The delicate mission of an IAEA team continues in Ukraine. According to the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the “physical integrity” of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant occupied by the Russians “has been repeatedly violated”.
On the sidelines of the Defense Council to take stock of the supply of gas and electricity convened by Emmanuel Macron this Friday, August 2, the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire announced that a total cut in Russian gas could amputate a point French growth.
“We have a lot of work here”, in these installations which the Russians and the Ukrainians accuse each other of having bombed on numerous occasions, declared on his return from the plant Rafael Grossi, the director general of the IAEA, in front of media in Novooleksandrivka, a locality in the Zaporizhia region controlled by Kyiv.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has also said it wants to “establish a continuous presence” within the plant. In his daily evening message, the Ukrainian head of state nevertheless felt that the IAEA should have gone further and insisted on the need, according to him, to “demilitarize” this area. “The main thing that should happen is the demilitarization of the territory of the plant (…) And it is regrettable that we have not yet heard the appropriate messages from the IAEA”, thus released Volodymyr Zelensky.
Russian President “Vladimir Putin may decide tomorrow to completely cut off gas to Europe, in which case we will have an impact on French growth”, warned Bruno Le Maire, Minister of the Economy, during a lunch with journalists.
“Depending on the impact” that a stoppage of Russian gas deliveries will have on Germany “and the possibility of having a recession in Germany, we can have an impact of up to one point of GDP” , estimated Bruno Le Maire. These tensions on the supply of gas will be “a decisive element of French growth in 2023”, added the Minister of the Economy.
Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk refused to shake hands with Victoria Azarenka on Thursday after losing in the second round of the US Open. She assumed “this choice”, reproaching her Belarusian opponent for his silence about the war in Ukraine. “It was my decision. I didn’t want to,” explained Kostyuk at a press conference, who preferred to initiate a slight clash of rackets – a gesture introduced during the Covid period – at the end of the game that she lost 6-2, 6-3.
“She never came to see me to tell me what she thinks (of the ongoing conflict, editor’s note). I have nothing against her personally. I just think she has such an important role, as a as a member of the WTA Players’ Council, and also outside of tennis, in her country. I think she could have done more,” said the 20-year-old Ukrainian. For her part, Victoria Azarenka claims to have sent “a very clear message from the start”. “I’m here to try to help. People might not see it. And that’s not why I’m doing it. I’m doing it for those in need, of clothes, of money or something else,” said the former world No.1.
Denouncing “war propaganda through fear” on the part of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Ségolène Royal notably questioned, on BFMTV, the reality of “bombed maternity” in south-eastern Ukraine in March. According to her, “you can imagine that if there was the slightest victim, the slightest baby with blood, in the age of cell phones we would have had them (the images)…”. According to her, the Ukrainian head of state “used that” to interrupt the peace process.
She also questioned the Boutcha massacre or “the story of child rape for seven hours under the eyes of the parents”. “It’s monstrous to go out and spread stuff like that just to disrupt the peace process,” she said.
