Russia responds to Macron: “Send NATO soldiers to Ukraine? Crazy and paranoid dreams.” Missiles on Odessa, at least 14 dead. Polling stations open in Russia

Today, the German Chancellor is meeting French President Emmanuel Macron and Polish Prime Minister Dondald Tusk in Berlin. The situation in Ukraine was at the center of the discussions. Yesterday, French President Emmanuel Macron did not rule out sending NATO troops to Ukraine. In a television interview broadcast on the evening of March 14, the French president declared that Russia “cannot and must not prevail.” “If we abandon Ukraine, if we let Ukraine lose this war, Russia will definitely threaten Moldova, Romania and Poland,” he said. Macron stressed that “if Russia wins this war, Europe's credibility will be reduced to zero.” “Two years ago – he added – we said that we would never send tanks. We did it. Two years ago we declared that we would never send medium-range missiles. We did it. We said we would never send planes, some are in the process of doing so. We are not at war with Russia. Simply, we must be clear: we must not let Russia win.”

Comments to which our Minister of Foreign Affairs Antonio Tajani responded by adding that “I believe that NATO should not enter Ukraine” and “I hope that it will not happen” that a country goes to fight there. “To go in and make war on Russia is to risk World War III.” The Russian response, however, was not long in coming. Sergei Naryshkin, head of Russia's foreign intelligence service, called French President Emmanuel Macron's statements “crazy and paranoid dreams.” The Guardian reported the statement. For Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov, France is “dragged into the conflict in Ukraine”. This evening, an air defense unit shot down four Ukrainian drones over Russia's Kaluga region, west of Moscow.

The attack on Odessa

“The Russian missile attack in Odessa killed 14 people and 46 others were injured, including seven employees of the state emergency services,” wrote the head of the regional military administration, Oleg Kiper, on Telegram .

Polling stations open in Russia

Polling stations opened today for Russia's presidential elections which will last three days, from today until Sunday March 17. Voting takes place from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. in 29 regions of Russia. According to the Central Election Commission, around 4.8 million people have registered to vote remotely. At 2 p.m. (12 p.m. in Italy), the turnout was, according to the Russian Central Election Commission, 8.95 percent.

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