The Ukrainian president spoke to the Chinese leader Xi Jinping for the first time since Russia’s invasion in February 2022. He said they had a “long and meaningful” phone call and that he would send an envoy to Beijing.
Xi is reported to have said that China “would not sit idly by, nor would it add oil to the fire, still less exploit the situation for self gains,” in regards to Ukraine.
Xi also said that “talks and negotiation” were the only way the conflict would end. He is going to send a peace delegation to Kyiv.
British fighter jets helped in a joint-Nato response to intercept three Russian planes, including two SU-27 fighter jets, over the Baltic Sea.
The Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny says he is being investigated on terrorism charges that could see him sentenced to 30 years in prison, Reuters reports.
The Kremlin critic is currently serving sentences totalling 11-and-a-half years on charges including fraud and contempt of court, which human rights groups say were made up to silence him.
Italy has said it wants to play a major role in the reconstruction of Ukraine and urged EU bodies to back the rebuilding of a country battered by over a year of war with Russia. Italy’s president, Sergio Mattarella, met the Ukrainian prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, on Wednesday.
A Ukrainian reporter working as a fixer for Italy’s daily newspaper Repubblica has been shot dead by snipers in Kherson, while his Italian colleague was wounded, the newspaper said.
“Our correspondent Corrado Zunino and his fixer Bogdan Bitik were victims of an ambush by Russian snipers today on the outskirts of Kherson, in southern Ukraine,” the Repubblica said.
Russia is resettling poor citizens from remote parts of its country in the east of Ukraine, according to Ukraine’s deputy defence minister. Hanna Mailar said the inward migration into Ukraine was mainly being seen in Luhansk.
In a press conference, Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said there was “no use now in saying who is right” in the conflict. In a joint conference with the Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez he said that “no one can doubt that Brazilians condemn Russia’s [invasion]. The mistake happened and the war started.”
Two women have been killed and 10 wounded in a strike on a museum in Kupyansk in the Kharkiv region. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said: “The terrorist country is doing everything to destroy us completely. Our history, our culture, our people. Killing Ukrainians with absolutely barbaric methods.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday signed a decree establishing temporary control of the Russian assets of two foreign energy firms, signalling Moscow could take similar action against other companies if need be. The decree – outlining possible retaliation if Russian assets abroad are seized – showed Moscow had already taken action against Uniper SE’s Russian division and the assets of Finland’s Fortum Oyj.
The number of daily casualties Russia is suffering has fallen by about 30% in April, UK intelligence has said. In its daily intelligence briefing, the Ministry of Defence reported that the drop was probably due to the end of Russia’s winter offensive, which, it added, had largely failed. The MoD also said Russia was now likely to be preparing its troops for Ukraine’s counteroffensive.
Kyiv admitted it was behind a drone attack in the bay of Sevastopol, Ukrainian authorities confirmed. However, officials rejected Russian claims that the attack had put the operation of the grain corridor at risk.
Moscow has seen “practically no results” from a pact with the United Nations that aimed to help Russia’s grain and fertiliser exports, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday. Russia has signalled that unless a list of demands is met to remove obstacles to those exports, it will not agree to extend a related deal beyond 18 May that allows the safe wartime export of grain from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports. Lavrov blamed western countries for creating a deadlock.
Russia’s foreign ministry has said it is expelling a Moldovan diplomat in what it cast as retaliation for the expulsion last week of a Russian diplomat in Moldova. The ministry said in a statement it had summoned Moldova’s ambassador in Moscow to announce the expulsion, as well as to protest against what it called “unfriendly steps towards Russia” and “regular anti-Russian statements”.
Lithuania’s parliament voted on Tuesday in favour of allowing border guards to turn back migrants who illegally enter the country. Lithuania borders fellow EU states Latvia and Poland, as well as Belarus and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. In 2021, Latvia declared a state of emergency and Lithuania began planning a razor-wire fence to stop record numbers of migrants crossing its border from Belarus.
A former commander in Russia’s Wagner mercenary group seeking asylum in Norway has pleaded guilty to being involved in a fight outside an Oslo bar and carrying an air gun in public and said he felt “very ashamed”. Andrei Medvedev, 26, crossed the Russian-Norwegian border in January and has spoken out about his time fighting with Russian invasion forces in Ukraine.
Britain and France’s sports ministers insisted on Tuesday that Russian and Belarusian athletes must never compete as neutrals as recommended by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) because they could still be funded by their governments.
A court in Russia has convicted a former police officer of publicly spreading false information about the country’s military after he criticised the war in Ukraine to his friends over the phone. The ex-officer, Semiel Vedel, was sentenced on Monday to seven years in prison and barred from working in law enforcement for four years after his release.
Risks of a direct military confrontation between the two nuclear powers, Russia and the United States, are steadily growing, the Tass news agency quoted a senior Russian diplomat as saying on Tuesday. Vladimir Yermakov, the foreign ministry’s head of nuclear non-proliferation, told the Russian state news agency that Washington was escalating the risks through its conduct with Moscow.
South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, said his ruling ANC party has resolved to quit the international criminal court, which last month issued an arrest warrant against Putin. The ICC issued an arrest warrant against Putin in March, meaning Pretoria, which is due to host the Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) summit this year, would be required to detain him on arrival.
It is time for the Nato alliance to “stop making excuses” and accept Ukraine as a member, as the country has demonstrated its readiness and has much to offer, Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba said. Writing in Foreign Affairs, Kuleba said the political will of the alliance had been “sorely lacking” on the issue of admitting Ukraine.
