Conflicts, assassination attempts, political crises… RT looks back on the significant events of 2024 — RT in French

The RT editorial team looks back on the significant events of the past year, dominated by the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, as well as a particularly eventful American presidential election. The attack in Moscow, the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad and the political crisis in France also punctuated 2024.

As the year 2025 begins, RT en français looks back at a number of events that made the news over the past year.

If the Ukrainian conflict inevitably remains in the background, as well as that which has been tearing apart the Middle East since October 2023, the presidential campaign in the United States, punctuated by several assassination attempts against the former president and Republican candidate Donald Trump , or even the Paris Olympics and the political crisis caused in France by the dissolution of the National Assembly decided by Emmanuel Macron, are among the elements that have marked the news of 2024.

The Russian army continues its advance, despite Western support for kyiv

Some 190 localities liberated and 4,500 square kilometers of territory passed under Russian control: this is the assessment drawn up in mid-December during a press briefing by the chief of staff of the Russian army, General Valery Guerassimov . Since then, the Russians have announced the capture of several dozen other localities, continuing their progress towards the west and in particular Pokrovsk, portrayed as a “key” city for kyiv.

The conflict between kyiv and Moscow was also marked in 2024 by the incursion launched at the beginning of August by Ukrainian forces in the Kursk region. An offensive which remains controversial in Ukraine due to the material and human resources mobilized, to the detriment of the rest of the front, in this adventure desired by Volodymyr Zelensky. After the first weeks marked by the progression of Ukrainian forces, the territory under kyiv’s control has since continued to shrink.

The Russian-Ukrainian conflict was also marked by Joe Biden’s escalatory decision to give kyiv a green light to fire American long-range missiles deep into Russian territory, despite Russian warnings. In mid-September, Vladimir Putin warned that such strikes would “considerably change the essence and very nature of the conflict” and would mean for Moscow a direct entry into war by the West against Russia.

War between Israel and Hezbollah

The fall of 2024 was marked by a serious escalation in the Middle East, with the outbreak of the conflict between the IDF and Hezbollah, after almost a year of cross-border clashes.

A few days before the start of the Israeli air force’s massive bombing campaign on Lebanon, two series of explosions targeted Shiite militia communications devices, killing nearly 40 people and injuring more than 3,000. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged on November 10 that he had given the green light to this operation.

This conflict, under the influence of a ceasefire agreement which should lead to the withdrawal of the Israeli army and the deployment of the Lebanese army in the south of the country – in place of Hezbollah –, had nearly 4,000 dead and 16,000 injured at the end of November, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health.

Overthrow of Bashar al-Assad

At the crossroads of the two previous conflicts, Syrian jihadists, led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTC) group, launched a major offensive across Syria at the end of November, seizing several major cities, including the capital Damascus, and causing the fall of Bashar al-Assad who was granted asylum in Russia.

On December 8, HTC, a former branch of Al-Qaeda, which remains classified as “terrorist” by several chancelleries, announced the formation of a transitional government. Bashar al-Assad, who has ruled the country since 2000, has gone into exile in Moscow. Since then, Washington has announced the lifting of the bounty on the head of the leader of HTC, Ahmed al-Chareh, better known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Joulani, de facto new leader of Syria.

Moscow, for its part, has also entered into contact with the new authorities in Damascus, all against the backdrop of maintaining its bases in the country, from which several European chancelleries would like to see the Russians ousted.

Divorce between Georgia and the European Union

Georgia has had a new president since December 29. Elected by an electoral college, following a vote boycotted by the opposition, Mikhail Kavelashvili was the candidate presented by the ruling party: Georgian Dream. The latter came first in the legislative elections of October 26.

A victory that the pro-Western opposition parties did not recognize, as well as the Georgian president at the time: the former Quai d’Orsay diplomat Salomé Zourabichvili who had even tried to invalidate the result of the election by seizing the Constitutional Court. The European Parliament gave its support to the opposition on November 28, calling for new elections to be held “within a year”.

In the process, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced the suspension until 2028 of all discussions on accession negotiations to the European bloc, further provoking the ire of the pro-Western opposition.

These legislative elections themselves took place in a context of strong tensions between Brussels and Tbilisi due to the adoption at the end of May by the Georgian Parliament of a bill on foreign agents, aiming to oblige the media and NGOs receiving more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as being under foreign influence.

A text described as a “step backwards” by the ambassador of the European bloc in Tbilisi, Pawel Herczynski, who announced on July 9 the suspension of accession negotiations with Georgia.

Cancellation of presidential elections in Romania

In a radical and unprecedented decision, on December 6, a few days after validating the result of the first round following a recount of the votes that it had ordered, the Romanian Constitutional Court annulled the presidential election. The first round was won by Calin Georgescu, an independent candidate described in the media as “ultra-nationalist” and “pro-Russian”.

A surprise victory, which notably provoked the ire of the Romanian authorities who turned to the European Commission, pointing the finger at the social network TikTok.

Two days before the court’s decision, Calin Georgescu told Reuters that he would end military aid to kyiv as well as Ukrainian grain exports across the country. He also described NATO’s requirements for military spending as “ultra-secondary”.

Romania should soon see the emergence of a giant NATO base. Costed at $2.5 billion, this project launched in 2021 is currently under construction on the outskirts of Ukraine.

Assassination attempts on Donald Trump

If the November 5 vote was comfortably won by Donald Trump, who must return to the Oval Office on January 20, the campaign, on the other hand, proved to be particularly eventful.

Among the elements that tainted the race for the White House, several assassination attempts targeted the Republican candidate. The first, on July 13, took place during a meeting in Pennsylvania, where the shooter was able to shoot Donald Trump, injuring him in the ear, before being shot dead.

This event, which turned the campaign upside down, was followed by another, when on September 15 a shooter was discovered by the American secret services in a bush near the golf course where the former American president played.

Put to flight by police fire before being arrested, Ryan Wesley Routh turned out to be a convinced pro-Ukrainian.

Robert Fico injured by a pro-Ukrainian

In a similar vein, in Slovakia, an individual opened fire on May 15 on Prime Minister Rober Fico as he approached a crowd leaving a government meeting in Handlova.

Hit by several projectiles, the 59-year-old leader was transported in a “very serious” condition to the city hospital to undergo surgery lasting several hours.

The shooter, Juraj Chintula, a 71-year-old amateur writer, told investigators that he “disagreed” with the Fico government’s policy towards Ukraine, wanting Bratislava to resume “its military aid to Ukraine” .

Crocus City Hall attack: Russia in mourning

On the evening of March 22, Russia was hit by the deadliest terrorist attack in twenty years, when individuals entered the Crocus City Hall concert hall in Krasnogorsk, northwest of the Russian capital, before opening fire with an automatic weapon on the crowd and starting a fire. In all, 145 people died and 551 others were injured in this attack.

Denouncing a “barbaric terrorist” act, Vladimir Putin promised to punish the culprits. If he described the attack as an act committed by “radical Islamists”, he stressed that he was interested in the “sponsors”. The Russian authorities, notably the FSB, have also pointed out the possible involvement of Ukrainian services.

Emmanuel Macron dissolves the National Assembly

On June 9, in the wake of a defeat of the presidential coalition in the European elections, Emmanuel Macron announced the dissolution of the National Assembly, deciding to give back to the French “the choice of the parliamentary future” of the country “through the vote”.

A decision which opened an unprecedented page in the Fifth Republic, with legislative elections marked by electoral agreements against the National Rally during the period between the two rounds, which resulted in the emergence of three blocs in the lower house of Parliament French, without a clear majority.

If Emmanuel Macron declared during his wishes to the French, on December 31, “recognize” that his gesture had “brought more divisions to the Assembly than solutions for the French”, in the days following the dissolution the tenant of the Élysée would have welcomed the maneuver.

“I’ve been planning this for weeks, and I’m excited. I threw my unpinned grenade at their legs. Now we’re going to see how they get on…”, he is said to have declared, according to comments reported by the daily The Worldduring a trip to Oradour-sur-Glane on June 10.

The Barnier government overthrown by the National Assembly

It will be necessary to wait until September 5, 50 days after the resignation of Gabriel Attal, for a new Prime Minister, Michel Barnier, to be appointed to Matignon. He was nevertheless overthrown by the National Assembly on December 4, marking a new record: that of the longest-lived Prime Minister of the Fifth Republic.

A record that could nevertheless be broken. The new government, led by François Bayrou, an early ally of Emmanuel Macron – but who nevertheless allegedly threatened to leave the presidential bloc in the Assembly in order to obtain the post – could be the target of a motion of censure from January 14.

Yoon Suk-yeol attempts to impose martial law

A legal-political earthquake has shaken the south of the Korean peninsula since the night of December 3 to 4, when South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol declared martial law during a speech, claiming to want to “protect” the country from “North Korean communist forces” and “eradicate the despicable pro-North Korean anti-state forces.”

Scenes of chaos followed, within Parliament itself, which was stormed by the army, with parliamentary staff trying to prevent heavily armed soldiers from entering the building.

Martial law was lifted a few hours later, after a unanimous vote of the deputies present in Parliament. The president has since been impeached and his defense minister, Kim Yong-hyun, who resigned, attempted to hang himself in prison.

Yoon Suk-yeol himself was almost arrested, his bodyguards having prevented his arrest by the police. Meanwhile, interim President and Prime Minister Han Duck-soo was in turn ousted by the opposition in a vote contested by the ruling party.