“A rejection of the extreme right” – Update on the war in Ukraine on July 8

In the first polls after the parliamentary elections in France, which ended on Sunday evening, it looked as if a coalition of left-wing parties would beat the far-right party of Marine Le Pen and also the ruling center-left coalition of President Emmanuel Macron. The Agence France Presse (AFP) spoke of a “surprising result” of the parliamentary elections.

None of the groups managed to win an absolute majority in the second round of the election. Nevertheless, an unexpected turnaround is predicted for Le Pen’s Rassemblement National (RN), which had previously sought to change France’s course on key issues, particularly Kyiv’s financing.

Le Pen’s party was in the lead after the first round of voting on June 30. Opinion polls predicted that her group would have a majority in parliament after Sunday’s runoff vote.

Instead, the New Popular Front (NFP), founded last month after Macron called new elections, united the previously divided Socialists, Greens, Communists and the far-right France in Unyielding (LFI).

Although the newly formed coalition was ahead in the opinion polls, it may not have enough votes for an absolute majority, meaning France could face a political problem in the coming weeks.

On Sunday evening, it seemed clear that Macron’s centrist alliance would have dozens fewer MPs, but it had done “better than expected,” AFP wrote. Macron called for “prudence and analysis of the results” on Sunday, one of his aides said.

Other interesting topics

Russians advance on Toretsk, Ukrainian troops fight at the entrance to the city

Nazar Voloshin, spokesman for the Khortytsia operational group, told the Kyiv Post that Russian troops had not made any territorial gains and that there was no Russian army in the city itself.

The specter of a right-wing government in Paris was ever-present for Ukraine. Le Pen told CNN in an interview ahead of Sunday’s election that her party would not only end talks on stationing French troops in Ukraine – once a topic of discussion with Macron – but also stop Kyiv’s use of French-made long-range missiles at targets in Russia.

Macron was one of the first politicians to publicly authorize Ukraine to attack targets in Russia with Western weapons, paving the way for Washington and other allies to do the same. This move, by all accounts, has increased the momentum of Ukraine’s defense and put the Kremlin under pressure.

Meanwhile, Le Pen said in the CNN interview that her “red line” in Ukraine was to ensure that France did not become an “accomplice” in defending the Russian invasion.

AFP reported that Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk would trigger “disappointment” in Russia and “relief” in Ukraine following the publication of the poll results, while his Spanish counterpart, Socialist Pedro Sanchez, celebrated France’s “rejection of the extreme right.”

AFU shoots down a Su-25 over Donetsk while AFU makes progress near Kharkiv

Spokesmen of the Khortytsia military group stationed near the city of Zaporizhia said on Sunday that they had shot down a Russian Su-25 fighter jet on the Pokrovsk front in the neighboring Donetsk region.

If this incident is confirmed, the official number of Russian fixed-wing aircraft shot down by the Ukrainian Armed Forces (AFU) would rise to 361.

“Anti-aircraft fighters of the Separate Mechanized Brigade named after Colonel-General Marok Bezruchko have shot down another Su-25 fighter jet, which is now burning in the steppes of the Ukrainian Donbass,” the unit’s post said.

The Russian plane attacked positions of Ukrainian units before it was shot down, the AFU said.

Also in Donetsk, the Ukrainian military intelligence service (HUR) reported on Sunday that Ukrainian forces had attacked a Russian Zhitel electronic warfare system near Novogluhansk (northeast of Horlivka). According to the Institute for War Research (ISW), Ukrainian attacks on Saturday also hit a Russian logistics center near Debaltseve, where Moscow’s armed forces stored tanks and ammunition.

Meanwhile, on the Northeast Front, ISW noted that AFU troops achieved some success in tactical counterattacks north of Kharkiv on Sunday, while fighting continued north and northeast of the city.

Geolocated footage released on Saturday shows that Ukrainian forces recently advanced in a counterattack in the area northwest of Hluboke (north of Kharkiv), and available satellite imagery suggests that Ukrainian forces carried out a counterattack in the area between July 3 and 6.

First visit of the new Dutch Minister of Defence and Foreign Minister to Ukraine

Newly appointed Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp and Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans paid their first visit to Ukraine on Sunday to learn about the current fighting situation in Odessa and to discuss future military support.

In the contested Black Sea port, President Volodymyr Zelensky and the Dutch contingent discussed ways to strengthen Ukraine’s naval capabilities and air defense. They were accompanied by newly appointed British Defense Secretary John Healy, whose Labour Party had just taken power in the UK.

Part of the discussion revolved around the possible provision of additional F-16 fighter jets from NATO countries for the Ukrainian Air Force.

“The newly appointed Dutch defense and foreign ministers and the new British defense minister were here in Odessa today… We will continue to strengthen the Ukrainian fleet together with Great Britain and the Netherlands; we have concluded additional cooperation agreements. Today we also talked about strengthening (Ukrainian) air defense; this is our absolute priority, and I am grateful for the readiness (of our partners) to take further steps, including with regard to the F-16 fighter jets,” Zelensky said in an address to the nation on Sunday.

Also on Sunday, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba spoke to Veldkamp on the phone, during which the delivery of a Patriot air defense system was also discussed.