TOP HEADLINES

· France wants Russia to lose in Ukraine, although Emmanuel Macron insisted it does not want to "crush" it. Moscow hit back by saying Russia still remembered the fate of Napoleon Bonaparte and accused the French president of duplicitous diplomacy. READ MORE BELOW

· The Kremlin cast the U.S. as a "major provocateur" of international tensions for condoning attacks on Crimea, warning the remarks about the peninsula underscored the depth of disagreement between the two countries.

· Washington is trying to demonize Moscow and stir up the crisis in Ukraine with allegations of Russian crimes against humanity, Russia's ambassador to the U.S. said.

· Organisations supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development have documented over 30,000 war crimes incidents since the conflict began, according to the U.S. government. Ukraine is investigating Thursday's shelling of Bakhmut as a possible war crime.

· U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Türkiye to discuss how Washington can further assist after the earthquakes. Also on the agenda will be the stalled NATO bids of Sweden and Finland, which Türkiye has so far refused to ratify. 

· European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell says the West must provide more military aid to Ukraine and speed up its deliveries.

· The U.S. government has had conversations with Elon Musk about the use of Starlink satellite internet in Ukraine.

· Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has vowed to maintain ties with Moscow and urged others to do the same, even as the EU tries to maintain a united front against Russia.

· Russia's defense ministry said its forces had captured Hrianykivka, a village in Ukraine's eastern Kharkiv region that is to the north of most significant fighting.

· Most of Ukraine has power despite a series of major Russian attacks on the generating system, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, praising the work done by repair crews.

IN DETAIL

France wants Russia defeated, but not to be 'crushed' 

France wants the Russians to lose the conflict in Ukraine, but it does not want to "crush" it, President Emmanuel Macron told a French paper.

"I do not think, as some people do, that we must aim for a total defeat of Russia, attacking Russia on its own soil. Those observers want to, above all else, crush Russia. That has never been the position of France and it will never be our position," Macron told Le Journal du Dimanche.

Macron has drawn criticism from some NATO allies for delivering mixed messages regarding his policy on the war between Ukraine and Russia, with some considering Paris a weak link in the Western alliance. 

Macron's comments were ridiculed by Moscow, saying they still remembered the fate of Napoleon Bonaparte – the 19th century French military commander and political leader who attempted to invade Russia and sustained huge losses – and accused the French president of duplicitous diplomacy with the Kremlin.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said: "About 'Never': France did not begin with Macron, and the remains of Napoleon, revered at the state level, rest in the center of Paris. France – and Russia – should understand. In general, Macron is priceless."

She added that his remarks showed the West had engaged in discussions about regime change in Russia while Macron had repeatedly sought meetings with the Russian leadership.

On Friday, Macron urged allies to step up military support for Ukraine, but also said he did not believe in regime change and that there would have to be negotiations at some point.

"Let's be clear, I don't believe for one second in regime change, and when I hear a lot of people calling for regime change I ask them, 'For which change? Who's next? Who is your leader?'"

Clarifying those comments, he said in the paper that he did not believe a democratic solution from within civil society would emerge in Russia after years of a hardening of Moscow's position and conflict. He stressed that Putin had to be brought back to the negotiating table.

"All the options other than Vladimir Putin in the current system seem worse to me," Macron said. 

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