Summary
As the time has just gone 6pm in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, here is a roundup of today’s developments in the war in the country.
The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, told the UN security council on Monday that the world may have reached a more dangerous situation than it had even during the cold war. Lavrov led a meeting on multilateralism and the founding UN Charter as part of Russia having the rotating chair of the body. He said: “As was case in cold war, we have reached the dangerous, possibly even more dangerous, threshold.”
Russia has switched to defensive positions in all its areas of combat apart from Bakhmut, according to the Ukrainian head of intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov. In an interview with RBC Ukraine, he said: “They have completely switched to positional defence everywhere. The only places on the frontline where they are making attempts are in the city of Bakhmut, an attempt to cover the city of Avdiivka from the north, and localised fighting in the city of Marinka. Both in Avdiivka and Marinka the tactics are identical to those in Bakhmut – just an attempt to wipe the settlement off the face of the Earth.
A woman charged with killing a pro-war Russian military blogger using explosives has been denied bail by a Russian court. Darya Trepova, 26, is accused of killing Vladen Tatarsky, whose real name was Maxim Fomin, on 2 April. He was presented with a statuette containing a bomb while giving a talk at a cafe in St Petersberg.
Russian state-owned news agency Tass is reporting that Denis Pushilin, the acting head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, has said the situation in Bakhmut continues to be tense, but that Wagner group forces have made some advances.
Russia’s Black Sea Fleet repelled a drone attack on the Crimean port of Sevastopol in the early hours of Monday, the Moscow-installed governor of the city has said on the Telegram messaging app.
Ukraine’s military has set up positions on the eastern side of the Dnipro River near Kherson city, the Institute for the Study of War cites Russian military bloggers as saying. Infiltrating the area could be a first step towards trying to dislodge Russians from positions they are using to fire upon Kherson.
The prime minister of Estonia, Kaja Kallas, is visiting Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Ukraine. Kallas said that Ukraine should be admitted to the EU and Nato, and signed a joint declaration on her visit. She said that she supported Ukraine getting more ammunition, arms and training, which was why she proposed the EU move to provide 1m shells to Ukraine.
China’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Mao Ning, said China respected the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of all countries and upheld the purposes and principles of the UN charter. The statement comes after the Chinese ambassador to France, Lu Shaye, made comments on Friday which cast doubt on the sovereignty of former Soviet states including Ukraine. France’s foreign ministry says it will discuss the issue with the ambassador on Monday.
The EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, expressed confidence on Monday that the bloc would complete 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.
That’s all for today. Thanks for following along. We leave you with our correspondent Peter Beaumont’s story about civilians in Kherson being “forcibly evacuated”.
Updated
Lavrov: global situation is more dangerous than cold war
The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, told the UN security council on Monday that the world had reached a more dangerous situation than it had during the cold war.
Lavrov led a meeting on multilateralism and the founding UN charter because Russia holds the monthly rotating presidency of the 15-member body for April.
He said: “As was [the] case in cold war, we have reached the dangerous, possibly even more dangerous, threshold.”
Updated
Clips are emerging of Sergei Lavrov’s long and rambling remarks at the UN in New York. Russia’s foreign minister accused the International Monetary Fund (IMF) of “morphing” into a body working for the “achievement of the goals of the United States and their allies including goals of a military nature”.
He added that the US had taken the path of “destroying globalisation, which for many years they have raised up as the highest benefit of all humanity” and said it had been hypocritical in applying its standards in different situations across the globe.
He said: “The western colleagues have long found it inconvenient to reach agreement through [the] universal format such as the United Nations for ideological, justified polices to undermine multilateralism and abandonment of democracy”.
The session is nominally on multilateralism, which includes where countries will work together towards a particular target.
Updated
Lavrov and Guterres clash at UN session
Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov is chairing a meeting of the UN security council this afternoon and has clashed with the UN secretary general António Guterres.
Guterres said that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was causing “massive suffering and devastation to the country and its people”, and called for urgent “effective responses”.
The UN chief added that the world faces historic high tensions between major powers.
In response, Lavrov, who is one of Putin’s key ministers and has been in charge of foreign affairs for Russia for 19 years, blamed the US and their western allies. He said the UN was “enduring a profound crisis” and that the US had replaced international law with “a certain rules-based order”.
Lavrov said the US had “embraced a policy of destroying” the architecture of UN.
Updated
The prime minister of Estonia, Kaja Kallas, is visiting Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Ukraine.
Estonia is a country that borders Russia and fears that a successful conquest in Ukraine would embolden Vladimir Putin to push towards the Baltic to retake countries that once formed part of the Soviet Union.
Kallas said that Ukraine should be admitted into the EU and Nato, and signed a joint declaration on her visit. She said that she supports Ukraine getting more ammunition, arms and training which is why she proposed the EU move to provide 1m shells to Ukraine.
They met in Zhytomyr, a city west of Kyiv that has served as a historic transport hub linking the Ukrainian capital with Minsk in Belarus and Warsaw in Poland.
I am in #Ukraine on my first visit as the head of Estonia's new government.@ZelenskyyUa, I am here with a message of firm belief – I believe in Ukraine's victory and I believe in Ukraine as a prosperous liberal democracy that belongs in the Euro-Atlantic family. 1/ pic.twitter.com/7rtZUrBJIe
— Kaja Kallas (@kajakallas) April 24, 2023
Updated
A wind energy summit of countries surrounding the North Sea is taking place in Ostend, Belgium, today. The EU countries participating are Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, with European Commission chief, Ursula von der Leyen, also attending. Norway and Britain will also participate.
At the start of the meeting Reuters reports the Belgian prime minister, Alexander De Croo, has said security will be a key issue.
“The topic of security will be centre stage, as North Sea infrastructure such as wind turbines and other installations are vulnerable to espionage and sabotage,” he said.
Last week a joint investigation by the public broadcasters of several Nordic countries alleged that Russia had established a state-run programme using spy ships disguised as fishing vessels aimed at giving it the capability to attack windfarms and communications cables in the North Sea.
Updated
Russian-installed leader: situation in Bakhmut 'tense' but Wagner forces have made advances
Russian state-owned news agency Tass is reporting that Denis Pushilin, acting head of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic, has said the situation in Bakhmut continues to be tense, but that Wagner group forces have made some advances. Tass quotes him saying:
The situation in Bakhmut now continues to remain tense. Literally over the past 24 hours, the guys from the Wagner PMC have advanced in the western and northwestern parts of Bakhmut. Now they have approached a rather difficult area – a block of high-rise buildings, where the enemy has organised defence.
Work is also being actively carried out to finally and irrevocably cut off the enemy’s last supply route. Fighting continues in the area of the Khromove settlement. The enemy still has some paths. The task is simple: to minimize and completely make it impossible for the enemy to move.
The battle situation in Bakhmut has made it impossible for journalists to independently verify battlefield reports. Donetsk is one of four partially occupied regions of Ukraine which the Russian Federation has claimed to annex.
Russia has moved to defensive positions in most areas - Ukrainian intelligence
Russia has switched to defensive positions in all its areas of combat apart from Bakhmut, according to the Ukrainian head of intelligence Kyrylo Budanov.
In an interview with RBC Ukraine, he said: “They have completely switched to positional defense everywhere. The only places on the frontline where they are making attempts are in the city of Bakhmut, an attempt to cover the city of Avdiivka from the north, and localized fighting in the city of Marinka. Both in Avdiivka and Marinka the tactics are identical to those in Bakhmut – just an attempt to wipe the settlement off the face of the earth.
“And against the backdrop of the lack of success elsewhere, they face the problem that even their ‘deceived’ society needs to see something, some kind of victory. This is the only place where they succeed at least. In addition, there is the fact that Prigozhin once said that he would take Bakhmut. He would be happy to sing about it, but he can’t. That is, everything just came together here.”
Budanov said that there was little chance of Vuhledar in the Donbas region, which has been the site of a long-term tank battle, being captured. He added that he didn’t think Russians were planning to intensify or launch offensive operations on the frontline.
Updated
A dispatch here from our reporter Peter Beaumont in Kyiv.
Ukrainian authorities say Russian troops are “forcibly evacuating” civilians in the area of Kherson region that they still occupy, a day after it was claimed that Ukrainian forces had established a bridgehead on the east bank of the Dnipro River.
“I have information that the evacuation starts today [Sunday] with an excuse of protecting civilians from the consequences of heavy fighting in the area,” said Oleksandr Samoylenko, the Ukrainian head of Kherson’s regional council. Russian troops were “trying to steal as much as they can” as they withdrew, he added.
The claim cannot be verified, but it comes amid an apparent uptick in Ukrainian military activity in the south of the country that some analysts have interpreted as a potential precursor to Kyiv’s long anticipated counter-offensive.
Read more:
Updated
Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, has spoken after his son confirmed he had fought for Russia in the war in Ukraine.
In an interview in Komsomolskaya Pravda on Sunday, Nikolai Peskov said he had served as an artilleryman in the Wagner mercenary group.
“I considered it my duty,” he said, adding he had served under an assumed identity.
On Monday, his father, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters: “He took this decision. He’s a grown man. Yes, he did indeed take part in the special military operation.”
Updated
Woman charged with murder of pro-war blogger denied bail
A woman charged withkilling a pro-war Russian military blogger using explosives has been denied bail by a Russian court.
Darya Trepova, 26, is accused of killing Vladen Tatarsky, whose real name was Maxim Fomin, on 2 April. He was presented with a statuette containing a bomb while giving a talk at a cafe in St Petersberg.
Investigators say she was working on behalf of a pro-Ukrainian group with connections to jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny – claims rejected by Navalny’s associates and Kyiv – and charged her with terrorist offences.
A court in Moscow on Monday rejected Trepova’s appeal against being held in prison until at least 2 June, Reuters reports. The appeal was largely procedural and did not concern the substance of the charges against her.
Trepova said she regretted what had happened and wished a speedy recovery to other victims, the Russian TASS news agency reported from the court. More than 40 others were injured in the blast.
Trepova’s husband previously told independent Russian media outlets he believed she had been framed and had not known the statuette she had been told to deliver contained explosives.
Tatarsky was among the best-known of an influential group of bloggers who have surged to prominence since Russia invaded Ukraine. They have often been scathing in their criticism of Russia’s defence establishment and its conduct of the war, pushing for a more aggressive assault on Ukraine.
Last year, in a video shot at a ceremony in the Kremlin to mark Russia’s unilateral annexation of four Ukrainian regions, Tatarsky said Russia should “kill everyone” and “rob everyone” in Ukraine.
Updated
Summary of the day so far …
Russia’s Black Sea Fleet repelled a drone attack on the Crimean port of Sevastopol in the early hours of Monday, the Moscow-installed governor of the city has said on the Telegram messaging app.
Ukraine’s military has set up positions on the eastern side of the Dnipro River near Kherson city, the Institute for the Study of War cites Russian military bloggers as saying. Infiltrating the area could be a first step towards trying to dislodge Russians from positions they are using to shell and shoot at Kherson.
China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said China respects the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of all countries and upholds the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter. The comments come after the Chinese ambassador to France, Lu Shaye, made comments on Friday which cast doubt on the sovereignty of former Soviet states including Ukraine. France’s foreign ministry says it will discuss the issue with the ambassador on Monday.
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.
The head of the Russian grain union said on Monday the Black Sea grain initiative to facilitate Ukrainian agricultural exports had not yielded anything positive for Russia or helped facilitate supplies to the global market. Russia has said it will walk away from the agreement on 18 May if restrictions that it claims are blocking Russia’s own agricultural and fertiliser exports are not addressed.
Vladimir Rogov, chair of the pro-Russian “We are together with Russia” organisation in occupied Zaporizhzhia has posted to his Telegram channel to say that Ukrainian armed forces are massing in the area. Russian state-owned news agency Tass cites Rogov claiming that 12,000 Ukrainian service personnel are now in the area of the city of Huliaipole, located directly on the line of contact in the region.
More than 300 foreign correspondents who have worked in Moscow have written to the Russian government to call for the immediate release of Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter being held on espionage charges, saying his arrest sends a “disturbing and dangerous signal” about the country’s attitude to independent media.
Russia is using passports as a tool in the “Russification” of parts of occupied Ukraine, the UK’s Ministry of Defence has said in its latest intelligence update. Authorities in occupied areas were “almost certainly” coercing the population to accept Russian passports, it said.
Darya Trepova, charged with terrorism over the 2 April bomb blast in a cafe in St Petersburg that killed military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky (real name Maxim Fomin) has appeared on screen via a video link from the detention centre before her appeal hearing at the Moscow city court.
The Kremlin said on Monday that President Vladimir Putin would decide whether to attend a Brics conference in South Africa in August closer to the time, Reuters reports.
South Africa, a party to the international criminal court (ICC), maintains good relations with Russia but would be theoretically required to arrest Putin under an ICC indictment issued in March.
Reuters has a quick snap that France’s foreign ministry has said a discussion will take place on Monday with China’s ambassador in Paris. The move follows Lu Shaye’s comments on Friday which cast doubt on the sovereignty of former Soviet states including Ukraine.
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],” Reuters reports him as saying.
Updated
The head of the Russian grain union said on Monday that the Black Sea grain initiative to facilitate Ukrainian agricultural exports had not yielded anything positive for Russia or helped facilitate supplies to the global market, Reuters reports.
Russia has repeatedly criticised the initiative – brokered last July by Turkey and the UN – and has said it will walk away from the agreement on 18 May if restrictions that it claims are blocking Russia’s own agricultural and fertiliser exports are not addressed.
While agricultural products from Russia are not subject to sanctions, Russia claims that restrictions on insurance and financial payment systems make exports impossible.
Updated
EU leaders will discuss the bloc’s stance towards China and its future relations with the country during their next summit in June, EU Council President, Charles Michel, said on Monday.
“EU-China policy will be on the agenda of our European Council in June,” Reuters reports Michel said in a post on Twitter.
“Foreign affairs ministers will prepare this discussion under the leadership of the high representative Josep Borrell.”
Several EU foreign affairs ministers, speaking before a joint meeting on Monday, expressed their dismay over recent remarks by China’s ambassador to France, who questioned the sovereignty of former Soviet states such as Ukraine, and EU member states Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.
China’s foreign ministry has since attempted to clarify that the country’s official position is that it respects the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of all countries.
Updated
Moldova has added its voice to countries that have said comments by a Chinese diplomat that questioned the status and sovereignty of former Soviet states were “absolutely unacceptable”, and said that it would be seeking clarification from Beijing.
We are surprised about Chinese Amb statements questioning sovereignty of countries declaring independence in '91. Mutual respect & territ integrity have been key to 🇲🇩-🇨🇳 ties.
— 🇲🇩 MFA Moldova (@MoldovaMFA) April 24, 2023
Our expectations are that these declarations do not represent China’s official policy. @MFA_China
China says it respects the sovereignty of ex-Soviet states
China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a regular media briefing on Monday that her remarks on sovereignty represents China’s official government stance.
China respects the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of all countries and upholds the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter, Mao said earlier.
In an interview aired on French television on Friday, China’s ambassador in France had questioned the sovereignty of former Soviet countries like Ukraine.
Mao was asked on Monday if the ambassador’s stance represents China’s official position.
An original version of this post said that China had backed the French ambassador’s comments due to an error. Apologies.
Updated
Suspilne, Ukraine's state broadcaster, has this roundup of news this morning on its Telegram channel:
At night, the Russian army shelled Kramatorsk in Donetsk region, and damaged an educational institution. They also hit Nikopol in Dnipropetrovsk oblast with heavy artillery, and in the morning they attacked the border of Sumy oblast. There are no dead or injured.
Explosions rang out in occupied Sevastopol at night. The so-called “governor” Razvozhaev announced the “attack of two surface drones”: one allegedly exploded independently, and the other was destroyed.
Over the past day, two people were killed, six were injured, due to Russian shelling in Kherson region. Two were injured in Donetsk region.
According to the general staff, Russian occupiers on cargo ships are trying to take Ukrainian grain from Berdiansk in the Zaporizhzhia region.
Russia’s state-owned RIA news agency also has two pieces of news from Ukraine. It reports that an Orthodox church has been destroyed by an arson attack in Chernivtsi region in western Ukraine. The Guardian has seen video of a church on fire, but the claim, timing and location has not been indepently verified.
Additionally RIA reports that a Ukrainian drone has caused a fire at an oil depot in Rovenky in occupied Luhansk.
More than 300 journalists call for release of Evan Gershkovich
More than 300 foreign correspondents who have worked in Moscow have written to the Russian government to call for the immediate release of Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter being held on espionage charges, saying his arrest sends a “disturbing and dangerous signal” about the country’s attitude to independent media.
Gershkovich, who was detained in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg last month on spying charges that carry a possible 20-year prison sentence, is the first US journalist detained on such charges since the end of the cold war. Both the Wall Street Journal and the US government has denied that he was involved in espionage.
The 301 signatories of the letter include the BBC’s Orla Guerin, the former New York Times journalist Bill Keller, John Kampfner, the executive director of the Chatham House thinktank and David Remnick, the editor of the New Yorker. Between them, the journalists have worked for media outlets from 22 different countries. The earliest signatory arrived in Moscow in 1964, while the most recent left in the past few weeks.
The letter, addressed to Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, says the journalists are “shocked and appalled” by Gershkovich’s arrest and the subsequent charges laid against him, and urges the dropping over the charges and his immediate release.
“Evan Gershkovich has a long and impressive record of journalistic work,” it reads.
“We have no doubt that the only purpose and intention of his work was to inform his readers about the current reality in Russia. Seeking out information, even if it means upsetting political interests, does not make Evan a criminal or a spy, it makes him a journalist. Journalism is not a crime.”
It goes on: “The arrest sends a disturbing and dangerous signal about Russia’s disregard for independent media and shows indifference to the fate of a young, talented and honest journalist.”
Read more here: Journalists who have worked in Moscow call for release of Evan Gershkovich
Recent remarks by China’s ambassador to France questioning the sovereignty of former Soviet states such as Ukraine are totally unacceptable, the Czech Republic’s foreign minister Jan Lipavský said before a meeting with EU colleagues in Luxembourg on Monday.
“It is totally unacceptable”, Lipavský said. “I hope bosses of this ambassador will make these things straight.”
Lu Shaye had been asked in a TV interview late on Friday whether he considered the peninsula of Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014, part of Ukraine under international law.
“Even these ex-Soviet Union countries do not have effective status, as we say, under international law because there’s no international accord to concretise their status as a sovereign country. There is a history here where Crimea was originally part of Russia. It was Khrushchev who offered Crimea to Ukraine during the period of the Soviet Union,” Lu said.
The remarks appeared to brush aside the sovereignty of countries that formally recognised each other after the Soviet Union’s dissolution, including Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
Updated
Vladimir Rogov, chair of the pro-Russian “We are together with Russia” organisation in occupied Zaporizhzhia has posted to his Telegram channel to say that Ukrainian armed forces are massing in the area.
Russian state-owned news agency Tass cites Rogov claiming that 12,000 Ukrainian service personnel are now in the area of the city of Huliaipole, located directly on the line of contact in the region.
The claims have not been independently verified. Zaporizhzhia is one of four partially occupied regions of Ukraine that the Russian Federation has claimed to annex.
Turkey’s defence minister said he planned to meet his Syrian, Russian and Iranian counterparts in Moscow on Tuesday. Reuters, citing the state-owned Anadolu news agency, reported that defence minister Hulusi Akar said the countries’ intelligence chiefs would also attend the meeting.
Updated
Suspilne, Ukraine's state broadcaster, has posted to Telegram to report that overnight an educational establishment in Kramatorsk was hit by shelling. Accompanied by pictures showing damage to a sports hall, citing the local city council, it reports there were no injuries.
Russia is using passports as a tool in the “Russification” of parts of occupied Ukraine, the UK’s Ministry of Defence has said in its latest intelligence update.
Authorities in occupied areas were “almost certainly” coercing the population to accept Russian passports, it said.
“Residents in Kherson have been warned that those who have not accepted a Russian passport by 01 June 2023 will be ‘deported’ and their property seized,” it wrote.
It also said that Russia was likely speeding up the integration of bureaucracy in areas of occupied Ukraine into that of Russia to help “paint the invasion as a success”, especially ahead of next year’s presidential elections.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 24 April 2023.
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) April 24, 2023
Find out more about Defence Intelligence's use of language: https://t.co/hKhCuMwBFk
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/6ugy1ZlZXQ
Updated
AFP has published a series of new pictures by photographer Anatolii Stepanov showing some of the destruction inside the eastern city of Bakhmut, over which Ukrainian and Russian forces have been waging a brutal battle for months. Here are a sample:
Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has threatened to end the UN-brokered deal allowing the export of Ukrainian grain if the G7 moves ahead with a potential ban on almost all exports to Russia.
The Group of Seven (G7) countries are considering a near-total ban on exports to Russia, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported last week, citing Japanese government sources. Russia has repeatedly threatened to scrap its participation in the grain deal, which is due to expire on 18 May.
Writing on his Telegram channel Medvedev wrote:
This idea from the idiots at the G7 about a total ban of exports to our country by default is beautiful in that it implies a reciprocal ban on imports from our country, including categories of goods that are the most sensitive for the G7.
In such a case, the grain deal – and many other things that they need – will end for them.
The G7 is reportedly discussing reversing its sanctions approach so that exports to Russia are automatically banned unless they are included on a designated list of products allowed to be shipped to the country, according to Reuters. Under the current framework, goods are allowed to be sold to Russia unless they are explicitly black-listed.
Medvedev, a longtime ally of Russian president Vladimir Putin, is Putin’s deputy chair at the influential security council and heads a government commission on arms production for the war in Ukraine.
The Black Sea Grain Initiative was agreed by Russia and Ukraine last July to help alleviate a global food crisis. Moscow says it agreed to extend the deal only until 18 May while Kyiv and the UN say the deal has another 60 days to run after then, and are seeking an agreement to ensure it continues.
Ukraine is one of the world’s biggest exporters of wheat and other grains, including to the Middle East and Asia. Russia’s invasion last year, however, disrupted the main Black Sea export route, pushing up prices of grain-based foods globally.
Updated
China’s cooperation with Europe and other nations is “endless” just as its ties with Russia are “unlimited”, China’s envoy to the European Union has said, in an interview published on Monday.
It was unclear when Fu Cong, the Chinese ambassador to the EU, gave the interview to the Chinese news outlet The Paper according to Reuters.
But its publication came just days after China’s ambassador to France sparked condemnation from Baltic nations Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia when he suggested that they were not necessarily sovereign states.
Fu said:
The European side should correctly understand the reference to ‘no upper limit’. Friendship and cooperation among countries are endless and should not be artificially limited. Sino-Russian cooperation is ‘unlimited’, and the same is true for China and Europe.
Fu warned against “attempts” to use Sino-Russian relations to sow discord between China and Europe, rejecting talk that China had “prior knowledge” of the Ukraine conflict or has been supplying weapons.
Last week ambassador Lu Shaye, when asked by a French television channel whether he considered the peninsula of Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014, part of Ukraine under international law, replied:
Even these ex-Soviet Union countries do not have effective status, as we say, under international law because there’s no international accord to concretise their status as a sovereign country.
Russia claims drone attack on Crimean port repelled
Russia’s Black Sea Fleet repelled a drone attack on the Crimean port of Sevastopol in the early hours of Monday, the Moscow-installed governor of the city has said on the Telegram messaging app.
“According to the latest information: one surface drone was destroyed … the second one exploded on its own,” governor Mikhail Razvozhaev wrote. “Now the city is quiet but all forces and services remain on alert.” No damage was reported, according to Razvozhaev.
Sevastopol, along with the rest of the Crimean peninsula, was declared annexed by Russia in 2014 but is internationally recognised as part of Ukraine. There was no immediate reaction from Ukraine. Kyiv almost never publicly claims responsibility for attacks inside Russia and on Russian-controlled territory in Ukraine.
Explosions were last heard in Sevastopol in February, according to Ukrainian media, when Razvozhaev said Russian air defences had shot down a drone over the Balaklava Thermal Power Plant.
Crimea and Sevastopol, home to the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, have been the sire of regular explosions since August.
In October, a blast crippled the heavily guarded Kerch bridge connecting Crimea to the Russian mainland, a key logistics link for Russian troops in southern Ukraine.
Updated
Opening summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine with me, Helen Livingstone. Our top story today:
Russia’s Black Sea Fleet repelled a drone attack on the Crimean port of Sevastopol in the early hours of Monday, the Moscow-installed governor of the city has said through social media.
“According to the latest information: one surface drone was destroyed ... the second one exploded on its own,” governor Mikhail Razvozhaev wrote on the Telegram messaging app according to Reuters. “Now the city is quiet.” No damage was reported, Razvozhaev added.
Sevastopol, along with the rest of the Crimean peninsula, was declared annexed by Russia in 2014 but is internationally recognised as part of Ukraine. There was no immediate reaction from Ukraine. Kyiv almost never publicly claims responsibility for attacks inside Russia and on Russian-controlled territory in Ukraine.
Other key developments:
Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said that if the G7 moved to ban almost all exports to Russia, Moscow would respond by terminating the Black Sea grain deal that enables vital exports of grain from Ukraine. Russia has strongly signalled that it will not allow the deal to continue beyond 18 May.
Ukraine’s military has set up positions on the eastern side of the Dnipro River near Kherson city, the Institute for the Study of War cites Russian military bloggers as saying. Infiltrating the area could be a first step towards trying to dislodge Russians from positions they are using to shell and shoot at Kherson.
China’s ambassador to France has sparked anger in eastern Europe and Ukraine while drawing a rebuke from Paris and the EU after questioning the sovereignty of post-Soviet countries. Ambassador Lu Shaye suggested 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”.
Europe’s military spending grew at a record pace in 2022, reaching a level unseen since the cold war following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, global security researchers said. The rise in Europe helped global military expenditures reach an eighth straight record at $2.24tn, or 2.2% of the world’s gross domestic product, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, has said Moscow “will not forgive” Washington for denying US visas to Russian journalists who were meant to accompany him on a visit to UN headquarters. “We won’t forget, we will not forgive this,” he said. Russia took up the presidency of the 15-member security council in April.
Russia is advising citizens to avoid travel to Canada. Russia cited what it called numerous cases of discrimination against its citizens, including physical violence, its foreign ministry said.
Anti-Kremlin protesters staged a rally in Paris on Sunday, urging the EU to impose sanctions on the socialite wife of the Russian deputy defence minister, who they accuse of bypassing sanctions. The protesters said deputy defence minister Timur Ivanov had divorced his wife Svetlana Maniovich last year in order to enable her to live a luxury lifestyle in France and evade sanctions.
Russia is appealing for “real men” in a new military recruitment drive. Russia’s defence ministry has launched a major drive for volunteer recruits, pitching to their masculine pride amid a limited pool of fighting-age men in Russia, the UK Ministry of Defence says.
Russia’s defence ministry claims it has captured another three districts in the western part of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine. Troops who have continued into the heavily contested city are thought to be part of the Wagner group of mercenaries.
Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba is expected to vent Kyiv’s frustration over wrangling that is holding up an EU plan to buy ammunition to help Ukraine during a video meeting with his EU counterparts. A landmark deal for EU countries to jointly buy artillery shells for Ukraine has not yet been implemented due to disagreements over how much of the business has to stay within Europe.
