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France’s president Emmanuel Macron has urged his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to bring Russia “back to its senses” over its war in Ukraine.
The conflict – and need to avoid a nuclear escalation – was notable on the agenda as Mr Macron and European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen visited Beijing, days after Moscow vowed to station part of its arsenal in Belarus. The United States has nuclear weapons stationed with several European Nato partners.
China’s leader agreed that all countries should abide by the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, with a French diplomatic source claiming that Mr Macron and Mr Xi had agreed to “work hard” to bring both parties to the negotiating table.
Meanwhile, Britain’s Ministry of Defence said it believed that Vladimir Putin has fired Colonel-General Rustam Muradov as commander of the Eastern Group of Forces (EGF) in Ukraine, marking the most senior Russian military dismissal of 2023 so far.
The group has “suffered exceptionally heavy casualties in recent months as its poorly conceived assaults repeatedly failed to capture” the Donetsk town of Vuhledar, the ministry said.
Macron urges Xi to ‘bring Putin to his senses’ on war and nuclear threats
Emmanuel Macron has urged Xi Jinping to bring Russia “to its senses”, during a visit to Beijing, which is claimed to have seen the two presidents agree to ‘work hard’ to end the war in Ukraine.
Referring to the UN Charter on respecting countries’ sovereignty and an international nuclear weapons treaty, the French president said: “I know I can count on you, under the two principles I just mentioned, to bring Russia to its senses and bring everyone back to the negotiating table.”
Mr Xi responded that China was willing to “jointly appeal with France to the international community to remain rational and calm”, adding: “Peace talks should be resumed as soon as possible, taking into account the reasonable security concerns of all sides with reference to the UN Charter … seeking political resolution and constructing a balanced, effective and sustainable European security framework.”
A French diplomatic source did not say whether China had indicated any change in its position during the 90-minute meeting, but told Reuters that “the President and Xi agreed to ‘work hard’ in order to accelerate the end of the war and to obtain that a negotiation opens in the full respect of international law”.
Latest images from Ukraine’s Donetsk region
World Bank: Improved outlooks for Russia and Ukraine despite ongoing war
The World Bank on Thursday lifted its 2023 economic growth forecast for eastern Europe and central Asia to 1.4 per cent from an earlier 0.1 per cent prediction, citing improved outlooks for both Russia and Ukraine despite their ongoing war.
The regional forecast, released just days before the World Bank and International Monetary Fund hold their annual spring meetings, has Ukraine‘s economy growing by 0.5 per cent this year following a staggering contraction of 29.2 per cent in 2022, the year Russia launched its invasion.
“While the economic toll suffered by Ukraine as a result of the invasion is enormous, the reopening of Ukraine‘s Black Sea ports and resumption of grain trade, as well as substantial donor support, are helping support economic activity this year,” the World Bank said in a statement.
Russia’s economy shrank 2.1 per cent last year, considerably less than the 3.5 per cent contraction the World Bank forecast in January.
For 2023, the World Bank forecast Russia’s economy to contract by 0.2 per cent, compared to its previous forecast of a 3.3 per cent contraction.
The World Bank’s regional grouping includes Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.
Russian refusal to give consular access to detained reporter is ‘inexcusable’
Russia’s refusal to give consular access to detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich is “inexcusable,” the White House said on Thursday.
“We need to get consular access to Evan,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.
Watch: Putin stands 60ft away from crowd during speech
Ukraine sends conflicting signals on Crimea talks idea
A top Ukrainian official has ruled out talks with Moscow about territory until it withdraws all troops, pushing back on a colleague who had touted the idea of negotiations to resolve the Russian occupation of the Crimean peninsula.
Andriy Sybiha, deputy head of president Volodymyr Zelensky’s office, told the Financial Times on Wednesday that Kyiv would be willing to discuss the future of Crimea with Moscow if Ukraine‘s counter-offensive reaches the peninsula.
Russia occupied Ukraine‘s Crimean peninsula in 2014, long before it launched its full-scale invasion in Feb. 2022. It has a huge concentration of forces on the Black Sea territory.
Ukraine, which has vowed to recapture all lost land, plans to launch a counter-offensive in the coming weeks or months to try to wrest back territory in the east and south.
But on Thursday, Mykhailo Podolyak, a presidential adviser, appeared to directly contradict Sybiha’s remarks on Twitter.
“The basis for real negotiations with (Russia) is the complete withdrawal of Russian armed groups beyond the internationally recognised borders of Ukraine in 1991. Including #Crimea,” he said.
“There is no question of any territorial concessions or bargaining of our sovereign rights.”
Russia says seven civilians killed in Ukraine shelling attacks
Authorities in Russian-controlled areas of eastern Ukraine said a total of seven civilians were killed on Thursday in two separate Ukrainian artillery strikes, Russian news agencies said.
Four civilians died in Donetsk when shells hit a car park, and another six people were injured, Tass said. RIA later said three people died in blasts at a bus stop in Lysychansk, some 120 km (75 miles) to the northeast of Donetsk.
Donetsk, capital of the Ukrainian province of the same name, has been controlled by Russian proxy forces since 2014, but remains close to the front line of Russia’s war with Ukraine and regularly comes under fire from Ukrainian forces.
The Independent was not immediately able to verify reports.
Russia says deputy foreign minister discussed jailed WSJ reporter
Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov discussed the case of jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich with the US ambassador to Russia on Thursday, the foreign ministry said, according to the state-run news agency TASS.
Ryabkov repeated the ministry’s position that the question of US consular access to Gershkovich case would be handled according to established procedure.
Gershkovich was charged with espionage last week after being detained in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg, and remanded in custody for two months.
The US government and the Wall Street Journal have denied that he was engaged in spying.
What we know about the arrest of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich in Russia
The son of Jewish immigrants from the Soviet Union who grew up speaking Russian at home in Princeton, New Jersey, Gershkovich graduated from the prestigious Bowdoin College in Maine before embarking on a career in the media, firstly at The New York Times, then The Moscow Times and then Agence France-Presse before joining WSJ, where he began covering Russian affairs just a month before the invasion of Ukraine last year.
Joe Sommerlad reports:
Xi agreed to speak to Zelensky when ‘time is right’, says von der Leyen
China’s Xi Jinping expressed willingness to speak to Volodymyr Zelensky, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has claimed, after their meeting in Beijing.
“It was interesting to hear that President Xi reiterated his willingness to speak” to the Ukrainian president, Ms Von der Leyen said, calling his words “positive”.
She added that Mr Xi had told her a conversation with Mr Zelensky could happen when the “conditions and time are right”.
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2023-04-06 22:00:00Z
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