Beijing and Moscow to cooperate at ‘new level’
Chinese Premier Li Qiang said on Wednesday that China was willing to work with Russia to promote their pragmatic cooperation in various fields and take it to a “new level” Reuters reports.
Pragmatic cooperation between China and Russia has shown a “good” development trend, and the scale of investment between the two is also continuously seeing an upgrade, Li told Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin during a meeting in Beijing.
Mishustin was the highest ranking Russian official to visit the Chinese capital since Moscow sent thousands of its troops into Ukraine in February 2022.
Key events
Lisa O’Carroll
The European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) expects to spend €1.5bn (£1.3bn) in Ukraine next year in support of infrastructure and the economy, a senior source at the bank has said.
It comes on top of €3bn already projected for 2022 and the remainder of 2023.
The funds have helped the economy continue to function, ensure there was no run on banks and civil servants continued to be paid.
Last year the bank, which is founded in 1991 as a post cold-war era institution to support eastern Europe, deployed €1.7bn with significant expenditure on rebuilding gas and rail networks.
It also helps Ukraine with the government payroll and making loans available to SMEs to ensure the economy bounced back after the invasion by Russia last February.
“The Ukraine economy has proved very resilient. Everything is functioning. Banks are functioning, there has been no bank run. There was a huge shock at the beginning with a minus 30% [in GDP]. But not the situation has stabilised. This resilience is due to the amazing resilience of the people and their capacity to find a solution and continue doing their business and relocate and so forth. So very very impressive,” said Odile Renaud-Basso, president of the bank.
The World Bank has estimated that it will take €11bn for critical and priority reconstruction and recovery investments in 2023.
WHO condemns Russia’s aggression in Ukraine
The World Health Organization assembly passed a motion on Wednesday condemning Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, including attacks on healthcare facilities.
The motion passed by 80 votes to 9, with 52 abstentions and 36 countries absent, Reuters reported.
The western-led motion, put forward at the UN agency’s annual meeting, also called for an assessment of the impact of Russia’s aggression on the health sector.
There was no immediate reaction from Russia, although it had submitted a counter-proposal recognising the health emergency in Ukraine, but making no mention of its own role in the war.
That motion was rejected by the assembly immediately after the first, by 62 votes to 13, with 61 abstentions and 41 countries absent.
The Kremlin said on Wednesday that reports that pro-Ukrainian fighters who crossed into Russia earlier this week had used western-made military hardware were consistent with the west’s growing involvement in the Ukraine conflict.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said it was no secret that the Ukrainian armed forces were receiving more and more equipment from the west.
The Russian military said on Tuesday it had routed militants who attacked a Russian border region with armoured vehicles the previous day, killing more than 70 “Ukrainian nationalists” and pushing the remainder back into Ukraine.
Images of some of the destroyed vehicles broadcast on Russian state media showed US-made military hardware.
Summary of the day so far …
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Russia’s prime minister, Mikhail Mishustin, is in Beijing, where, ahead of signing bilateral agreements with China, he said: “Today, relations between Russia and china are at an unprecedented high level”. He said Xi Jinping’s visit to Russia in March was further evidence of the “special” nature of bilateral relations between the two countries. It is expected that Vladimir Putin will visit China later this year.
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Nine people remain in hospital, utility supplies continue to be disrupted, and over 500 people remain displaced after the cross-border incursion into Belgorod by anti-Russian partisans on Monday, according to Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of the Russian region.
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Gladkov also announced two more incidents, stating a drone attack over Novaya Tavolzhanka failed when the explosive device dropped did not detonate, and that shelling in Terezovka has injured one person who has been hospitalised as a result.
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Russia’s state-owned news agency Tass is reporting some quotes from Denis Pushilin, Russian-imposed leader in occupied Donetsk, who has said that the situation for Russian forces on the flanks of Bakhmut has stabilised.
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The Russian-built Crimea Bridge linking the illegally annexed Crimean peninsula to the Russian region of Krasnodar was reopened on Wednesday after being closed for several hours for “exercises”, an official from Crimea’s Russian-imposed administration said.
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Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reports that 2,000 people have been left without electricity in Putyvl in Sumy oblast. It cites the regional energy authority claiming it was due to Russian shelling.
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The chief executive of Russia’s state-owned nuclear energy business, Rosatom, discussed security at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP) with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) head Rafael Grossi. Alexey Likhachev was attending a meeting in Beijing.
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Older people have suffered and died at a disproportionately high rate since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a UN report showed on Wednesday, with some perishing because they were barred from fetching medicines or leaving basements. The report compiled by UN human rights monitors showed that about a third of the civilians killed in the first year of the war were over 60. The UN found older people were hit exceptionally hard by power outages due to Russian attacks on critical infrastructure trapped many in their upstairs apartments. Others had to be evacuated in haste, sometimes in wheelbarrows because there was no time to fetch their mobility devices. Many were left behind.
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Poland’s defence minister, Mariusz Blaszczak, said on Wednesday his country is plannning to launch a submarine purchase programme this year.
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US popular support for Washington’s backing of Ukraine has faded a little but remains widespread, a survey by the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy and Norc shows.
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UK prime minister Rishi Sunak has told a defence conference in London that Ukraine’s western allies are prepared to support the country in the war “for years”, the FT reports.
Older people have suffered and died at a disproportionately high rate since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a UN report showed on Wednesday, with some perishing because they were barred from fetching medicines or leaving basements.
The report compiled by UN human rights monitors showed that about a third of the civilians killed in the first year of the war, or 1,346 of 4,187 documented victims, were over 60.
Reuters reports the UN found that older people were hit exceptionally hard by power outages due to Russian attacks on critical infrastructure since October 2022 that trapped many in their upstairs apartments when their elevators broke down. Others had to be evacuated in haste, sometimes in wheelbarrows because there was no time to fetch their mobility devices. Many were left behind.
Russia has repeatedly denied targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure in Ukraine. The UN has recorded at least 18,500 casualties (including more than 6,660 killed) on territory controlled by the Kyiv government since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
The Russian-built Crimea Bridge linking the illegally annexed Crimean peninsula to the Russian region of Krasnodar was reopened on Wednesday after being closed for several hours for “exercises”, an official from Crimea’s Russian-imposed administration said.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has posted to his social media channels to say:
The peace of our parents’ generation is the peace that was left as a legacy by those who defeated the penultimate great aggression in Europe. And the peace of our children’s generation is the peace we are gaining right now in the battles against the last aggression in Europe.
The peace of our parents’ generation is the peace that was left as a legacy by those who defeated the penultimate great aggression in Europe. And the peace of our children’s generation is the peace we are gaining right now in the battles against the last aggression in Europe. pic.twitter.com/WFTaaV0H3l
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) May 24, 2023
Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reports that 2,000 people have been left without electricity in Putyvl in Sumy oblast. It cites the regional energy authority claiming it was due to Russian shelling. The claims have not been independently verified.
The chief executive of Russia’s state-owned nuclear energy business, Rosatom, discussed security at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP) with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) head Rafael Grossi. Alexey Likhachev was attending a meeting in Beijing, Reuters reports the firm said on Wednesday.
The ZNPP, which is Europe’s largest plant, has been occupied by Russian forces since the earliest days of the war. Rival forces have accused each other of endangering nuclear safety by firing at the plant.
Poland’s defence minister, Mariusz Blaszczak, said on Wednesday his country is plannning to launch a submarine purchase programme this year.
Reuters reports Poland has increased military spending since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with the government pledging to double the size of the army and spend 4% of GDP on defence in 2023.
Reuters has a quick snap that the Russian-installed governor of Crimea has said the Crimea Bridge is closed due to drills.
The bridge that links Crimea to the Russian region of Krasnodar Krai was attacked in October last year. Russia illegally annexed Crimea in 2014.
There have been reports of the sounds of explosions in the Sumy region, but the regional authority has told Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, that the noise is the result of military exercises.
Meanwhile an alert has been declared warning of artillery fire on Nikopol in Dnipropetrovsk oblast.
In Russia’s Belgorod region, governor Vyacheslav Gladkov has announced two more incidents, stating on Telegram that a drone attack over Novaya Tavolzhanka failed when the explosive device dropped did not detonate, and that shelling in Terezovka has injured one person who has been hospitalised as a result. The claims have not been independently verified.
Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reports in its morning news bulletin that Kherson and Sumy regions were shelled overnight, with no casualties.
It said that yesterday two people died and three others were injured after the Kherson region was hit 64 times, and that 11 people were injured in the Donetsk region by shelling. One of those injured, it reports, is a child born in 2020.
The claims have not been independently verified.