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China’s president seeks to play role of global peacemaker as well as ally to Putin; UK co-hosts conference to raise cash to fund the court’s investigation
The Chinese president Xi Jinping is due to meet Vladimir Putin in Moscow today, which comes as a a political boost for the Russian president after the International Criminal Court charged him with war crimes on Friday.
The Russian government says Xi is due to arrive at midday Monday and later meet with Putin in an informal one-on-one meeting followed by dinner. Negotiations will then take place on Tuesday.
The document serves as a constructive factor in neutralizing the consequences of the crisis and promoting a political settlement.
Complex problems do not have simple solutions.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has called the international criminal court’s arrest warrant against Putin a “turning point” in the conflict. In Zelensky’s nightly address, he said the warrant marked a “truly significant international legal result for Ukraine, for justice … The moment after which it becomes undeniable that the end of this aggression for Russia will be the full range of its responsibility.”
Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence accused Putin of visiting Mariupol on Saturday “under the cover of night” in order to avoid showing destruction of city. In a Twitter post the ministry said “darkness allows him to highlight what he wants to show, and keeps … its few surviving inhabitants away from prying eyes.”
Britain and Ukraine have signed a digital trade deal, which will give Ukraine access to electronic financial services to aid reconstruction efforts. The UK department of business and trade said trading digitally was particularly important in the conflict, because damage to Ukrainian infrastructure and warfare had made it much harder to trade physically.
Ukraine’s armed forces have released their latest estimate for war casualties, although the Guardian cannot verify them. The country’s army now claims to have killed 164,910 Russian troops since the start of the war. Of these, they say 710 were killed in the 24 hours to Sunday morning. They also report having destroyed eight Russian artillery systems since Saturday.
A shortage of explosives is hampering the efforts of European countries to provide Ukraine with arms, according to a report. Industry insiders told the Financial Times that gunpowder, plastic explosives and TNT are in short supply and could delay a planned ramping up of shell production by as much as three years. It means Europe’s defence industry may be unable to meet expected EU orders for Ukraine.
Serbia’s president attacked the decision to issue an international arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin, saying it will only prolong the war in Ukraine. Aleksandar Vučić, who has previously boasted of his personal relationship with the Russian leader, told reporters in Belgrade: “I think issuing an arrest warrant for Putin, not to go into legal matters, will have bad political consequences and it says that there is a great reluctance to talk about peace (and) about truce.”
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