France accused Russia on Tuesday (April 29) of blocking a ceasefire in Ukraine and carrying out cyberattacks against French institutions, as the U.N. Security Council met to discuss efforts to halt the war, Reuters reports.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot told the council that Russia was the “sole obstacle” to an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine.
Barrot called on the council to demand an immediate and unconditional ceasefire.
“I call upon President Putin – ceasefire, ceasefire, ceasefire,” Barrot said. “France cherishes the hope that the council will unanimously demand a comprehensive, immediate, unconditional ceasefire, meaning the silencing of the weapons.”
Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said the Kremlin remains open to diplomacy.
“There will be discussions of a number of nuances for the future contours of the peace plan,” he said, adding, “President Putin announced a truce starting at zero hundred hours from the 7th to the 8th of May to zero hundred hours from the 10th to the 11th of May.”
Ukraine’s deputy foreign minister rejected Moscow’s move as disingenuous.
“If Russia is so much willing to stop the war, why don’t we start the ceasefire today? Why wait till 8th of May?” said Mariana Betsa, Ukraine’s deputy minister for foreign affairs. “This proposal, again, has nothing to do with peace.”
Betsa said Ukraine welcomed a ceasefire only if it led to a lasting peace that preserved the country’s sovereignty.
“Ukraine wants peace like no one else. However, we cannot accept peace at any cost. We cannot accept peace at any price,” she said. “Peace without justice is not peace – it’s a surrender. And this is what Russia actually wants – they want Ukraine to surrender. They want Ukraine to capitulate. So we have bad news for Russia, Ukraine will not surrender. This is our country. This is our home."
Barrot also accused Russia of targeting French institutions with state-backed cyberattacks.
“Since the start of the conflict, our country, a supporter of Ukraine, has been targeted by Russian cyber attacks emanating from the GRU, the Russian military intelligence services,” he said.
France’s foreign ministry earlier in the day accused Russia's GRU military intelligence agency of mounting cyber attacks on a dozen entities including ministries, defense firms and think tanks since 2021 in an attempt to destabilize France.
The accusations, levelled at GRU unit APT28, which officials said was based in Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia, are not the first by a Western power, but it is the first time Paris has blamed the Russian state on the basis of its own intelligence.
The ministry said in a statement that APT28's attacks on France go as far back as 2015, when the station TV5 Monde was taken off air in a hack claimed by purported Islamic State militants.
France said APT28 had been behind the attack, and another in the 2017 presidential election when emails linked to the party and campaign of the eventual winner, Emmanuel Macron, were leaked and mixed with disinformation.
According to a report by France's National Cybersecurity Agency (ANSSI), APT28 has sought to obtain strategic intelligence from entities across Europe and North America. Officials said the government had decided to go public to keep the public informed at a time of uncertainty in domestic politics and over Russia's war in Ukraine.
