Live blog: France insists on China's role for peace in Ukraine

Wednesday, May 10, 2023

France has said that China had an important role to play for "global peace and stability" as Beijing seeks to mediate in Russia's offensive in Ukraine.

Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang is visiting Germany, France and Norway this week, and met his French counterpart Catherine Colonna in Paris.

"We know the importance of China's role on the world stage and the importance of the role it can play for global peace and stability," Colonna told Qin at the start of their meeting.

China should work "to convince Russia to return to fully respecting" the UN Charter, she added, before a scheduled dinner with Qin at the French foreign ministry.

"It is necessary for China to use its relations with Russia to make Russia understand better that it is at an impasse, and to tell Russia to come back to its senses," she said.

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2018 GMT — Russia's operation in Ukraine is very difficult: Kremlin spokesperson

Russia's military operation against Ukraine is "very difficult" but certain goals have been achieved, TASS news agency cited Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov as saying.

Russia has succeeded in severely damaging Ukraine's military machine and this work will continue, he added.

1442 GMT — Ukraine unit says Russian brigade flees outskirts of Bakhmut

A Ukrainian military unit has said it had routed a Russian infantry brigade from frontline territory near Bakhmut, claiming to confirm an account by the head of Russia's Wagner private army that the Russian forces had fled.

Moscow has not commented on the reports that its 72nd Separate Motor-rifle Brigade had abandoned its positions on the southwestern outskirts of Bakhmut.

A Russian brigade is typically formed of several thousand troops. The eastern Ukrainian city has been the primary target of Moscow's huge winter offensive and the scene of the bloodiest ground combat in Europe since World War Two.

Russian mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin, who has repeatedly accused Moscow's regular armed forces of failing to adequately support his private army leading the fight in Bakhmut, said on Tuesday that the Russian brigade had abandoned its positions.

"Our army is fleeing. The 72nd Brigade pissed away three square km this morning, where I had lost around 500 men," Prigozhin said.

In a statement overnight, Ukraine's Third Separate Assault Brigade said: "It's official. Prigozhin's report about the flight of Russia's 72nd Independent Motorized Rifle Brigade from near Bakhmut and the '500 corpses' of Russians left behind is true."

"The Third Assault Brigade is grateful for the publicity about our success at the front."

1215 GMT - Russia ends visa regime for Georgia, lifts flight ban

Russian President Vladimir Putin abolished visas for Georgian nationals and lifted a 2019 ban on direct flights to the South Caucasus nation, a move that comes amid rocky relations between the two countries and that was quickly denounced by Georgia's president as a “provocation.”

According to a decree Putin signed, starting from May 15, Georgian nationals will be allowed to enter Russia without visas –– unless they’re coming to Russia to work or to stay for longer than 90 days.

Another presidential decree lifts a ban on direct flights by Russian airlines to Georgia. Russia unilaterally imposed the ban in 2019 after a wave of anti-Kremlin protests in Georgia.

The decrees come a day after leaders of several Central Asian and South Caucasus nations stood beside Putin at a military parade marking the anniversary of Nazi Germany's defeat in World War II, in what looked like the Kremlin seeking to show that Russia still had allies and was not completely isolated.

1144 GMT – Over $8B of Russian central bank assets held in Switzerland: Bern

A total of 7.4 billion Swiss francs ($8.3 billion) of reserves and assets of the Russian central bank are being held in Switzerland, the Swiss economic affairs ministry said.

Transactions related to the management of Russia's central bank assets and reserves have been prohibited since a month after Moscow launched its full-scale offensive in February 2022, the ministry said in a statement, adding that "the bank's assets have been immobilised".

The Swiss government had been informed of the amount of Russian central bank assets and reserves held in the wealthy Alpine nation after imposing a new reporting requirement in March, the statement said.

The State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) stressed that the "sum of immobilised assets should be distinguished from the sum of frozen funds and assets in Switzerland".

To date, Switzerland –– long a favoured destination for wealthy Russians and their assets –– has frozen some 7.5 billion Swiss francs in Russian funds and assets, owned or controlled by sanctioned persons, companies or entities, it said.

0437 GMT - Governor of Russia's Kursk says 'enemy' drone shot down; no injuries

Russia's air defence forces shot down an "enemy" drone in the Kursk region bordering Ukraine, its governor said, adding that falling debris damaged a gas pipeline and a house.

"Debris fell in the village of Tolmachevo. No one was hurt," the regional governor, Roman Starovoyt, said on the Telegram messaging app.

Ukraine almost never publicly claims responsibility for attacks inside Russia and on Russian-controlled territory in Ukraine.

However, Kiev has recently said that undermining Russia's logistics is part of preparation for a planned counteroffensive.

0430 GMT — No quick deal in sight

European Union states hold a first discussion on proposed new sanctions over Russia's war in Ukraine that would target Chinese and Iranian firms and allow export curbs on third countries for busting existing trade restrictions.

Talks among EU envoys start at 0800 GMT and are set to be heated, according to one diplomat, with Russia hawks upset the plan doesn't go far enough but others wary of damaging their international ties.

Widely differing perspectives mean a quick deal is not expected, several diplomats said.

0230 GMT — Netherlands will back Ukraine 'as long as necessary': PM Rutte

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has discussed the fighting in Ukraine with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and said there should be no concessions that affect Ukrainian sovereignty.

Rutte, on a three-day visit to Brazil, laid out the European position regarding the need to defend Ukraine from Russian aggression.

"The Netherlands will support Ukraine as long as necessary," the prime minister said at a news conference after meeting with Lula.

The Brazilian leader insisted that peace talks were needed to stop the fighting, noting that Brazil voted for the United Nations resolution condemning the Russian offensive.

Lula said his foreign policy advisor Celso Amorim, who visited Moscow last month and met Russian leader Vladimir Putin, arrived in Ukraine on Tuesday to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

"Amorim will find out what Zelenskyy wants. He already knows what Putin wants," Lula said. "Now is the time for diplomacy, not for war."

0107 GMT - AFP news agency journalist killed near Bakhmut

French international news agency Agence France-Presse says its Ukraine video coordinator was killed during a rocket attack near the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.

Arman Soldin, 32, was with a team of AFP journalists traveling with Ukrainian soldiers when the group came under fire with Grad rockets, the agency said. The rest of the AFP team was uninjured.

"His death is a terrible reminder of the risks and dangers faced by journalists every day covering the conflict in Ukraine," said AFP chairman Fabrice Fries.

Soldin was born in Sarajevo, now the capital of Bosnia, and a French citizen, according to AFP.

He arrived in Ukraine to cover the war the day after the Russian offensive on February 24, 2022 and had travelled regularly to the front lines in recent months.

AFP said it was "devastated" at Soldin's death and "all of our thoughts go out to his family and loved ones."

For our live updates from Tuesday (May 9), click here.