Macron leads new Russia-Ukraine talks amid war fears: Live news | Ukraine-Russia crisis News
French President Emmanuel Macron will visit Russia next week in the highest-profile effort yet by a Western leader to deescalate the Ukraine crisis.
Macron will go to Moscow on Monday for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, his office said on Friday. He will then head to Ukraine on Tuesday for talks with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The announcement came as Russian President Vladimir Putin met with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing.
Western powers have been engaged in intense diplomatic efforts in recent weeks to prevent what they fear may be an imminent Russian invasion into Ukraine given Moscow’s massing of more than 100,000 soldiers near the border with its neighbour.
But the Kremlin denies having any plan to invade and has instead blamed the United States and the Washington-led NATO alliance for the deteriorating security situation in the region.
Here are all the latest updates:
Xi and Putin expected to discuss Ukraine
Al Jazeera’s Katrina Yu, reporting from Beijing, says Ukraine is expected to be high on the agenda during the talks between Putin and Xi.
“They really have been trying to convey a united front – both leaders have experienced souring relations with the US and its allies over the recent years,” Yu said. “And China has signalled that it would support Russia economically should the US imposed any sort of crippling sanctions.”
But, she added, Beijing would not “necessarily … welcome any potential attack on Ukraine”, citing the Chinese government’s good relations with Kyiv, an important trading partner that is also part of the Belt and Road infrastructure initiative.
Putin hails close ties with China
Putin has praised his country’s close ties with China, describing relations as “developing progressively along the path of friendship and strategic partnership”.
“They are of a truly unprecedented nature,” the Russian leader said in televised remarks at the start of his meeting with Xi.
He added the two powers’ relations were an “example of a dignified relationship”.
Minsk agreement should be revisited, Finland’s president says
The Minsk agreement should be revisited to find a solution to the ongoing crisis between Ukraine and Russia, Finland’s President Sauli Niinisto says.
The Minsk set of agreements was signed in 2014 and 2015 by the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany as a response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
Niinisto said Putin had brought up the issue in a recent discussion between the pair.
Russia confirms 12-year sentence for alleged Ukrainian spy: Report
A court in Crimea has rejected an appeal by an alleged Ukrainian spy and confirmed his 12-year prison sentence, the TASS news agency reports, citing Russia’s FSB security service.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry demanded that Konstantin Shiring, the alleged spy, be released last October, when the same court issued a verdict against him. Kyiv said at the time his case was politically motivated. Russian media reports suggest Shiring denies being a spy.
EU chief warns Russia of ‘robust’ sanctions package
The European Union has prepared a “robust and comprehensive” package of sanctions to unleash on Russia if it continues to menace Ukraine, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has said.
Von der Leyen told the Handeslblatt and Les Echos newspapers that these included “capping access to foreign capital” and “export controls, especially on technical goods”.
The controversial Nord Stream 2 Baltic Sea pipeline was also part of the sanctions package. Whether the pipeline can go into operation depends “on Russia’s behaviour”, von der Leyen said.
“People close to Putin and oligarchs could of course be hit sensitively,” she added.
Russia denies leaking US security talks document
Russia has denied leaking the US’s written response to its security guarantee demands to Spanish newspaper El Pais after Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland accused Moscow of doing so.
Russia’s embassy to the US said the allegations made by Nuland in an interview with TASS were “bewildering”.
It said that “instead of focusing on the essence of Russian concerns, the American side is engaging in conspiracy theories”.
