Appeal of 18 June as the beginning of the Resistance and Free French, historians have shown that the appeal was heard only by a minority of French people. De Gaulle's 22 June 1940 speech on the BBC was more widely heard. General de Gaulle became the "de facto" leader of the Free French Forces that had escaped to London in June 1940. Marshal Philippe Pétain, a hero of World War I, pledged to sign an armistice with Nazi Germany, and led the collaborating Vichy government while the Germans occupied the country's northern portion and several leading politicians, including Georges Mandel, Leon Blum, Pierre Mendès
Battle of Mariupol (May–June 2014) Azov Battalion member who was killed in the fighting. A further violent death was reported on 25 May, when the Ukrainian government said its special police had killed a bodyguard of Mariupol DPR leader Denis Kuzmenko, while arresting Kuzmenko himself. Five separatists and two soldiers were killed during the takeover of the city by the military on 13 June 2014. Five border guards were killed and seven wounded in an ambush attack on a military convoy on 14 June 2014. A report by Human Rights Watch said that the Ukrainian military may have used excessive force during the Battle of