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00:00 Some 20 European leaders are arriving in Paris this afternoon in a conference that's designed to show unity with Ukraine
00:08 as the full-scale invasion grinds into its third year.
00:12 President Macron, who's hosting the conference today, said the focus will be aid during what he called a critical moment of the war.
00:20 Well, covering the event for us is James Andre, our senior reporter. He's with me now.
00:25 James, what's the aim of this conference today?
00:29 Well, the objective of this conference is to send a powerful message to Vladimir Putin and Russia in general
00:36 to show that France and Europe are absolutely mobilized, that defeat in Ukraine is not an option,
00:43 and that, and I quote what the aides of Emmanuel Macron told us a little bit earlier on in a briefing,
00:51 the idea is to show that there is no sense of doom and gloom when it comes to Europe's backing of Ukraine
00:59 and that the message is very clearly to do more and to be more efficient in this war.
01:04 There are other things which are going to be addressed as well, and one of the objectives is to try and stop entities
01:10 from avoiding or bouncing, dodging, sorry, sanctions against Russia,
01:16 because indeed a lot of Europe is seeing that these sanctions for now are not being as efficient as they were hoping for,
01:24 and indeed all this comes at a time where indeed Russia is making gains on the ground.
01:28 The objective really is to show that there is still mobilization and a real desire for Europe to push and help Ukraine.
01:38 Now, roughly 20 heads of state and government are present here in Paris, and are about to arrive here in a few minutes.
01:46 There are many presence from Eastern European countries such as Poland, Romania, but also Finland.
01:52 Baltic countries are very represented as well.
01:53 Of course, these are the countries that are very much on the front line of this battle with Russia
01:58 and who are also bearing the brunt of cyber attacks and indeed this aggressivity,
02:04 that's what we've been told here, that is a palace that Russia is showing at the moment and that needs to be stemmed.