Zelenskiy adviser dismisses China’s peace plan and warns time running outMykhailo Podolyak, a senior adviser to Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has dismissed China’s “unrealistic” proposal to end the conflict.
Beijing should not “bet on an aggressor who broke [international] law and will lose the war”, Podolyak tweeted this morning.
If you claim to be a global player, you don’t offer an unrealistic plan. You don’t bet on an aggressor who broke intl law and will lose the war. It’s not far-sighted. As someone who plans for decades doesn’t play “🇷🇺 3-day games.”
China, the “window of opportunity” is not endless
— Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M) February 25, 2023 The Chinese government’s 12-point position paper on Ukraine was released on Friday morning, on the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion. In it, Beijing called for peace talks while urging all parties to avoid nuclear escalation and end attacks on civilians, in a statement which appeared to maintain its stance that the west was fuelling the conflict and which analysts dismissed as anodyne.
The paper, for which Ukraine was not consulted, was cautiously welcomed by Kyiv. “China started talking about Ukraine, and that’s not bad,” Zelenskiy said during a press conference yesterday.
It seems to me that there is respect for our territorial integrity, security issues.
Podolyak said yesterday that any plan to end Russia’s war in Ukraine must involve the withdrawal of Moscow’s troops back to Ukraine’s 1991 borders at the time of the Soviet Union’s collapse.
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G20 ‘failing to reach consensus on war in Ukraine’A meeting of finance ministers and central bank chiefs from the Group of Twenty (G20) leading economies in Bengaluru, India will likely end today without a joint communique, because there was no consensus on how to describe the conflict in Ukraine, according to delegates.
The US and its G7 allies have pushed to demand the communique squarely condemn Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. Speaking to Reuters on the sidelines of the meeting, US treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, said:
I think there has to be a statement in the communique condemning Russia’s war. It’s something that I think is absolutely necessary.
Russia, which is a member of the G20, refers to its actions in Ukraine as a “special military operation”, and avoids calling it an invasion or war.
India has been reluctant to be caught between Ukraine’s western allies and Russia and other countries supporting Moscow, such as China. Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, kicking off the meetings on Friday, avoided mention of Ukraine.
India and China were also among the nations that abstained on a UN vote to call for Russia to immediately and unconditionally withdraw from Ukraine.
India is pressing the meeting to avoid using the word “war” in any communique, G20 officials have told Reuters. A senior source said negotiations over the communique were difficult, with Russia and China blocking proposals by western countries.
Explosions have reportedly been heard in the Russian-occupied city of Mariupol in southern Ukraine, according to Petro Andriushchenko, an adviser to the exiled city’s mayor.
The explosions were reported in the location of a large Russian military personnel cluster, he said.
Andriushchenko, posting on Telegram, wrote:
The sounds of explosions along the line of Yalta village / Yuryivka village (location of a large concentration of occupiers) in Mariupol district are reported. We verify the reports. Air raid alert was announced in Ukraine, but occupiers are struck.
“It’s a good trend,” he added.
Ukraine’s armed forces have in recent days claimed strikes on Mariupol, previously thought to be outside the effective range of Ukrainian missiles, Kyiv Post has reported.
Nataliya Humeniuk, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s armed forces, on Thursay said:
At this stage, we can only state that inaccessibility is a very relative concept. What is considered so remote that it is unreachable, is not always so. The direction of Mariupol is no longer completely unreachable for us.
Thousands of tickets for the Eurovision song contest are to be allocated to Ukrainians who have been forced from their homes and are living in the UK.
The international music show will take place at the M&S Bank Arena Liverpool in May after the city was chosen to host the competition on behalf of the 2022 winner, Ukraine, which is unable to host the event after the Russian invasion.
Ukrainian folk-rap group Kalush Orchestra, who were triumphant at last year’s competition in Turin, Italy, will perform during this year’s show. Photograph: Yui Mok/PAAs part of the UK’s commitment to honour Ukraine at the song contest, about 3,000 tickets will be made available to displaced Ukrainians so they can attend the live shows.
The UK government has also announced £10m in funding to “help ensure the event truly showcases Ukrainian culture” on the anniversary of Russia’s invasion of the country.
The money will support Liverpool city council and the BBC’s partnerships with Ukrainian artists and performers to create a show “celebrating music and how it unites people from around the world”.
Read the full story here:
Zelenskiy adviser dismisses China’s peace plan and warns time running outMykhailo Podolyak, a senior adviser to Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has dismissed China’s “unrealistic” proposal to end the conflict.
Beijing should not “bet on an aggressor who broke [international] law and will lose the war”, Podolyak tweeted this morning.
If you claim to be a global player, you don’t offer an unrealistic plan. You don’t bet on an aggressor who broke intl law and will lose the war. It’s not far-sighted. As someone who plans for decades doesn’t play “🇷🇺 3-day games.”
China, the “window of opportunity” is not endless
— Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M) February 25, 2023 The Chinese government’s 12-point position paper on Ukraine was released on Friday morning, on the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion. In it, Beijing called for peace talks while urging all parties to avoid nuclear escalation and end attacks on civilians, in a statement which appeared to maintain its stance that the west was fuelling the conflict and which analysts dismissed as anodyne.
The paper, for which Ukraine was not consulted, was cautiously welcomed by Kyiv. “China started talking about Ukraine, and that’s not bad,” Zelenskiy said during a press conference yesterday.
It seems to me that there is respect for our territorial integrity, security issues.
Podolyak said yesterday that any plan to end Russia’s war in Ukraine must involve the withdrawal of Moscow’s troops back to Ukraine’s 1991 borders at the time of the Soviet Union’s collapse.
Polish Leopard tanks handed over to UkraineThe New Voice of Ukraine’s Euan MacDonald has shared a clip showing the formal handover of the first Polish Leopard tanks to Ukraine.
The video shows Poland’s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, with his Ukrainian counterpart, Denys Shmyhal, attending the official transfer of Polish Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine in an undisclosed location in the country.
It comes after Morawiecki yesterday confirmed that four Leopard tanks had been delivered to Ukraine.
Standing alongside Volodymyr Zelenskiy during his visit to Kyiv, Morawiecki said:
Poland and Europe stand by your side. We will definitely not leave you, we will support Ukraine until complete victory over Russia.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Mateusz Morawiecki at a joint press conference following their talks in Kyiv. Photograph: UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SER/AFP/Getty ImagesHello everyone. It’s Léonie Chao-Fong here again, taking over from Mark Gerts to bring you the latest developments from the Russia-Ukraine war. Feel free to drop me a message if you have anything to flag, you can reach me on Twitter or via email.
Ukraine’s military said Russia had doubled the number of ships on active duty in the Black Sea on Friday and predicted this could be a preparation for more missile strikes.
Russia’s navy has regularly launched missiles from its Black Sea fleet as part of an effort by Moscow to target Ukrainian critical infrastructure and power-generating facilities.
“In the Black Sea, the fleet of warships has doubled compared to this morning – it is now eight ships,” the military command in the southern region said in a Facebook update.
“Against a background of enemy aviation activity of a certain kind, this may indicate that a missile attack as well as drone strikes are in preparation,” it said.
One of the vessels is a frigate armed with eight Kalibr missiles, it said. Last Saturday Ukraine said Russia launched four Kalibr missiles from the Black Sea, two of which were shot down.
Russia’s Black Sea fleet is based in the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014.
Ukraine has issued a postage stamp with a reproduction of a Banksy mural, of a boy defeating a grown man in judo, to mark the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion.
It was painted by the British street artist on a demolished wall in the town of Borodianka, north-west of Kyiv, where many buildings were reduced to rubble by Russian aircraft at the start of the invasion.
The image draws inspiration from the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, known to be a black belt in judo, and depicts a young judoka representing Ukraine knocking down a grown man.
The phrase “Get lost Putin” has been added to the lower left part of the new stamp.
A block of new Ukrainian stamps featuring the Banksy artwork. Photograph: Sergei Supinsky/AFP/Getty ImagesResidents of the capital flocked to buy the new stamps on Friday from Kyiv’s main post office.
Svetlana, a 50-year-old economist, was keen to get her hands on one “because I support the Ukrainian armed forces” and “the stamp is printed at a historic moment”, one year after the start of the Russian invasion.
Also buying the first-day issue, Maxime said she was delighted to see a “first stamp from one of Banksy’s works”.
“It’s a very cool gesture for the world to understand Ukraine, that we remain in the spotlight,” the 26-year-old said.
Banksy’s mural in Borodianka. Photograph: Ukrinform/REX/ShutterstockThe UN security council held a minute of silence Friday for victims of the war in Ukraine as the secretary general, António Guterres, said Russia’s invasion had devastated the country.
“Life is a living hell for the people of Ukraine,” Guterres told the council as it met to mark the first anniversary of Moscow’s invasion.
The Russian invasion is a blatant violation of the United Nations charter and international law.
The war was condemned by most of the members of the security council in a symbolic ministers’ meeting to mark the anniversary.
On year ago, Russia “unleashed that war with no other justification than its obsessive desire to resurrect a past”, said the French foreign minister, Catherine Colonna.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said “any peace that legitimises Russia’s seizure of land by force will weaken the charter and send a message to would-be aggressors everywhere that they can invade countries and get away with it”.
Yet, one day after the UN general assembly voted overwhelmingly to demand Russia withdraw its troops from Ukraine, Moscow’s envoy to the UN remained steadfast in blaming the war on Kyiv and the west.
“Ukraine is not a victim,” Vasily Nebenzya said. Kyiv and its allies “left us with no option other than to eliminate threats to Russia from the territory of Ukraine militarily”, he said.