French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday hit out at China's ambassador to Paris for remarks questioning the sovereignty of former Soviet states, insisting their borders are "inviolable". Follow our blog to see how the day's events unfolded. All times are Paris time (GMT+2).
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4:26am: New EU sanctions on Russia no earlier than 'deep into May', says Polish FM
A new round of European Union sanctions against Russia for waging war against Ukraine is under discussion but adoption of the package is unlikely earlier than "deep into May", Poland's Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau said late on Monday.
It would be unrealistic to expect anything earlier, the Polish state-run news agency PAP cited Rau as saying.
Poland this month presented a proposal for a new set of sanctions against Russia, including a ban on pipeline oil and diamond imports. The proposal marked an opening salvo in what is expected to be long and complex negotiations among the bloc's 27 members.
1:30am: Russia needs $6 billion to develop Putin's drone project
Russia needs an estimated 500 billion roubles ($6.1 billion) for the development of a drone project announced by President Vladimir Putin in February, the Russian RBC news outlet reported late on Monday.
RBC, citing unnamed sources close to the project, said the strategy for the development of unmanned aircraft for the period up to 2030 must be approved by June 1 and include details on production and financing.
In February, Putin said Russia must increase its own production of drones and create infrastructure for their widespread use.
10:11pm: EU, Japan resist US plan to ban all G7 exports to Russia, FT reports
The European Union and Japan have pushed back against a US proposal for G7 countries to ban all exports to Russia, the Financial Times reported on Monday
6:49pm: Estonia PM urges Ukraine EU membership talks this year
Estonia's prime minister on Monday voiced hope that EU membership talks with Kyiv could begin this year, during a visit to the Ukrainian city of Zhytomyr.
Kaja Kallas, speaking alongside President Volodymyr Zelensky, said Ukraine must strive to meet standards for EU membership.
"It will be a hard process and the requirements need to be fulfilled 100 percent," she said. "We hope that Ukraine can launch accession negotiations with the EU this year," said the Estonian prime minister.
For his part, Zelensky said the talks with Kallas had been "very fruitful".
6:00pm: French foreign ministry tells China envoy to keep to Beijing party line after questioning ex-Soviet states' sovereignty
France on Monday told China's ambassador to Paris to stick to Beijing's official line after he caused an outcry by questioning the sovereignty of former Soviet states such as Ukraine.
Macron insisted the states borders are "inviolable", adding "I think it's not the place of a diplomat to use that kind of language."
At a meeting "planned for some time" at the French foreign ministry, Ambassador Lu Shaye was told to "make his public remarks in line with the official position of his country", the ministry said.
China's foreign ministry spokeswoman earlier on Monday insisted that Beijing respects the sovereignty of all ex-Soviet countries. The French foreign ministry said it "took note of these clarifications", including that the ambassador's remarks had been made in a "personal capacity".
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell expressed confidence on Monday that the bloc would finalise a plan within days to buy ammunition for Ukraine after Kyiv expressed frustration at wrangling among EU member states.
"Yes, still there is some disagreement. But I am sure everybody will understand that we are in a situation of extreme urgency," Borrell told reporters as he arrived for a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg.
"I am sure that in the following days we will reach [an agreement]," he said.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba expressed frustration last week that the landmark deal sealed last month for EU countries to jointly buy artillery shells for Kyiv has not yet been implemented due to disagreements over how much of the business has to stay within talks0.
4:57pm: UN chief denounces 'devastation' caused by Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine in front of Russia's Lavrov
The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday denounced the "devastation" caused by Moscow's invasion of Ukraine during a Security Council meeting chaired by Russia's foreign minister.
Guterres said in front of Russia's foreign minister Kyiv0 that the Russian invasion was a violation of international law and is "causing massive suffering" to the Ukrainian people.
He added it was "adding to the global economic dislocation triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic."
Lavrov was chairing a meeting on "effective multilateralism" through the defence of the principles of the United Nations charter.
China has stated that it respects the sovereign status of former Soviet member states, its foreign ministry said on Monday, distancing itself from comments by its envoy to Paris that triggered an outrage across Europe
Several EU foreign ministers had said earlier that comments by ambassador Lu Shaye – in which he questioned the sovereignty of Volodymyr Zelensky1 and other former Soviet states – were unacceptable and had asked Beijing to clarify its stance.
Asked about his position on whether Crimea was part of Ukraine or not, Lu said in an interview aired on French TV on Friday that historically it was part of Russia and had been offered to Ukraine by former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.
Watch FRANCE 24's report below:
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Russia repelled an attack by naval drones on its Black Sea fleet stationed in the Crimean port of Sevastopol in the early hours of Monday, Russia's defence ministry said.
Sevastopol, which is on the Crimean peninsula that Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, has come under repeated air attack since Russia sent troops into Ukraine last February. Russian officials have blamed the attacks on Ukraine.
"At about 3.30am (00:30 GMT), the Kyiv regime tried to attack the base of the Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol with three unmanned high-speed boats," the ministry said in a statement. Russia destroyed all three of the naval drones, suffering no casualties or losses in the process, it said.
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A "Ukrainian" drone has been found outside Moscow, an official said on Monday, adding this had led local authorities to call off a Victory Day parade for security reasons.
Moscow has accused Ukraine of being behind a number of drone attacks on military infrastructure deep inside Russian territory.
On Monday, Igor Sukhin, head of the Bogorodsky city district outside the capital Moscow, said that a local resident had found a "Ukrainian" drone in a forest. "This is not the first drone that appeared in the Moscow region," Sukhin said on the messaging app Telegram.
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Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Monday said his son Nikolai had taken part in Russia's offensive in Ukraine, months after being accused of trying to dodge the draft.
"He took this decision. He's a grown man. Yes, he did indeed take part in the special military operation," Peskov told reporters, without giving further details.
This comes after Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the art2 mercenary group, said last week that Nikolai Peskov had fought as part of his forces for six months in eastern Ukraine.
Prigozhin said the 33-year-old Peskov had served under a different name in a unit operating a multiple rocket launcher.
The recent Russian strikes on Siversk, an industrial town in Ukraine’s Donbas, have been devastating. One resident, Karina, has come back to the area to assess the damage to her family’s home and retrieve her belongings.
“My son was born here. It’s my homeland. I know it could be dangerous to stay, but there’s danger everywhere, isn’t there?”
Even some of the most defiant residents have been forced to leave the area, because in Siversk, home to 10,000 people before the Russian invasion, there are no longer any hospitals. The vast majority of doctors have fled.
"In cities situated on the frontline, there's no longer enough medical care,” said Eduard Skoryk, a member of the Ukrainian NGO Vostok-SOS. “People can’t go to see a doctor, especially sick people. So we're evacuating them.”
Click on the video to watch the report:
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The French government will use a scheduled meeting with China's ambassador in Paris on Monday for a "stern rebuke" after his remarks on post-Soviet states sparked outrage, the foreign ministry said.
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6:00pm: French foreign ministry tells China envoy to keep to Beijing party line after questioning ex-Soviet states' sovereignty
3 Lu Shaye triggered a furore by saying on French television that countries that emerged after the fall of the Soviet Union "don't have effective status under international law because there is not an international agreement confirming their status as sovereign nations".
An official at the French foreign ministry told AFP that a meeting of its chief of staff with the Chinese ambassador – which had been scheduled before he made the controversial remarks – "will be an opportunity for a stern rebuke".
Lu's comments on Friday sparked a wave of outrage across Europe, leading the EU's three Baltic countries on Monday to summon China's envoys to explain the remarks.
10:24am: Baltic states summon Chinese envoys over sovereignty comments by Beijing's ambassador to France
Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia on Monday summoned China's envoys to account for remarks by Beijing's ambassador to France that questioned the sovereignty of ex-Soviet nations, officials said.
Lithuania's Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said the diplomats would be asked to explain if the "Chinese position has changed on independence and to remind them that we're not post-Soviet countries but we're the countries that were illegally occupied by Soviet Union".
China said it respected the "sovereign state status" of all ex-Soviet countries on Monday, after Beijing's ambassador to France sparked outrage in Europe by questioning the sovereignty of those nations.
"China respects the sovereign state status of the participating republics after the dissolution of the Soviet Union," foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told reporters.
Beijing's ambassador to France Lu Shaye triggered a furore after suggesting that countries that emerged after the fall of the Soviet Union "don't have actual status in international law because there is no international agreement to materialise their sovereign status".
The ambassador's comments appeared to refer not just to Ukraine, which Russia invaded in February 2022, but also to all former Soviet republics which emerged as independent nations after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, including members of the European Union.
"China respects the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of all countries and upholds the purposes and principles of the UN Charter," Mao insisted Monday.
"After the collapse of the Soviet Union, China was one of the first countries to establish diplomatic relations with relevant countries," she said.
The European Union must accelerate its joint procurement of ammunition for Ukraine, Finland's Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said on Monday. "We have to speed up joint procurement of ammunition," he said as he arrived at a meeting of EU ministers in Luxembourg.
Recent remarks by China's ambassador to France questioning the sovereignty of former Soviet states such as Ukraine are totally unacceptable, Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky said before a meeting with EU colleagues in Luxembourg on Monday.
"It is totally unacceptable", Lipavsky said. "I hope bosses of this ambassador will make these things straight".
4:03am: Russian antisubmarine destroyer to conduct drills in Sea of Japan
A Russian antisubmarine destroyer will conduct exercises in the Sea of Japan involving mock enemy objects, the news agency Interfax reported on Monday, quoting the press service of Russia's Pacific Fleet.
"In the Sea of Japan, the Admiral Tributs ship will conduct an antisubmarine exercise in accordance with the fleet combat training plan," the press service said.
As part of the exercises, the ship's crew, in cooperation with naval helicopters, will search for a mock enemy submarine, as well as perform combat training drills with torpedoes. Launched in 1983, the Admiral Tributs vessel serves in the Russian Pacific Fleet.
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Global military spending rose to a record last year as Russia's war in Ukraine drove the biggest annual increase in expenditure in Europe since the end of the Cold War three decades ago, a leading conflict and armaments think tank said on Monday.
World military expenditure rose by 3.7% in real terms in 2022 to $2.24 trillion, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) language1.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which began in February last year following years of growing tensions, has prompted European countries to rush to bolster their defences.
Key developments on Sunday, April 23
France and the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania expressed dismay after China's ambassador to Paris questioned the sovereignty of former Soviet countries.
Asked about his position on whether Crimea is part of Ukraine, ambassador Lu Shaye said in an interview aired on French television on Friday that it historically was part of Russia, and had been offered to Ukraine by former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.
"These ex-USSR countries don't have actual status in international law because there is no international agreement to materialise their sovereign status," he added.
France responded on Sunday by stating its "full solidarity" with all the allied countries affected, which it said had acquired their independence "after decades of oppression".
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(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
