A small Ukrainian plane crashed on Wednesday April 5 in a Russian region bordering Ukraine. “The plane crashed near the village of Butovsk, Bryansk region, for unknown reasons. The pilot (a Ukrainian citizen), who tried to flee to Ukrainian territory, was arrested by a unit of border guards”reported the security services (FSB), quoted by the Russian agency Ria Novosti.
Hours earlier, President Vladimir Putin accused kyiv of committing in these territories “serious crimes against the civilians who live there, sparing no one”. He ordered the Russian security forces, during a televised meeting of its Security Council, of “do everything in their power to ensure the safety of the local population”. Follow our live.
Macron and von der Leyen in China. French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen meet Xi Jinping, a close ally of Vladimir Putin, in Beijing on Thursday. In recent weeks, international pressure has mounted a notch on China to encourage it to get involved for peace in Ukraine. Because, if Beijing says it is officially neutral, Xi Jinping has never condemned the Russian invasion or even spoken on the phone with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky.
The ruble at its lowest. The ruble fell on Wednesday to its lowest level in almost a year against the dollar, weakened by the drop in income from Russian exports, capital outflows and the reorientation of part of the Russian economy towards other currencies, including the yuan. The Russian currency has crumbled to 80.50 rubles per dollar, a first since mid-April 2022.
Zelensky in Poland. The Ukrainian president made his first official visit to Poland on Wednesday since the start of the conflict. At his side in Warsaw, Polish President Andrzej Duda promised to try to“to obtain for Ukraine (…) additional security guarantees which will strengthen its military potential”. He announced that his country was ready to deliver to kyiv, “in the future”, its entire fleet of Soviet-designed MiG-29 fighters. The two countries also signed agreements on deliveries of Polish weapons to Ukraine, including Rosomak armored personnel carriers, as well as joint production of ammunition for tanks.