French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen. File photoPARIS, Apr 13French presidential candidate, leader of the far-right National Rally party Marine Le Pen advocated the supply of defensive weapons to Ukraine. «Yes to weapons, yes to protective equipment, yes to intelligence «, — Le Pen said during a press conference on her foreign policy program, speaking of defensive assistance to Kiev. and Russia after the de-escalation in UkraineThe first round of the presidential elections in France took place on 10 April. According to the final data of the French Ministry of Internal Affairs, the current president of the country Emmanuel Macron won 27.84% of the vote, Marine Le Pen — 23.15%. The second round will take place on April 24. Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine on February 24. President Vladimir Putin called its goal «the protection of people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years.» For this, according to him, it is planned to carry out «demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine», to bring to justice all war criminals responsible for «bloody crimes against civilians» in Donbass. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the Armed Forces strike only at military infrastructure and Ukrainian troops and , on March 25, completed the main tasks of the first stage — significantly reduced the combat potential of Ukraine. The main goal in the Russian military department was called the liberation of Donbass.
