Stupor at Mykolaiv, in southern Ukraine, in the early hours of Thursday, April 27. A Russian attack left at least one dead and around 15 injured, local Ukrainian authorities said. “Around 1 a.m. (midnight Paris time), the residents of Mykolaiv heard four loud explosions”announced the mayor of the city, Oleksandr Senkevich, on Telegram. “We already know that one of the missiles hit a high building. Another hit a detached house”, he said, adding that some homes have been deprived of electricity. Follow our live.
The Chinese and Ukrainian presidents spoke by telephone. The call was highly anticipated. Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky called each other on Wednesday for the first time since China’s ally Russia launched its offensive on Ukrainian territory. An exchange “long and meaningful”just commented on Twitter (in English) the leader of Ukraine, who hopes he will give “a powerful impetus to the development of bilateral relations”.
Westerners welcome Xi-Zelensky’s appeal, Russia criticizes kyiv. After the announcement of this telephone conversation, the Russian Foreign Ministry “take note” Beijing’s desire to “strive to establish a negotiation process”, in a press release. For its part, Paris said “encourages[r] any dialogue”slikely to “contribute to a resolution of the conflict”. “I hope this is a first step for China to play a role in convincing Russia to stop its aggression”rejoiced the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell. “This is a good thing”also commented the American John Kirby, spokesman for the National Security Council of the United States.
Russian planes intercepted over the Baltic Sea. The German Air Force said on Wednesday that three Russian reconnaissance planes were spotted and intercepted over the Baltic Sea. “The two SU-27 Flankers and a Russian IL-20 were again flying without transponder signals in international airspace over the Baltic Sea”, she explained on Twitter, referring to a similar incident on April 17. German and British planes, participating in the surveillance of the airspace of the Baltic countries within the framework of NATO, intercepted them.