Russia-Ukraine war live: EU warns China against arming Putin and says Xi should reach out to Zelenskiy | Ukraine

Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, held talks with his Belarusian counterpart, Alexander Lukashenko, in Moscow to discuss expanding economic cooperation and bolstering defence ties between the two countries.

The talks held at the Kremlin today involved senior Russian and Belarusian officials and followed the leaders’ one-on-one meeting yesterday.

The Russian leader announced last month that Moscow would station tactical nuclear weapons on Belarusian territory, which he said followed negotiations with Lukashenko who had “long raised the question” of a nuclear deployment on his country’s territory.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the pair did not discuss the placement of such strategic nuclear weapons in talks today, Interfax news agency reported.

In opening remarks at Thursday’s talks, Lukashenko warned that “if necessary, we will use all we have to protect our countries and peoples”. He added:

We aren’t blackmailing anyone. It will be so.

Putin said there would be “close work” on boosting cooperating under an agreement that envisions close political, economic and military ties between Belarus and Russia.

There was no mention of the war in Ukraine in Putin and Lukashenko’s public statements at the summit.

It’s 6pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:

• The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said she has warned Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, that any arms shipments to Russia would “significantly harm” relations with the EU. Von der Leyen, who is in Beijing, said she encouraged Xi to reach out to Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy. China is willing to enhance strategic mutual trust with the EU, President Xi said.

• The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has urged China’s Xi Jinping to bring Russia “back to reason” over the war in Ukraine, as the two held the first of a series of high-level meetings in Beijing. However, a few hours later in Moscow, a government spokesperson said he saw no prospect for China to mediate in the Ukraine conflict and that Russia had “no other way” than to press on with its offensive.

• Macron said he and Xi had agreed that nuclear weapons should be excluded from the conflict in Ukraine. Macron, at a joint news conference in Bejing, said Europe’s security architecture was not possible as long as Ukraine is occupied.

• The head of Russia’s private Wagner militia group has said there are no signs of Ukrainian forces leaving Bakhmut, and that fighting continues to rage on in the western part of Ukraine’s eastern city. In a Telegram post, Prigozhin, who has been critical of Russia’s military top brass, made clear he was not satisfied with the support he was receiving from the country’s mainstream forces.

• Ukraine may be willing to discuss the future of Crimea with Moscow if its forces reach the border of the Russian-occupied peninsula, an adviser to Volodymyr Zelenskiy has suggested. Andriy Sybiha, the deputy head of the president’s office, expressed Kyiv’s interest in negotiations should Ukrainian forces reach the region’s administrative border as a result of an anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive many expect will begin in the coming months.

• Ukraine’s defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov, has arrived in Greece for a visit where he was promised more artillery and small arms ammunition shipments, access to Greek hospitals for wounded military personnel and additional Soviet-era BMP infantry fighting vehicles. The Greek defence minister, Nikos Panagiotopoulos, said Athens “will provide every support to Ukraine at this very important, crucial stage of the war” during a joint news conference with Reznikov.

• The Kremlin has said Russia is taking steps to “ensure our safety” and defended its decision to station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus. Finland formally became Nato’s 31st member on Tuesday, doubling the length of the transatlantic defensive alliance’s land border with Russia. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Russia would keep an eye on any Nato military deployments to Finland and respond accordingly.

• Residents of Ukraine’s southeastern region of Zaporizhzhia have been asked to avoid mass gatherings on Easter this Sunday. Zaporizhzhia regional head, Yuriy Malashko, was cited urging residents in the region, which remains partially occupied by Russian forces, to pay attention to air raid sirens and to remain cautious during the Easter holidays.

• The governor of Russia’s Bryansk region has claimed that Russian armed forces have prevented an attempt to break into the territory of the region by a group of saboteurs. The claims by Alexander Bogomaz have not been independently verified.

• Ukraine’s state arms producer has said it would launch joint production of 125mm rounds for Soviet-era tanks with Polish arms producer Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa (PGZ). Ukroboronprom said Poland would become the second Nato member state to help Ukraine produce ammunition. Ukroboronprom’s officials have said Russia has constantly attacked arms facilities, forcing it to move production to safer areas.

• A Russian girl sent to an orphanage after drawing an anti-war sketch at school has been taken from the facility by her mother, the Kremlin children’s rights commissioner has said. In a case that drew international outrage, the father of 13-year-old Maria Moskalyova was convicted of discrediting the Russian military and handed a two-year prison term, and his daughter was sent to the orphanage.

• A Moscow court will consider an appeal by lawyers for Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal correspondent arrested on espionage charges in Russia, to lift his pre-trial detention. The hearing on 18 April will be held behind closed doors since Russia considers information related to the charges as classified, the Interfax news agency reported, citing the court’s press service.

• Sweden’s prosecution authority has said it remains unclear who was behind the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines between Russia and Germany which spewed gas into the Baltic last year. Prosecutor Mats Ljungqvist told Reuters that “the clear main scenario” was that a state-sponsored group was behind the sabotage, but that an independent group was still “theoretically possible”.

Ukraine’s state arms producer said on Thursday it would launch joint production of 125mm rounds for Soviet-era tanks with Polish arms producer Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa (PGZ).

Ukroboronprom said Poland would become the second Nato member state to help Ukraine produce ammunition.

“In line with the agreement, new production lines to produce large numbers of ammunition for 125mm tank guns are planned,” the company said in a statement. The agreement was signed during President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s visit to Poland on Wednesday.

Ukraine will provide the technology and send its specialists to Polish cities where production facilities will be located given high security risks. Ukroboronprom’s officials have said Russia has constantly attacked arms facilities, forcing it to move production to safer areas.

Russia’s Interfax news agency is reporting that the governor of Russia’s Bryansk region has claimed that Russian armed forces have prevented an attempt to break into the territory of the region by a group of saboteurs.

It cites Alexander Bogomaz posting on his Telegram channel:

Today, the border department of the FSB of Russia in the Bryansk region thwarted an attempt to penetrate the territory of the Russian Federation near the village of Sluchovsk, Pogarsky district, by a Ukrainian DRG in the amount of 20 people.

Subdivisions of the armed forces of the Russian Federation, together with subdivisions of the border troops, inflicted a fire defeat on the enemy.

The claims have not been independently verified.

China is willing to enhance strategic mutual trust with the EU, president Xi Jinping said on Thursday.

China and the EU should establish correct mutual understanding and avoid misunderstanding and misjudgment, Xi said while meeting the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, in Beijing, Reuters reports, citing CCTV.

For her part, AFP reports Von der Leyen says she warned China that any arms shipments to Russia would “significantly harm” relations.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Thursday that she had encouraged Chinese President Xi Jinping during her visit to Beijing to reach out to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Reuters reports Von der Leyen was responding to a question at a press conference on whether it was realistic that China might pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine.

She also said that discussed imbalances in trade between the EU and China, raised the EU’s deep concern about nuclear threats being located in Belarus, and said that China’s position on the UN security council gave it a responsibility to use its influence in a friendship with Russia built on decades.

AFP reports that Von der Leyen said in a Thursday meeting with Chinese premier Li Qiang that relations between the EU and China had grown “complex in recent years”.

“It is important that we discuss all aspects of this relationship together today,” she said, especially in the current “volatile geopolitical environment”.

The Kremlin has said Russia is taking steps to “ensure our safety” and defended its decision to station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.

Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, speaking to journalists, was responding to comments by the Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, who on Wednesday said a joint statement by Russia and China declaring countries should not deploy nuclear weapons outside their borders amounted to “empty promises”.

Peskov said:

It is Nato that is expanding towards Russia, not Russia that is taking its military infrastructure towards the borders of Nato.

Finland formally became Nato’s 31st member on Tuesday, doubling the length of the transatlantic defensive alliance’s land border with Russia. Sweden is also set to join the alliance.

Peskov said Russia would keep an eye on any Nato military deployments to Finland and respond accordingly. He said:

This movement adds to our concerns and worries for our safety … and we are taking measures to ensure our security. And so it will be every time Nato approaches our borders, in order to rebalance the security architecture on the continent.