine is an “anti-Russian enclave” that must be eliminated. Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking from Kaliningrad, where he is visiting, defined it as “one of the targets of the special military operation launched six months ago”. “This is why our people are fighting there – said Putin, meeting students of a naval school. We protect the residents of Donbass and Russia“.

Putin ordered his armed forces to capture the entire Donetsk region in southeastern Ukraine by September 15. “The Russians continue to hold the occupied territories of Kharkiv Oblasts, Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia, Kherson and Mykolaiv, and are trying to create favorable conditions for the resumption of the offensive,” said the deputy commander of the General Staff Directorate. Ukrainian Armed Forces, Oleksiy Hromov. “The Russian occupation forces are again changing their plans and operations in accordance with Putin’s order to reach the administrative borders of Donetsk Oblast by September 15,” he added.

Kyiv – “Russian propaganda since February: ‘NATO provoked us’. Putin today: ‘Our goal is to destroy Ukraine, we deny the existence of this country’. On Knowledge Day in Russia, a history lesson should be remembered. Ukraine, the place where it all began, is also the place of your glorious end. Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podoliak took to Twitter to comment on Putin’s condemnations.

Macron – “Who wants Turkey to be the only power in the world that continues to talk with Russia?” Emmanuel Macron demanded from the Elysée. “It is necessary to think that we can talk to everyone, especially those with whom we do not get along,” the French president said in a statement reported by France Info.

Macron has spoken several times in recent months with Russian leader Vladimir Putin to try to end the conflict. The last telephone conversation between Macron and Putin was on August 19, the first phone call since May 28, which also included German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. The last direct contact between Russia and Ukraine took place in Istanbul, Turkey at the end of March.