Emmanuel Macron will visit China from April 5 to 8, the Elysée announced on Friday.
Friday, March 24 was marked by new strikes in eastern Ukraine and by announcements from Westerners. Two days after the end of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s official visit to Moscow, Joe Biden assured that Beijing has not, at this stage, “not delivered” arms to Russia. Franceinfo takes stock of this new day of conflict.
New bloody offensives in the Bakhmout region
Three people were killed in a Russian strike against the town of Kostiantynivka, located about twenty kilometers west of Bakhmout, in eastern Ukraine. A fourth died in another attack in the southern village of Bilozerka, according to an official report.
“The bodies of three women were pulled out of the debris” from a damaged building in the city, the State Service for Emergency Situations announced on Telegram. Houses, power lines and gas pipelines were damaged by this bombardment, also specified the general prosecutor’s office.
Emmanuel Macron in China in early April
The French president will make a state visit to China from April 5 to 8. Objective : “to work” with Xi Jinping “in the sense of a return to peace” in Ukraine “and this, in compliance with international law”, announced the Elysée. He will be accompanied by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
China ‘didn’t deliver’ weapons to Russia, Joe Biden says
This is one of the fears expressed by Westerners. Joe Biden affirmed from Ottawa (Canda) that at this stage, China “did not deliver” arms to Russia. “That doesn’t mean they won’t, but they haven’t done it yet,” said the US president. “I don’t take China lightly. I don’t take Russia lightly”he added, also considering that the information announcing their rapprochement had probably been “exaggerated”.
Washington opens the door to border negotiations
Would a negotiation on Ukraine’s borders be possible? The head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, has in any case opened the door to possible negotiations on the contours of Ukraine. However, he reiterated that it would be up to the Ukrainians to decide. Any eventual peace with Russia will have to be “fair and sustainable”that is to say respecting the independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine, he stressed before a parliamentary committee in Washington.
UN accuses kyiv and Moscow of ‘summary executions’ of prisoners of war
The UN is sounding the alarm. The United Nations has accused Ukrainian and Russian forces of committing dozens of summary executions of prisoners of war since the start of the Russian invasion.
“We are deeply concerned by the summary execution of 25 Russian prisoners of war and persons hors de combat” as well as that of “15 Ukrainian prisoners of war”, said Matilda Bogner, head of the UN human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine.
An initiative for abducted Ukrainian children
The European Union is going to organize a conference in order to locate the children abducted in Ukraine by Russia and to bring them back to their country. “NOTWe want to exert international pressure so that all possible measures are taken to trace these children.”said the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.