Closing summary
It’s just past 9pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:
China’s president, Xi Jinping, has arrived in Moscow in his first visit to Russia for four years. The state visit makes him the first world leader to meet Vladimir Putin since the international criminal court (ICC) in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for the Russian president. The pair held informal talks on Monday that lasted more than four hours, Russian state media reported, with formal negotiations to follow. The leaders are expected to sign joint declarations.
Russia and China “share the same, or some similar goals”, Xi told Putin during informal talks at the Kremlin on Monday. Upon his arrival, the state-owned news agency Tass reported that Xi had said: “China and Russia are good neighbours and reliable partners”. Xi also told him he was sure the Russian people would support Putin in the 2024 presidential election, although he has not publicly declared that he will seek another term.
Putin told Xi he welcomed Beijing’s proposal to end the “acute crisis” in Ukraine and he viewed the plan with respect. “You know that we are always ready for negotiating and we will discuss all those questions, including your suggestions,” the Russian leader told his Chinese counterpart at the Kremlin.
Ahead of the trip, Putin praised Xi as a “good old friend” in a newspaper article published in China, while Xi wrote in a Russian daily that his trip to Russia aimed to strengthen the friendship between the two countries and called for “pragmatism” on Ukraine.
Any future peace plan must require Russia to withdraw its troops from all Ukrainian territory, Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine’s national security and defence council, has reiterated. The formula for the successful implementation of China’s “peace plan” must include the restoration of Ukraine’s “sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity”, Danilov posted on Twitter.
The US secretary of state has voiced scepticism over China’s “peace” proposals to end the Ukraine conflict, warning they could be a “stalling tactic” to help Russian troops on the ground in Ukraine.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, has written to Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, to warn that the Ukrainian army is planning an imminent offensive aimed at cutting off his forces from the main body of Russian troops in eastern Ukraine. In the letter published by his press service today, Prigozhin said the “large-scale attack” was planned for late March or the start of April. Separately, Prigozhin also intensified his attack on Shoigu, calling the minister’s son-in-law a “scumbag blogger”.
The prosecutor for the international criminal court (ICC) has said the world needs to “have the stamina” to enforce international law by trying those accused of war crimes in Ukraine, four days after the court took action against Vladimir Putin. Karim Khan also challenged the Kremlin to allow Ukrainian children abducted to Russia to return home, after his court issued an arrest warrant for Putin and Russia’s children’s commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova, on the grounds that they had overseen the forcible transfer of thousands of children.
EU ministers have reached a deal to supply Ukraine with 1m rounds of shells to bolster its defences against Russia’s invasion. EU foreign and defence ministers are still fine-tuning a €1bn plan for the joint procurement of ammunition by the Brussels-based European Defence Agency. Such an agreement would be a significant moment for the EU, which has limited experience of the joint purchase of military supplies. So far, about 15 countries are expected to take part in the voluntary initiative.
The US will send Ukraine $350m in weapons and equipment, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has announced. The latest aid package includes a large amount of various types of ammunition, such as rockets for the high-mobility artillery rocket systems (Himars), Blinken said in a statement.
Norway has delivered eight Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, a spokesperson for its armed forces has said. Norway, which shares a border with Russia in the Arctic, said it would also send four special-purpose tanks from its armoured engineering and bridge layer category, the exact selection depending on what Ukraine needs the most.
Putin, speaking today before meeting China’s President Xi, said deepening ties between Moscow and African countries was a key goal for the Kremlin. In a televised address to delegates at a Russia-Africa parliamentary conference, Putin also said Russia would provide grain to African countries for free should the Black Sea grain deal not be extended in May.
That’s it from me, Léonie Chao-Fong, and the Russia-Ukraine war blog today. Thanks for reading. We’ll be back tomorrow.
Updated
The US is “concerned” that China will reiterate calls for a ceasefire that would leave Russian troops inside Ukrainian sovereign territory, the White House’s spokesperson, John Kirby, said.
Any ceasefire that does not address the removal of Russian forces from Ukrainian territory “would effectively ratify Russia’s illegal conquests” and enable it to entrench its positions “and then to restart the war at a more advantageous time for them”, he warned.
The world should not be fooled by any tactical move by Russia, aided by China or any other country, to freeze the war on its terms without any viable pathway to restore Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Updated
