Blinken warns world ‘should not be fooled’ by Xi’s ‘peace’ proposalThe US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has voiced scepticism over China’s “peace” proposals to end the Ukraine conflict, warning that they could be a “stalling tactic” to help Russian troops on the ground in Ukraine.
Blinken, speaking to reporters at a briefing, said:
The world should not be fooled by any tactical move by Russia, supported by China or any other country, to freeze the war on its own terms.
Chinese president Xi Jinping’s visit to Russia this week following the international criminal court’s arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin suggested Beijing does not think the Kremlin should be held accountable for its atrocities in Ukraine, Blinken added.
China’s Xi Jinping arrives in Moscow to meet Vladimir Putin – video 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 countries have agreed on a plan to give 1m artillery shells to Ukraine over the next year by digging into their own stockpiles and teaming up to buy more. Not all the details were immediately available but the plan approved by the ministers was based on a proposal from EU foreign policy chief Josep Borell to spend €1bn on shells from stockpiles and €1bn more on joint procurement.
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.
Putin, speaking today before meeting with 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.
Leaders of Ukraine’s Moscow-Patriarch-affiliated Orthodox Church arrived near Ukraine’s presidential administration on Monday in an attempt to meet Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy. The church has been under pressure since November after Ukraine’s security services began a number of investigations into the church, saying they suspected the church of spreading pro-Kremlin narratives. The church leaders say they want to clarify their pro-Ukrainian position with Zelenskiy.
Kremlin staff involved in Vladimir Putin’s 2024 presidential re-election campaign have been banned from using their iPhones because of concerns that the devices are vulnerable to western intelligence agencies, according to a report.
Russia and China ‘share similar goals’, Xi tells PutinChina’s president Xi Jinping told Vladimir Putin that Moscow and Beijing “share similar goals” and called the Russian leader his “dear friend” during an informal meeting at the Kremlin.
Xi told Putin:
It is true that both of our countries share the same, or some similar goals. We have exerted efforts for the prosperity of our respective countries … we can cooperate and work together to achieve our goals.
Xi also said he was sure that the Russian people would support Putin in the 2024 presidential election, although he has not publicly declared that he will seek another term.
As Xi’s words were translated into Russian, Putin looked his Chinese counterpart in the eye and smiled briefly. Putin also used the term “dear friend” to his guest during the meeting.
Chinese President Xi Jinping gestures while speaking with Russian President Vladimir Putin during their meeting in Moscow Kremlin. Photograph: Sergei Karpuhin/SPUTNIK/KREMLIN POOL/EPAThe pair are scheduled to have dinner tonight and hold formal talks tomorrow. The menu includes blini with quail and mushrooms; sterlet sturgeon soup; pomegranate sorbet, nelma – an Arctic fish – with vegetables; venison with cherry sauce; pavlova; and wines from Russia’s southern Krasnodar region.
The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, has described an agreement by the bloc’s member states on a plan to give 1m artillery shells to Ukraine as a “historic decision”.
EU foreign and defence ministers, meeting today in Brussels, approved the plan based on Borrell’s proposal to spend €1bn on shells from stockpiles and €1bn more on joint procurement.
A historic decision.
Following my proposal, Member States agreed to deliver 1 mio rounds of artillery ammunition within the next 12 months.
We have a 3 track approach:
1) €1 bn for immediate delivery
2) €1 bn for joint procurement
3) commission to ramp up production capacity pic.twitter.com/CCNOaxE4bk
— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) March 20, 2023Ministers discussed a plan for the joint procurement of 155mm ammunition by the Brussels-based European Defence Agency. Such a move marks a significant moment for the EU, which has limited experience of the joint purchase of military supplies.
Germany’s defence minister, Boris Pistorius, said his country would be among those joining the joint procurement initiative, describing it as “new territory” for the EU. He said:
Our goal has to be to ship a significant amount of munitions to Ukraine before the end of this year.
US announces $350m in additional military aid to UkraineThe 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.
Here are some images we have received from the news wires of President Vladimir Putin meeting his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, at the Kremlin this afternoon.
The president of China, Xi Jinping, shakes hands with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. Photograph: SPUTNIK/ReutersPutin and Xi during their meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow. Photograph: APToday’s talks between the two leaders were informal. Photograph: Sergei Karpukhin/SPUTNIK/AFP/Getty ImagesXi is welcomed by the commandant of the Moscow Kremlin, Sergei Udovenko. Photograph: APPresident Xi’s motorcade drives toward the Kremlin. Photograph: APICC prosecutor Karim Khan, speaking earlier today, said the arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin would not expire if and when the war in Ukraine ends.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Khan said:
There’s no statute of limitations for war crimes. That’s one of the principles of Nuremberg, and individuals – wherever they are in the world – need to realise the law is present and there are responsibilities that come with authority.
The arrest warrant for Putin and his commissioner for children’s rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, would stay for the rest of their lives “unless they present themselves to the independent judges of the court and the judges, on the merits, decide to dismiss a case”, he said.
The international criminal court (ICC) prosecutor, Karim Khan, has said that the arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin over alleged war crimes was a “sombre” occasion and not one for “triumphalism” or “backslapping”.
Khan was addressing a meeting of international justice ministers in London to ask for extra cash to pursue Russian war crimes in Ukraine, including the potential prosecution of Putin for overseeing the abduction of children from Ukraine to Russia. He said:
It is really a very sad occasion and a very sombre occasion, that for the first time ever, judges of the international criminal court, of any court, have felt it necessary to issue warrants against a leader and senior state officials from a permanent member of the (UN) security council.
In granting the request for warrants by Khan, a panel of judges agreed on Friday that there were “reasonable grounds” to believe Putin and his children’s rights commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova, bore responsibility for the “unlawful deportation” of Ukrainian children.
In a statement on Friday, Khan said incidents identified by his office included “the deportation of at least hundreds of children taken from orphanages and children’s care homes.”
Many of the children had been put up for adoption in Russia, he said, adding that Putin had issued a decree expediting the conferral of Russian citizenship on the children, making them easier to adopt.
Speaking today, Khan said:
I say repatriate the children, return the children, reunite the children. If there is any semblance of truth to the utterances that this is for the sake of children, instead of giving them a foreign passport, return them to the countries of their nationality.
Vladimir Putin will provide Xi Jinping with “clarifications” on Russia’s point of view on the Ukraine conflict during the Chinese leader’s state visit to Russia, the Kremlin has said.
During a call with reporters, the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said the two presidents would discuss themes in the peace plan for Ukraine proposed by China.